Island couple celebrates 70 years of marriage

"We've had a good life," Jean Kenner née Wika said. "It's been a nice life."

Her husband Ralph had just been reminiscing about the eight months the couple spent on a fishing boat in Alaska. When the wind came up, he said, they would anchor in the bay and have a cocktail.

The couple, who have been married for 70 years, began their story in July of 1946. Kenner was 21 and a native Missourian. He had made several friends while serving in WWII and was visiting one on Puget Island when he met Jean Wika, who was 18 at the time.

"He was in the service with my cousin," Jean said. "He came over here and I met him on the second of July. He wanted to date me on the Fourth of July, but I already had a date so I said no. We dated on the sixth. Ever since then, he's been hanging around."

"I didn't know any other girls," Ralph said. "She's the only one I'd met. At first."

"He'd written to several others," Jean teased.

The two were inseparable and three months later they were married. A minister came in from Astoria because they were between preachers at the church Jean attended. Ralph gave the man $5 for the service.

They went back to Missouri to visit his family and stayed for seven months. When they returned, Jean was expecting and they moved into her parents home.

Eventually they moved "up the slough a ways."

The couple raised three children, Sandra, Susan, and Reid. There are now 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Great-great grandchildren are not beyond the scope of imagination. The oldest great-grandchild is 27.

"We've done alright," Jean said, smiling.

Travel was a major part of their lives. There was a wanderlust in Ralph and Jean, who had spent her life on Puget Island, caught the bug. The couple traveled to all 50 states and Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

"I was a little nervous when we first left Puget Island but I got over it," Jean said. "I knew he was by my side and that was all that mattered."

"We went to some states several times," Ralph said. "Gas was cheap. We'd heat cans of food on the engine."

"The roads we went on are not on the map anymore," he added.

The Kenners are celebrating their 70th anniversary on October 15 at 1 p.m. at the Norse Hall on Puget Island.

What did the Kenners think contributed to the success of their marriage?

"We didn't fight and we went to bed each night with a kiss," Jean said. "But we also put up with a lot from each other."

"One of us would make a suggestion," Ralph said. "We wouldn't argue about it, we would see if it worked."

And they laughed. Oh how they laughed.