Couple marries after 60-year hiatus
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:30

GRAND FORKS, North Dakota: It did not start out romantic he stood her up on a blind date. But 60 years later, Mary Jane Weimer and George Longmire are married.

Mary Jane, 81, and George, 90, met in 1946, when George was a law student at the University of North Dakota and working at the Grand Forks Police Department, and she was working as a nurse in the same town. A mutual friend set up a blind date, but George said, "it wasn't confirmed," so he didn't go, he told The Grand Forks Herald newspaper for its Saturday edition.

Later, after he realized he had stood her up, he called to apologize.

"I called her the very next night. I told her I was sorry and I didn't realize it was a date," he said. "I asked her if I could make up for it and take her out to dinner."

The two intended to marry then, but religious differences stood in the way. Mary Jane is a Roman Catholic and George, a Baptist.

Eventually, both met others who would become spouses and they started families. Mary Jane moved to another town.

Her husband died in 2003, and George's wife died a year later. One day last May, Mary Jane called George. She had followed his career as a prosecutor and state lawmaker from afar, but they hadn't spoken in 60 years.

"I knew his wife had passed away, and I just wanted to talk," Mary Jane told the newspaper. "If you are lonely, there is someone out there who could use a friend. Especially when you can use one, too."

The two agreed to meet in Grand Forks to reminisce. Less than a year later, they decided to get married, and had a ceremony on Saturday.

Religion isn't an issue anymore, said Longmire's daughter, Linda.

"They both maintain their faiths," she said. "Their love precedes pretty much everything."

(China Daily 03/13/2006 page1)