Greensburg couple Ed and Sally Wagner have been together so long they forgot the year they were married.
Ed, 95, and Sally, 92, told their children they would celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary this coming Monday.
However, a recent Ancestry.com search by son-in-law Mark Aitken revealed a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate showing they were actually just shy of that milestone.
“When you’re married this long, who cares?” said Sally, sitting in an armchair next to her husband in front of a wall of family photos.
A portrait from their wedding day — Feb. 9, 1952 — hangs next to a photograph from the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.
Sally, an East Huntingdon native, and Ed, originally of Mt. Pleasant, met while attending East Huntingdon High School — now Southmoreland.
As Sally recalls, it was an unseasonably warm winter day 74 years ago when she married her high school sweetheart at First Presbyterian Church of Winchester in Virginia. The two ventured from their hometown to tie the knot in a state where the minimum marriage age was 18. Sally was nearly 19 at the time, but her mother had declined to sign the marriage papers in Pennsylvania.
But it was more than their love for each other that prompted Ed and Sally to wed. Ed had been drafted into the Army and would leave less than a year later to serve in the Korean War.
“I told her, ‘We might as well get married,’ ” he said. “ ‘That way, you’ll be getting the money from the service if anything happens to me.’”
Wagners recount time apart
Nine months later, Ed was shipped to Korea, leaving Sally to live in her parents’ house in the village of Ruffs Dale. At the same time, three of Sally’s brothers were drafted — one into the Army and two into the Navy.
“I had three brothers and a husband in the service all at one time,” she said, “and that was worrisome.”
Sally tried not to dwell on her fears. She got a job at a sewing factory in South Greensburg, attaching zippers to jackets. She attended church on Sundays, went to the movies with her friends and diligently wrote letters to her new husband once a week.
Sometimes, the letters accompanied packages of fresh popcorn and Mogen David blackberry wine. When the bottles occasionally broke in transit, Ed and his fellow soldiers snacked on the wine-soaked popcorn.
By Christmas Eve 1952, Ed was moved to the front lines, where he served until the war’s end in July 1953.
Building a family
Reunited, the Wagners moved into an apartment in Youngwood while Ed completed his final year of military service through a local company. They later moved to Mt. Pleasant before landing in a quaint, white house along South Hamilton Avenue in Greensburg — where they have lived for 68 years.
The couple welcomed their first child, Charles, in 1955. Their daughter, Cathy, and second son, Edward, followed in 1957 and 1961.
When he wasn’t renovating the family’s $2,400 home, Ed worked for Westinghouse Atomic Power until his retirement in 1992. Sally left her job at the sewing factory to raise their children.
Sally admires Ed’s kind, gentle approach to raising a family.
“He was a good man, worked,” she said. “He believed in taking care of his family.”
And Ed loves Sally’s compassion for others.
“I knew she always took good care of the kids,” he said. “She loved to cook and bake, and (she was) always willing to help somebody. Same with helping all the neighbors.”
Today, the couple enjoys visits from 9 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
“I thank the Lord that things have turned out the way they have,” Sally said.
Couple navigates challenges
The Wagners’ marriage has not been without hardship.
Charles, their oldest child, died in 2017 at age 63 because of a heart condition he battled his whole life. In more recent years, the couple has worked through health issues of their own.
Sally underwent heart surgery in 2021 to replace a faulty aortic valve.
Ed, diagnosed with macular degeneration, is nearly blind in one eye. Two years ago, doctors amputated one of his toes following an infection.
Despite the challenges, the Wagners still live in their South Hamilton Avenue home. Ed relies on a lift to navigate the stairs, but he’s reluctant to use his cane to move from room to room — or at least that’s what his youngest son will tell you.
“For everything they’ve had, they still do pretty good,” said Edward Wagner II, who lives just down the street from his parents with his wife, Betsy Scherer.
‘The love is still here’
Sally still cooks breakfast and lunch each day. When the weather is nice, the couple enjoys going out to dinner at Eat’n Park or Live Casino Pittsburgh.
They attend Trinity United Church of Christ on Greensburg’s North Main Street, driving to Mt Pleasant Township afterward for lunch at Brady’s Restaurant — a favorite since they started dating.
Ed and Sally are known by their neighbors as the “porch people” — a loving nod to the many hours they spend sitting outside on summer days.
The couple has a humorous take on their more than seven decades of marriage.
“I holler at him more now,” Sally said with a laugh.
And when people ask Ed for his secret to a long marriage, he doesn’t mince words.
“I didn’t die,” he said, the smile on his face juxtaposing the macabre statement.
“I don’t know what I would have done without her,” Ed said of his wife.
Sally glanced at her husband, gently patting his hand.
“We’re both here for each other,” she said. “And the love is still here.”