Little did she know that he had tampered with her wheels deliberately to emerge as the knight in shining armour.

"He picked my bike up and said, 'well, I better ride a bit of the way home with you in case it goes flat again'," she laughed.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Mr Howell explained: "It was just a bit of a joke with the office staff."

"A couple of chaps just thought we'd play a little bit of a trick on some of the girls.

"Fortunately, I ended up with Doss."

Aged 16 and 17 years old and both relatively new to town, they found themselves working at Wagga's Dunlop Factory about the time they met.

After five years of coupling, they wedded at Saint John's Anglican Church on June 7, 1952, before diving straight back into work to save up for a home to raise a family in.

"We worked pretty hard to get our home together," Mrs Howell said.

"It was six years after we married that Lyn [their eldest child] was born, so we worked all that time to make it happen."

Two more children followed after the couple finished building their home in Turvey Park, and the family has remained close ever since.

Sport was always on the agenda in the Howell household, with the children put to sleep in the car while Mum and Dad played tennis until they were old enough to have a go themselves.

"We took them to hockey and football and tennis, so weekends were pretty full," Mrs Howell said

Having passed on his love for sport, Mr Howell added: "I was playing every sport going I think besides boxing."

Mr Howell has found his toes in many local organisations throughout his life, including the Wagga Tennis Complex, Saint John's Church, and is one of two remaining founders of Wagga's Rules Club.

However, his biggest claim to fame was standing alongside Queen Elizabeth II as part of her security detail when she visited the city in 1954.

With the ability to look back on their incredible life together, Mrs Howell said, "we're just lucky to be here to tell the tale."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: