Forever young at 80

Corona del Mar resident Joan Templeton Morris and her husband, Bob Morris, hosted a fabulous “Forever 20” party Sunday for more than 100 guests at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

Brunch was followed by two hours of dancing and music from the Greg Topper Band, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Templeton Morris looked so very young — 80 is the new 40 — and danced more than anyone.

“We have this wonderful body, but it changes,” Templeton Morris said Tuesday. “It’s not the body I had as a baby, as a teenager, as a mother, when I was pregnant and all that. We have many, many bodies. It’s beautiful.”

Her son Erik Hoff welcomed guests at the door and emceed, complete with a roast.

Templeton Morris, a leap year baby, was a lovely child, resembling Elizabeth Taylor, and was homecoming queen at Pepperdine.

She was an architecture professor at Cal State Long Beach for 39 years and took students on extended trips to Europe. Her hobbies are painting, exercises, boating and dancing.

“In the year 2000 ... I had another huge party because leap year only hits a centennial every 400 years and I made it,” Templeton Morris said. “On one table I had a 1600 ship and on another a space rocket because the next year would be 2400.”

Her son Steve and daughter-in-law Amanda Morris also attended, along with Templeton Morris’ grandsons.

Also in attendance were some of Templeton Morris’ very first students from the 1959-60 school year.

Editor’s note: Milvi Vanderslice is friends with Joan Templeton Morris.