Gerry and Marilyn Howe sure love to dance.

Thirty-five years ago, they were closing down the Green River bars dancing to country music and then going off to work the next morning.

Now, they’ll spiffy up and close down the dances at the senior center.

“They don’t dance long enough though,” said Marilyn. “They quit too early, like 9 o’clock.”

Fifty-nine years ago, 22-year-old Gerry was fresh out of the Navy and picking up 17-year-old Marilyn in his ’56 Buick Roadmaster.

“It was about as long as this dining room,” recalls Gerry. “It was turquoise and white, one of those hardtop convertibles.”

Marilyn recalled good memories of that car as well, wishing they still had it, but this story isn’t a love story about a car.

The couple met when Gerry stopped into the gas station run by Marilyn’s father in Ogden, Utah. He’d just gotten a job with the railroad and needed a place to live. Her father helped him out and then invited him to the gas station’s grand opening, where Marilyn handed out ice cream and pop.

“I didn’t have anything better to do, so I went and helped,” said Gerry. “Then his whole tribe was there.”
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Dating in 1959

Gerry loves to tease Marilyn about an early date when he took her to a fancy Italian restaurant and she ordered a hamburger. “I should have ordered the biggest, most expensive thing on the menu,” shot back Marilyn with some sass.

They met in June 1959 and were married by September. What took place in between was a lot of talking on the phone and a lot of Gerry asking her over and over to marry him.

“He had hair and it was dark and wavy. He was cute. And he was nice,” said Marilyn.

They nearly ran off to Nevada to tie the knot, but the government was making it more difficult for couples to do that. They were married at a little church in Clearfield.

Gerry had to pay $2 for the marriage license, which he’ll make sound like a lot of money to this day.

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The Joy of a Good Cook

One of the things Gerry credits for keeping the marriage together? Having a good cook.

“The family she came from, they were old country people and she learned scratch cooking. It was always good. I think that’s one of the things,” said Gerry.

A favorite story they love to laugh about was one of the first meals Marilyn ever fixed for him. It was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a whole spread.

“I was used to cooking for 8 people. I cooked two full chickens for two of us,” said Marilyn, laughing.

Gerry came home and asked, “Are we having company?” The answer was no.

Marilyn said they had three boys who ate like they had hollow legs and she still always cooked too much food.

“I’m so tired of leftovers,” Gerry said dramatically.

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The Road to Green River

The family lived in the Denver area for 15 years, where he worked for Gates Rubber Company, a WWI-era company that was the first ones to make a retread for tires. But he saw the company declining.

“I saw the handwriting on the wall and thought it best to move on,” said Gerry.

That’s what brought them to Green River in 1976. The trona mines were booming and advertising all the way down to Denver. Gerry was hired on the spot and moved his family into the employee housing in Green River–trailers.

Back then, they said, Green River was a trailer city.

“Back then, you could stand in the middle of main street and hold a conversation before a car would come by. Now you better get off the street or you’re gonna get run over,” said Gerry.
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You Fix Things, Don’t Throw Them Away

Their marriage advice is simple. “You have to work at it. It’s not easy. We had two different backgrounds and I didn’t know he had a temper until we’d been married 10 years,” said Marilyn. “He would go out in the garage when he was mad. Until eventually he got an ulcer. Now we have words and it’s over in a matter of minutes.”

Marilyn said they come from an era where they fixed things. They didn’t throw them out. That applied to the marriage too.

“We had some good times. We’ve had some bad ones, some sad ones,” said Marilyn. A particularly difficult time was losing their middle son to cancer when he was only 44. They also came together to help raise grandchildren during difficult times.

“But that’s part of life. You just pull up your bootstraps and away you go,” said Marilyn. She said that some of their best memories were spent dancing, which they plan to do this weekend at the senior center’s Valentine’s Day dance.

“Just breathe and enjoy it,” said Marilyn. “You have to take the time to enjoy what’s around you and count your blessings.”