- November 22, 2024
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Jimmy Kirk says he knew his wife Mattie was the one “almost instantly.”
The year was 1952 and he was a college student at Virginia Tech. A cousin had encouraged him to go on a date with a girl from nearby Radford University. But, when Jimmy knocked on the dorm door, he didn’t find that girl.
Mattie answered the door instead.
“I asked her what was she doing, and she said ‘Nothing,’” Jimmy recalled. “So I said, ‘Let’s walk the campus at Radford.’”
And they walked the campus many times thereafter.
“You know, it’s so long ago now, I don’t know if we actually went on real dates or just walked the campus,” Mattie said.
That was the beginning of their love story. Two years later, on June 6, 1954, they got married in a small Methodist Church in Mattie’s hometown of Midland, Virginia.
The Kirks are now celebrating 70 years of marriage. They had four sons, one of whom died in a car crash, and love to spend time with their seven grandchildren. They have one great grandchild and another on the way.
Only 1% of all marriages last 70 years or longer, according to statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Kirks, who are living at Paradise Pointe Assisted Living in Ormond Beach until 94-year-old Jimmy recovers from a fractured right hip, moved to Daytona Beach after Jimmy retired from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation following a 32 year career. Jimmy also served in the U.S. Army for two years to help him fund his final year of college. Mattie, 88, worked in a credit union for 30 years.
We have our ups and downs but we sort them out ... Being married 70 years, you've gotta do a lot of give and take. And love. Number one is love." —JIMMY KIRK
Jimmy proposed in the hospital. Mattie had been in a car crash. She'd flown through the windshield.
"I don't know where we were going," Mattie said. "... I ended up in the hospital and I remember [Jimmy] coming to see me."
She was shocked to see him, she recalled. Her parents were there and they probably wondered who he was.
Jimmy came into the hospital with a plan.
"I thought, 'I'd better marry this woman before she really gets hurt,'" Jimmy recalled with a laugh.
The key to a long and happy marriage? Compromise and love, the couple said.
"We have our ups and downs but we sort them out," Jimmy said. "... Being married 70 years, you've gotta do a lot of give and take. And love. Number one is love."
Reaching 70 years of marriage wasn't something they thought about when they first got married, Mattie said. She said Jimmy just seemed to be the right person for her.
"We hope we have many years together," Mattie said.
