The greatest of these is love: Polson couple celebrates 75 years together
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POLSON — When Eddie and Gracie Schumacher married in 1936, they meant every word of their vows. They’ve been married 75 years to prove it. Gracie is 92, and Eddie is 94.
Their family – daughters Denise and Donna, three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and Eddie’s sister Lavina — hosted an open house at the Polson Senior Citizen Center for the couple. From 2 to 4 p.m. on April 2 about 150 friends and family visited with Eddie and Gracie and celebrated their anniversary with cake, punch, coffee and bouquets of dark red roses.
On an easel were pictures of a younger Gracie and Eddie when they were married, Gracie with luminescent skin and Eddie with his kind eyes. Also featured were pictures of their children and wedding photos of both Gracie and Eddie’s parents.
Gracie met Eddie at a dancehall in Shelby. She was attending the dance with a young man from Cut Bank, and Eddie was playing guitar in the orchestra.
“Every time I would dance by, he’d wink at me,” Gracie recalled.
She had to go talk to him after he winked at her, “and we’ve been together ever since,” Gracie said.
“He said he had a cinder in his eye, but he didn’t,” she said, smiling, remembering.
They got married in 1936 in Shelby by a justice of the peace and then came back to Polson and were married by a priest. Eddie went into the army in 1942. While he was in the army, Gracie worked in a sash and door factory in Tacoma. After Eddie came home, they started a family. Denise was born in 1947, and Donna came along in 1949.
One of their businesses was the Stop and Snack drive-in on the corner of Seventh and Seventh that they operated from 1955 to 1963.
As a couple they are very active, Gracie said, and do all their own work. This snowy winter Eddie even fired up his snowblower although Gracie worried he might fall.
Gracie had a heart attack a couple of years ago and began going to Cardiac Rehabilitation Lab at St. Joseph’s Medical Center. Finally, she talked Eddie into going with her. Now Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they work out. Gracie said Eddie can now go 35 minutes on the treadmill and enjoys the new friends he’s made there.
Cardiac rehab nurse Lisa Bertoglio said Gracie’s earrings always match her blouse and she loves Chantilly perfume.
Most importantly she noted, the couple still hold hands.
