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HELEN Eadie, who has died aged 66, was a member of the Scottish Parliament from its inception. In a career spanning almost half a century she was active at all levels of Labour politics. A highly-respected MSP, she never shied away from speaking her mind even when her remarks brought her into conflict with the chamber.

In 2011 she was famously ­reprimanded by Holyrood's presiding officer after repeatedly accusing First Minister Alex Salmond of wilfully misleading parliament.

Her commitment to the political process and to the constituents she served was such that, while gravely ill and confined to a local hospice, she still insisted on conducting parliamentary business from her bedside, instructing staff to keep her office running normally while she received treatment.

Her political life, which covered both old and new Labour, began when she joined the party as a young woman in the late 1960s. Within a few years she was working in the Westminster offices of Harry Ewing and her father-in-law Alex Eadie, both junior ministers in the Callaghan government of the late 1970s.

Helen Eadie was born in Stenhousemuir and educated at Larbert Village School, Larbert High and Falkirk Technical College. Her formidable track record as an astute political organiser began with her local Young Socialists group in Larbert.

Later, having moved to London to work as a political researcher, she took a course in trade union studies at the London School of Economics and went on to become a full-time official with the powerful GMB union from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. At the same time she continued to be active in Labour Party politics, serving as Branch Secretary and Ward Agent in two London constituencies, Blackheath and Dulwich. She was also a member of Jim Callaghan's campaign team for the 1979 General Election.

Returning to live in Scotland in the mid-1980s, Mrs Eadie was appointed to the post of manager at West Fife Enterprise, starting her new job on the first day of the Miners' Strike in 1984.

Her commitment to the Labour movement remained as strong as ever and her organisational abilities and political skills were often called upon. Indeed, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has always acknowledged a debt of gratitude to her for the help and advice she gave him when he was elected to Parliament in 1983 and over the years since then.

Helen Eadie married into a family which was firmly rooted in Scottish Labour politics. Her husband, Bob Eadie is a former Fife councillor and the son of the late Alex Eadie, the ex-miner who became MP for Midlothian and served as a minister in both the Wilson and Callaghan governments.

It was inevitable then that Mrs Eadie would eventually run for political office herself. She won a seat on Fife Council, becoming its Deputy Leader and chairperson of its Equal Opportunities Committee and then Fife Council Transportation.

Over the years she was repeatedly approached to stand for election to Westminster but she always declined, citing a growing family and her local political commitments.

Then in 1999, when the first Scottish Parliamentary elections took place, she successfully stood in the Dunfermline East constituency. She remained an MSP until her death. In May, 2011, after boundary re-organisation, her constituency changed to Cowdenbeath.

Over the years she has been a popular and formidable MSP. In 2003 she was the Labour group's most outspoken opponent to the then Labour-LibDem coalition's plan to introduce proportional representation in council elections, describing it as an example of "the tail wagging the dog".

She declared at the time: "It's about one of the smallest parties....wanting to use the power that they have to try to force through issues that they want to see steamrollered through."

Mrs Eadie, who served on a host of parliamentary committees over the years, resigned her membership of two of them in June, 2007, in protest at the Tories being handed the convenorship of the equal opportunities committee.

She described the move as being like "Attila the Hun in charge of care in the community".

In November, 2006, she called on parliament to introduce curfews for under-15s after she fell victim to a gang of youths. It was while she was investigating constituents' concerns about anti-social behaviour in the streets late at night that her car was surrounded by a mob who started rocking the vechile and throwing missiles at it.

Mrs Eadie was reprimanded during a First Minister's Questions session in 2011. She repeatedly claimed that Mr Salmond had either deliberately or unknowingly "wilfully misled" the chamber by not acknowledging that new EU members were required to join the Euro. She was told to sit down by the Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick after refusing to desist and then speaking over Mrs Marwick.

Recently, Mrs Eadie had let it be known that she would not be standing for election again on the grounds of her age. Both she and her husband were looking forward to their retirement together. They had a holiday home in Bulgaria where, it is understood, they had been helping to raise funds to build a church.

The suddenness of her death came as a shock to all who knew her. She became ill while campaigning during the Dunfermline by-election. Indeed, it was on October 24 - polling day - that she underwent a CT scan that confirmed cancer.

She was admitted to a hospice at Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline, and died there on ­Saturday with her family at her bedside. Helen Eadie is survived by her husband, Bob, her daughters Fiona and Jemma, and three grandsons.