You're still my favourite after 60 years (From Worcester News)

You're still my favourite after 60 years

10:30pm Monday 6th February 2012 in Local By Mike Pryce

WANT to know the recipe for a long and happy married life? Then KEEEEP Dancin’, as they say on the TV show Strictly.

At least that’s according to couple Dennis and Beryl Flynn, who have waltzed, tangoed and quickstepped their way across the UK from London to Liverpool in their 60 years together.

The pair from Hawkins Close, Dines Green, Worcester, who are both aged 79, celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary on Thursday and still go sequence, Latin or ballroom dancing three times a week. “It really does help to keep you fit,” said Mr Flynn. “We love it.”

Their hobby has taken them dancing to a national finals contest at Wembley, to Wales where they slept in their car in a layby because they were so tired, and up to Liverpool where their second prize of five shillings hardly made a dent in the travel costs of getting there.

They have been a couple almost since their eyes met across the school playground at St George’s RC School in Sansome Place, Worcester in the mid-1940s.

There was a short break when Dennis joined the Royal Navy, but then on leave in 1950 he was walking down Broad Street, Worcester, with some of his fellow matelots, when who should be coming the other way with a group of nurses, but Beryl Shinnick from primary school.

They were married on Saturday, February 2, 1952, at St George’s RC Church, Worcester, but the very next day Dennis had to report back to his ship. “We only had one night’s honeymoon,” he recalled.

“But what a night that was.”

In nine and a half years in the Navy, Mr Flynn served on destroyers, cruisers and minesweepers, specialising in gun radio control.

During the Suez Crisis in 1956, he saw active duty on board the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle. On leaving the Navy in 1957, he joined the Post Office, starting as a postman and rising to become a manager before retiring in 1991.

Meanwhile Beryl enjoyed a career in nursing in Worcester, particularly at what was then the city isolation hospital at Newtown.

Ballroom dancing, with its sharp suits and extravagant gowns, has always been one of their main loves and has given them many happy hours over the years.

“We’ve met so many lovely people and had some great times,” said Mrs Flynn.

The couple have two daughters and a son and four grandchildren, some of whom have followed them on to the competition floor to keep the family dancing.