"We never argued", said Edith Bailey about their 73 years of marriage. John and Edith Bailey will celebrate this rare event next month with many of their children, grandchildren and great-grand children visiting them at their Judson Park Retirement Community in Des Moines.
Gregory Heights is a long way from Wheatland, Wyoming and further yet from the Cottonwood Grange hall, where John and Edith first danced together in 1939. Wheatland is between Casper and Cheyenne, in the eastern third of the state.
John knew Edith's brother, being introduced to Edith from halfway across the street that year. That brief meeting led to a dance at the hall where an 8-piece band was playing a waltz.
John got up his courage, whisking Edith around the floor. He'd learned to dance in high school when the basketball team was not using the gym. "Edith wore a black dress with a white lace collar," John said. "I still have it," Edith beamed. "He's was an excellent dancer," Edith added. "And still is!," she said.
"Forty-four cents per hour," John explained his after-school job on the railroad. He was laid off but not for long. He was tired of the "nickel and dime work anyway; it was mostly nickel," he lamented. John picked up work at ten dollars a day in the sugar beet factory but not for long. Pearl Harbor changed everything. John enlisted; served in France before coming home in 1943 to marry Edith. Edith worked at the Golden Rule department store selling clothing and continued there until John returned home.
After the war Boeing was in need of engineers. The timing was great for John. He'd graduated from the University of Wyoming with a mechanical engineering degree. It was off to Seattle in 1949, settling in Gregory Heights where they raised three kids, John, Jo Ellen and Melinda.
When the kids were nearly grown, Edith went back to school. She earned a B.A. and Masters degree and taught English as a second language at Highline College. Edith taught so well, she earned the first 'Teacher Of The Year' award from the college. John was literally flying high as a Cessna 182 pilot out at Boeing Field.
When the couple had time they filled it with "allemande left and do-si-do" square dance moves around the county.
That secret to a long and happy marriage? It was more than never arguing. "I'm still looking for it," John said with a sly grin.