GREENFIELD — While countless people are celebrating Valentine’s Day today, only a lucky few will be doing so with the same sweetheart they’ve had for the past 50-plus years.
A group of three Greenfield couples seem to be doing things right, all having been married more than 55 years each.
“You’re looking at 165 years of collective wedded bliss,” said Norma Martin, who married her husband, Herb, back in 1965.
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The couple have been friends with John and Joan Clark and Rader and Linda Virt since the 1970s, when their kids were all students at Brandywine Elementary School in New Palestine.
Over the course of attending class parties and school functions, the couples quickly became friends and began hanging out together while their kids rode dirt bikes and played in their back yards.
All six friends are originally from Indianapolis but moved to Greenfield in the 1960s and ‘70s.
When they met, they quickly realized that not only did they all live within a mile of each other just south of Greenfield, but their corresponding wedding dates were a numerologist’s dream.
The Virts were married on April 4, 1964.
The Martins were wed April 3, 1965.
The Clarks followed suit on April 2, 1966.
“We thought that was crazy when we began putting it all together. What are the odds?” said Norma Martin, 78, who recently hosted the couples for coffee and catching up at her rural Hancock County home.
Gathered around dishes of candy and cookies at the center of the Martins’ dining room table, the longtime friends discussed how they first became friends and why they think their marriages have all gone the distance.
With seven children among them — all within a four-year age span — the families spent plenty of time together while the kids were growing up.
The Clarks had two daughters, while the Virts had two sons and the Martins had three.
When they were growing up, Rader Virt coached the mothers and kids as they played soccer on summer Sunday afternoons, and most of the kids were in Norma Martin’s kindergarten class.
All the boys played together on the New Palestine High School soccer team, and all but one were in band together.
Now that their kids are grown and they have 19 grandkids among them, the couples have gotten together less frequently over the past few years, but there’s no lack of love or spirited conversation when they do.
Herb Martin was quick to point out that all their marriages took place in April, which he takes as a good sign.
“You know the song ‘April Love’ by Pat Boone?” he asked, as he began to belt out the tune. “Everybody let’s sing it together,” he coaxed his guests, as his wife shook her head and smiled.
“Humor in your marriage never hurts,” she said.
The six friends shared plenty of laughs while gathered around the table earlier this month, passing around old wedding photos and marveling at the similarities their love stories share.
Each of their black-and-white wedding photos shows a young, radiant couple at the start of their new lives together.
The Virts are beaming from the back of a black convertible on the way home from their reception.
The Clarks are all smiles after their ceremony at Joan’s mother’s home.
The Martins are both grinning ear to ear at the front of the church after exchanging vows.
Each of the weddings took place less than eight months after the day each couple met. The Clarks had known each other for eight months, while the Raders and Martins had known their spouses just six months before saying “I do.”
“When you know you know,” said Herb Martin, 92, who talks as fondly about his wife today as he likely did more than a half century ago.
The Martins met in the library of North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. “I thought this girl is not only religious, but intelligent too,” quipped Herb. “I didn’t ask her for a date. She was too young and too beautiful.”
The two met for a second time in a church group after Herb had spent some time in California. This time, he didn’t miss his shot and asked Norma to go see “Hamlet,” which was playing that night at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis.
“That night I kept wondering, is this to be or not to be,” he said with a grin. “We dated ever since. We’re still dating,” he said.
The Clarks, both 73, met when John stopped by the G.C. Murphy store in Fountain Square where Joan was working. Radar and Linda met while both were working at Eli Lilly and Co. in Greenfield in 1963.
While the stories of how they met are all different, the smiles on their faces when recalling those special days all share a similar warmth.
The Virts were the first to marry, at Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church in 1964.
The Martins married the following year.
The Clarks had a whirlwind marriage the next year, just before John was deployed on a one-year tour to Vietnam.
The Clarks and Martins both honeymooned in Gatlinburg.
“We didn’t leave the Eastway Court Apartments,” said Linda Virt, 77, with a smile.
“We just locked the door,” her husband chimed in.
Herb Martin asked if any of the other couples drove a few laps around Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis after saying “I do.”
“We did. That used to be what you did back then,” he said.
Each of the couples agrees that a lot of love, patience and understanding is essential for a long and happy marriage.
“You’ve gotta give and take,” said Rader Virt, 81.
Mutual respect and shared morals are also essential, said Joan Clark.
Norma Martin echoed the sentiment on the importance of compromise. “Sometimes you’ve got to give in, even when you know you’re right,” she said with a smile.
Luckily, her husband shares that same sentiment, summing up the key to a happy marriage in just four short words: “Always say, ‘Yes dear,’” he said.
