By Brenda Sexton-The Courier-Herald

Rollin Monson doesn't forget his wedding anniversary.

Not because Dec. 27 is also his birthday, but because it was 70 years ago in Yakima, Wash., that he married, Grace, the love of his life.

The couple's path crossed a number of times before they were wed. Grace remembers meeting Rollin on a street in Yakima. She was young at the time and seeing someone else.

“I was 17 and that didn't count because I was engaged to his friend,” Grace said, referring to the early encounter and Rollin's buddy.

“I was engaged to be engaged, because I was too young to really be engaged,” she explains.

The meeting that sticks in Rollin's mind is when his friend invited him to a local Baptist church and there was Grace, an angel in the choir.

“She had dark hair and dark eyes and a beautiful voice,” Rollin remembers.

Later, Rollin and Grace would begin courting.

“We were the Romeo and Juliet of Yakima Valley College because we met on the balcony,” Grace smiles.

“A date would have been walking together to church,” they said.

On occasion, Grace still sings to Rollin and their mutual friend attended their 50th wedding anniversary.

Rollin was born in Texas on a cattle ranch where he lived for six months. He still recalls the large, steel water tower that stood nearby the family's home. His family left Texas for Montana, he said, because his family was sympathetic to blacks and supported their fight for equal rights and was being pressured by forces to change their way of thinking.

Grace was born in Idaho, “three pounds, four ounces, born in a homestead and put in a shoebox on an oven door and lived,” she'll tell you. Later, her family moved to Helena, Mont.

Eventually, Rollin and Grace ended up in the Yakima area, where they were married Dec. 27, 1937. Rollin was 23 years old; Grace, 19.

Like their education, they financed their wedding with money they'd earned working in the area's fruit industry.

“This is during the Depression,” Grace reminded. “Families didn't have much money.”

They also didn't want to owe the college, so they paid off Rollin's education tab.

“At the time we were married we were really poor,” Grace said.

Grace paid a seamstress to make a white, velvet and chiffon dress to wear at the wedding. Friends and family decorated the arbor with fir boughs and chrysanthemums. Rollin's family was there. Grace's mother and sister attended the ceremony, but her dad stayed away.

“He didn't like Rollin,” she said. “He wanted me to finish college.”

After the ceremony, they left for Seattle, where Rollin was planning to attend the University of Washington. They had $93 and packed up everything they owned in a blanket and a suitcase or two. They hitched a ride to Seattle with a pair of boys they knew who were headed that way. Grace said they got stuck in the snow at the top of Snoqualmie Pass and had to wait for a plow to clear the road.

When they arrived in Seattle, they rented an apartment for $17 a month. Finances didn't allow Rollin to study at the UW, so he found a job with The Seattle Times selling subscriptions, something he had done earlier in his life to make extra money.

His career took off. He ended up with The Oregon Journal and the couple made their home in Oregon for many years. Eventually he became a district manager, a supervising manager and in 1957 the circulation manager.

In 1962, Rollin said, after The Oregon Journal was purchased by owners of The Oregonian, the Monsons bought a Los Angeles Times dealership in Santa Barbara, Calif. A short time later, newspaper coin racks came along and the Monsons bought into that business. They sold the dealership and continued the racks until Rollin retired in 1989 at age 75.

“That wasn't our life,” Rollin said. “When we started making money, we started traveling.”

They headed to sunny places like Palm Springs, Calif., Hawaii, Egypt, Mexico and Australia.

“When we grew up we never, as a family, had a vacation,” he recalled. He said he and Grace vowed their grandchildren would have a place they could go. So they have timeshares in various locations.

The Monsons have three children, although in 2001 they lost their son to lung cancer. They make their home in Enumclaw now to be closer to one of their daughters and grandchildren.

“Oh, we've had a wonderful life,” Grace exclaims, clasping her hands together in joy.

“We loved one another,” she said. “I tried to please him and he tried to please me. It's just a long honeymoon.

“We got married to stay married,” Grace said. “Back then people looked down their nose at you if you got divorced.

“We were good Christian people.”

Rollin and Grace said they always celebrate their wedding anniversary, and, although they didn't have plans made, Thursday will be cherished like the other 69.

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com.