Couple uncover marriage certificate detail after ancestry records search

A Pennsylvania couple who proudly told their family they were about to celebrate 75 years of marriage were stunned to learn they were just shy of the milestone. Ed Wagner, 95, and his wife Sally, 92, had planned to mark their diamond anniversary this week - until their son-in-law uncovered their official marriage certificate through an Ancestry.com search. The document showed the couple actually tied the knot on February 9, 1952, meaning they have been married 74 years, not 75. The discovery slightly delayed their long-anticipated celebration, but not their sense of humor.

'When you're married this long, who cares?' Sally told TribLIVE beside her husband in their Greensburg home. The high school sweethearts met as teenagers at East Huntingdon High School and crossed state lines to marry in Virginia when Sally's mother declined to sign marriage papers in Pennsylvania. Their whirlwind wedding came just months before Ed was drafted into the Army and deployed to fight in the Korean War. 'I told her, "We might as well get married,"' Ed recalled. '"That way, you'll be getting the money from the service if anything happens to me."'

Nine months later, he was shipped to Korea, leaving Sally to wait at home while three of her brothers were also serving in the military. They reunited after the war, built a life together in Westmoreland County and moved into their modest white home in Greensburg - where they have now lived for 68 years. The couple raised three children, welcomed nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and endured heartbreak and health battles along the way. Their eldest son died in 2017 from a lifelong heart condition. Sally underwent heart surgery in 2021. Ed, who suffers from macular degeneration and is nearly blind in one eye, lost a toe to infection two years ago.

Still, they have remained devoted to each other - cooking meals together, attending church and spending hours sitting on their porch in the summer, earning them the nickname 'the porch people.' When asked his secret to such a long marriage, Ed didn't hesitate. 'I didn't die,' he said jokingly, before adding, 'I don't know what I would have done without her.'

Sally reached over and patted his hand. 'We're both here for each other,' she said. 'And the love is still here.'