"You breathed, so you sang," she recalled thinking.

And for more than six decades, countless music lovers throughout Fife have enjoyed hearing and seeing the results of this belief.

This week marks 60 years since Jessie's stage debut in Kelty, starting a musical theatre career of performing and directing that continues beyond her 80th birthday last week.

Now living in Muirhead, her contribution to Fife's musical life includes 10 years of directing shows for Cupar Amateur Opera Company (now Cupar Amateur Musical Society) and twice that time directing and performing with the company's fund-raising group the Old Tyme Music Hall.

An original member of Glenrothes Amateur Musical Association, in the last 10 years Jessie has developed a one-woman show about her long career, a response to requests that she give talks to various groups.

For the last four years she has put her experience to good use by training and working to describe theatre performances in Perth and Pitlochry for visually impaired members of the audience.

But, to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start), Jessie Johnstone was born into a musical family in Lochgelly, then a mining town, and before long was up on stage performing in community concerts.

"It just seemed the natural thing to do," she said.

As a teenager she started singing lessons and then won the Operatic Aria Class in Edinburgh, which attracted the attention of a group seeking a leading lady, Kelty Musical Association.

In April 1948, Jessie made her musical theatre debut as the title role in the association's production of 'Rose Marie', one of a string of shows she did with the group.

Jessie said she still remembered her debut clearly, particularly the audience's enthusiasm for the whole show.

"It was the start of my love affair with musical theatre and I have never lost it," she said.

"I'm just a musical theatre junkie!"

Kelty later became her home as she met her future husband, David Batchelor, during 'Rose Marie' and they married in 1951.

Jessie combined her music with bringing up four children, but the family's world was turned upside down when David died suddenly of a heart attack in 1964.

EXPERIENCE

The Batchelors made a new start in Glenrothes and, eventually, Jessie returned to singing, taking part in Glenrothes Amateur Musical Association's first show in 1967.

Through another Glenrothes drama group, she met Drew Pryde, who became her second husband in 1970.

His accountancy work took them to Brussels for about five years in the 1970s, during which time Jessie's youngest son was born and she sang with the Choir of the Common Market, a cosmopolitan group that performed all over Europe.

Burns Suppers and teaching songs for the English Comedy Club's first ever attempt at a musical also formed part of her Brussels experience.

Back in the UK, Jessie and her family settled in Muirhead 30 years ago and have lived there ever since.

A memorable turn as Bloody Mary in 'South Pacific' for the Glenrothes association in 1984 led to an invitation to sing with Cupar's Old Tyme Music Hall "as a one-off guest artist".

"I think I lasted 20 years," Jessie laughed.

As well as providing entertainment, it's been estimated the group raised up to £90,000 for various charities.

A recurring theme in Jessie's story is how friends have suggested certain projects, with her participation in Yours Magazine's Silver Star Awards ("Pop Idol for Pensioners!") being a prime example.

When a friend told her about the 2002 awards, Jessie pointed out she had not sung competitively for half a century!

But this was no handicap as Jessie won first the Fife heat in Lochgelly, then the Scottish final in Kilmarnock.

Her extended family turned out in support at the national finals in Southport, where her renditions of 'Old Fashioned Girl' and 'Stately as a Galleon' vied with 18 other acts from across the UK.

When her name was announced as the winner "six grandchildren as one, they just jumped from their seats and shouted 'Yes!'"

With live performances, anything can happen and Jessie has witnessed her fair share of memorable moments on stage.

As Nettie in 'Carousel' (1987) "I was dancing around the stage ... and my wig was dancing around the other side," a situation that inevitably led to presents of nails and glue from fellow cast members to keep that errant hair in place.

Jessie has no immediate plans for retirement, hoping to continue as long as people enjoy listening to her.

"I'm very, very lucky that I've been able to keep going as long as I have," she said.

"Sixty years . . . that's not bad."