I now have the text that appeared in the Glasgow Herald and Evening Times, October 25, 2000:
Pic from the earlier days:
http://3276.e-printphoto.co.uk/nmgglasg ... ction=view
Feline favourite of People's Palace finally runs out of lives
Died at her home, after a long illness, SMUDGE, THE PEOPLE'S PALACE CAT,
Glasgow's Kitty of Culture during 1990.
When Smudge joined the People's Palace as a lowly rodent operative in 1979,
Glasgow City Veterinaries looked in her mouth and pronounced her to be 'a fairly
old cat'.
Popular with People's Palace visitors, ceramic replicats were made of her by
potter Margery Clinton in 1987. When the limited edition of 50 sold quickly, a
mass edition was produced, so that visitors could take one home. Fridge
magnets, notebooks, t-shirts, postcards, Christmas cards and mugs quickly
followed, and the fundraising success of Smudge was such, that the phrase
'there's a little money in the kitty' was commonly used by museum staff.
Smudge became a member of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers Trade Union,
after NALGO refused her admission as a blue collar worker.
When she became a supercat, she loaned her paws to many campaigns, including
'Save the Glasgow Vet School' (1989), 'Paws Off Glasgow Green' (1990), and was
the first recorded pick-cat, when she appeared at the head of the picket line at
Kelvingrove during a strike in 1989. She was proclaimed as Glasgow's Culture
City Kitty in 1990.
Smudge featured on the jacket of 'The Scottish Cat' book by Hamish Whyte in
1987, was the star of the Scottish Cat Club Championship Show in 1988, and had
an angry exchange with Arthur, the Kattomeat Cat, who tried to top-cat her on
her home territory in 1990.
She retired from public life in 1991, although she recently undertook some
contract work at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, where there was
field mouse trouble. She also features in the Museum of Scotland's Twentieth
Century Gallery (opened 1998) and in the guidebook.
A Scottish cat of two centuries, her warm purr, her rich white fur coat with the
distinctive black heart, and her sweet nature will be sadly missed. Her
descendents are all over Glasgow and her replicats can be found in five
Continents, where they have been taken or sent by cat loving Glasgwegians.
Our thanks to the veterinary practice of Una McLean who kept Smudge going; the
Welsh firm of thermal heat pads, ditto; and our good neighbours, the Gillett
family.
Elspeth King and Michael Donnelly
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Coincidentally, as this arrived, Elspeth King popped up as Curator of the Smith Museum in Stirling on "Two Men in a Trench", unfortunately getting the bad news that relics believed to have been from the Battle of Bannockburn actually predated it, by rather a lot of years. She took it well and philosophically though.
I have some more info to digest, but it may sadly explain why I couldn't find anything in the People's Palace itself.