Oklahoma Couple Celebrates 75 Years Of Marriage

An Oklahoma community is celebrating one of the longest married couples in the state.

Fay and Blanche Hudson have been married for 75 years and still reside in the Pottawatomie County community they met and grew up in. Fay, 99, and Blanche, 90, eloped in 1938 in the city of Sulphur.

"We have no regrets," said Blanche Hudson in a recent interview with News 9's Rusty Surette.  

Fay was 24 years old and working as a teacher in a one-room school when he met his soon to be bride. Blanche was only 15 years old. Following a year of seeing one another, Hudson proposed to her while she was sitting on a sack of corn cobs.

The two skipped town to Sulphur to be married because they didn't want the news announced in the local paper.

"I was afraid to tell my daddy," said Blanche.

Eventually the news was revealed to the family and Blanche's father insisted that Fay "be a man" and stay with his new bride. He's honored that commitment for more than seven decades now.

Over the years Hudson has worked as a teacher, principal, superintendent and rancher. Blanche spent her cooking, canning and sewing for the family. Today the two remain socially and physically active despite some health setbacks.

When asked the secret of their longtime marriage the two had different opinions. Hudson says money is too often the reason for so many divorces.

"These couples get credit cards and this one does that and the other one does something else. The next thing you know they're head over heels in debt and that didn't happen when I was a kid," said Hudson.

Blanche says women today are too tempted to stray from their husbands.

"They think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but it has to be mowed too," she said.

The Hudson's remain active in several groups including the Diamond K Kiwanis, Retired Teachers and Cattlemen's Association in Shawnee. On Saturday the two will be honored in Asher at a public celebration set for 1:00 p.m. in the school's cafeteria.