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Rappahannock News pboto/William Wesley Talbott THIS YEAR WILL mark the 50th Valentine’s Day
50 years together By WILLIAM WESLEY TALBOTT Rappahannock News Staff Writer On February 10, 1936 the Reverend Homer Welch married Dora and Dave Gheen at the Methodist parsonage in then rural Fairfax. Last Monday the Amissville couple proudly celebrated their 50th wedding anniversay. The marriage has been successful, explains Dave, because of “hard work, love and respect for each other. ” “Boy, have we worked hard,” he smiles. They met by accident. When Dave agreed to deliver newspapers for a friend he met Dora at one of his route stops. The successful meeting led to a marriage that has given the couple seven children, 11 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. “We always had a close-knit family,” Dave explains, “we never had a problem with any of them —we always knew where they were and what they were doing.” “Within an hour we could contact any member of the family,” he says. “One of our sons is a minister in Fredericksburg,” says Dora with pride. Dave grew up in Vienna (“the 1930 census showed 913 people — today it’s 35,000”) and she in Bailey’s Crossroads. They raised their family there before coming to Rappahannock. To raise the large family both Dave and Dora had to work long hours. Dora describes herself as a housewife. “She’s always worked ^ hard,” says Dave, “and there’s never been a payday for her.” Dave worked as an Chrysler automobile mechanic from 1935 un' til he retired in 1980. “At times there was little money,” he says, “I would come home from work, eat supper, and go out into my shop and work half the night.” Dave kept an auto shop at the back of his house. “I did that six or seven days a week to make ends meet,” he reveals.
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