You do not have to look any farther than Porter County to find some real-life Valentine’s love stories.
George and Ruie Moran have lived in Valparaiso for 26 years but spent most of their 66-year marriage in Chicago where they were both schoolteachers.
“I saw her at a dance that I would go to like young people did in those days, and I asked her to dance,” said George, 92. “But about a week prior, she didn’t know that I had seen her on a bus on her way to a modeling lesson.”
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“She was really decked out,” said George. “I thought to myself, this gal is really something.”
“I had seen him before he asked me to dance,” said Ruie, 90. “I used to play the piano in my living room, and he would be playing football outside my window.”
“Once he asked me to dance, I didn’t ever dance with anyone else,” said Ruie. “I was captivated.”
George got drafted while the couple was dating.
“I wanted to get married right away, but he was sensible, so we waited,” said Ruie.
The couple eventually married on August 24, 1957, at St. Felicitas Church, with their reception at the Del Prado hotel and honeymoon at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, all in Chicago.
“We have stayed happy all these years because we have a strong religious belief, and we always try to solve everything and never carry it over to the next day,” said Ruie. “We always kiss and make up.”
“You cannot sweat the small stuff because you are going to have a lot of big things in a marriage,” said Ruie.
“The other thing that really helps is two televisions,” joked Ruie.
“Our first apartment was one bedroom and we had two children, so we gave them the bedroom and we had to sleep on a mattress in the hallway,” said George. “When you’re in love, you can sleep on a haystack and it’s good. You do things together and you get through it.”
Ross and Phyllis Blythe, who also live in Valparaiso, have been married for 61 years but their courtship was just the opposite.
“It happened so quickly I couldn’t’ even tell you how it happened,” said Phyllis Blythe, 84. “Our first date was in September and we were married the first of January.”
“He said I chased him until he caught me, and that’s about the truth,” said Phyllis. “He played the organ in the church and I sang in the choir, and he was just there, just waiting for me.”
“I was attracted to her because she had such a lovely voice,” said Ross Blythe, 89. “She would accidentally not have a ride home from choir practice and would ask me for a ride.”
“I was enjoying my single life, I was 28 and never thought I would marry,” said Ross. “I met her, and everything changed.”
Ross’ family owned and operated Blythe’s Grocery Store on the south side of Hammond.
“Everyone was so excited for me when I got married,” said Ross. “They had watched me grow up in the community.”
“We had over 300 people at our wedding,” said Phyllis. “It was at a church at Indiana Harbor, and we had a cake and punch reception.”
Phyllis is a retired school secretary from Yost and Jackson Elementary Schools in Chesterton, and Ross was a Professor of Education at Purdue North Central for 29 years.
“We never argue,” said Ross. “We are best friends, we have a lot of the same interests, like music. We have had a wonderful 61 years.”
“My advice to those younger people getting married is that it is give and take,” said Ross. “Learn to get along, learn to forgive and forget.”
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Deena Lawley-Dixon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.