Santa Rosa couple marks 75th wedding anniversary

At 96, Calvin Purvis can no longer recall just exactly what it was that made his need to marry seem so urgent 75 years ago.

But his wife, Gladys , insists it was her husband’s idea to “run away” to Nevada on the “spur of the moment” like they did - exchanging vows before a justice of the peace in Carson City and returning to Manteca the same day, each to his or her own family home.

It was July 30, 1940. Gladys Purvis, then 18, had just finished high school. Her beau, Calvin Purvis, was older, at 21, and a junior college student. They “sneaked away in a Model A,” said Gladys Purvis, 93. They already had been an item for two years.

It would be six months before family and friends were completely clued in to the couple’s marital status. But the cat was out of the bag by the time a Catholic priest sanctified their union in a second, simple wedding many months later, before Calvin Purvis reported for Army National Guard service on the Central Coast and before their son’s 1942 birth.

Seven decades later, reflecting on the challenges of those long ago days - financial uncertainty, world war, the passage from youth to adult - the Purvises say it’s not always been an easy road.

But as they approach their 75th wedding anniversary, they’ve become aware of just how rare is their achievement, though they acknowledge living into their 90s helps.

“Just always be there for each other,” Gladys Purvis advised other married couples. “You’ve got to be there for each other in good times and bad.”

The couple first met in the summer between her second and third years of high school, when both were working at the Manteca Cannery. A mutual friend, Calvin Purvis said, let him know “that girl over there has the hots for you.”

“He was so good-looking,” Gladys Purvis said during an interview at their spacious home in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove Lodge retirement community, “and I liked him.”

They grew together, with Calvin, one of seven children, learning the meaning of hard work early on.

Gladys, who was 10 when her father died, took on responsibility at a young age, as well.

In those first years of marriage when the couple scrambled to make ends meet and manage life around Calivn’s National Guard service and subsequent wartime stint with the Navy in the Philippines, “we were initiated” into the challenges of life, he said.

Calvin Purvis said the key to a lasting marriage is to “be sensible.”

“We loved each other,” Gladys Purvis said. “We had a lot of fun together.”

Calvin Purvis built a career with Spreckels Sugar, starting in yard labor in 1939. He retired 44 years later as technical services manager for the sales department in San Francisco, after commuting from the couple’s longtime Marinwood home.

Gladys Purvis raised their son and daughter, and worked at a military supply depot in Lathrop before taking a job with Hamilton Air Force Base when the family moved to Marin County in 1956.

It wasn’t until she retired in the mid-1970s that Gladys Purvis recognized how much working and having responsibility outside the home bolstered her self-confidence and sense of importance.

Calvin Purvis spent a good deal of time commuting and traveling for work, but found fulfillment in civic activities and volunteer service.

Gladys Purvis said having lots of friends and a busy social life has rounded out the couple’s life. They also have enjoyed outdoor activities together, world travel and golf, though there were struggles, as well. Their daughter, Nancy, first developed cancer at age 19 and struggled with health through much of her life. She died in 2009.

Calvin Purvis said his own declining strength - he uses a cane and a walker these days - is a personal challenge among the many trials of life.

He says the key is to “be sensible” when confronting problems or disagreement.

“We have disagreed,” Gladys Purvis said. “But we wouldn’t know what to do without each other.”

About 95 friends and relatives will attend a celebratory luncheon Saturday at the Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club, where the couple held their 50th, 60th, 65th and 70th anniversary parties. All were organized by Calvin Purvis.

They’ve ceded the job of party planner to their granddaughter this time around.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Mary?CallahanB.