A coroner has ruled that the presenter and singer Cilla Black, who was found dead in her Spanish holiday home earlier this month, died from a traumatic head injury following a fall.
City of Liverpool coroner Andre Rebello recorded a verdict of accidental death at the inquest at Liverpool Coroner's Court.
He referred to the late entertainer using her full married name, Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis, and described her as a "daughter of Liverpool".
The coroner said: "I understand Mrs Willis was discovered by her son Robert at 5.30pm on August 1, this year. She was on the terrace leading from her bedroom at her home. She had fallen and she had struck her head, and this traumatic head injury which had ensued had resulted in her death."
Black's three sons, Ben, Robert and Jack, attended the 15-minute hearing. Her husband and manager, Bobby Willis, died of lung cancer in 1999.
Addressing the family, the coroner said: "She was your mum and her death is a private personal matter and we have all got one mum. It is right that you grieve and remember her."
"Far more important is that you celebrate her life, but your mum was far more than just your mum. She was a daughter of Liverpool and she was a celebrity and loved by all in Liverpool and that will be part of her abiding memory and memorial," he said.
The star's funeral will be held in Liverpool on Thursday next at St Mary's Catholic Church. Afterwards she will be laid to rest at Allerton Cemetery, where her parents are both buried.
