IT was a big day at the palace for Worcester-born Jennifer Argote when she received her MBE from the Queen.

Ms Argote, who has lived and worked in America for 30 years, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List "for services to the Crown and Community".

Now based in Washington DC, she has been an administrative officer with the Joint Strike Fighter Project since 1998.

Her citation praises her "generous personality, charisma and dedication", while "her contagious enthusiasm and personal ethic of helping others make her a pivotal member of the team".

The JSFP is regarded as a new benchmark in transatlantic defence collaboration between Britain and America.

Ms Argote is also involved in community work around her home town of Chantilly, Virginia, and has been a voluntary teacher of the Catholic faith to local children in the diocese for 10 years.

She was educated at Kempsey Primary School and Worcester's Christopher Whitehead High School for Girls before beginning work as a sales assistant with WH Smith.

However, in 1968 she switched to the Civil Service and, in 1971, moved to the British Embassy staff in Washington DC.

Since then she has worked on a string of top secret missile projects.

Ms Argote's mother, Betty Corroy, still lives in Worcester, in Westhaven Place, off Martley Road.