‘Stan Could Still Stand on His Head Even When He Was 90′

By Abby Alford

The spirit of a 97-year-old yoga pioneer is set to live on in the hundreds of people he taught in a career spanning three decades.

Even when he became too frail to leave his house, Stanley Traylor took classes in his living room, teaching his four young grandchildren the moves that made him famous in the Valleys.

As one of the oldest yoga instructors in Britain, the former sergeant major will forever be remembered as the man fit men in the 20s could not keep up with.

“When he was about 90 two young men who usually did karate came to his class and they gave up because it was too hard,” said Stanley’s granddaughter Sue, 37, who is expecting hundreds of his pupils to attend his funeral in Pontypridd on Friday.

“He was a fantastic person, a yoga pioneer in the Valleys,” added Ann Lewis, Wales officer for the British Wheel of Yoga.

“Not many people are still standing on their head at 90!”

After working in the mines and serving as a physical training instructor with the Welsh Guards, Stan, who was born in Ystrad, Rhondda, moved to London with wife Nell and son Bill.

After retiring at 65 from his job with an accountancy firm he moved back home to South Wales, settling in Queen Street, Treforest, where he took up yoga to fill his spare time.

Fellow yoga buff Coral Wilson, 63, of Ty Pica Close, Pontypridd, met Stan at a class when he was 70.

When he became an instructor teaching classes across the area, including at the Hawthorn Leisure Centre in Pontypridd, she became his pupil, taking his classes until Stan was 92.

Coral said: “He was absolutely amazing. He was so serene, you never saw him lose his rag.

“He was a marvellous character and a pleasure to have known.”

Granddaughter Sue, who regularly brought her children Daisy, four, April, eight, Charlie, nine, and John, 12, to see him from their home in Brighton, said: “Even when he became too unsteady on his feet to teach classes he practised it himself at home everyday.

“About 18 months ago I took him to the doctors because I was worried, but the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with him.

“He had perfectly normal blood pressure and wasn’t taking tablets for anything.

“The doctor couldn’t believe it.”

Sue said: “When he got too old to teach classes, he used to try to teach my kids moves in his front room.

“They would be trying to copy him and stretch their legs out and touch their toes.

“He would have them doing all different things.”

Stan died of pneumonia at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital on May 9 and Sue said he will be remembered as a character who everyone seemed to know.

“It would take ages to walk into town with him because people would be stopping him every two minutes to speak to him.

“He will be missed.”

Stan’s funeral is on Friday at St Mary’s Church, Glyntaff, Pontypridd, at 12.15pm, and after at Glyntaff Crematorium at 12.45pm.

(c) 2007 South Wales Echo. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.