Married in WWII, local couple celebrates 70th anniversary

LYNN HAVEN — When they cut their wedding cake after they got married, Mary Butzke playfully smeared frosting on Ed Butzke's face. On Sunday, after 70 years, Ed saw an opportunity and seized it.

"Seventy years!" Mary said after she cleaned her face. "He got me back."

Ed and Mary met at what is now Tyndall Air Force Base before there even was a U.S. Air Force. Ed was in the Army during World War II and stationed at Tyndall. Mary had been working as a secretary making 50 cents an hour when she took a job to linking machine gun bullets for  the military for $1.25 an hour.

When they met, Ed expected to be deployed at any time. It was a matter of when, not if, so they didn't waste any time. By the time he was deployed to Germany two months later, Ed and Mary were married in a small ceremony, and Mary was pregnant with the first of the couple’s two children, although Ed said he didn't know that part at the time.

"I left her barefoot and pregnant," Ed joked.

After the war, Ed returned to his work as an electrician, and the couple had another child. What started as a small family has snowballed. Mary and Ed have 21 grandchildren when you include great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, many of whom gathered Sunday afternoon to celebrate with Ed and Mary.

Ed is 92. Mary didn't volunteer her age, and it's not polite to ask.

"As we grew up, nobody ever knew her age," said Danny Butzke, a grandson. "Nobody was allowed to ask."

The 40-odd members of their family gathered for lunch in the Lynn Haven home of a grandson. Some of them had come from Louisiana and Texas for the party, where adults chatted about fantasy football over sandwiches and chips while kids zipped around under their plates.

Ed stood by the wall and sized up his family. They all have jobs and none of them does drugs. Most of them go to church and, as far as he knows, none of them ever has been to jail.

"It's just the way a family should be," he said.

The secret to a 70-year marriage? Ed and Mary had different answers to that question.

Mary said she always tried to understand Ed, and they always kiss each other goodnight. They also put their faith in God, she said, "and it has paid off."

All those things are very important, but they won't help a couple that drags their feet reach their 70th anniversary, so Ed's advice is pretty important.

"Marry 'em young," he said with a grin.