Patience, laughter and good music keeps the Penn’s love alive

FABULOUSLY famous Durban couple, Colin and Barbara Penn celebrate their golden wedding anniversary this weekend.

The endearing couple met when they were 17 years old, ahead of a Methodist church concert in the Point area where Barbara grew up. “Barbara was doing a dance for her church concert and a friend of mine asked me to help them out and play piano, it was the rehearsal,” recalled Colin.

Barbara remembers being livid because Colin “played too fast.” “I refused to dance if he was going to play,” she remembered laughing. According to Colin, he realised then, “in order to get this girl to dance properly I was going to have to marry her” and the rest, as they say, is history.

The couple dated for five years before they got engaged and married within six months. Their milestone fifty years of marriage is something of an unusual phenomenon says Colin, only because he is a musician and has been one throughout their marriage. It’s a known fact that many musicians don’t manage long marriages, but that doesn’t disturb Colin, he also hasn’t touched alcohol or drugs in his lifespan.

They have had an exciting marriage from the get go, with Colin being a determined and passionate entrepreneur as much as he was a muso. The couple went head first into a string of businesses all the while Colin played in his band, Colin Penn and the Pennants.

They started a takeaway in Broad Street, Penn’s Pantry where Barbara and Colin’s mum cooked and baked. Colin would rise at 4am to get the freshest fish at the Wharf for the takeaway and then get ready for his morning slot playing piano on Springbok Radio before dropping the ladies at the takeaway and then setting off to play at Cocktails in the evening and later joined his band playing at night. All this was before the couple’s children arrived!

In the following years the Penn’s took over the popular five star restaurant, The Napoleon where Colin also played. They were also involved in bringing Super heroes to South Africa in the early 1980s with promotional stickers and cards as well as Batman, Superman and the Hulk making appearances across the country in Bat mobiles, which they had custom made.

The couple are well known in the hospitality industry, especially Barbara’s magic hands in the kitchen and Colin’s keen fingers on the ivories.

They make a magnificent team, with Colin as the bold peacock in the family enjoying the limelight and Barbara, his trusty second in command, who steered the ship and ensured the children were well taken care of while Colin made a good life for them.

The Penn’s were blessed with four sons, and now have seven grandchildren. Tragically, their eldest son, Warren, passed away in 2010. Warren’s death was one of the Penn’s biggest challenges which brought them closer together and closer to God.

“Our proudest moments are our children and what they have achieved, They have done very well,” said Colin.

The couple are always on the same page and Colin recalled a hilarious moment they shared. “When we had our first takeaway and were catering a function for Barclay’s Bank in Queen Street, we knew our cook made mild curries and the Queen Street crowd was accustomed to a hotter curry, so I added a couple of extra tablespoons of chilli poweder to the pot, not knowning that Barbara had done the same. I learned never to interfere in the cooking after that, but it all worked out, I just heard a few comments about gun powder in the curry after!”

The couple will celebrate their anniversary with buffet breakfast at the Oyster Box Hotel and will leave for a sea cruise to the Portugese Island next month.

A key to a happy and long marriage according to the dynamic duo is patience, laughter and good music. They love to travel and enjoy adventures together that keep their love and themselves young and feeling alive.

Colin can still be found playing the piano at the Oyster Box for their High Tea, while Barbara has locked the kitchen and is only persuaded back in to make her famous pies when she hears the couple’s song, Very Precious Love.