Mandurah stalwart brings up his century in style

Mr Easton, who is now a resident of Parkland Villas in Halls Head, celebrates his centenary on Friday.

Kennerley (Ken) Gill Easton was born in South Fremantle in 1915, the youngest of seven children.

His mother, Minnie May Cooper, met his father Frank when he was holidaying in Mandurah and they married at Christ’s Church Anglican Church in 1899.

Ken Easton’s great-grandparents on his mother’s side arrived on the Warrior in 1930 and took up land at Pinjarra, called Redcliffe.

His great-grandfather built Cooper’s Mill and his mother was born in a house in Leslie Street, later the site of Wearne House and now Amana Living.

Ken Easton met his wife Thora at a dance in 1942.

Their two daughters are Sue and Gillian (well-known Shoalwater artist Gillian Peebles).

In the 1960s, Mr Easton started work as an estate agent with Kevin Green, where he stayed for 23 years, and was involved in the construction of Mandurah Country Club.

Thora died in 1974 and the following year, Ken Easton married Enid (Joyce) Hulme. They moved to Augusta in the 1980s but returned to Halls Head about five years ago.

Ken and Joyce (98) celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year.

In 2005, Ken Easton published The Seventh Little Australian: Recollections of a Lifetime.