Couple fetes 75th anniversary

They were high school sweethearts in Star Valley, Wyoming. Thursday, Wayne and Gweneth (Hoopes) Roos celebrated 75 years of marriage.

A celebration of their marriage was hosted by their children at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their children are Linda (Glen) Marks of Sagle, Ellen (Jerry) Wells of Coeur d’Alene, Karen (Clyde) Callen of Sagle, Cindy (Rod) Hill of Bluffdale Utah, Shirley (Bruce) Devenport of Syracuse Utah, and Steve (Rebecca) Roos of Sandpoint. The couple have 33 grandchildren and 63 great-grandchildren.

Wayne joined the Navy a few days before Pearl Harbor and spent most of the war in the South Pacific, serving as a gunner’s mate on the battleship Tennessee. At first, the military wouldn’t accept him because he couldn’t pass the eye test. He memorized the test and tried again in another city and passed.

Wayne and Gwen were married during shore leave. He first saw his daughter Linda when she was six months old — on another shore leave. After the war, the couple immediately moved to Sandpoint in 1946 and have been here ever since.

Gwen has been active in church and the Busy Bees and was well known for the quality of her quilting, winning many blue ribbons at the county fair. Wayne retired from the post office in 1978 after his last child graduated from Sandpoint High School. The couple then moved from the city to their current home on Oden Bay.

Gwen’s father was a dairy farmer so they survived the depression relatively well, but Wayne’s mother died when he was 5 and his father died when he was in high school. He received room and board in exchange for work while finishing high school and remembers looking between the roof slates and seeing stars on cold winter nights.

“Probably as a result of his austere upbringing, he appreciated the Navy food,” his son, Steve Roos, said. “To this day, he never complains about the food we serve him.”

The couple are still as much in love as ever.

“Occasionally, I’ll see them holding hands on the couch as they peacefully enjoy each other’s company watching the changing weather,” Steve Roos said.

Roos said he and his siblings can’t remember his parents ever fighting. However, one time at the dinner table, Wayne made a statement, which Gwen promptly corrected him, saying, “No, it isn’t.”

To which Wayne replied, “Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t,” Gwen insisted.

Wayne calmly looked her in the eye and firmly said, “Yes, it is.”

That was it, Steve Roos said.

“It was definitely a different generation — perhaps the greatest.”