Beech Tree News Network

When William Dave Bryant and Lillious Phelps Bryant were married on November 30, 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt was into his second term and Lieutenant Governor Keen Johnson had just replaced A. B. “Happy” Chandler as Kentucky’s Governor.

The couple has been married 73 years.  “He said it was just like yesterday,” said their daughter, Patsy Brown, as family sat with mom and dad and talked Saturday morning at the home of Patsy’s brother, M. D. Bryant in North Butler.

 William, 93, and Lillious, 90, were married in Butler County and have lived here all their lives according to Brown.

The topics of the day ranged from being wrapped in quilts during trips in road wagons, to sleeping on shuck and down filled beds, to the plight of finding drinking dippers frozen in the water bucket.

Everything turned out fine though. “Mom used to put enough quilts and blankets on the bed that we couldn’t move,” said M. D.

Story and photo by Roger Southerland, Beech Tree News/WLBQ 1570