AN 80-year-old former headteacher plans to visit every American state before he dies.

Ken Smale, from Halstead, believes the five to ten miles he cycles every day keeps him young.

The widower, who was married to Betty and has three sons and six grandchildren, has already ticked 30 states off his list of 50.

He particularly enjoyed visiting Chicago, in Michigan, because he found out some fascinating facts there about his family tree.

He said: “I found out that my great-grandfather went to the States, and the word was he would send for his wife and she would join him – but he went and he never came back. I don’t think she was invited, which was a bit of a tragedy.”

Mr Smale also tracked down his great grandfather Michael Mullen’s former house.

He said: “He was a bit of a rogue and obviously found living over there was better than living over here, and without a word to anybody he remarried.”

But back in England, Mr Mullen’s wife also remarried.

She then tricked her daughter, Mr Smale’s grandmother, who was in America, into returning to marry so she had to stay.

The final threads of the story were pulled together in a Chicago building which featured in the 1980 film the Blues Brothers.

Mr Smale said: “I had to go and do all this research and this big, black guy there was saying, ‘This guy is lookin’ for his grandpappy.’ It was fantastic, the people were really lovely.”

Mr Smale worked at Chapel Hill primary school, Braintree, for 23 years and became its headteacher.

Since retiring, his various hobbies keep him extremely busy.