Couple married in 1946 recreate wedding for 75th anniversary

KANAWHA, W.V. (WCHS) - A West Virginia couple relived one of the best days of their lives when they recreated their wedding for their 75th anniversary.

Ulysses and Lorraine Dawson will tell you their 75 years of marriage have been filled with ups and downs but mostly bliss.

“I thank God for him. I could never find a better one,” Lorraine Dawson, 92, said.

On their anniversary Saturday, the couple celebrated how far they have come and the love that started it all in front of five generations of the family they created. Ulysses Dawson, 94, even donned his World War II uniform, the same one he was wearing for their 1946 wedding.

“That’s the way we met each other. He was in uniform,” Lorraine Dawson said.

She wore a white wedding dress for the first time during the recreation. At the couple’s original wedding, she wore a two-piece red suit.

Lorraine Dawson can still recall the day she met her future husband when they were just teenagers in West Virginia. She saw him walking from afar and dropped the bucket of water she was holding, so she could go down to the well to get closer to him. She got his attention by yelling and has held his attention ever since.

“Our prayers were answered, and I thank God for it all,” Ulysses Dawson said.

Times have changed since they were teenagers, but Ulysses Dawson says clearly what started then was a firm foundation built to last.

“The knot was tied awful tight, and it’s still holding,” he said.

The two say it has been compromise, love and faith that have gotten them to this point.

“Be sure you love each other. And it’s a 50/50 thing, not an 80/20. It’s 50/50,” Lorraine Dawson said.

Copyright 2021 WCHS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.