After 57 years, the marriage of Paoli’s Chubby Checker and former Dutch beauty queen Catharina Lodders is still going strong, despite many challenges, writes Ria Mathew for Hrtwarming. 

The rock & roll singer and dancer is most known for popularizing several dancing forms, including the Twist and the Pony. His most popular tune to this day is “Let’s Twist Again.” 

Checker has had overall 34 smash hits and received the first Grammy for a rock-and-roll tune. 

He married Lodders in 1964, the year that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The law restored voting rights for African Americans and abolished segregation in the army, school, and fundamental public services. However, laws that banned interracial marriage persisted. This prohibition was lifted three years after his marriage. 

During the early months of their marriage, Checker and Lodders, who won the Miss World beauty pageant in 1962, suffered discrimination when they were looking to buy a home in Philadelphia. Yet they were undeterred, and finally bought a home in Paoli, where they still live. 

Despite many trials and tribulations, the couple is still as in love as ever and happily married nearly six decades on. 

Read more about Chubby Checker in Hrtwarming. 

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