The Woods celebrate their 70th anniversary
April 9, 2013
David and Joan Wood celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary March 22, 2013.
They both grew up in Seattle; David attended Roosevelt High School and Joan attended Garfield High School. They attended the University of Washington. David and Joan met while skiing with college buddies on a trip to Paradise at Mount Rainier.
Hagertys celebrate 50th anniversary
January 22, 2013
Tom and Su Hagerty, of Issaquah, celebrated their 50th anniversary Jan. 19, 2013, with their five children and nine grandchildren at the Mount Si Senior Center.
Tom Hagerty and Su Humphreys met in July 1962, when Tom’s mother Ruth invited Su to dinner after choir practice at Kirkland Assembly of God Church.
Su was a student at Northwest College. Tom was employed at The Boeing Co., where he worked for 40 years before retiring.
Diemerts celebrate diamond anniversary
September 25, 2012
Roger and Ruth Diemert in 1952
Roger and Ruth Diemert were married Sept. 19, 1952, in Seattle.
Roger was born in Fargo, N.D., to parents Robert and Jeanette (Dickson) Diemert; Ruth was born in Seattle, to parents George and Evelyn (Markey) Palmer. Ruth met Roger when her brother Eugene was dating Roger’s sister Corrinne.
Roger and Ruth have five children: Linda (Stan) Lawson, Arlene (Fred) Patterson, Michael (Joan) Diemert, Neal Diemert and baby Joanne, whom died in infancy. They have 12 grandchildren: Heidi, Seth, Jonas, Riley, Roger, Carrie, Julie, Heather, Michael, Hayes, Sarah and Harrison. They also have four great-grandchildren: Emily, Audrey, Trevor and Jared.
Roger was a union glazier apprenticing at Acme Glass in Seattle and continued to work in the glazing industry until retirement. Ruth retired from the J.C. Penney Co. after 25 years.
Hoegh-Christensens mark 70th anniversary
September 18, 2012
Ruth and Preben Hoegh-Christensen in 1942
Preben and Ruth Hoegh-Christensen celebrated their 70th anniversary Aug. 2.
Preben and Ruth met in World War II during the German occupation of Denmark. The couple married in a downtown Copenhagen church in 1942.
After the German invasion and threat of a Russian occupation, they departed for the west and landed in Seattle.
The world-traveling duo moved their home base over the years from Ballard to Mercer Island, where they helped found the Bellevue Philharmonic Symphony and volunteered for more than 30 years, to their last stop in Sammamish. They still volunteer for the Sammamish Symphony, which they also helped establish, and at Overlake Hospital, in Bellevue.
The childless couple said years ago they decided to make the community their family.
High school sweethearts celebrate platinum anniversary, 70 years of marriage
August 7, 2012
Lorraine and Bud Cochran enjoy summer from the wicker patio swing at their home near Issaquah High School.
By Greg Farrar
Bud Cochran used to walk more than a mile to see his sweetheart Lorraine back when they were students at Puyallup High School in the late 1930s. With no car and a girlfriend that lived on the opposite side of town, the trek became a familiar path for the love-struck Bud.
“It didn’t seem far at all,” he said. “I was just smitten.”
Seven decades later, the two longtime Issaquah residents are still together, having celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary May 2. Sitting in their cozy ranch-style home situated next to Issaquah High School, Bud, 90, and Lorraine, 88, fondly reminisced about their eventful 70 years together.
Lorangers celebrate 60th anniversary
July 3, 2012
Claire Loranger has been married for 60 years to the same man. She hesitates for nary a second to reveal her secret.
“I call it extreme patience,” she said.
It never hurts to say that, but it helps even more when it comes from an expert.
Claire and Ed Loranger (above) were married 60 years ago in 1952. Contributed
Ed Loranger, a product of Bellevue, met the Massachusetts-born, Montana-raised Claire while she was in town babysitting for an ailing aunt. Ed was the aunt’s mechanic. To keep a bored Claire from returning home, her aunt and uncle set her up on a date with Ed.
Fresh from a tour in Korea, soldier Ed was for an old-fashioned girl. A lifelong Catholic and the sister of a nun, Claire was looking for someone who had seen the world.
The year was 1951; she was 21 and he was 27. A year later, they were married in her hometown of Anaconda.
Sixty years later, they have three children, three grandchildren and a pile of hobbies. Well, she does the hobbies: bowling, traveling, choir, skiing and curling, or as Ed called it “watching paint dry.”
Saylers celebrate 50th wedding anniversary
June 26, 2012
George and Colleen Sayler in 2012
George and Colleen Sayler, of Issaquah, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 30, 2012, with a luau party hosted by their children Tricia, Craig, Michele and Michael, and daughter-in-law Mindy.
George and Colleen both grew up in Magnolia, where they met through mutual friends in the neighborhood. They started dating on Halloween in 1958. They got engaged March 3, 1962, and married June 30, 1962, at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, in Magnolia.
They lived in several different locations in Magnolia, finally settling in the house on West Boston Street that George grew up in. In that house, they started their family. In February 1966, they became foster parents to daughter Tricia, whom they adopted in September 1966. They had their son Craig in May 1967, daughter Michele in August 1968 and son Michael in December 1972.
Colleen and George Sayler in 1962
In 1975, they moved to Woodinville. George worked as a plumber at the University of Washington until he retired in 1995. After retirement, they moved to Klahanie in 1999.
George and Colleen have seven grandchildren — Alexandra, Jordyn, Carsen, Karter, Brett, Mallory and Braxten. This year, they celebrated their eldest granddaughter graduating from high school and their youngest granddaughter graduating from kindergarten.
Through the years they have enjoyed spending time and traveling with their family and friends — especially the grandkids who give them so much joy — tent camping at Island Lake, trips to San Diego to visit family, trips to Kalaloch and Cannon Beach, going to car shows at the Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive-in, gardening, decorating for Christmas in a big way and they are longtime University of Washington Husky football season ticket holders.
Secrets lie at the heart of the Porters’ 50-year marriage
May 29, 2012
Beverly and Jack Porter in 2011
Keeping secrets is part of what has kept Jack and Beverly Porter together for 50 years.
During the Sammamish couple’s half-century marriage, Jack spent 12 years as a contractor for the CIA. The pair faced the challenge of keeping Jack’s career identity secret from their five children and friends. In those 12 years, no one knew except for Beverly. The couple explained that sharing the secret made them stronger.
“We were in it together,” Beverly said.
The Porters are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Looking back, they attribute the longevity of their relationship to their children, their faith and a pair of other important factors.
“There are two ingredients,” Jack said about his martial success, “patience and a sense of humor.”
The couple met in October 1961. Jack, then a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin, was working as a sales representative for the American Can Co. He was transferred to Seattle, where he met Beverly, a North Dakota native who had recently moved to the Lake Hills area of Bellevue with her family.
One year later, on June 2, 1962, the couple was married at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue.
Rowan and Barbara Hinds celebrate 50th anniversary
April 24, 2012
Rowan and Barbara Hinds
Apparently they were no fools to marry on April 1, 1962!
Rowan and Barbara met at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., in 1960. Rowan was in the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, and upon graduation in 1962, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and they got married. Their honeymoon was a cross-country trip to Augusta, Ga., where he attended basic officer’s school at Fort Gordon.
After more schooling at Fort Monmouth, N.J., Rowan was sent to France, where Barb joined him a few months later. They spent one year in France followed by two years in Germany before returning to Corvallis, where Rowan obtained his master’s degree.
In 1967, they moved to Longview when Rowan took a position with Northern Pacific Railway Timberlands (now Plum Creek Timber), and Barbara concentrated on building their first home and raising their toddler with a second on the way.
Horns celebrate 50th anniversary
December 27, 2011
Jimmy and Monita Horn in 2011
Monita grew up in Coulee Dam and Jimmy grew up in Pullman. They met in Pullman while both were attending college. Jimmy had just returned from the United States Navy after five years and Monita was a senior at Washington State University.
Al Schy, president of the Folkdance Club, hosted a party at his house in Pullman. It was between semesters and only a few students were in town. Al invited his old buddy, Jimmy, and introduced him to Monita and her friends. That spring, Jimmy attended the Folkdance Club.
Monita didn’t pay much attention to Jimmy until that summer, when they were all working. She needed a ride out to the hills to collect plants. They spent several times together, getting to know each other.
That fall, Monita went to college in the east and they wrote to each other once a week. When she came back on vacation in August, Jimmy picked her up at the airport in Spokane, giving her a ride home. Later he proposed, and she accepted.
Monita found an apartment in Pullman to live in until they were married. She went to graduate school in botany and taught a lab section of Botany 101 for work. They were married Dec. 29, 1961.
