50+ Lifestyles

A Recipe for a Happy Marriage

By Nancy Nehlsen

In 1936 fourteen-year-old Jeanne Gwyn went to the county fair with her cousin, as she did every year. Only this year was different. Selling hot dogs (and eating as many as he sold) was the cutest guy she had ever seen. Unfortunately, he had eyes for another girl at the fair. Not to be stopped, Jeanne asked her cousin to bring him by her house for a visit.

That Sunday afternoon visit turned into 77 years of happy marriage. Most of their dates were at church, where Dan’s father was the preacher. Jeanne’s dad joked that he was going to have to speak to Preacher Newby about those long sermons because Jeanne often didn’t get home from Sunday morning services until Sunday evening.

Dan graduated from high school and moved on to college away from home. The separation proved too much for the couple, so at 18 and 20 years old, they decided to get married. After a small ceremony in Jeanne’s home, the couple left to start their new life in Chicago the very next day.

Dan worked at a steel mill in Chicago for just three months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Dan was off to enlist in the Army Air Corps. Because of his college background, Dan was put into pilot training. After attempting to follow the flight instructor’s direction exactly, Dan turned the plane sharply to make the desired landing. “Who told you it was possible to make a 180 degree turn at 300 feet?” the instructor snapped.

“And that’s how I became a navigator instead of a pilot,” Dan laughs.

After the war, the two were anxious to start their family. Their oldest daughter, Gwynne, was born just a year and a half after the war ended. Two other daughters followed, creating a home full of laughter, some heartache, and always lots of activity. “Family always came first with us,” Jeanne recounts. “And we enjoyed every minute of parenting – even the times that were challenging.”

They didn’t stop with parenting their own children. In 1975 they took in a teenage Vietnamese boy displaced by the war. Dan tutored Vinh through high school and college, leading to Vinh’s very successful career as a business owner in the tech field. He is still a close family member, visiting often and always calling Jeanne and Dan “Mom and Dad”.

“We’ve had a great life, with friends all over the country. So many are gone, but we still hear from the ones that are left.” Dan says. “Wartimefriendships never end.”

If you ask the two how they managed to stay happily married for 77 years when 50% of couple divorce today, Jeanne smiles, “We both believed that when you say ‘I do’, you do.”

But weren’t their fights? “If I got mad I would scrub the floor instead of yelling,” Jeanne says. “Then he would come in and make me laugh, and it would be forgotten.”

Dan and Jeanne Newby are an example to be followed by any couple starting their lives together. Commitment to an ideal, love of family and a sense of humor – it’s their recipe for a marriage to last for the ages.