Dancing and laughing through time. Gig Harbor couple to celebrate 75 years of marriage

For some, feeling lucky in love can be a fleeting feeling that subsides after years of commitment.

Not so for Vivienne “Betty” Asplund and Eric Asplund, who have danced their way through generations of change and love.

The Gig Harbor couple will celebrate 75 years of marriage Tuesday (July 31). More than 100 friends and family members will gather Saturday at the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in Gig Harbor for a private party to celebrate.

And to dance.

“We love to dance,” Betty Asplund said. “In fact, when we first started dating, he didn’t dance. And I told him, ‘If you are going to be dating me, you have to dance!’”

“So I learned,” Eric Asplund said.

The couple’s favorite song is “Could I Have This Dance” by Anne Murray. Betty said they enjoy doing a waltz while it plays. The song reflects their lasting love, with the opening verse: “I’ll always remember the song they were playing the first time we danced and I knew … I fell in love with you.”

They have spent generations watching Gig Harbor and their family grow, laughing and supporting each other through the ups and downs.

Their love story

Betty’s father and brother were the first to meet Eric, back in February 1943.

“They were working in Port Orchard and they were traveling by bus to work,” she recalled. “My father sat next to him on the bus and they got to talking, and Dad said he had kids about (Eric’s) age. So that is how we met.”

It didn’t take long for the two teens to fall in love.

Betty: “When I first met him, I decided I was going to marry him. I said, ‘That’s the guy for me.’”

Eric: “I met her brother first, we were very good buddies. Then he went into the service and I just stayed with the family.”

The two 18-year-olds were married in July 1943 at Saint Nicholas Catholic Church in a small ceremony of just close family.

They lived in Washington for most of their lives, with a few months spent in Kellogg, Idaho. They lived in Tacoma, then Rosedale for about seven years before moving to their current home on Burnham Drive in 1962.

They had four children — three daughters and a son, their youngest child. In there current home, they’ve watched their children, 10 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren grow.

“We got a lot of good memories,” Betty said. “Just being together was the best.”

Both say they are surprised but blessed to reach 75 years of marriage.

“When my grandparents reached their 50th I remember thinking, ‘Wow that’s a long time to be married,’” Betty said. “But it doesn’t seem like 75 years. We have a lot of memories.

“Our guest book for our 75th anniversary is actually from our 25th anniversary. We used it again for our 50th and then we had a party on our 65th and we used the guest book for that. And now we will be using it for our 75th. So we will have all of our anniversaries in our one guest book.”

How to stay married for generations

The key to their marriage, they said, is love, respect and trust.

“And we do a lot of things together,” Betty said. “We belong to the Eagles. We have been charter members for 70 years.”

Added Eric, “Like I always said, love and trust.”

Their second-oldest daughter, Linda Ireland, said she doesn’t remember her parents ever struggling because they were always affectionate with each other.

“My mom would always kiss him goodbye,” Ireland said. “And then me or my sister would go and kiss Dad goodbye. And then Mom would have to kiss him again because she always had to be the last kiss. And she always kissed him when he came home.”

Ireland said that in Gig Harbor, during the gasoline rationing of the 1940s, her father would park his truck across the bay and take a boat back and forth for work. He was a home and interior painter and owned his own business on the Peninsula.

“My mother never had a Washington driver’s license,” Ireland said. “She didn’t want to drive. So she would walk down to the grocery store and do the shopping and have Dad pick up the groceries when he was headed home from work.”

The couple’s home is filled with old and new photos of their family. There’s also a collection of Betty Boop memorabilia, which is how Vivienne got her nickname. A sticker on the door says, “Pray for me. I married a Swede.”

“(Eric) was born in Sweden,” Betty said. “Which is why I say God wanted us together because we still found each other.”

Their love obviously runs as deep as today as it did when they met in 1943. They still laugh, tease and give each other kisses under the redwood tree they planted in their backyard more than 50 years ago.

“I can’t pick a favorite thing about her,” Eric said. “How can you when everything is good?”