Today is our parents’ 73rd wedding anniversary.
Kendall Charles Whalen and Marjorie Ann Kay were married January 5, 1946 in St. Peter’s Catholic Church rectory, Lewiston, New York. They were married in the rectory rather than the church proper because in those days couples entering “mixed marriages,” such as a Catholic girl marrying a Protestant boy, could not be married in the church building itself. I suppose (and hope) that’s all past tense now.
Mom and Dad were introduced by Dad’s niece, Sarah Stoddard (later Sarah Kimmett Burnham) while she and Mom were both in nurse’s training. They were affiliating at Marcy Psychiatric Hospital in Marcy, NY and Sarah got several boys from Sackets, including her future husband Stan Kimmett, Dad, and his brother Clifford, to drive down to Marcy so she and the other nurses could all go out. That was Dad and Mom’s first date.
Their romance was conducted throughout World War II, and by the time Dad entered the service they were planning to marry. Dad proposed to Mom while they were riding a bike, he “driving” and she riding on the cross bar. Mom told me she wanted to get married before Dad left for duty, but he refused, saying he did not want to leave a widow and children should he not make it back. He bought her engagement ring in San Francisco just before he shipped out and mailed it back to her.
The wedding day photo shown above was taken outside the Kay family home in Youngstown, NY. Mom’s wedding dress was also worn during the weddings of her daughter (me) in 1975 and of her granddaughter, Kerry, in 2003.
Dad and Mom were married 23 years at the time of her death on August 16, 1969. Their progeny includes 6 children, 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.