Lois and Roy Walter have been in love for 75 years

Whenever 17-year-old Lois Mettert walked past the barbershop in downtown Coleman, 21-year-old Roy Walter seemed to be there getting his hair cut.

“Almost every time I went into town, he was standing there in the barber shop,” Lois recalls. “And of course I walked by and looked at him. I guess that’s how our relationship started.”

Roy, her husband of 75 years since June 15, has the same happy memory.

“Every time I came in for a haircut, she would come by, see if I was there, and give me a big smile,” Roy said, giving me one of his smiles.

Lois and Roy Walter still live in Geneva Township, where they both grew up. Recently they sat in their living room, smiling and laughing, reflecting on their 75-year marriage.

“We just took it day by day and had our ups and downs, like any married couple, I think,” Roy said. “But we always stayed together…”

“We worked together,” Lois interjected.

“We have stayed together for all 75 years,” he said.

The devoted couple’s lessons have not been lost on their two daughters, who both live nearby in the Coleman area.

“They were always able to talk things out, and that’s what we always (learned from them),” Sharon Inman said. “They never yelled at each other and they didn’t turn around and walk away. They stood there and talked everything out.”

“And just the love they showed to each other and to us – they always had a lot of love for everyone,” added her sister Cindy Haskell.

Roy says that one evening he wanted to take Lois home from the hairdresser, but her mother didn’t think that was a decent arrangement.

So instead, Roy asked if he could take Lois to a children’s day program at Stone Church (now Salt River Mennonite Church) the next day.

“She and her mother approved it, so I went on Sunday night and picked her up and took her to the program, and shortly after that I took her home again,” he said. “From then on we were a couple.”

About two years later, on June 15, 1949, they were married on a rainy Wednesday at Pilgrim Holiness Church, now Coleman Wesleyan Church.

Although the couple did not honeymoon at the time, they later visited Niagara Falls, a popular honeymoon destination, shortly before Roy began his two-year tour of duty in the U.S. Army in 1954.

One post-wedding tradition that Lois and Roy experienced, however, was a shivara, a custom that was common in the first half of the 20th century.

About two months after their wedding, a group of friends came to the Walters’ trailer and gave them a ride along with their wheelbarrow into town to see Coleman.

“One night they came by and scared us. They took us into town and took our wheelbarrow, and I had to push them around town in the wheelbarrow,” Roy explained.

“In and out of the shops,” Lois said as she, Roy and their daughters all laughed.

And while the couple was away, others came into their trailer and made a huge mess out of their bed, consisting of cereal and other things. It took Lois and Roy until the next morning to clean up.

“Yeah, it was a mess, but I guess that’s what everyone goes through when they get married,” Lois said.

Roy served in the Army from 1954 to 1956, spending most of his time in the medical corps at Fitzsimons Army Hospital near Denver, Colorado.

During this time, Roy and Lois caught a glimpse of President Dwight Eisenhower one day when he visited Fitzsimons. Their daughter Sharon was born while they were in Colorado.

When the family returned to Coleman in November 1956, Roy resumed his job at Dow Chemical and he and Lois returned to work on their 200-acre farm, where Sharon and Cindy eventually joined them.

“When you worked at Dow, I did most of the yard work, pushed the lawn mower, and brought the cows in from the pasture in the evenings,” Lois said to Roy. “Work, work, work, work,” she added with a laugh.

“You’ve done a lot of preserving too,” Cindy mentioned.

Cindy remembered that during haymaking, Lois was in the kitchen all day, taking care of all the workers.

“Mom always prepared food for the workers who helped Dad make hay,” Cindy said, adding to her mother, “You would finish one meal, do the dishes, and then start the next meal.”

While free time played little role for Lois and Roy, they did enjoy going out for ice cream from time to time.

“We always drove to Sanford and had ice cream. After a day at work, ice cream was good,” Roy said.

It’s safe to assume they enjoyed ice cream last Saturday when their family hosted an open house at Geneva City Hall to celebrate Lois and Roy’s diamond wedding anniversary.

They have three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren – “all boys,” notes Lois – and are happy to still be in the same house on Barden Road where they have lived since 1962.

“We’re still in our own home, we can still get up and help ourselves and do a few things,” Roy said. “She has some flower gardens. She’s a flower girl.”

“We didn’t think we would make it (to our 75th anniversary), but here we are,” Lois said.

Editor in Chief Dan Chalk writes about business, education, the military, and interesting people and events in the Midland region. Email him at [email protected].