Childhood sweethearts Jack and Edna Watts have certainly stood the test of time. The lovestruck couple are celebrating a staggering 65 years of marriage.
 Jack and Edna Watts But the pensioners, from Kingstanding, who set their sights on each other as pupils at Elkington Street School, in Newtown, love an argument almost as much as they love each other. In fact they reckon that's the secret of their long and happy marriage. Edna, aged 83, who was a tram conductor during the war and went on to work in the catering department of the Goliath factory in Miller Street, said: "Having a good row is good for a marriage. It gets everything off your chest so that you don't bear each other any malice." Stalwart Villa fan Jack, aged 86, who went from a terrace sweeper to become Villa Park's tour guide, is fondly known as Mr Aston Villa. His tip for a successful marriage is: "Don't ever be jealous of each other. "You've got to respect one another. We've never stopped each other doing anything," he said. Their three children, six grandchildren and five great grandchildren, reckon Jack and Edna are still as much in love today as the day they tied the knot just after World War II broke out. But it was Edna who proposed to Jack. "The children say I had a gun to his head, but it wasn't that bad," joked Edna, who married Jack at St Mary's High Church, off Aston Road, in November 1939. Jack, who was wounded at Dunkirk as a rifleman with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, said: "I couldn't have been happier. I knew she was the girl for me when I first saw her at school." Their daughter-in-law, 54-year-old housewife Gwyneth Watts, of Ridgeway, Erdington, said: "To be married for 65 years is such an achievement and so unheard of nowadays." Jack and Edna spent their first official date watching Bing Crosby's Pennies from Heaven at the now demolished Newtown Picture House. | 
