BLEVINS, Alice & Verlyn ~ 65th & 66th Anniversaries

BLEVINS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/3/2018 at 06:19:26

Creston News Advertiser
Creston, Union County, Iowa
February 04, 2014

Blevins card shower planned

The family of Verlyn and Alice Blevins is hosting a card shower in honor of the couple's 65th wedding anniversary Feb. 14.

Cards may be sent to them at [address], Creston, IA 50801.

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Creston News Advertiser
Creston, Union County, Iowa
February 13, 2015

A lesson in longevity & love
Local 'movie stars' celebrate 66th Valentine's Day wedding anniversary

By Jake Waddingham, CNA associate editor

As a youngster, Kyle Blevins would peruse through his relatives’ photo collections and would consistently come across a picture of a young, smiling couple.

“The woman was so beautiful, with a radiant smile and a sparkle in her eyes,” Kyle would later recall in a photo album he gifted to his parents. “The man, handsome, with piercingly hypnotic eyes. I assumed that because I saw the same photo in several different homes that the people in this photo must be movie stars.”

Years later, Kyle would learn that couple was his parents, Alice and Verlyn Blevins, who met on their first date Feb. 14, 1948, and were married exactly a year later, Feb. 14, 1949.

The couple will celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary Saturday.

How they met

Born and raised in Wayne County, Alice was working as a secretary when her boss called and asked if she would be interested in going on a date with Verlyn.

“She had come to the conclusion that we might get along ... and it just went from there,” Alice said.

They went together for about a year, when Verlyn suggested they get married around Christmas.

“I said I was born the day before Christmas and I didn’t have any say in that, but I don’t think I want to get married then, too,” Alice said. “So we waited until Valentine’s Day.”

The couple planned to be married in The Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, but a winter storm made the trip too dangerous. They quickly improvised and were married in Promise City.

“He was working at a glove factory at that time and also drove a school bus,” Alice said. “After we were married, he had the best man take me and the car home while he went and drove the school bus route.”

Verlyn carried that strong work ethic through their relationship, working his way up to manager of Graham’s Department Store in Eagle Grove before taking a transfer to manage the store in Leon.

Each year, Verlyn and Alice tried to take a vacation with their three children, Kathy, Keith and Kyle. They have traveled as far west as Seattle, toured the northeastern United States and visited Mexico and Canada.

Before the Graham’s Department Stores closed, he was the manager of the Leon and Corydon stores, with Alice working by his side for a majority of their marriage.

“Alice has been a big part of my life,” Verlyn said. “She made a person feel welcome. I just love her an awful lot.”

After they moved to Creston, Verlyn took a job as a rural carrier for the Creston News Advertiser. When he started a new job at Green Valley Chemical, Alice took over the route — more than 100 miles a day — that covered south and east of Creston.

“People have asked, why do you put up with him?” Alice said with a laugh. “I say I put up with him because he puts up with me. We get along pretty good.”

Family tradition

Their daughter Kathy celebrates the same Valentine’s Day wedding anniversary as her parents, but she also married into a family where her in-laws and her husband’s grandparents all shared Valentine’s Day as their wedding anniversary.

At her reception, Kathy had four heart-shaped cakes decorated with her wedding date, her parents, inlaws and husband’s grandparents wedding dates.

“It was quite unusual,” Alice said. “Not very many times would you run into the coincidence of that from one family to another family.”

Keith also helped his parents live out an old dream by getting married in The Little Brown Church in Nashua.

“They had a little better weather,” Alice said.

And for a wedding anniversary, Kyle composed a picture album for his parents and elaborated on his memory of the “movie star” couple. Verlyn, 87, moved to Creston Nursing and Rehab in 2012 while Alice, 86, underwent treatment for an infection. She was released from the hospital and moved in with Verlyn two days before an EF2 tornado hit Creston and damaged the hospital.

Verlyn and Alice said they enjoy all the activities that occur at Creston Nursing and Rehab, especially around the holidays.

“I can’t imagine being with anyone but him,” Alice said.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2017

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