Married at 3.30pm on 16 January, 1965, theirs was the first wedding in the St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Coffs Harbour, so it’s also an historic occasion for the church.

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Special permission had to be granted by the diocese to allow the bride, June Patricia Heap from Woolgoolga, to have her family minister from her hometown Richmond, Rev Bruce Gibson Logan, perform the ceremony.

Rev. Logan had just been transferred to the Armidale district and was a close family friend.

“Pat” was a Sunday School teacher at the Presbyterian Church in Richmond.

Darrell Henry Davis is a direct descendant of First Fleet convicts John Small and Mary Parker, whose children helped settle the Clarence River in the early 1800s, and the Hofmeier Family, who are believed to have been the first Europeans to settle in Woolgoolga in 1882.

Remembering her wedding, Mrs Davis told News Of The Area that “it was an extremely hot, humid day.

“I do remember that both my bridesmaids took off into the church to get cool and left me with my aunt trying to fix my veil and train.

“So I thought, ‘I better catch up’ only for my aunt to fall at my feet as she was standing on my train, which didn’t help my laughing through the ceremony.”

Mrs Davis believes there are no hard and fast rules for a happy marriage: “you both just have to want to be together”.

Which they have – over 63 years of friendship, marriage and “working side by side”.

Joking with NOTA, her husband said that, “being a Davis you just have to do as you’re told and stay in line as my father and three brothers all have done.”

Mrs Davis recalls their first date.

“It was the day I arrived in Woolgoolga where my parents had taken over the old original BP Servo. It was the long weekend in October 1962; I was a young and innocent seventeen-year-old.

“Darrell took me to the midnight movies in Coffs Harbour. Apparently he didn’t want any other local lads getting in first.

“Many of our dates were at the Coffs Picture Theatre and coffee house down at Park Beach.”

After their marriage, the couple, who initially lived in Woolgoolga, relocated to Brisbane’s southside.

After twelve years there, they moved back to NSW, living in Grafton for a few months then operating a service station general store in Broadwater before opening Sugartown Service Centre and operating the NRMA agency for 10 years.

They then moved to Ballina for twelve years, owning Lennox Head Hardware, before finally retiring to Gulmarrad in 2005 where they still reside.

Darrell and Pat have two daughters, Sharon and Julie, four grandchildren, Justin, Jake, Chantel and Luke, and one great grandchild, Warrul.

For their 60th anniversary, Mr and Mrs Davis are celebrating with family and friends on a camping holiday in Urunga.

By Andrea FERRARI