70 years of marriage
Published: October 4, 2005
On a crowded New York subway in the summer of 1932, Ollie Oellrich asked Gladys Sundberg to marry him.
“Then I kissed him,” Gladys said, tears welling up behind the thick glasses she now wears. “Everyone around us was snickering, but I didn’t care. I was just too happy.”
Seventy-three years later, Gladys, 94, and Ollie, 95, are still together and just as happy, the couple said, reminiscing as they cried joyful tears, cracked jokes and held hands in their Indigo Pines apartment.
One of their favorite moments, they recalled, was their 70th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated at a party with family and friends last month.
“It felt great for both of us,” Ollie said of marking that milestone.
The two attribute their long, blissful relationship to their Christian faith and light-hearted attitude.
“We laugh a lot,” said Ollie, who is retired from a career in publishing and running his own shipping business. “Laughter is a big ingredient for any marriage.”
The marriage might never have happened if it weren’t for a chance meeting — one that Ollie almost missed.
The year was 1931, and Ollie’s cousin, Catherine, decided to throw a party in Pearl River, New York.
“My aunt had moved out of her house, and my cousin loved to have parties, so she decided this was good time to have one in an empty house,” Ollie recalled, his bright blue eyes glowing electric with the memory. “(Catherine) said she had a date for my brother, Bill, but he said no, and my mother got after me.”
“I had to go, because I always obeyed my mother, and when I got there, I met this little lady,” Ollie said, gesturing toward Gladys, who was working as a secretary when they met. “We bonded immediately, we started dating, and that’s the way it is.”
Gladys, who grew up in Pearl River and was a friend of Ollie’s cousin, said she was drawn to Ollie’s happy personality and good looks.
“I fell in love with him right away,” she said. “When I got to the office the next day, I told everyone, ‘You should have seen the guy I met last night — a tall, blond fellow, and oh, is he ever good looking.’”
Those youthful features have softened over the decades, but a time-tattered photograph of the couple’s wedding day shows the couple’s good looks when they were their 20s. The picture holds a treasure trove of memories for Gladys and Ollie.
Ollie can recall all the details of their Sept. 8, 1935 wedding in Manhattan, not to mention the honeymoon trip by boat to Virginia Beach, which Gladys spent fighting a bout of seasickness.
Rice covered the floor of their boarding house room when they reached their honeymoon destination, Ollie said.
“Somebody told them ahead of time (that we were newlyweds),” he said.
In the years following the honeymoon, there were other vacations, too, including trips across the United States and to Europe.
In addition to traveling together, the couple also started a family. Their daughter, Carol, was born in 1939, and their son, Bill, was born two years later.
Bill died in a skiing accident about 18 years ago, and Ollie and Gladys said their faith in God helped them deal with the tragedy, but their faith in each other kept them from falling apart.
“If I didn’t have (Ollie), I never could have gotten through it,” Gladys said.
Both Gladys and Ollie said they still think about Bill everyday.
“I really think my son is my angel,” Ollie said.
Despite their grief over Bill’s death, the couple said staying positive is their forte.
In fact, Gladys is known by the nickname “Happy” at Indigo Pines.
“We try to spread happiness,” Gladys said of herself and Ollie. “We try to be cheerful.”
She and Ollie have been striving to spread happiness for years. Ollie ran a YMCA summer camp, and Gladys volunteered in nursing homes when the couple lived in New Jersey.
They moved to Hilton Head Island to live near their daughter, Carol Linneman, two years ago.
The two said they spend their time playing cards, and they invite friends to their apartment for a movie night every week.
Everything they do, they do together.
“Everyday I love him more,” Gladys said of Ollie. “You can say the marriage has been heaven.”
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