TRIBUTES TO ROKER PIE SHOP OWNER
FAMILY’S TRIBUTE TO VICTOR, WHO RAN ROKER SHOP WITH WIFE JEAN
One half of a beloved Sunderland institution who served up more than a million pies to hungry football supporters, has died aged 95.
Victor Outram, who used to run the hugely popular Roker Pie Shop with his late wife Jean, closet o Roker Park, died just over a week ago.
The grandfather-of-six and late wife Jean took over the bakery, famous for its mince pies, in 1963, running it for three decades before finally hanging up their oven gloves in 1992.
After 30 years in business, opening six days a week and selling at least 100 pies a day – and as many as 500 on matchdays – it is likely that the pair sold more than a million pies.
Their daughter, Dorothy Aarholt, 59, was at her father’s bedside when he passed away in Yorkshire.
He had spent the last eight years of his life in a residential home near his 62-year-old son David’s home in Leeds.
Dorothy, who now lives in Norway, said: “My father used to joke that he was the biggest supporter of Sunderland. He had a season ticket for I don’t know how many years in the old clock stand at Roker Park.
“When the ground was pulled down, he continued to go to matches at the new stadium as a very elderly gentleman He was a fulltime supporter and friend. He never had a bad word to say about the club, but I know that the recent results saddened him.”
Dorothy said her parents enjoyed a well-earned retirement, living in Sidecliffe Road near their beloved Roker seafront, where the couple first met. Jean died in 2007, aged 81. “They were a couple who loved the seafront and the coastline,” Dorothy said.
“They loved going for a walk on the Promenade and having an ice cream from Minchella’s. It was where they first met, near the Cat and Dog steps in late ’40s or early ’50s.”
The pair also loved travelling to Yorkshire and Oslo to spend time with their grandchildren.