Bill McLean and Carole (Armstrong) have celebrated 65 years of marriage.
When they were young, they knew of each other through the various country dances they attended, and eventually started dating. They were already familiar with each other’s family’s because their mothers, Helen (Allen) McLean and Lyla (Grant) grew up with a well-established neighbourly bond. That bond carried over into another generation when Bill and Carole married on July 31, 1959.
The wedding was performed at Guthrie United Church where they still attend services. Edwin Armstrong and Laurel (Carmody) Langtry were their attendants at that ceremony. And the reception was held in the Devlin Hall, where they celebrated their anniversary, 65 years later.
In the beginning, Bill was working for George Armstrong Company and Carole was the payroll secretary at the paper mill office in Fort Frances, until she gave birth to their first child, Sherry, the next year. By this time, they were living in their starter home which Bill built on the McLean homestead farm, where they would continue to raise cattle and children for the rest of their lives together. They had two more girls, Tammy and Cindy, before getting a son, Todd, who would prove to be a natural heir to the farm. Daughter Holly came along three years later.
Of course, their home has been expanded several times, but Bill and Carole continue to live in the same spot where it all began. They now have nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
They have expanded the original homestead, now a Century farm, to impressive proportions, which will remain in the family for several more generations, with Todd’s oversight.
Success requires work, even in marriages. Sixty five years strong is their claim to fame, which they attribute to not knowing any other way through life, but by sticking together.
