Warren and Ginger arrive early, carrying their dancing shoes in a small black bag. He wears a dinner jacket of bumblebee yellow and a tie with piano keys on it. The Ritz Charles ballroom in Overland Park is full of men in tuxes and dark suits, and the 81-year-old Warren Haycock stands out like a lemon drop in a bowl of licorice. His 92-year-old girlfriend sparkles. Ginger Arn is wearing one of the many billowy skirts Warren buys for her.

It catches the air when she spins on her tiny silver-sequined slippers. Warren ties up his black leather dancing shoes. He goes through a lot of shoe leather dancing six days a week. The couple go to Moose lodges, bars, American Legion posts, the Camelot Ballroom, Waid s restaurant. Anywhere they can find live music. The neighbors said I danced before I walked, Ginger says. Except I married a guy when I was 18 who refused to step on a dance floor. So there were several years I didn t dance.

She can t remember how she learned her moves. It s not like she ever took a lesson. I just heard some music, and I started moving, the sweet-faced woman says. That s all I can tell you. After her husband died, Ginger dated a man who liked to dance. They went to dances together until he left her for another woman, saying Ginger s job got in the way of their social life. So one Saturday night, Ginger went to a dance alone.

I went in the door and was standing there and looked across the floor, and here comes this little guy walking across the floor, she says. And he asked me to dance. That little guy was Warren. He, too, had lost his dancing partner. It turns out that she had dumped Warren for the guy who dumped Ginger. But Warren was a loyal guy. He was dedicated to his country he spent 21 years in the military from World War II to Vietnam and steadfast in love.