A passion for dancing that lasted all her life
WITH HER FAVOURITE PARTNER, SHE JIVED ON TV, ALL OVER THE UK AND AT THE REQUEST OF ROYALTY. OFF THE DANCEFLOOR MARY WAS MARRIED FOR 58 YEARS AND SHE HAD TWO LOVELY DAUGHTERS
MARRIED for 58 years, Mary Stewart and husband Alex were together their entire adult lives, but it was as teenage partners on the dancefloor that their relationship really began.
The couple first met as jivers at the Lindella Dance School in Glasgow and it was a passion, and a skill, which never left them.
“My mum met my dad in 1957 when they were both 18, and they went on to perform on TV, around the country – including on the bill with Jimmy Logan at The Metropole – and they took part in the command performance at the Alhambra Glasgow where Frankie Valli was the headline,” says younger daughter Jacqueline.
“There was a brilliant dance photo of them on display in the People’s Palace for years.”
The eldest of six children of William Ferns, a miner, and mum Mary Allan, she had five brothers, Johnny, Billy (now deceased), Bobby, James (who lives in Australia) and Thomas. Mary attended St Teresa’s in Possilpark, but a love of dancing was the highlight of her teenage years – especially once she teamed up with Alex. The couple wed in 1962 at St Mathew’s, Bishopbriggs, where her parents had also married, and had two children Lorraine and Jacqueline, who enjoyed a happy family life growing up in Milton and Bishopbriggs. “They always made sure we had a holiday, to Portrush or the Isle of Man, and we’d go to Blackpool for the Glasgow Fair every year,” remembers Jacqueline. The couple carried on travelling when their daughters left home, often heading abroad, especially to their favourite place, Santa Ponsa in Majorca. When Lorraine and her husband Andy’s two daughters Sian and Rachel, and Jacqueline and husband Pat’s son Daniel and daughter Lisa came along, they were loving and hands-on, just as they’d been with their own children. Their great granddaughter Myla loved spending time with them too.
Mary was diagnosed 10 years ago with COPD, but still enjoyed her Friday nights out to the bingo. It was only in the last two years that her health deteriorated and breathlessness meant she was rarely able to leave the house.
Even then the family managed to have an 80th birthday celebration for her at home and a party with a playlist of her favourites.
In August, Mary was admitted to hospital and for the first eight days Alex was allowed to visit her, but then lockdown restrictions meant she spent the next six weeks on her own. When she became clinically stable, the family were able to take her home and Jacqueline and Lorraine moved in with their mum and dad to help look after her. Sadly she died just six days after leaving hospital.
Jacqueline says she had already planned her funeral songs – as a big fan of Doris Day she chose Secret Love and Que Sera Sera.
“Mum and dad always loved listening to their music,” says Jacqueline. “My dad says they had such a happy life together, they had so much fun. They were always first on the dancefloor and last off it at all the parties, and everybody waited for Mary and Alex to go on the floor and do a jive. They carried on being good all the way through their lives. They never lost it.”
They were always first on the dancefloor and last off it at all the parties Jacqueline, Mary’s daughter