My grandma and grandpa circa 1946

My grandma told me this was taken about a year before they got married in 1947, not long after they first met. They were married for 55 years until my grandpa passed in 2003, then my grandma in 2017. I always thought they were a gorgeous couple.

My grandpa left home from Kentucky when he was 14 and made his way to Washington, where he lived the rest of his life, he only returned to Kentucky once after his last sibling passed away. He hadn't seen any of them since he'd left. He worked as a jukebox and radio repairman and pinball machine repairman, then went to work for the Department of Defense, retiring as a logistician manager in 1992. My grandma was born in South Dakota and eventually her family moved to Washington after her father died when she was a toddler. She worked various jobs such as a telephone switchboard operator and movie usherette, before settling on being a stay at home mom and grandma.

Little fact here: The houses behind them were homes the US government built for shipyard workers and Navy families during WWII, most were duplexes. After the war ended, many of these homes were torn down, or bought on the cheap and moved elsewhere. Some are still standing, scattered throughout the city. One neighborhood was kept intact for low income Section 8 housing, but eventually was torn down due to the buildings poor condition, since they were homes that were built quick and on the cheap.