For the second year in a row, Gail and Patsy Richardson of Gonzales are recognized on this Valentine’s Day as Louisiana’s longest married couple. Gail and Patsy have been married for 81 years and Louisiana Family Forum President Gene Mills says Patsy is 100-years-old and Gail is 102-years-old.
“And they claim that its communication and mutual respect for one another that causes not only an understanding but a longevity and a legacy that they enjoy,” said Mills.
Mills says Lauris and Earline Broussard of Vermilion Parish finished a close runner-up.
“Lauris and Earline have been married for 81 years as well, they missed the top spot by merely four months, married January 21st 1941, they come from Abbeville, Louisiana.
Every year the Louisiana Family Forum recognizes the longest-married couples and this year they’ve found 14 happy couples who have been married for 70 years or longer. Each couple will receive a proclamation from Governor John Bel Edwards and a King Cake.
Mills says marriage is a basic building block of society.
“And married couples according to research science, are not only healthier, they live 15-percent longer, they are wealthier, they are 77-percent higher in net worth, they are little less trim, because they eat well, but they are also intimate twice as often as a married couple,” said Mills.
The following couples will also be inducted into the LFF’s 2022 Marriage Hall of Fame.
77 years James C Jr. and Verna Lee Wilson
77 years William and Frances Rosevally
74 years Clyde Sr. and Bertha Moody
74 years Marion and Jean Hess
74 years Paul and Yvonne Wilson
72 years Jacob “JP” and Thelma Jones
72 years Nelvil Leo and Mary Theard
71 years Harold and Juanita Beaugh
71 years Angelo James and Josie Lewis
70 years Kenneth and JoAnn McBride
70 years Joseph and Virginia Trahan