12:00pm Saturday 18th July 2009
By Emily Allen
A COUPLE who found love across the production line at Oxford’s Morris car factory are today celebrating 50 years of married life.
Don and Marion Morrison, née Howell, of Ottery Way, Ladygrove, Didcot, met when they worked in the trim shop at Cowley 52 years ago.
Mr Morrison, 70, said it took him almost eight weeks to pluck up the courage to ask his future wife, now 73, for a date because he was so shy.
He said: “I helped build the trim for the inside of the car seats. My wife was on the sewing machines and she sewed the seat covers together.
“I was a shy lad in those days and it took me a long time to ask her for a date. When I first saw her I thought she was just gorgeous and I wanted to go out with her. I didn’t want anyone else, it was love at first sight.
“It was good in the trim shop because you were not working on a moving production line with the cars.
“It was a much more relaxed atmosphere and you could talk to each other. It was very laid back, I think lots of couples got together there.”
The couple, who went on their first date to the cinema, married two years later at St Mary’s Church, Iffley, on July 18, 1959, and honeymooned in Torquay. They set up home in Barns Road, Blackbird Leys.
Mr Morrison left the Cowley plant for a three year stint as a senior aircraftsman in the RAF, based at Honnington, Suffolk, returning to the company in 1962.
Between them, they clocked up more than 40 years service at the car factory.
Work continued to play an important role in the couple’s marriage as, later in life, they took jobs at Oxford’s Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre together.
Mr Morrison said: “We’ve enjoyed working together. We get on so well.
“We aren’t just married to each other, we are best friends as well.
“I think give and take is the secret to a long marriage.”
Family and friends will join them for a golden wedding anniversary party today, which also coincides with the 18th birthday of their granddaughter Hayley.
They moved to Didcot three years ago and have four children, Elizabeth, 59, Andrew, 42, Sharon, 41 and John, 40, six grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.
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