Central Texas couple celebrates 80th anniversary

A Central Texas couple is marking a rare milestone.

William Brown, 99, and Loree Motley Brown, 97, celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary this week at the assisted living facility where they live in Hillsboro.

“Well, certainly we’re still in love,” Mrs. Brown said.

“It's been precious.”

The lovebirds met after Loree spotted a new boy two years her senior in Irene, a small community 12 miles southeast of Hillsboro.

“Well, I saw him plowing by my house and I thought ‘that's a good looking guy,’” she remembers.

That good looking guy had moved to Irene from Bosqueville and ended up attending the same church where Loree and her family worshipped every Sunday.

He eventually asked her out on a date and the pair never looked back.

“He was my high school sweetheart,” she said on the phone from the room the two share at the Wesley House in Hillsboro.

William and Loree spent most of their married years, except for those during which William served in the Army in WWII, in Irene where she worked as a hat maker and reared three children.

After the kids were grown and all but one of their seven grandchildren were born, Loree decided she wanted to go to college.

She enrolled in Hill College in Hillsboro and transferred to McLennan Community College before graduating in 1974 with a degree in English and a minor in elementary education from Baylor University.

For the next 20 years she taught first through third grade in Bynum, Malone and Hillsboro before retiring.

“Oh we’ve enjoyed life since then, done a lot of traveling,” she said.

Their remarkably enduring love apparently runs in the family.

One of their children is getting ready to celebrate 60 years of marriage in November.

Grandson Darrell Loveless, whose parents are about to celebrate the 60th anniversary, says his grandparents have set an example.

“It's just so touching. Divorce just doesn’t really happen much in our family.”

“I also think she still irons my grandpa’s pants,” he said.

The couple celebrated with cake and friends and family over the weekend at the assisted living center and took a moment to share their secret.

“You have to have a sense of humor and a lot of patience. We just sort of enjoy life.”