Countywide : Ventura Pair Swing Their Way to the Sweepstakes Award

As Frank Umbro’s five-piece band played Glenn Miller’s snappy “Jersey Bounce” at the Ventura County Fair on Tuesday, Bill and Aunnie Walker buffed the dance floor with their jitterbugging footwork.

“The swing’s our best dance,” Bill Walker said under the hot noonday sun. “But they didn’t play it fast enough for us.”

Walker, 74, won the Senior Dance Contest with his 77-year-old wife.

The Ventura residents, who met at a dance, have been married for 11 years. They entered the dance contest and won a trophy two years ago.

This time, they earned three trophies, including the sweepstakes for best overall dancers.

Six couples, ranging in age from 68 to 88, strutted their terpsichorean talents for three judges and more than 300 enthusiastic spectators.

Kay Hollingsworth, 68, of Ojai and her 80-year-old partner, Otis Chamberlain, did not win any prizes.

But Hollingsworth, dressed in tight jeans and cowboy boots, entered the Senior Queen pageant after the dance contest and walked away with a bouquet of red roses and a trophy as 1991 Ventura County Fair Senior Queen.

Pat Lopez, master of ceremonies for the dance contest, told the audience: “This is how they used to dance. They used to actually touch each other. And if they didn’t know each other, they soon got to.”

“The contest brings out the seniors whether they are dancing or not because the music is from our era,” said Billie Leiman, an onlooker from Ventura.

“Romance,” interjected spectator Joan Skupier of Oxnard.

“I think everything about that era was more romantic.”