Gail and Clyde Martin - Lasting Love

What does it take to stay married for over sixty years? Well, first you need to live a long time. Fortunately a good marriage helps you live longer. The nurturing in a committed relationship aids that.

This page is a tribute to my parents, Gail and Clyde Martin, and to their 66 years of marriage. I hope you'll enjoy this trip down memory lane and the romance that started back in 1944 in the Kansas Flint Hills.

Along with some family stories, I'm sharing photos of the two of them down through the years.

(photo from Gail and Clyde Martin's family album)

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Gail Lee McGhee knew Clyde Martin since they attended the same high school in the small Kansas town of Madison for three years. For her senior year, she transferred to Hamilton High School.

Most of the high school years, she dated Clyde's best friend, Johnny Faylor. Often Clyde was around or part of the group social scene. It wasn't until after she broke up with Johnny, that Clyde finally asked her out.

(photo courtesy of the Hamilton Kansas Facebook group - Owner: John Staten)

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As Gail and Clyde finished high school, World War II was underway. Clyde was deferred from the draft to work on the family farm. Gail Lee McGhee trained with the NYA, a Great Depression era agency, but ended up going to Wichita to work in the aircraft factory.

It was tough trying to carry on a romance under those circumstances, but love overcomes all obstacles even being apart. Once in a great while, Gail had a weekend visit to her family in Greenwood County and had a chance to see Clyde.

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Remember, this was the war years. Gail and Clyde drove to Neodesha, Kansas to be married in the office of a minister they knew. The minister's wife was the witness for the ceremony.

There was an angel food cake which Gail ceremoniously cut. Unfortunately for her, she didn't know the right way to cut such a fluffy cake and ended up squashing it. That's a story retold many times around the family dinner table.

Clyde Owen Martin by Gail Lee Martin is available for online preview at the Blurb.com bookstore.

My Flint Hills Childhood by Gail Lee Martin is available for online preview in the Blurb.com bookstore.

After Dad died, Mom seemed rather lost. Her daughters tried to keep her interested and active with excursions out to a restaurant or attending a ball game together. She tried to enjoy these times, but really did miss her husband's companionship.