Sweet couple celebrating 76th anniversary still lives in house gifted to them at their wedding
GREENVILLE, Ala. (WSFA/Gray News) – A couple in Alabama recently celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary – something that is so rare the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t even have data on how many couples make it that long.
Shirley and Emma Jean Roberson were married on Dec. 14, 1947, the same day NASCAR was founded.
The couple continues to live in the same home given to them as a wedding present all those years ago.
It was 11 days before Christmas, 9 p.m. on a Sunday in late 1947.
The living room this charming couple relaxes in is the same one they stood in then, patiently waiting for a preacher to arrive from his evening church sermon.
There were no photos of the wedding day, few guests and no honeymoon.
But when it was over, 17-year-old Emma Jean had the 19-year-old beau who had struck up the nerve to ask her to a picture show not long after they’d first met at a Methodist Youth Fellowship meeting in town.
Now in their 90s, they couldn’t remember the actual movie they saw on their first date.
It wasn’t so much that the memory had faded after seven decades, Shirley pointed out he was more interested in Emma Jean than anything they would have gone to see.
But he remembered she had to “call and ask her momma.”
The couple never had any children, and they’ve watched as most of their family and friends have died, but they say their church ministry has filled and sustained them through the years.
“We worked with young people, and I loved older people in the church,” Emma Jean told WSFA. “We did everything we could to serve the Lord. That was our goal in life.”
The Robersons both light up when the conversation comes to their faith. It’s the simple answer they have for both the question of their secret to a long life and the secret to a long marriage.
“Loving God and loving each other,” Shirley explained. “We have tried to do what was right and what was pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ to the best of our ability.”
“We don’t ever go to bed mad,” Emma Jean added. “We always apologize if we think we’re wrong, and we’ve never had any bad disagreements. We’ve tried to live biblically.”
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