HE WAS a born and bred Warwick boy who worked on the railway; she was a midwife in training from Sydney.

It was a chance meeting at the happening night spot in Warwick that led to Bob and Kate Keogh's romance.

The long-time locals celebrated their 50th anniversary last week.

As they reminisced over their dining room table, the incredible tale of how they met flowed freely, as if it happened just yesterday.

It was late 1954 when Bob met Kate during a night out at the Langham Hotel and fell in love.

It was on that night that he took her by the hand and asked her if she'd "come fly with me".

He took Kate flying in a tiger moth in the skies over Warwick, doing tricks to try and impress her.

"When you've got a beautiful girl upside down at 5000ft you're in the winning seat," he said.

Bob knew that if he didn't move fast enough, somebody else would snap up his dream girl.

"I'd met this girl and she'd gone back home," he said.

"I knew I had to see her.

"I had to move fast before someone else got her."

He'd met his love just a month before, but Bob didn't care - Kate was the one.

Down to Sydney he travelled and asked Kate to marry him.

"I only saw Bob twice before the wedding," she said.

On the wedding day the blushing bride and her father drove past the groom, in his underwear and singlet in the front yard.

There'd been a mess-up with the time.

"I remember my father saying 'It's not too late to pull out. He is from Queensland you know'," Kate said.

The Sydney girl moved to Warwick, had three daughters and fitted right in with the community.

Bob and Kate opened their own flying school - and flourished in a range of community organisations.

After all these years, Kate still has the letters Bob sent her to.

"We'd send 15 page letters to each other," she said.

"When you have to write to somebody you get a better sense of getting to know someone."

The couple said the Warwick community helped nurture their long marriage.

"We have known so many people with very strong marriages," Kate said.

"When you see your peers cope in their marriages it gives you strength."

The Keoghs celebrated their anniversary with their three daughters and four of their five grandchildren.