She was the highest-paid female singer of the Sixties and her shows regularly drew 28 million viewers.

Hailed as the British Marilyn Monroe, she appeared alongside Lulu, Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw and was romantically linked with some of the best-known stars of the time.

But today she is little more than a half-remembered name to many, and her life could not be further removed from the showbiz glitz of her singing heyday.

Known as the Golden Girl of Pop, Kathy Kirby is believed to have been worth £5 million in 1970, but now, according to the man who wrote a biography about her, she is living in obscurity and on benefits.

Despite her massively-successful career, the star descended into poverty and mental illness, disappearing from the showbusiness radar while many of her contemporaries remain household names.

But despite her obscurity and her Garboesque' lifestyle, Kathy still has her fans. Interest in her was reignited by the publication of her biography and its serialisation in a national newspaper. And now a musical has been written about her life by former Telegraph & Argus writer Graham Smith, from Yeadon.

The show, Secret Love, details Kathy's dramatic rise to fame and her equally dramatic fall from grace.

Graham's early memories of the star go back to 1964 when he was 13 and saw her perform in Blackpool. She made such an impression on him that he can still remember the dress she wore half a century ago.

His interest was rekindled when he stumbled across a manuscript in 2005 written by her last manager.

He said: "I discovered the Kathy Kirby story in 2005 when I found an old manuscript written 20 years previously. While I knew something of Kirby I read it and thought, this is an amazing story'.

The document inspired him to write her biography.

When Graham discovered her story he founded a worldwide fanbase, through her website, kathykirby.co.uk, which had stayed loyal to the singer.

"When we founded the website I was amazed at the number of visitors it got," said Graham. "The site got 10,000 hits a day regularly. I was getting emails from all over the world asking about her. The question everyone asks is Whatever happened to Kathy Kirby?' What he found when he interviewed her was a star who had experienced the depths of poverty and despair He says: "She lives alone in her London flat, only occasionally venturing out. It is a very sad story for a lady who gave so much pleasure to people."

Seen as one of the greatest female voices of 20th century popular music, she was born Kathy O'Rourke in 1938 and her talent was spotted by the 1940s and 1950s bandleader Bert Ambrose.

The bandleader exerted a Svengali-like influence, becoming her manager and lover before she was even 18.

"She was taken into the clutches of Ambrose, who was 42 years older than her. He had had a good run already but got a better one from Kathy because she earned the money and he went out and gambled it," Graham said.

He claims Ambrose used to lock her in her hotel room and control her life, but despite that she still had affairs.

"Used to being dominated by Ambrose, when he died Kathy's life spiralled out of control," says Graham. "He'd exercised control over pretty much every area of her life. He refused to let her do film tests and when he'd spent his own fortune he moved on to hers."

There followed a failed marriage and a stay at a mental hospital. Kathy never hit the heights of her former career again.

"Her career had finished when she was only in her early 40s. She walked away, partly because of the mental problems she has had which were quite well documented," said Graham. "This was the reality behind the lip gloss."

Graham describes her as "a great star, a great survivor, a legend of the Sixties whose trademark song Secret Love is such a poignant reminder of the days when a lady who has little left in life had it all.''

  • Secret Love is on at Leeds City Varieties on Friday, May 9, at 7.30pm. For tickets ring (0113) 3917708.