Coleen Rooney, Tony Bellew and Kate McCann attend Bill Kenwright memorial
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Coleen Rooney, boxer Tony Bellew and Kate McCann, the mother of missing Madeleine McCann, were among the noted Liverpudlians at a memorial service for Everton chairman Bill Kenwright.
The theatre impresario died at the age of 78 in October after a long battle with illness.
He was the chairman of Everton Football Club for nearly two decades, from 2004 until his death.
Rooney, the wife of football star Wayne Rooney, was seen entering the service at Liverpool cathedral dressed in black.
Boxing star Bellew, who came second in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here earlier this month, arrived with former Everton footballer Tony Hibbert.
McCann was pictured entering the service at Liverpool cathedral on Monday, wearing an Everton scarf.
Kenwright was among a number of wealthy backers who donated money to support the McCanns in the immediate aftermath of their daughter’s disappearance.
Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007 while on holiday with her parents and two younger siblings.
On the family’s website about her disappearance, the youngster is described as an Everton fan “like her mum and grandad”, and is pictured wearing an Everton shirt in one of the photos released by the family after she vanished.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was also in attendance at the service, as well as former Everton manager Frank Lampard and a number of players.
Mr Burnham was among those offering tributes to Kenwright after his death, praising him for his reaction to the Hillsborough disaster, where dozens were killed due to a crush at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on April 15 1989.
He said: “I saw the care he had for the Hillsborough families when they were going through everything that they went through.
“That was Bill Kenwright.
“Before people think about anything else, that was him, that was the man, just somebody of warmth, of generosity.”
Kenwright produced more than 500 West End, Broadway, UK touring and international theatre productions, films and music albums over the course of his career.
He worked with Sir Tim Rice and Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber on Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita and produced the hit West End show Blood Brothers.
