Couple celebrate 60 years together

Couple celebrate 60 years together

Levin couple George and Judy Tyree have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

George Tyree married Judith Williams at All Saints Church in Foxton on October 16, 1965, arriving in a Ford Zephyr to a waiting crowd of 100 family and friends.

The reception was at the Foxton Memorial Hall where the wedding party danced the night away to a band, and the newly-weds were the last to leave.

They first met on a blind date to the stock cars in Palmerston North two years earlier.

George says he was probably lucky that Judy was patient – and forgiving. He was two hours late picking her up.

“I was at the races and the float was late leaving. By the time we got to Foxton the reception was a bit cool,” he says.

But all was soon forgiven. They hit it off and continued dating regularly afterwards.

After the wedding they honeymooned in various North Island locations before returning home to settle in Levin.

George’s father, Lloyd, was a racehorse trainer and a builder. Father and son worked together in the business for many years, building many houses in Levin’s expanding north-east.

George trained horses successfully himself for many years after a bout of concussions meant he couldn’t tolerate the noise of a hammer. It helped that the horses were going well, too. 

Judy was working for the borough council and it helped that she fell in love with the horses, too.

Love and support have played a massive part in their marriage and they’ve been there for each other “through good times and the bad”.

Judy says they both know how fortunate they are to have maintained reasonably good health. They’ve enjoyed travelling and have another trip to look forward to on the horizon, and they’ve both recently taken up pétanque.

Their anniversary day was spent with family and friends.