The Ellixsons were married 70 years ago today in Hagerstown, W.Va. They have lived in the Delaware County area since 1929 when Joe went to work at the old Ford Motor Co. plant in Chester.
"For $5 a day," Joe recalled.
The couple met in the Maryland town where Marie lived with her parents. Joe, a native of North Carolina, was in Hagerstown as a worker with a federally sponsored highway program.
Marie smiled at her husband when he spoke of their first real date.
"It was a revival at the Methodist Church," Joe I don't remember if she asked me to come to church with her or I asked her if I could go with her."
"And we got married a year later," Marie noted.
The Ellixsons' had two children, daughter Barbara Fisher and son, Charles, who died in 1989. Five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren round out their family. Marie and Joe stuck with their religious faith through the years. They have been members of Ridley Park United Methodist Church for more than a half-century.
Although Joe and Marie settled down in Ridley Park in 1932 they didn't buy their first house until 1984.
"This is their honeymoon cottage," grandson Tom Ellixson quipped as he sat in the living room of his grandparents cozy home on Shaw Road.
Through the years the Ellixsons enjoyed vacationing in Florida, California and Washington. Joe retired from Fords in 1965 and then spent the next 15 years working for a Ford dealership in Lower Chichester. He "really" retired in 1980.
But retirement to the Ellixsons meant more time for Joe to spend gardening ("He cut down to 36 tomato plants last summer," his grandson joked). Marie's hobby is cooking and both enjoy going out for breakfast and lunch and participating in activities at the School House Senior Center in Ridley Township. Marie is a member of the Eastern Star and Joe belongs to the Masons.
Joe has some words of advice to young husbands of today.
"To keep a marriage happy, stay on the job. Don't jump from job to job," he advises.
And Marie says there has to be give and take on both sides.
The Ellixsons will be honored at an anniversary dinner at the Towne House Restaurant in Media, hosted by their family.
"That's one of our favorite restaurants," Marie said."
