They met more than 50 years ago at a sort of YWCA sock-hop in Seattle, the days of milkshakes, French fries and rock-n-roll.
He was reared in Urbana-Champaign, Ill. and stationed at Fort Lawton from 1953 to 1954 where he was processing records of fellow army soldiers coming back from Japan and Korea.
Lots of men in the military knew about YWCA-sponsored dances, and this one was happening at Fifth Avenue across the street from a USO dance. And she was there, not only dancing but also recruiting for the Livewires club, an outdoors outfit in which members camped, climbed Northwest peaks and boated in the Pacific Ocean. She caught his eye and naturally, as any guy in his right mind would do, he signed up for the Livewires.
Joan and Robert Wilson were married June 15, 1958 and just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the Shilshole Bay Yacht Club with old friends and new.
Their marriage saw Elvis and The Beatles come and go. They have outlasted presidents, have seen countries undergo name changes, walked under a moon with astronauts on it, saw the construction of Interstate 5, the arrival of the Seattle World's Fair, personal computers and $4 coffee.
They've seen so much of the world, too. From the Iguazu Falls in Argentina to the lavender foothills of the Cote d'Azur in southern France.
The love of travel has been a piece of their marital success, too. "We like to travel, and one of my favorite countries was Costa Rica," Joan Wilson said. Robert Wilson is an avid photographer and there were great solar eclipse photo-ops there.
For years, he was a local accountant but when the opportunity to buy Magnolia's ACE Hardware franchise came up, they went for it. The couple have been running the store for 30 years and at one time or another their two children, Carolyn and Kregg worked there. Carolyn, who now has a daughter of her own, Darian, manages the store.
Hanging in there through thick and thin has been at the heart of the successful marriage, Joan Wilson said. He added, similar interests and a lot of laughter, too. There were some tough times, like when he went into surgery to have six-way, by-pass surgery some years ago. He's fine now.
Their golden anniversary was an afternoon party. A string quartet played as the couple greeted friends, some they hadn't seen since their school days.
"It was fun, of course," she said.[[In-content Ad]]
