Port Elgin Couple Married 70 Years
On Saturday, Hoary and Jean Parker of Port Elgin, received congratulations from the Queen, the Prime Minister, Members of both provincial and federal parliaments, the Bruce County Warden and the Mayor of Saugeen Shores.

The occasion was what few achieve - the celebration of their 70th wedding anniversary.

It was 4:00 in the afternoon, on November 9, 1938, that the young Jean McArthur and Horace (Hoary) Parker of Paisley were married by the Reverend Wilson in the Salem church outside Paisley in Bruce County.  It was just before WWII broke out.

Hoary Parker was a barber and Jean lived on a nearby farm.  "I can't even remember how we met," smiles Jean, "all I knew was he was the handsome young barber in town."

Hoary enlisted in the army as part of the Queen's Own Rifles and found himself, with thousands of other young Canadians, aboard the Aquitania sailing across the Atlantic.  "We landed in Scotland and then took the train to somewhere in England.  Two weeks later we flew out of an airport north of London and I remember that a tire exploded on landing in Belgium.  The plane swerved off the runway into a field and then back onto the runway.  I'd never flown before so I thought that was just the way to land."  From Belgium, the men marched into Holland and then into Germany.

"I was only in the army two years, 685 days," he smiles.  "They said they were going to make me a corporal but the war ended and it was time to come home."  While Hoary was overseas, Jean went to Guelph where she worked in a factory making the glass face-pieces for gas masks that were shipped overseas.

When Parker returned home to his young wife, he went to work in a factory and then took up carpentry, for which he is still known in the area today.  The couple moved to Port Elgin in 1950 with their then three-year-old son, Gary, where they bought and operated a local grocery store on the main street of Goderich for several years, until they decided to retire when Hoary experienced health problems.

As many Canadians do, the Parkers headed south for the winters and built a duplex home in Zephyrhills near Tampa in Florida.

Today, the couple still lives in their own Port Elgin home and have two grandchildren, Shelly and Terry Parker.

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13/01/2009 04:23 PM

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Hoary & Jean 1939

Hoary & Jean November, 2008

Jean & granddaughter, Shelly

Hoary & son, Gary

Mayor Mike Smith presents certificate to Hoary