COUPLES CELEBRATE MORE THAN 50 YEARS OF MARRIAGE

Sam and Helen Bryant may be excused if at first they can't recall how they met. It was, after all, a long time ago -- 60 years to be exact.

"We met at a birthday party. Three months later we were married," Helen said. "We just clicked."

The Bryants were among 250 couples who crowded into the Holiday Inn Convention Center Saturday for Schnucks' 20th Valentine's Day Celebration. Couples who have been married for at least 50 years were invited by Schnucks to join in the celebration.

Even though they have been eligible to participate for several years, Saturday's celebration was the first time that the Bryants had been in attendance. They would've gone before, but Sam was always working.

He retired last year from his job at McDonald's. He was 88 years old.

"Clean living," Sam said was the secret of their long marriage.

Clean living and church have long been important parts of their lives, Helen added. They have been members of the First Assembly of God Church in Cape Girardeau for 57 of their 59 years together.

When the invocation was given to begin the breakfast, the Bryants held hands as they bowed their heads.

The Valentine's Day Celebration started 20 years ago by Bill Hammett, the first store manager of the Cape Girardeau Schnucks. The first year the event was held in the store with 50 couples showing up. Since then, it has grown to 500 people in attendance and has been moved to larger facilities.

The celebration has been so successful in Cape Girardeau that other Schnucks stores in the Midwest have copied the idea. But the party with the largest number in attendance is the one in Cape Girardeau, said Dennis Marchi, store manager of Schnucks.

While most couples came from Cape Girardeau County, several couples came from tens, even hundreds of miles away.

Everett and Juanita DeMott, who were honored as the couple who came from the furthest away. They traveled more than 200 miles from their home in Pottersville, west of West Plains, to be there Saturday morning.

"I was going out with Juanita's cousin, but I got mad at the cousin and started going out with Juanita," said Everett, when explaining how he and his bride got together over 54 years ago.

"He switched over," Helen said.

The only time the DeMotts haven't been at the party was last year, when snow and ice forced them to turn around. But then, last year was the only time had been the party had been canceled because of inclement weather. And, if Dennis Marchi has anything to say about it, last year will be the only time the event is canceled.

"We will never cancel it again, even if only one couple shows up," he told the crowd, who applauded enthusiastically.

The enthusiastic response didn't surprise Marchi. He knew the people who attended appreciated the event, not only because they told him, but because he had seen it by the way they support it.

Many of the couples even started showing up as early at 6:30 a.m.

It wasn't scheduled to start until 8:00.

Amy Young, sales associate for Zimmer Radio Group, shook her head in amazement at the accomplishment the couples had achieved in staying married for over 50 years.

"I've been married five years. It will be another 45 years before I'm eligible to attend," she said.

Two of Zimmer's radio stations -- KZIM and K103 -- were co-sponsors of the event.

"This is the most enjoyable part of my job," Young said.

As the couples ate the continental breakfast provided for them by Schnucks and served by managers and sales associates from Schnucks, they were serenaded by the big band sound of Cape Central's Jazz Band.

Then, when the band was finished playing, Dennis Marchi began to present honors to some of the couples.

The couple who was honored at the breakfast for being married the longest was Ernest and Ora Dean Prindle of Oran, who had been married for 68 years.

"We met at a prayer meeting at the Methodist Church in Vanduser. I was a junior in high school and he was a farmer," said Ora Dean.

"My brother came in after the meeting and told me that there was someone who wanted to drive me home," she said.