BELOVED duo Bobby Willis and Cilla Black charmed the world with their tale of enduring love.
We take a look at the life of the man that helped launch the career of his Cilla.
Robert ‘Bobby’ Willis was born on January 25, 1942 in Liverpool to a working class family.
He grew up with four other brothers, Albert, Ronnie, Bertie and Kenneth.
His mother died when he was just 11 years old, and one of his brothers died 8 months later.
Aside from his early career working at the bakery counter in Woolworths, he was also a talented singer songwriter who went on to become Cilla Black’s manager.
Bobby Willis tragically died from both lung and liver cancer on October 23 1999 aged 57 at The Royal free Hospital, London.
His funeral service was held at Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Denham, Buckinghamshire on November 1 1999 and afterwards he was cremated.
He had managed Cilla’s career for over 20 years before his death, helping to launch her career after Cilla revealed: “He wrote a song called Shy of Love and we recorded it as the B side to Love of the Loved, my debut single”.
Robert ‘Bobby’ Willis and Precilla Maria Veronica White, better known as Cilla Black first met in Liverpool in the 1960’s.
He met her when she was waitressing part time at a bar called Zodiac.
Although he was working at Woolworths at the time he lied to impress her, telling her he was an established record producer.
The pair then dated before marrying in the Parish Church in Liverpool on January 25th 1969.
They went on to have two ceremonies. A low-key civil ceremony at a London registry office before a traditional catholic wedding 6 weeks later in Liverpool parish Church.
The pair had four children together – three sons, Robert, Ben and Jack and a daughter Ellen who unfortunately passed away after only two hours from lung complications.
Their eldest son Robert actually went on to become his mother Cilla’s manager until her death in August 2015.
He was also the one to discover her body after her sudden death at her holiday home in Spain.
Cilla left her assets worth over £15 million to her three sons, her Spanish villa and a penthouse in Barbados.
