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As the manager of senior living facility Granite Ridge Place, Nancy Beasley has met many pairs who have been married a long time. And so it is with considerable credibility that she does assert, “LaGrant and Bea... they’re the perfect married couple.”
It was 70 years ago on Wednesday, November 23 that LaGrant and Beatrice “Bea” Velde exchanged vows. In adjacent recliners they recount the time shared leading up to this milestone.
The visit is short. At 3:00 p.m. their son David is scheduled to exhibit his talents playing piano for the Granite Ridge residents. Though it never seems rude, LaGrant can’t help but routinely check his watch.
For the most part, Bea seems content to listen as LaGrant does most of the talking. But she adds her two cents when questioned, or when she is sure her husband has misspoke.
When she celebrates her birthday in February, Bea will match LaGrant’s 90 years. To think that she was in high school when the two first met is hard to fathom.
LaGrant recalled being disgruntled on that day. He had been tasked to drive his sister from their home in Granite Falls to a carnival in Echo.
“I wasn’t fond of the idea because I didn’t know anybody down there,” he said. “I was sitting there having no fun at all. I didn’t know a soul.”
He quit feeling bad for himself when one of his sister’s suggested that he go say “hi” to Bea who was busy running a bingo table.
The previous summer the two had met only in passing. Yet, LaGrant remembered her very clearly.
“I went down there and played Bingo all night,” he said. “Later on, I drove her home. That was our first date.”
Given the feeling that resonated between the two, that first evening, it’s tough for them to look back and not feel that their lives had already been written.
“Both of us admitted that when he had that first date something clicked,” LaGrant said. “I think the good Lord had something to do with that. Don’t you, Bea?”
With a laugh, she replied, “He must have.”
The pair courted each other for around two years before reaching the alter. And the way Bea tells it, it was perhaps the most trying time of their 70-plus years together.
“I never thought that it would work because you were in Granite and I was in Echo,” she said.
Seventeen miles was a long way back then.
“Our biggest problem,” LaGrant explained, “was that we had no money. I don’t think anybody did, but I couldn’t get down there as much as I would’ve liked.”
When the money was available, the good news was that a little went a long way.
“I’d get a dollar from my dad. And you probably wouldn’t hardly believe it, but we could get to a show for 15 cents apiece,” LaGrant said. “Then we’d get a nickel hamburger and a nickel bottle of pop ... so it was pretty reasonable. “
If a particular show didn’t catch their fancy the two could go dance at the Granite Falls Opera House where admission to a dance cost about 35 cents for two of them. And though LaGrant emphasized that it was probably the stupidest thing he ever did, he noted that he would also buy a pack of cigarettes for a dime.
“We had fun in those days.” said Bea.
Engaged mid-1941, LaGrant said the November wedding was chosen for its promise of comfort in a suit-coat. That the Sunday had fallen in the vicinity of Thanksgiving, had just been happenstance.
O.J. Erickson, who had baptized, confirmed and been their pastor at Rock Valley and Granite Falls Lutheran, would be the one to marry them both, which was particularly interesting given the perceived distance between Granite and Echo. Later on, he would baptize their first daughter.
After the wedding, LaGrant and Bea moved onto the Velde farm. LaGrant’s parents, inturn, moved to town.
Having both grown up on farms, they were accustomed to the setting. Initially, they were without running water, but they did have the luxury of electricity. And that, they considered a blessing.
Because his older brother had gone into the service, LaGrant was deferred from the World War II as a part of a program that ensured able hands tended to the farm.
The work was hard, but the two were happy. Within a few years they had welcomed the first of four children into the world.
With just a hint of pride, the parents noted that each of their children – Muriel, Connie, David and Patricia – would go onto college. Back in their day, though LaGrant and Bea both completed high school, kids typically opted for farm work instead of school upon completion of the eighth grade.
“It’s just like a dream almost,” said Bea of the past. We just had a good marriage.”
In their 70th year, LaGrant and Bea confess that they need each other more than ever.
“When you first get married, you’re all worked up over it,” said LaGrant. Now, it’s a settled down love, or I don’t know what you want to call it, but we like to take care of each other.”
Bea has macular degeneration that severely impairs her vision and without LaGrant’s help she’d be unable to get by.
“If I didn’t have him I don’t know what I would do,” she said.
LaGrant makes meals and helps with her pills. He seems overly content to serve the wife who has given of herself all these years.
“I just love her from the bottom of my heart and she’s been such a good wife,” he said. “She’s been faithful since day one and raised our kids. We did argue sometimes, but she’s been perfect.”
With a bond forged over 70 years, it’s tough to see where LaGrant starts and Bea ends. Such a connection implies that words for one are just as appropriate to apply to the other. And that. LaGrant said appropriately, is perfect.
As the manager of senior living facility Granite Ridge Place, Nancy Beasley has met many pairs who have been married a long time. And so it is with considerable credibility that she does assert, “LaGrant and Bea... they’re the perfect married couple.”
It was 70 years ago on Wednesday, November 23 that LaGrant and Beatrice “Bea” Velde exchanged vows. In adjacent recliners they recount the time shared leading up to this milestone.
The visit is short. At 3:00 p.m. their son David is scheduled to exhibit his talents playing piano for the Granite Ridge residents. Though it never seems rude, LaGrant can’t help but routinely check his watch.
For the most part, Bea seems content to listen as LaGrant does most of the talking. But she adds her two cents when questioned, or when she is sure her husband has misspoke.
When she celebrates her birthday in February, Bea will match LaGrant’s 90 years. To think that she was in high school when the two first met is hard to fathom.
LaGrant recalled being disgruntled on that day. He had been tasked to drive his sister from their home in Granite Falls to a carnival in Echo.
“I wasn’t fond of the idea because I didn’t know anybody down there,” he said. “I was sitting there having no fun at all. I didn’t know a soul.”
He quit feeling bad for himself when one of his sister’s suggested that he go say “hi” to Bea who was busy running a bingo table.
The previous summer the two had met only in passing. Yet, LaGrant remembered her very clearly.
“I went down there and played Bingo all night,” he said. “Later on, I drove her home. That was our first date.”
Given the feeling that resonated between the two, that first evening, it’s tough for them to look back and not feel that their lives had already been written.
“Both of us admitted that when he had that first date something clicked,” LaGrant said. “I think the good Lord had something to do with that. Don’t you, Bea?”
With a laugh, she replied, “He must have.”
The pair courted each other for around two years before reaching the alter. And the way Bea tells it, it was perhaps the most trying time of their 70-plus years together.
“I never thought that it would work because you were in Granite and I was in Echo,” she said.
Seventeen miles was a long way back then.
“Our biggest problem,” LaGrant explained, “was that we had no money. I don’t think anybody did, but I couldn’t get down there as much as I would’ve liked.”
When the money was available, the good news was that a little went a long way.
“I’d get a dollar from my dad. And you probably wouldn’t hardly believe it, but we could get to a show for 15 cents apiece,” LaGrant said. “Then we’d get a nickel hamburger and a nickel bottle of pop ... so it was pretty reasonable. “
If a particular show didn’t catch their fancy the two could go dance at the Granite Falls Opera House where admission to a dance cost about 35 cents for two of them. And though LaGrant emphasized that it was probably the stupidest thing he ever did, he noted that he would also buy a pack of cigarettes for a dime.
“We had fun in those days.” said Bea.
Engaged mid-1941, LaGrant said the November wedding was chosen for its promise of comfort in a suit-coat. That the Sunday had fallen in the vicinity of Thanksgiving, had just been happenstance.
O.J. Erickson, who had baptized, confirmed and been their pastor at Rock Valley and Granite Falls Lutheran, would be the one to marry them both, which was particularly interesting given the perceived distance between Granite and Echo. Later on, he would baptize their first daughter.
After the wedding, LaGrant and Bea moved onto the Velde farm. LaGrant’s parents, inturn, moved to town.
Having both grown up on farms, they were accustomed to the setting. Initially, they were without running water, but they did have the luxury of electricity. And that, they considered a blessing.
Because his older brother had gone into the service, LaGrant was deferred from the World War II as a part of a program that ensured able hands tended to the farm.
The work was hard, but the two were happy. Within a few years they had welcomed the first of four children into the world.
With just a hint of pride, the parents noted that each of their children – Muriel, Connie, David and Patricia – would go onto college. Back in their day, though LaGrant and Bea both completed high school, kids typically opted for farm work instead of school upon completion of the eighth grade.
“It’s just like a dream almost,” said Bea of the past. We just had a good marriage.”
In their 70th year, LaGrant and Bea confess that they need each other more than ever.
“When you first get married, you’re all worked up over it,” said LaGrant. Now, it’s a settled down love, or I don’t know what you want to call it, but we like to take care of each other.”
Bea has macular degeneration that severely impairs her vision and without LaGrant’s help she’d be unable to get by.
“If I didn’t have him I don’t know what I would do,” she said.
LaGrant makes meals and helps with her pills. He seems overly content to serve the wife who has given of herself all these years.
“I just love her from the bottom of my heart and she’s been such a good wife,” he said. “She’s been faithful since day one and raised our kids. We did argue sometimes, but she’s been perfect.”
With a bond forged over 70 years, it’s tough to see where LaGrant starts and Bea ends. Such a connection implies that words for one are just as appropriate to apply to the other. And that. LaGrant said appropriately, is perfect.
