Our Inspiration: Woodrow & Mary Butler
By: Bob Clausen, KARK 4 News
Updated: August 31, 2012
It is a word with so much weight. An event meant to last a lifetime. Far too often these days, marriage seems to last until it gets too tough.
One Arkansas couple has met the challenges of marriage and in November will celebrate 76 years together.
They had a lot going for them, for better or worse.
They needed to hold on to the better because the worst was all around them.
It was 1936, the country was in the Great Depression and World War Two was on its way.
But two kids growing up in the Natural State were in love and that's all that mattered then. That's also all that matters today.
Woodrow and Mary Butler are our inspiration.
In Depression-era Arkansas, life was tough and jobs were scarce. The state celebrated it's 100th birthday.
A good way to get away from it all, was to take in a ballgame at Ray Winder Field when it was just five years old.
Wesley and Carrie Dell Campbell welcomed their youngest son Glenn into the world on the family's Pike County farm.
A kid by the name of Woodrow Butler called on a girl named Mary, living on her family's farm.
"He was a real monkey, had everyone laughing. He was a jokester," Mary Butler recalls of her husband Woodrow.
Do you still see the spark in her eye?, we ask Woodrow, who replies "Yeah but the fire's gone out through laughs."
"Kept us all laughing and fun to be with. You got to love him a whole lot to live with him for 75 years," says Mary.
They have been side by side for 75 years.
He worked at a sawmill making shingles. Her dad was a tough-as-nails farmer, and this farmer's daughter was well protected.
"Well, I had to walk a tight rope or her dad would beat me up," Woodrow remembers.
But he had a job, worked hard and had his own car, a Model A. It was used, with a memorable quality.
"If you went through a mudhole, sometimes you'd get wet. It come up to your feet, I remember that about it," says Woodrow.
They were having so much fun together.
Remember the first time he tried to kiss you?, we ask Mary, who replies "No, I don't," then asks Woodrow, "You remember the first time you tried to kiss me?" Woodrow responds, "No, not exactly."
Theirs was a natural fit, so they thought, why not be together as man and wife?
"We just decided we wanted to be together. We got married," says Mary.
And they stayed married. He went into the service station business. She turned a house into a home, and they worked together at staying together.
"If you get in it, you stay in it. Even if you don't want to, but I wanted to," he says. "If you love the girl, you are going with and your figuring on her being your wife, why you just keep it on track and go on the whole way."
"We've had a lot of great times. You got to communicate. That's the main thing about a marriage is communications. You get to where you can't talk to each other about things, it gets bad. You need to discuss it, get it out in the open before night," she says.
"Trusted each other." "Be able to give and take. Let God be the center of it," they say.
When we ask Woodrow, "Where are you going to take her for her 76th anniversary?," he says "I don't know. I didn't know I'd live this long."
The secret to being together it seems, is no secret.
"Tell them you love them," says Mary.
And what keeps them going now after 75 years?
"I guess it's to help him keep going right now, helping each other. We have to. He helps me doing things that I can't do and I help him. We work together," says Mary.
"You have to give over 50-percent each day, make it go," Woodrow says.
One Arkansas couple has met the challenges of marriage and in November will celebrate 76 years together.
They had a lot going for them, for better or worse.
They needed to hold on to the better because the worst was all around them.
It was 1936, the country was in the Great Depression and World War Two was on its way.
But two kids growing up in the Natural State were in love and that's all that mattered then. That's also all that matters today.
Woodrow and Mary Butler are our inspiration.
In Depression-era Arkansas, life was tough and jobs were scarce. The state celebrated it's 100th birthday.
A good way to get away from it all, was to take in a ballgame at Ray Winder Field when it was just five years old.
Wesley and Carrie Dell Campbell welcomed their youngest son Glenn into the world on the family's Pike County farm.
A kid by the name of Woodrow Butler called on a girl named Mary, living on her family's farm.
"He was a real monkey, had everyone laughing. He was a jokester," Mary Butler recalls of her husband Woodrow.
Do you still see the spark in her eye?, we ask Woodrow, who replies "Yeah but the fire's gone out through laughs."
"Kept us all laughing and fun to be with. You got to love him a whole lot to live with him for 75 years," says Mary.
They have been side by side for 75 years.
He worked at a sawmill making shingles. Her dad was a tough-as-nails farmer, and this farmer's daughter was well protected.
"Well, I had to walk a tight rope or her dad would beat me up," Woodrow remembers.
But he had a job, worked hard and had his own car, a Model A. It was used, with a memorable quality.
"If you went through a mudhole, sometimes you'd get wet. It come up to your feet, I remember that about it," says Woodrow.
They were having so much fun together.
Remember the first time he tried to kiss you?, we ask Mary, who replies "No, I don't," then asks Woodrow, "You remember the first time you tried to kiss me?" Woodrow responds, "No, not exactly."
Theirs was a natural fit, so they thought, why not be together as man and wife?
"We just decided we wanted to be together. We got married," says Mary.
And they stayed married. He went into the service station business. She turned a house into a home, and they worked together at staying together.
"If you get in it, you stay in it. Even if you don't want to, but I wanted to," he says. "If you love the girl, you are going with and your figuring on her being your wife, why you just keep it on track and go on the whole way."
"We've had a lot of great times. You got to communicate. That's the main thing about a marriage is communications. You get to where you can't talk to each other about things, it gets bad. You need to discuss it, get it out in the open before night," she says.
"Trusted each other." "Be able to give and take. Let God be the center of it," they say.
When we ask Woodrow, "Where are you going to take her for her 76th anniversary?," he says "I don't know. I didn't know I'd live this long."
The secret to being together it seems, is no secret.
"Tell them you love them," says Mary.
And what keeps them going now after 75 years?
"I guess it's to help him keep going right now, helping each other. We have to. He helps me doing things that I can't do and I help him. We work together," says Mary.
"You have to give over 50-percent each day, make it go," Woodrow says.
