Tolerance and love: Dees celebrate 70 years together

Through thick and thin, multiple moves and a few health issues, Bill and Ruth Dee of Poplar Bluff have stuck together, and on Wednesday, the pair celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

“That’s a long time isn’t it, considering I’m only 39 years old,” joked Bill, who’s actually 89.

With the current COVID-19 situation, the Dees plan to celebrate their 70th anniversary with family at a later date.

Bill and Ruth Dee show a photo graph of themselves, taken in the late 1950s. The Poplar Bluff couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary Dec. 23.DAR/Paul Davis

It is a milestone they will cherish from 2020, one of many from their decades together.

Bill recalled the first time he saw Ruth, now 87.

“I knew all her brothers, and she was standing in front of the drug store one time, and I said, ‘who on Earth is that.’ Her brother said, ‘that’s my sister Ruth,’ and I said, ‘how come I’ve never seen her before?’” Bill said.

Bill and Ruth Dee are pictured in a photograph from the 1950s, in the early days of their 70-year marriage.Photo provided

“That’s when we started going together,” he recalled.

Ruth tells a slightly different version of the story.

“It started with my sister, Martha Lou, and a friend, Dorothy Stoker. We used to walk to church all the time, and we met him and a car load of boys. They kept driving around, and finally he stopped and asked me out,” Ruth said. “We got together after that.”

At the time, Bill worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in Dupo, Illinois, so he made the trip back to Poplar Bluff to see his sweetheart every weekend.

After a year, Bill was transferred to Poplar Bluff and plans were put into place for a wedding just before Christmas.

“We decided we were going to get married before the end of the year and did it,” Bill recalled of the Dec. 23, 1950, wedding.

“It’s quite a story really,” Bill said. “Her parents lived on Oak Grove Road, and we left there with my mother, her mother, my brother, her sister.

“My car quit, so I borrowed my sister’s year-old Chevrolet convertible, and it was winter, and we got married in Piggott, Arkansas.”

Trying hard to hold back her smile, Ruth joked it was an awful Christmas present.

“Yeah, she was a good Christmas present,” Bill replied. “We’ve been at it this long, so I can’t argue now.”

After a work stint in Poplar Bluff, Bill again was transferred, this time to Kansas City, followed by other assignments back to Poplar Bluff, San Antonio, Texas, and Little Rock, Arkansas.

“In the meantime, we built this house, but never did sell it,” said Bill of the house the pair now has lived in for nearly 35 years.

Bill retired from the railroad in 1986 at the age of 55, and the two moved back home to Poplar Bluff.

They were blessed with two children along the way, Bill Jr., now a realtor in Poplar Bluff, and a daughter, Sharron McClurg, of Lake Wales, Florida.

Through the years, Bill and Ruth enjoyed the fruits of their labors while doing things together and having fun.

“I owned one of the first 100-horsepower Mercurys, and we used to own a cabin on Lake of the Ozarks,” Bill said. “As you get older, those things kind of fade away.”

“I miss them though,” Ruth replied.

What is important now, Bill said, is “getting up and feeling good and being able to get around.”

Ruth credits “our health and having our son live close by to help.”

Nowadays, puzzles, tinkering with anything mechanical, yard work and cooking keep them occupied.

Bill Jr. said the pair was a great influence on him.

“They’ve both been great examples. They’ve worked hard their whole life. They’re both generous people and great parents. They were a good influence in my life,” he said.

The secret to such a long life together, Ruth said, is “we got along good.”

It’s not always been perfect, their son said, but the two have made it work.

“Life goes on, and you have disagreements from time to time,” Bill said.

“But, that’s with any kind of marriage,” Ruth answered.

Bill Jr. said the two simply are very tolerant of each other’s ways.

“Yeah, I’m always right, and she’s always wrong, but we don’t agree on that,” joked Bill.

At the end of the day, the real secret to longevity, Bill said, simply is love.

“You have to love each other,” he said.

And that feeling, their son said, “is still there.”