Right: Ron and Linda Horne recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and will clock up another milestone next year when they celebrate 50 years in Doveton.By Callan Date
A PROUD Doveton couple who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in style late last month will soon notch up another milestone.
Ron and Linda Horne moved to Doveton in 1959 and have called the suburb home for the past 49 years.
Ron, 81, and Linda, 80, raised all eight of the children out of their modest house when the housing estate was in its infancy.
The couple first met when a young Linda was serving refreshments to the troops at Ballarat Station.
Mr Horne, in the Royal Australian Air Force at the time, soon invited his future wife to an air force dance and their love blossomed from that day on.
They got married on 15 May 1948 at the Christ Church Cathedral in Ballarat.
The day was a double celebration with Linda’s sister, Evelyn, getting married to George Barbour at the same church.
The couple’s daughter, Joan Baptist, said the family was incredibly proud of their parents and what they had achieved.
“How Linda managed with five children in a new estate where there were no fences, no shop nearby, mud and slush because it was winter and no carpets we will never know,” Ms Baptist said.
“They raised eight children in this house and also had our grandmother live with them.
“Now they have 23 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.”
All eight children still live in the City of Casey – with four residing in Doveton, three in Narre Warren and one in Hampton Park.
More than 80 family and friends packed into the Stamford Hotel in Rowville for the anniversary celebrations.
“Over the years since Ron retired in 1986 they have spent as much time as they can at their caravan at Bonnie Doon,” Ms Baptist said.
“Even now, they still get away to Bonnie Doon as often as they can.”
With the 60-year union now celebrated, the couple will wait until 2009 before they toast half a century of life in Doveton.
