Diamond wedding joy for 'chalk and cheese' Corby couple

Jack and Margaret Kane met in The Raven in Rockingham Road
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A Corby couple celebrating their 60th year of marriage have proved that opposites attract, marking their diamond anniversary at the venue where they met and held their reception.

Jack and Margaret Kane had bumped into each other at the bar of The Raven Hotel - she was a rock and roller and he was a ballroom dancer - and in less than two years they married.

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Margaret's policeman father didn't want her to bring a Kane onto his property - but instead of breaking apart the couple became more determined to make it work.

Margaret and Jack Kane cut the cakeMargaret and Jack Kane cut the cake
Margaret and Jack Kane cut the cake

As different as chalk and cheese, they went on to have two children and travelled the world together.

Husband Jack, 85, is one of 17 siblings and the youngest boy of Corby's Kane clan that included his late brother Jimmy, a much-loved Corby councillor.

Margaret, an 80-year-old former teacher, said: "I thought I was marrying Corby. I kept getting introduced - 'this is my brother and his wife, and then this is another brother and his wife'.

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"When I told my dad who was a policeman that we were together he said 'you do not bring a Kane up this garden path'.

Daughters Susan and PaulineDaughters Susan and Pauline
Daughters Susan and Pauline

"It was ten years down the line when he said we'd made a good job of bringing up our children."

Married at Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church on November 29, 1961, the couple have children Susan, 59, a retired financial consultant and Pauline, 58, a consultant radiologist. Both studied at Our Lady and Pope John School.

Margaret, who trained as a teacher in Corby, went on to become deputy headteacher at Our Lady's Infant School. Jack worked on power station building projects in the UK and abroad.

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While Jack lived in India and then China for work, Margaret flew out to visit him during the school holidays. Their love of different types of music - Elvis for Margaret and The Beatles for Jack - saw the couple jet out to New York to visit the Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon, travelling back on Concorde at twice the speed of sound.

On their wedding day at Our Lady's in Occupation RoadOn their wedding day at Our Lady's in Occupation Road
On their wedding day at Our Lady's in Occupation Road

Margaret thinks that being completely different has helped them as a couple.

She said: "We complement each other. He's a Scottish Catholic and staunch Labour. I am English and was not Catholic and my dad was a Conservative.

"We're quite like chalk and cheese. He plays golf and I like bowling and gardening. It's the differences that make it work. We don't live out of each others pockets - that's the secret."

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The couple's original wedding reception was ten shillings a head with 48 people tucking into a roast dinner in the pub where they had met - The Raven - all for the total of £24.

Returning to the hotel 60 years on, 55 family and friends including many of Jack's nieces and nephews celebrated with another roast meal, Jack proudly wearing the tartan of the The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment in which he served.

Margaret added: "It cost a bit more this time. I did a book that looked back at our marriage in ten-year sections - people seemed to like it. I don't feel my age. We just keep going.

"We appreciate each other and we've always respected each other."

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