'We just understand each other': Galesburg couple celebrates 75th wedding anniversary

GALESBURG — According to the U.S. Census Bureau, fewer than 1 percent of marriages make it to their 70th anniversary and the number shrinks so dramatically after that, it's not even recorded.

So count Leon and Alice Uhlmann of Galesburg among those in that rarest of numbers.

Married at First Methodist Church on Easter Sunday 1947, the Uhlmanns celebrated their 75th anniversary on April 6.

"I felt sorry for him because he walked three or four miles to my house to ride to school every morning with me," said Alice, of the couple who grew up on farms south of town near Lake Bracken.

"Maybe that's why I fell in love with him."

Now 93 and 94, that was when both were Galesburg High School students. They met while they were members of the Lake Bracken Busy Bees 4H Club.

Obviously, life was a whole lot different back when Leon and Alice got married and raised three children, Becky, Dennis and Debra.

"They got married right after the war (World War II) and things were still rationed," said the Uhlmanns' oldest daughter, Becky.

"My grandma and aunt had to combine their sugar rations in order to make their wedding cake."

Leon and Alice bought a large lot on Davis Street at the edge of town, renovated a house, raised and canned vegetables from their 1 acre garden and sold butter they made from milk provided by the cows they tended.

"Our house had all the neighborhood ballgames in our yard and a lot of the neighborhood kids were always hanging around," Becky said.

The Uhlmanns moved to Knoxville where they lived for 22 years before moving back to a home on Galesburg's Hawkinson Street.

While Leon worked in farming and later 25 years with Westbay Equipment, Alice worked at Knox College for 25 years and also in the District 205 school system at Lombard Junior High, GHS and various grade schools.

Even after retirement in the early 1990s they continued to work, cleaning the Knoxville library.

"I think the thing that kept them going is they worked," said Becky. "They worked, worked, worked."

And they traveled.

For 20 years starting in the early 1970s, the Uhlmanns drove all over the United States with their friends George and Shirley Ryan, eventually visiting 48 states including Alaska.

"We started with Minnesota, North Dakota, Nevada and Arizona," recalled Alice.

"We just drove for two weeks every summer"

Back at home, they enjoy another pastime.

"We like to play cards with anybody we can find," Alice said.

At a small family celebration for their 75th anniversary, the Uhlmanns opened cards from 50 family members and friends and had a chance to look back at a unique long-lasting marriage.

"We just understand each other," Alice said.

"If we're upset, we talk about it and then we forget it.

"We never walk away from each other."

It's a marriage that includes five grandchildren, six great-grandchilden and two great-, great-grandchildren.

"Leon and I talk about it all the time," said Alice. "We don't believe we did it."

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg, IL couple celebrates 75th wedding anniversary