Collie couple Frank and Val Leadbitter last week celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary.
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The Clifton Street residents held a celebration at the Margaretta Wilson Centre with over 100 family and friends helping them to mark the occasion .
Frank and Val met at a dance at the East Perth Football Club when they were both working in Perth.
Frank was 27 when they got married and Val was 24.
Together they have four children (two boys and two girls), 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Mrs Leadbitter was born in Collie and raised in Clifton Street, in a house which is across the road from their family home of 60 years.
Mr Leadbitter was born in Northam and spent time working in Perth before moving to Collie to begin their married life.
Frank worked as a truck driver for Saunders Mill and Val had her own hairdressing salon in Collie, and have both been heavily involved in the community throughout their married life.
“We joined a lot of clubs in Collie over the years, Frank kept the hockey greens once he had retired, the kids all played hockey and did well at it,” Mrs Leadbitter said.
Mrs Leadbitter has been involved in the Collie Senior Citizens centre for about 25 years as well as carpet bowls and the scouting movement and Frank was involved in darts for many years where he made it to the state level of competition.
The couple’s children all still live in Collie and visit the family home regularly, including Christmas time where the couple host a lunch with the family.
“There’s usually over 30 people for Christmas Day and any family events they all come home, we are a very close family,” Mrs Leadbitter said.
The couple have fond memories of time spent in Yunderup where they had a caravan for 22 years.
“We used to have a lot of weekend do’s down there, and we helped to run it all and had barbecues and picnics, and Easter events, any long weekend there was something on,” Mrs Leadbitter said.
To mark their 60 years of marriage, the couple received letters from Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove, The Honourable Kerry Sanderson, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Bill Shorten, and Queen Elizabeth.