Fifty years ago marriage looked pretty different, but sharing a life has always had its challenges and rewards. For more than five decades these three couples have stuck together for better or for worse, through sickness and health. With Valentine’s Day approaching, these couples spill their secrets in hopes that they can help you make your love last.
Pat and Bobby McIntyre
Married January 19, 1957
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"We’re best friends and we just enjoy being together. It’s a give and a take during the hard times, but the key is to give more than you take. When we started doing business together we each had our own specialty, and I yielded to her and she yielded to me and it’s worked very well."
Cecilia Casrill Dartez and Jim Dartez
Married October 30, 1965
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"There are a couple of key things to making a marriage work: Devout love, of course, but also respect for each other and allowing each other to pursue our own interests and supporting each other in those interests. Well, and a great sense of humor."
Pat and Ken Martinez
Married January 8, 1966
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"The grace of almighty God, prayer and a lot of working together is what has kept us together for 51 years. We do a lot of things together for our faith and what we believe in. We aren’t perfect, but we never stop trying."
Dolores and Ellis Marsalis
Married December 31, 1959
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"You have to start off on the same page. Dolores was very supportive of me being a musician, which in some ways is kinda crazy … especially in this town. I know that there’s no formula to a good marriage, because formulas dictate a consistency that’s not flexible and marriage has to have a lot of flexibility."
