LANSING, Mich. — A 75-year-old promise is an aged vow well-kept.
Loyal and Arlene Dean have been married through better, worse, rich, poor, in sickness and in health since 1944.
“My wife tells me just about every day I’m so glad I’ve got you and I tell her the same thing too,” said Loyal Dean about their marriage.
He is a Navy veteran who was once stationed at Pearl Harbor. Just a month after D-Day during World War two, Loyal says they decided to get married.
“We met at a church and it was at a 'singspiration.' I was singing in a male quartet and my lady friend was singing in a ladies trio,” said Loyal Dean.
That year Franklin D. Rosevelt was President, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, and they made a history of their own.
“We made an appointment to have the first date on Valentines Day and I had a 1937 V-8 85 horsepower that I drove in for my first date to pick her up,” said Loyal Dean.
Loyal says he’s been picking her up ever since. They have literally been married a lifetime. He says the secret to lasting so long is selflessness.
“I feel that we each understand what each one of us desires and what we need,” said Loyal Dean.
Arlene is 97 and Loyal is 95 years old. They have five children, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren together.
They live each day as a never-ending love letter.
The two invited Fox 47 to their 75th Wedding Anniversary celebration where Loyal read a letter to his wife.
“I want to say this about my Arlene. Arlene is one beautiful woman not only in looks but in many other ways,” he said in a snippet of the letter.
The flower shop who provided flowers for the celebration said out of 40 years, they've never heard of 75 years of marriage. They decided to send the couple a special bouquet.
The cake topper was the original topper from their wedding 75 years ago.
Loyal and Arlene Dean’s actual anniversary is on Monday.
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