Vera and Jack, the early years

Tonight, Coronation Street says good bye to a beloved character. Vera Duckworth will shuffle off her mortal coil and we here at Corrieblog want to pay tribute to her life and times starting today. We will have a look, in summary, at Jack and Vera's life together and today will focus on their earlier years.

Vera Burton met Jack Duckworth on a fairground and he was instantly smitten. She was passionate and often dragged him off to her father's potting shed. When she thought she was pregnant, he married her. She miscarried and had a few further miscarraiges, giving birth finally to her only son, Terry. She later wrote a note to Jack years later that confessed an affair and she said she wasn't sure Terry was Jack's. Jack had known about it all the time but knew Terry was his because they were very alike.

When we first met Vera, she was living in Inkerman Street with Jack and working in Mike Baldwin's new factory on Coronation Street. There she made friends with Ivy Tilsley and the two became very good mates. Vera was always gobby and opinionated, not very tactful and always bossy to Jack who was a bit work shy. She always felt she never had a chance, or a break, and felt that Jack's feckless ways held them back from having it all. They both had affairs and flirtations through the years but through it all, they stuck together and down deep, they did love each other.

Vera doted on Terry and spoiled him rotten. As a result, he grew up without a lot of discipline and turned into a man that always thought nobody would make him take responsibility for his actions. He was sly, manipulative, and sometimes violent, which landed him in the nick more than once. He fathered three children by three mothers and walked away from all three. Vera never saw her first and oldest grandson Paul until 2007. She does see the other two boys, Tommy and Brad but they don't live in Weatherfield. Still, Vera continued to make excuses for him even though Jack always knew the truth and didn't trust Terry an inch.

Vera had the heart of a snob but she never really had the means. She liked things that made her think of a posher life, like a bar or a painting of a Spanish lady dancer or naming her little terrace house The Old Rectory. Out of the blue, she discovered something that she thought rose her above the hoi polloi. After her mother died, her mother's lodger revealed that he was actually Vera's father. That was a shock but the real kicker was that this old man told Vera that his great grandmother was a lover of the Prince of Wales, later to be King Edward VII and that meant that he and by association, Vera, had a strain of Royal Blood running through their veins. It was never proven and Jack (and I) always believed it was the ramblings of an old man looking for a roof over his head. Still, Vera believed it. She always felt "different" and from then on, she collected Royal souvenirs and sent birthday cards to the Royal Family members from "cousin" Vera. It was easier for Jack to let her believe it because she wouldn't be told!

Vera's proudest moment came in late 1995. Jack had inherited some money from an insurance claim after his brother Cliff died. The Duckworths were coming up in the world! Better yet, when Bet Gilroy had to give up the pub because she couldn't afford to buy it, the race was on to see who could put in an offer. The Duckworths and the McDonalds were in competition and against all odds, the Duckworths won the pub! Vera was now a landlady of the Rovers Return and a prouder woman you would never meet! It was hard work. Harder than she thought it would be. After a rocky start, things never really improved a whole lot. The Duckies weren't very good business people and in the end, they lost the pub because they owed the government thousands in VAT. Alec Gilroy bailed them out and then found a way to take over completely.

How the mighty have fallen! Jack and Vera had sold Number 9 to the Malletts so had to retreat to a bed and breakfast. Stay tuned. In a few days, we'll examine Jack and Vera in their later years.

Thanks to Corrie.net, Daran Little's fab books and my memory!