When you go to open up the Google homepage today (November 8) you might recognise a famous former High Wycombe legend, Dusty Springfield.

Search engine Google is celebrating the life of former High Wycombe music legend Dusty Springfield with an animated Doodle today (November 8).

The singer, whose greatest hits include ‘The Look of Love’ and ‘I Only Want to Be With You’, rose to fame in the 1960s and became an icon of that era.

READ MORE: Friends pay tribute to singing sensation Dusty Springfield who lived in Sands

Bucks Free Press:

The singer lived in Sands and was a pupil at St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Primary in High Wycombe from 1949 to 1950.

She then moved on to St Bernard’s Convent School in High Wycombe briefly before her family moved back to London.

However, the 'Son of a Preacher Man' and 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me', singer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994 and died of the illness five years later in 1999.

She passed away in Henley-on-Thames within the Thames Valley in March of that year, two months after she was awarded an OBE for her services to popular music.

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Following her death in the final year of the previous century, the Free Press spoke to one of her Wycombe schoolfriends, Doreen Bates, who paid tribute to the singer. 

Mrs Bates told how she remembered the superstar when she was merely Mary O'Brien, of Hylton Road, Sands, during the 1940s.

She revealed: "Dusty used to come down to my house on Lane End Road while her mum was at work and we used to play games together.

"She was a lovely young girl and she used to laugh all the time. I remember her striking red hair the most."

Mrs Bates of School Road, Tylers Green, first met the future star when they were both just six.

Her mum agreed to babysit Dusty while Mrs O'Brien went to work.

Mrs Bates added: "My mum used to sit Dusty and I on the kitchen table and give us a cup of tea and a biscuit while we waited for her mum to come and collect her."

She said Dusty kept her singing talents hidden away back then. "I never heard her sing.

"She was a quiet girl and quite a serious girl."

In 2017, a musical focusing on the entertainer came to the Wycombe Swan.

The Google Doodle will remain active until November 9.