Valentine’s Day extra special for couples married 142 years
OSSEO, Wis., February 12, 2009—When Al and Marguerite Johnson met many years ago, they knew it was love at first sight. They will celebrate 75 years of marriage this year. Leonard and Lavina Anderson started dating when they were 16 and have been together since. This is the 68th year the couple will be together in marriage.
The Johnson’s first date was a special memory when Al arrived at Marguerite’s home on one of his Shetland ponies.
“I wanted to show her how important I was, and I jumped a barbed wire fence and ripped the seat of my pants,” he said with a chuckle.
Marguerite and Al dated through high school, and in 1934, at a school picnic, decided to walk across the bridge into Winona, Minn., from Wisconsin.
“We went to a restaurant [in Winona], and there was a Lutheran minister there,” Al said. Al asked the man if he could marry the couple. “He said yes if we had $10 for a marriage license,” Al said.
And Marguerite responded with a smile, “You still owe me $10.”
Al found a job working at a bank with his uncle.
“I shoveled coal, emptied spittoons and waste baskets when I first started there,” Al said. He finished his career there as the bank’s president.
During their marriage, they had two sons and a daughter. They have nine grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren, with another due in April.
Another highlight of their lives, which occurred during Al’s bank president career, was when Al and Marguerite visited Europe on a “People to People” tour during the Eisenhower presidency.
“We visited many banks to see how other countries ran them,” Al said. While there, they visited six countries, including Great Britain and the former Soviet Union. The three weeks overseas only cost them $1,400.
Throughout their marriage, the Johnsons lived in Mayfield, Calif., and spent 35 years wintering in Florida.
“People would ask us how we saved money to go to Florida, and I would tell them: ‘Don’t drink or smoke,’” Al said. They had many friends in Florida and were there last in 2001.
“We’ve had lots of experiences,” Al said.
Now the couple is residing at the Luther Midelfort Oakridge facility in Osseo. Al is in the assisted living apartments and goes to see Marguerite everyday in the nursing home, where the couple participates in social activities with the other residents.
“He is such a good husband to me. I can’t say enough how good a husband Al has been to me,” Marguerite said many times.
The couple will celebrate 75 years of marriage and also is celebrating a special Valentine’s Day. When asked how they’ll celebrate their 75th anniversary, Al replied,
“Well, I suppose we’ll say good morning and then we’ll say good night.”
Leonard and Lavina Anderson will also celebrate a special day this year, as they will be married for 68 years. The couple was married in Pigeon Falls in 1941, after they met at a July Fourth celebration.
“That’s where you picked me up—I was young and foolish,” said Lavina as she laughed about the memory. “I picked her up in my ’32 Chevy, and we didn’t want to stay in Strum because her sister was there,” Leonard said. When they got to his car, the driver’s side window was broken from the heat of the sun.
“But she kept me warm,” he said.
The Andersons farmed for 32 years in Daggett Coulee and Leonard was treasurer for the town of Pigeon for many years.
“I drove the tractor — I was a farmer’s wife,” Lavina said. One of their specialty crops was growing tobacco for cigars.
They spoke proudly of their nine grandchildren as Leonard talked about them with a twinkle in his eye. “They all have good jobs, and our last grandson will graduate from high school in 2010.”
The Andersons talked about special trips they’ve taken, as they’ve traveled to every state in the union except Alaska and Florida. They’ve also been to Europe twice and once to Iran.
“I remember walking in Switzerland, and everywhere you went you saw banks and jewelry stores,” Leonard said. After Leonard retired in 1978, the couple wintered in Arizona for 18 years.
The couple now spends their time at Luther Midelfort Oakridge in Osseo where Lavina is a resident in an assisted living apartment and visits Leonard in the nursing home.
“She comes over to see me at least two or three times a day,” he said.
The Johnsons and Andersons are still showing the love they share with those special glances and smiles. A hand on a knee, a tap on the arm and a heart felt laugh spawns smiles from and glimpses of the fun they’ve had throughout their lives together. They will celebrate a very special Valentine’s Day this year at Luther Midelfort Oakridge’s Nursing Home facility in Osseo, where both couples will be crowned as Valentine’s Day King and Queen at the coronation at 2:45 on February 13.
