Couple celebrates 70 years of happiness

BY LINDSAY J. JONES

BROWNSBURG — Not many people can say they’ve been married for 70 years, but Marion and Mary Johnson just reached that milestone. The couple was married Dec. 24, 1937, in Fayette, and now reside at Brownsburg Meadows.

Marion, an only child, was born and raised in Brownsburg, graduating from Brownsburg High School in 1936. He is a retired farmer, and started out farming with a team of horses on the property Brownsburg Meadows sits on today.

Mary graduated from Prairie Central High School in Fayette in 1933, and was one of 10 children. Shortly after graduation, she went to Minnesota to help care for her uncle’s children, because his wife had passed away. She moved back in 1935, and that fall her sister and her sister’s boyfriend brought Marion along on a blind date with Mary.

She said it was the first time she had met Marion, but he said he had seen her in Brownsburg when they showed free movies on the street.

Some time later, Marion proposed by saying simply, “Let’s get married.”

Mary joked that she said yes because her maiden name was also Johnson, so she wouldn’t have to remember a new name. They said they never have found any family connection between the two.

So the couple went to their preacher’s house, and with her brother and sister and the preacher’s grandchildren present, they were married on Christmas Eve. They went to live with his parents after the wedding, and then rented a farm in Boone County before owning their own.

Through the years, Mary was a homemaker and taught Sunday school for all ages. She started out with “little ones,” then taught fifth and sixth grade, then teenagers, but said she didn’t like teaching teenage boys, and later taught young married couples in a class called “pairs and spares.”

Mary’s hobbies include making crafts out of a plastic canvas and yarn, such as tissue box covers and Christmas ornaments. She said she never liked to sew, but enjoyed quilting. She worked jigsaw puzzles each year during the winter. Today, Mary still completes crossword puzzles, because she said it keeps her busy and her mind active.

Together, the Johnsons used to garden, both flowers and fruits and vegetables.

“Everybody remarked about his garden,” Mary said.

She told a story of how a woman stopped one day and asked how he kept it so clean, and he replied matter-of-factly, “by hard work.” Mary said her husband pulled weeds every morning to keep the garden in order.

Friends and family remember Mary’s trademark beef and noodles, which she made for family reunions, birthdays, and anniversaries.

One tradition that still continues is that they go to Frank and Mary’s restaurant in Pittsboro each Friday for catfish, which has been going on for at least 25 years. Mary used to go with all of her brothers and sisters, and said they would have an extra long table to accommodate everyone. Now, it’s just her, two sisters, and one brother still living, so she said the gatherings are smaller.

Today, the couple enjoys watching westerns, “Matlock,” and “I Love Lucy” reruns on TV. They also like going to bingo, parties, sing-a-longs, and to see entertainers at Brownsburg Meadows. They have also made a lot of friends at the dining room there.

With a high number of marriages ending in divorce today, Mary said the reason she and Marion have stayed together so long is because they never thought of separating or divorce as an option.

“We were just happy with what we were doing,” she said. “I say to people, ‘all I know to tell you is just be happy the way you are.’”

That doesn’t mean they never got into disagreements.

“We had little arguments, but nobody won,” she said.

Additional advice from Mary is to not go to bed mad at one another.

“Don’t go to bed angry, because you’ll wake up angry,” she said.

In 70 years of marriage, times have changed a lot for the Johnsons. At first they didn’t have electricity. They milked cows, had hogs and chickens, churned butter, made cottage cheese, and talked on the phone using a party line, where as many as 10 people shared the same phone line.

Mary said they had school buses, which were brand new at the time. She remembers her older sister going to school on a horse-drawn hack.

For fun, she and her neighbors played baseball. Her mother made the balls out of old work socks, and the bat was a wooden board. They also played card games, checkers, and dominos.

Another change in the times is what each meal is called. Mary said “country people” used to call the three meals breakfast, dinner, and supper. Dinner was always the biggest meal. Today, she said the third meal is called dinner because it’s now the largest meal.

In keeping up with the times, Mary uses a personal computer to keep in touch with her five children. She and each son and daughter sends a letter via e-mail to everyone else, and they also use instant messages and chat rooms to catch up.

Mary, 92, said she and Marion, 89, have stayed in good health all their lives because they’ve had family meals and always worked outside.

“We never dreamed of living this long or being married this long,” she said.

In her extended family, Mary now has more than 300 family members living, according to a register her niece keeps, and about half of them attend the family’s yearly reunion.

They are the parents and in-laws of Janet and Jerry Owen of wherever their Bluebird takes them, as they are traveling after retirement from Lumberton, N.C.; Donna and Wayne Bostic of Phoenix, Ariz.; Max and Doris Johnson of Greensburg; Nancy and Tim Nelson of Hobart; and Marvin and Anne Johnson of Snohomish, Wash.

They are the grandparents of Michelle Bostic of Phoenix, Scott Johnson of Greensburg, Vicki Center of Sammamish, Wash., Amy Satkoski of Carmel, Tim Nelson of Indianapolis, Craig Nelson of Michigan City, Lindsay Johnson of Pensacola, Fla., and Brad Johnson of Snohomish.

They are the great-grandparents of Kyle Bostic, Kelsey Johnson, Zachary Johnson, Noelle Nelson, Grace Nelson, Rylee Satkoski, and Brennan Satkoski.

lindsay.jones@flyergroup.com

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