Couples celebrate long marriages at annual Schnucks event

When Ruby Hester rose for the recognition of couples who have been married the longest, her hand never left her husband's shoulder during Friday's annual "Love is in the Air" breakfast at the AC Brase Arena. It also remained there when she rose for the event's flag-folding ceremony.

Ruby and her husband, Bobby, have been married for 71 years, since she was 17.

Any question aimed at Ruby, Bobby could answer, and vice versa. The two clearly knew everything about one another.

Ruby said they met on a blind date, and since celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary 21 years ago, they have attended the Schnucks-sponsored breakfast annually.

The Hesters were among nearly 200 couples who attended the event, and many of them slowly descended the stairs holding hands and pulled out chairs for each other.

"It was a much different time then," Joyce Brown said when referring to her husband's marriage proposal 62 years ago.

She got married when she was 16, and her husband, Dale, had to ask three times before it could be made official. He asked her father twice, then approached the local school board.

He first saw his future wife with a friend outside a movie theater and from then began making plans to see her again. It turned out she lived in nearby town.

"She lived in Packwood, Iowa, and I lived in Washington, Iowa," Dale recalled.

Packwood was celebrating one of its gravel roads being paved, which was a big deal back then, Dale said. At the celebration, the town held a dance at which it would declare a queen based on votes cast by pennies. The girl who garnered the most pennies would be chosen as queen.

"They had a dance, and I had a sister who lived in Packwood, and she kept trying to get me to get a date with this friend of hers' daughter. And I said, 'No, I'm just going to go by myself,' because I knew that [Joyce] would be there," Dale said. "And she ended up being the queen of the dance. And that queen became my wife."

Jon Townsend, co-manager at Schnucks in Cape Girardeau, was the host for Friday's breakfast with special guest Mike Dumey, choir director at Cape Central Junior High School. Dumey brought three of his students with him.

smaue@semissourian.com

388-3644