70 years of bliss for Rixons
BEING married for 70 years is anybody’s idea of an amazing achievement, but when you cheat death it’s even more incredible.
That was the case for Len and Margaret Rixon.
Mrs Nixon was working as a nurse at the Glen Innes Hospital when she met a dashing young pilot at the Aero Club Ball named Len.
They married 18 months later on March 11, 1950, in Glen Innes and were blessed by four beautiful children, Marie, Marjorie, Sharon and Bill.
Just a decade later, Mr Rixon was struck in the stomach by a cricket ball in a freak accident and spent the next 12 months recovering from an injury doctors told him they were unable to treat.
Mrs Rixon, refusing to give up on the love of her life, had him transported to Sydney by ambulance, where he was operated on four more times and eventually made his recovery.
Mr and Mrs Rixon built a new home in Armidale, later selling it to buy a property just outside of town, where they ran breeding ewes.
After a while they made the decision to move to Queensland, settling on a 350-acre dairy and grain property at Cambooya.
Seven years later, the couple sold up and bought the Wheatsheaf Hotel at East Greenmount, which thrived under their care.
Len served for six years on the Cambooya Shire Council and five-and-a-half years as the publican of the Wheatsheaf before buying another farm at Pilton.
It would be their home for the next 25 years, and despite the children all being grown up and moved away by then, there were 25 years worth of wonderful family memories made each Christmas.
While he was happy to settle on the farm, after six months of the quiet life he took up management of the Blue Mountain Hotel for several years and later the White Horse Hotel.
Never one to be afraid of changing things up, he later became a real estate agent until retirement, when they sold up the Pilton farm and moved to Toowoomba.
The move suited Mrs Rixon perfectly, bringing her closer to her beloved lawns bowls.
She served as both president and secretary of the
South Toowoomba Ladies Bowls Club over the years as well as the Darling Downs Ladies Bowls Association.
While in her position as state selector for the Queensland team, she suffered a stroke, but following in her husband’s footsteps, she showed superhuman determination in her recovery.
She also turned her talents to patchwork quilting, creating beautiful keepsakes for the whole family.