Endless Love: JoAnn & Russell (Married 61 Years)

JoAnn met Russell in 1959 when she pulled into the local gas station to pump five gallons (a dollar’s worth) of gas. A friendly, red-headed attendant hopped out to pump her gas, and also washed her windows, and checked her tires. “I thought I’d never get to work,” JoAnn recalls. Russell thought she was a ‘beautiful gal’ and (through a mutual friend) asked if he could take her out for a hamburger at The Little Boy in Canton, North Carolina. “And we’re still eating hamburgers today.” That June, the couple were married in a $2 ceremony in Walhalla, South Carolina, which Russell says was well worth it. They just celebrated their 61st anniversary.

“Russell is my good luck charm. There’s not enough good adjectives in the book to describe that man,” JoAnn says. “Sometimes I think he just lives to make me happy. He takes care of all of us.” She goes on to say that he is also a wonderful father to their two adult children, as well as grandfather to their two grandchildren. “She just got more beautiful every year,” Russell says of JoAnn. “She’s the most wonderful woman in the world. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect mate.”

When asked for the secret to a long and happy marriage, the couple agrees that they have always relied on love, commitment, cooperation, and their faith. Russell states that the pair has never had an argument. “We had words once in a while, but I never got to use mine,” he jokes. “It’s been a wonderful life. I’d have done it all over again- I’d probably have married her sooner.”