British baseball champ who lived a rich and varied life
FROM THE BEATLES TO BASEBALL, KEN HAD GREAT STORIES TO TELL, BUT MAYBE THE BEST ONE WAS HOW HE FOUND HIS FIRST LOVE AGAIN AFTER 40 YEARS…
KEN Dulson’s life was one made up of many fascinating chapters, and three great loves.
The first love story involved Joyce – later to become his second wife – and lasted nine years from when he was 20. It would then burn brightly again from his early seventies and span two continents.
The second was sparked by his passion for baseball: he met his first wife Gladys while competing for the British national team in the 1971 European Championships in Italy. Their happy marriage would last for almost four decades before she passed away in 2010.
And Ken’s final great love was for his children, Jane, Ian and Eve, and six grandchildren.
Little wonder then that he leaves behind a truly compelling legacy.
YOUNGEST BROTHER
Ken was born in Liverpool to parents Elizabeth and Joe Dulson. He was the youngest of three boys, arriving after his brothers Sid and Ronnie.
Ken trained first as a telephone engineer for the Post Office,
retrain as a systems analyst for the Co-operative Bank. He was also a lifelong fan of Liverpool FC, and a talented guitarist – he was once even asked to sit in with the Beatles. Ken met Joyce through a mutual friend, but the attraction was cemented outside Liverpool’s Casbah Coffee Club when he offered her a ride on his motorbike. They dated until Joyce emigrated to America at the age of 28. Then Ken met Gladys – who he called “Glad” – and they married in 1972. Their eldest daughter Jane arrived that same year, followed later by Ian and Eve. The family moved from Liverpool to the nearby village of Rainford in 1980. Ken enjoyed camping, and he and Gladys also loved travelling further afield. Ken’s passion for baseball had, during his twenties and thirties, seen him create and play with the Nalgo Tigers, who later became the Liverpool Tigers. He also introduced the sport to a new generation through coaching, and was a baseball fact checker for the TV quiz show A Question of Sport. Gladys passed away in 2010, and 18 months later Joyce wrote Ken a letter of condolence. An email correspondence began, then in February 2013 Ken flew out to visit Joyce in ashville, Tennessee.
“We realised the spark was still there,” Joyce explains. “After a few years of travelling back and forth, I moved back to England in December 2015, and we settled in Abergele. We married in June 2018 and were so happy together.
PERFECTIONIST
“In lots of ways Ken was a perfectionist. He loved DIY, and anything he turned his hand to he did wholeheartedly. One example was when we wanted a sun deck in the garden of our bungalow – Ken built it beautifully from scratch. He was more practical, while I’m more bookish, but we shared the same silly sense of humour.
“Ken loved cooking and I miss him most on Saturdays. He’d do his famous stir-fry, we’d have a glass of wine and dance around the kitchen. Ken was the love of my life, even though I didn’t see him for 40 years. The years we had together were such a blessing.”
Ken died suddenly of a heart attack in February, and he will be greatly missed by Joyce, his family
Ken loved cooking and I miss him most on Saturdays. He’d do his famous stir-fry and we’d dance around