Pair in the pink to reach milestone
Love for teenager Lil Matthews was buying the Express & Star's Saturday sports paper The Pink and sending it to her penpal in the forces – after sitting on it for a day until it was flat enough to post.
When Ken Smith finished his National Service, he returned home to the Black Country and met his dedicated correspondent for the first time. Two years later they were married at Christ Church, Coseley, and celebrate their diamond wedding this Thursday.
In 1947, when a mutual friend asked Bradley-born Lil if she would write to a motherless young soldier, a keen Wolves fan, in Palestine.
Part of their correspondence involved her buying The Pink every Saturday, folding it and sitting on it at work at Sankey's in Bilston all day on Monday so that it became flat enough for her to post out at letter rate instead of the more expensive paper rate.
"It was the difference between three ha'pence and tuppence ha'penny," says Lil, now 80.
"I don't know what my workmates thought of it. It was worth it to make Ken happy. He's still as mad about the Wolves as he was then.
"Although he doesn't go to matches any more, he's turned one of our grand-daughters as daft as he is about the club."
Lil used to accompany Ken, now 82, a former plate-layer at Bilston Steelworks, to Molineux when they were courting until the goalkeeper was injured in front of her and she fainted.
"The first aid man asked me if I was pregnant. As I wasn't married yet, I said 'How dare you!' – and never went again."
Their wedding day at Easter 1949 was so hot that guests' blancmange melted, says mother-of-four Lil, of Fairway Green, Stowlawn.
