A MARRIAGE 76 YEARS IN THE MAKING

DECATUR, Ill. -- Charles Miller sits in his favorite recliner, across the living room from his beloved. His corner of the room is dim, the lamp turned off. Too much light bothers eyes that hardly see.

Ruth Miller is tucked into the corner of a favorite chair. Close to her is a guitar, not played for years. On the wall nearby is the framed "splash" she received upon retirement from Mueller Co. The splash, Charles explains, is where some hot brass dropped and hardened on the foundry floor.

As Charles gets out of his chair to cross the room and join Ruth, he jokes, "just give me about 20 minutes and I'll make it."

For 76 years, the couple has waited for each other. But they continue to love and laugh. Perhaps that's the secret.

How they met depends upon who is asked. Charles is more than well-known for telling a story, then turning around to let everyone know he is teasing.

Officially, they met when he stopped to ask a friend to go to town, Charles recalls. "He said, 'I can't. I've got a date tonight, and she's got a friend, too."'

That was it. They double-dated, and on Oct. 2, 1928, Charles L. Miller married Ruth E. Brewer.

Charles also has another story about how they met. He was driving, he says, eyes twinkling and face grinning, in Cumberland County when he came across the "prettiest country girl you ever saw" standing barefoot in a cocklebur patch. He said he couldn't help stopping. But Charles quickly adds, "I made that story up."

"Humph!" Ruth comments. "He didn't even have a car!"

Charles, 97, and Ruth, 96, don't navigate like they used to. Neither drives any more, but they loved sports cars, like their Mercury Cougar fastback and the Chevrolet Camaro. They kept the vehicles in such mint condition that it was rare not to get nearly full price when they were traded for another. And they danced. They danced and danced, from Monticello to Champaign and in nearly every possible location in Decatur.

They remember the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"We lived through that," Ruth says. "We took care of the Mueller property. He almost worked night and day." After getting laid off from the Mueller machine shop, Charles remembers, "I was out of work. Duke Mueller asked my dad if I'd like to be a custodian. He knew how badly I needed a job."

In those years, they came close to losing their bedroom furniture when they missed too many payments, but they managed to hang on.

Charles was drafted into the Army at age 38 and served in the South Pacific for several years. In 1951, they bought a house in east Decatur where they continue to live.

There have been tough times. Charles has survived several bouts with cancer. Ruth doesn't always feel too sure on her feet, and the hearing aids sometimes frustrate her -- especially when she can't hear what's going on with the St. Louis Cardinals. Does Charles share his wife's passion for the Cards? Well, his answer is he cheers for "anybody who is beating the Cardinals," says one of their grandchildren.

And to what do they attribute their lasting marriage?

"We never held a grudge," Charles says. "We never had any big quarrels, but we never allowed a quarrel to last over to the next day."

"She is the only woman I'd like to spend the next 76 years with. I love her that much," he adds.

"He means it, too," Ruth says.