75 years and still in love

Displaying a picture of themselves as an engaged couple, Bob and Evelyn Lathrop, of Spencer, celebrated their 73rd anniversary recently with friends and family. (Photo by Kris Todd) [Order this photo]

The couple has weathered a lifetime of experiences, including the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and the dawning of a new millennium together. The Spencer pair, who have been together for over 75 years, recently celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary with family members, which includes four children, 11 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

The Lathrops, who lived in Burnside 60 years before moving to Humboldt in 2004, relocated to Northshire Residence one year ago.

Evelyn, who turned 92 in July, grew up in Webster County. Her family's farm was located one-half mile east of the Bohemian Hall near Fort Dodge.

Bob, who celebrated his 91st birthday in June, was brought up in Dolliver Memorial State Park near Lehigh. His father served as the state park's custodian.

The two, who lived in close proximity to one another, went to a movie in Fort Dodge as part of their first date. They were accompanied by a friend and her sister.

"We went to the show for 10 cents and then rode the roller coaster," Bob recalled with a smile.

When asked what she thought of her freshman date, Evelyn, then an Otho sophomore, also smiled as she replied succinctly, "I thought he was alright."

The two went on that first date during the Dust Bowl.

"We had so much dust it was just like snow banks out in the groves," Evelyn said.

"Sometimes you could hardly see across the road. And, grasshoppers and chinch bugs," Bob added about the era.

The couple dated 2 1/2 years before marrying on Sept. 26, 1936, at the Riverside Methodist Church in Fort Dodge. During their courtship, they rode around in his father's 1932 Chevy until the Lathrop brothers purchased a 1930 Willys together. By their wedding date, Bob was the proud owner of a Model A Ford.

The newlyweds also agreed on one thing early on in their marriage.

"The deal was I didn't mow the yard and he didn't do the laundry," Evelyn relayed with a smile.

Over the next few decades, Bob worked as a school custodian at Southeast Webster. During his 38-year tenure at the Burnside school, he took responsibility for opening the building every morning and closing it at night, a role which often required him to work 16-hour days.

"I had to do everything: Drive bus, take care of the furnace and do all the cleaning. When we got the new high school, they hired another man to take my place at the old building, and I got the new one," he said.

Bob recalled being paid $90 a month at the start of his career, an amount he deemed a "livable wage" for the couple's growing family. Following his retirement in 1980, Lathrop served 10 more years as the central Iowa school district's substitute bus driver.

Evelyn Lathrop, meanwhile, raised the couple's four children: Ronald, Ray, Roberta and Jack. The woman who learned to sew as a 12-year-old girl was eventually hired as a Fort Dodge ready-to-wear store seamstress. After serving as an employee of the former Lillian's dress shop on Central Avenue in Fort Dodge, Evelyn worked another 17 years as an alterationist at the Hollywood Style shop, before retiring in 1979.

Over the years, the skilled seamstress has made over 100 quilts. While every member of the Lathrop family owns one of her special handiworks today, Evelyn's latest quilt, which is awaiting to be bound with her 1936 Singer sewing machine, has been accomplished since the couple moved to Spencer last October.

While she also enjoys crocheting during her free time, the active couple like to play cards and bingo with others at Northshire. They also relish walking around the building in nice weather and spending time with family.

"If we had to be someplace, this couldn't have been any better," Evelyn said of their current residence. "Every person is friendly, so I like the place and all the people that are here."

As the couple recently reviewed the past 75 years they've spent together, Bob advised others interested in doing the same to "love and keep loving."

"Money matters didn't bother us too much," he also revealed. "She had her banking account and I had mine, so she spent her money like she wanted and I spent mine."

Evelyn, who described their lasting relationship by saying, "We started going together and just kept on," encouraged couples to not "be so eager to pick up a disagreement in conversation."