# 70 Years - My Wife's Grandparents



## Chris H.

*I Do, I Do: The house that love -- and Edgar Graves -- built*

*By SANDY GUERRA-CLINE
[email protected]

Source: I Do, I Do: The house that love -- and Edgar Graves -- built | Life & Arts | Star-Telegram.com

There will be a party today in the house on Yale Street in Fort Worth that Edgar Graves built for his wife, Clara, almost 60 years ago.
That’s because last week, on June 11, the Graves celebrated 70 years of marriage.
They were in their early 20s when they first met. Clara McKenzie lived with her family on a farm near Weatherford. They had a fruit stand on the highway, not far from their hilltop home. Clara, the third oldest of eight children, worked hard.
Edgar also was from a farming family that lived near Italy. During the Depression, he found work building a road between Weatherford and Mineral Wells. One day, he stopped at the McKenzie fruit stand, where he spotted Clara, a beautiful auburn-haired girl.
"That’s really how I got acquainted with her," he says, adding that he did most of the talking because Clara was shy. He asked mutual friends for an introduction. They dated for more than a year before they were married, on June 11, 1939, behind Millsap High School, where Clara had gone to school.
Clara and Edgar moved around a bit in the early years of their marriage. Times were tough, and they went where there was work. Finally, they moved to the River Oaks area of Fort Worth just before World War II. Then Edgar joined the Army and was sent to Hawaii.
Clara stayed home, moving back to the family farm and renting out the tiny, two-room house that Edgar had built for them on Yale Street. She matched Edgar letter for letter, and when he wrote her about the beauty of the islands and how he wanted her to join him there after the war, she wrote back, "You can stay over there, but I’m not coming," Edgar remembers.
They had a daughter, Barbara, in 1948, and Edgar built Clara another, bigger house, also on Yale Street.
"I had the house framed, and I finished the inside of it," Edgar remembers. "Barbara was small then, and she was under every nail that was driven into this house."
It has been a good long life in the house that Edgar built for Clara with his own hands. Edgar, who retired from Texas Sash and Door Co. in 1981, always loved woodworking. After his retirement, it became his business. He built birdhouses, children’s furniture and other items that he sold.
Clara, a homemaker, cared for her mother until she died at age 103. 
The Graveses, who are both 93, have two granddaughters, Jennifer Jacobs Hartwell and Laura Gwen Jacobs, and two great-grandchildren.
What has been the secret of their long and successful marriage?
"We just love each other," Edgar says. "We’ve gotten mad at each other, we’ve had words. Sometimes, you just have to walk out of the room."
But never out of the house — "the beautiful house," as Clara says — that Edgar built for his true love long ago.

SANDY GUERRA-CLINE, 817-390-7545


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## Rhea

What a beautiful success story. Thanks for sharing.


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## SFladybug

It is sweet to see the story of couples who stay together through it all and learn the true depth of love. Thanks for sharing this one.


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## Amplexor

My mom and dad have been married 62 years. :smthumbup:


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## Marvellous

That's sweet. I'll vote this one for my "treasure chest". The world needs marriage stories like this. My own grandparents got married in 1939. My grandfather was 30. My grandmother was 19. She's now 91. They were married for over 50 years. My grandfather died when he was 86. I've been a witness to their good and stable marriage. With all these people saying that marriage is nothing but a contract that binds, I have reasons to believe that it's not absolute. :iagree:


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## TheFamilyMan

that's incredible


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## CoffeeTime

_"She matched Edgar letter for letter, and when he wrote her about the beauty of the islands and how he wanted her to join him there after the war, she wrote back, "You can stay over there, but I’m not coming," Edgar remembers."_

This quote made me chuckle. Very beautiful and heart warming story.


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## sara_metricfan

Oh this is great, I like reading stories like this.


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