A CONSUMMATE joker with a wicked sense of humour and a perennial mischievous glint in his eye, former Craven Herald editor Jack Heald is seldom given to bouts of full-blown earnestness.

Nevertheless, there was a rare and brief moment this week when he turned to me and became 100 per cent, 22-carat sincere.

"Jean has been the most wonderful wife to me in every respect," he said. "She has always been supportive, through all my years at the Herald, even though she would have been quite entitled to kick me into touch during my barmy years."

It was a moment of absolute clarity amid the chaos and confusion that tends to accompany any conversation with Jack, never quite knowing if he's on the level or taking the rise.

The occasion that warranted this lapse into sincerity was his and Jean's golden wedding anniversary, which dawns tomorrow, Saturday.

For her part, long-suffering Jean admits that 50 years with Jack required, above all else, a sense of humour.

"It's been an endurance test in some ways," she laughed, "But underneath is an underlying love that gradually deepens and sustains you."

And there lies the plain truth of their 50 happy years together - that beneath all the jokes and leg pulling, all the daft banter, here is a couple as deeply in love with each other as the day they were wed.

It rained that day, half a century ago, when the two young people exchanged their vows at Rainhall Road Methodist Church. They had met at the Sunday School there and Jean remembers: "I didn't think much of him when I was 13, but by the time I was 15 I'd changed my mind."

Jack was born in Denton Street, Barnoldswick, but his family moved to Skipton when he was three, his father working at Fattorini's. He attended Brougham Street School and then Ermysted's Grammar School, returning to Barnoldswick with his family when he was 12.

Jean was born and raised in Lower East Avenue, a member of the Rhodes family, and attended Gisburn Road School. From there she was one of the first pupils at the new Barnoldswick Secondary Modern School. So new in fact that it wasn't finished and in parts of the building the students had to walk on gang planks.

It was VJ night when Jack and Jean first started courting. There was a celebration bonfire at Maurice Farndale's farm at Brown Hill, out of Barnoldswick at the foot of Weets. Gallant Jack asked if he could walk Jean safely home as it was a good stride and dark too.

"He let me fall in a ditch half way down Folly Lane - I was soaking wet!" said Jean.

Despite her protests, Jack added that the fall snapped her knicker elastic - a fact hotly disputed by Jean - but Jack is a journalist! Whatever the truth of it, when they arrived in Barnoldswick the whole town was floodlit in celebration at the end of the war and there was nowhere for Jean to hide as she dripped and squelched her way home, Jack at her side.

It was almost five years to the day when he stood by her side in church on their wedding day. Jean's father had insisted Jack provide a home before they were married and they rented a none-too-palatial cottage in Earlham Street, Earby, since demolished. They weren't there long, moving to Jean's family home in Barnoldswick when her parents moved.

After leaving school Jack had spent his two years' national service in the RAF before going to work at Rolls-Royce. Not suited to the work, he still describes it as "the 12 most miserable months of my life".

When a job came up at the Craven Herald, he jumped at it.

"In those days nobody left Rolls-Royce," he said. "They couldn't understand me leaving, but I can still feel the sense of freedom as I walked out for the last time."

In contrast, his 44 years, three months and 17 days with the Herald brought him an extremely happy working life.

"I loved the people - still do," he said. While contemporaries went on to bigger and supposedly better things, none were as happy as Jack.

Tales of his exploits on the Herald are legion. Our favourite remains the obituary he proudly composed only to bump into "the deceased" the following morning as the Herald hit the streets.

The "victim" took it in good part and some 30 years after publishing his obituary Jack kept a promise by turning up for his 100th birthday party!

The couple raised a family of seven - Jacqueline, John, Janet, Angela, Iain, Jillian and Anthony.

When the youngest, Anthony, was two, Jean started her own playgroup in Skipton Road, Barnoldswick, and ran it for 23 years. Generations of Barnoldswick children took their first steps in education with Jean holding their hand.

She retired at 63, just a week after Jack. He went at 65, somewhat reluctantly, but has never looked back. Since then they have walked in the Dales, improved their gardening skills and travelled - which is surprising as before retiring Jack was terrified of aeroplanes and vowed never to go up in one. Now he'll give Alan Whicker a run for his money.

But, above all, the couple have spent time with their ever-growing family, now numbering 14 grandchildren.

"It is one of the great benefits of retirement," said Jack.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the celebrations will get under way with an open service of thanksgiving at St Peter's Church, Earby, starting at 11am, followed by open house at Jack and Jean's home in Sough. In the evening there will be a family celebration.