YOUNGSTOWN — When John Anderson and Marion Owens met on the campus of Ohio University in the late 1940s, they did not realize that on July 12, 2026, they would celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary.

A party honored them Friday at the Inn at Christine Valley, where they now live. They formerly lived in Cortland.

Although Marion is from Lakewood and John is from Warren, they were destined to connect in southern Ohio.

“My mom was already on campus working as a nurse at the student health center and my dad was an engineering major,” said Tom Anderson of Boardman, their oldest child.

After dating and John’s graduation from college, they were married at St. James Church in Lakewood.

“Dad was in ROTC (Reserves Office Training Corps) in college,” said Charles Anderson of Naples, Florida, the youngest of the three Anderson siblings.

After his ROTC, John Anderson served his required two years in the military.

“Dad went to France with the United States Air Force. He was a lieutenant,” Tom Anderson said. This was during the Korean War.

Marion went back to her family home in Lakewood to live while her husband served overseas.

“I was born the year after they married in Biloxi, Mississippi, while my dad was still serving in the Air Force,” Tom Anderson said.

The Andersons moved to Warren when John got a job as an industrial engineer at Republic Steel.

“He worked there for 30 years and retired when he was in his 50s,” Tom Anderson said, noting the steel industry encouraged early retirement.

The Andersons’ daughter, Peggy, their middle child, lives in Durham, North Carolina, and was unable to attend Friday’s celebration.

Marion Anderson worked as a nurse until her children were born.

“My mom went back to work in the 1960s. She worked at St. Joseph Hospital at the Tod Avenue location, as a school nurse in Warren City Schools and at Trumbull Memorial Hospital,” Tom Anderson said.

The couple led very active lives throughout their marriage. They were involved with their church, sports and traveling.

“Dad was an usher at St. Pius X Church in Warren. He also picked up furniture for the Society of St Vincent de Paul,” Charles Anderson said.

John Anderson played golf on his 90th birthday and continued to bowl every Tuesday until he and his wife moved to their present home at the Inn at Christine Valley in March 2025.

The couple liked playing cards with friends, traveling in their camping trailer, enjoying their sailboat and visiting their vacation home in Bonita Springs, Florida.

“My parents lived independently at their condo in Cortland until they moved here,” Tom Anderson said of his 98-year-old parents.

When asked for advice on what they did to stay together for 75 years, the couple did not have a definitive answer, but you could still see the love they share and that they want to be near each other when Marion reached for John’s hand and held it on the arm of her wheelchair during their celebration.