Jimmy and Monita Horn in 2011

Monita grew up in Coulee Dam and Jimmy grew up in Pullman. They met in Pullman while both were attending college. Jimmy had just returned from the United States Navy after five years and Monita was a senior at Washington State University.

Al Schy, president of the Folkdance Club, hosted a party at his house in Pullman. It was between semesters and only a few students were in town. Al invited his old buddy, Jimmy, and introduced him to Monita and her friends. That spring, Jimmy attended the Folkdance Club.

Monita didn’t pay much attention to Jimmy until that summer, when they were all working. She needed a ride out to the hills to collect plants. They spent several times together, getting to know each other.

That fall, Monita went to college in the east and they wrote to each other once a week. When she came back on vacation in August, Jimmy picked her up at the airport in Spokane, giving her a ride home. Later he proposed, and she accepted.

Monita found an apartment in Pullman to live in until they were married. She went to graduate school in botany and taught a lab section of Botany 101 for work. They were married Dec. 29, 1961.

That next spring, Monita discovered she was pregnant and Kurt arrived in 1962. Jimmy graduated from WSU in industrial arts education in 1964. Tom Deering was superintendent of Issaquah schools. He had been a teacher under Jimmy’s father, William Horn, in Fairfield. His daughter, Margaret, had babysat Jimmy’s sister’s children in Waitsburg at a later date. So, knowing Jimmy’s father helped when Tom hired Jimmy.

Jimmy taught one class of electricity at Issaquah High School and two classes of elementary math and a woodshop. After two years, he was getting little satisfaction from teaching and decided to try industry. He got hired by Puget Power to work as a draftsman, where he stayed until they were downsized in 1993.

Meanwhile, Monita was a homemaker, raising three boys (Kurt, Kevin and Keith). She volunteered in the schools as both a library helper and as a volunteer teacher of origami during some recesses. When Clark Elementary School was the only collector of newspaper for recycling, she took the kids around to collect papers.

Jimmy moved to Seattle City Light and worked for the company until 2005. Monita had enjoyed researching her family for years at various libraries. She began volunteering at the Issaquah Historical Society, even though she was a “newcomer.” She has indexed the obituaries in much of The Issaquah Press.

The couple continue to enjoy their various hobbies.

They plan to celebrate their anniversary in the spring when the mountain passes should be clear.

Richard and Molly Robbers in 2011

Richard and Molly Robbers, Issaquah residents from 1963-1987 who are currently living in Everett, will celebrate their 60th anniversary Dec. 28.

They have six children.

You could say that the first decade of Belfair couple Rick and Molly Robbers’ life together indelibly shaped the five decades that followed.

They spent their honeymoon, beginning Dec. 28, 1951, coaxing a 1949 Ford convertible from Everett to Pensacola, Fla., where Rick was stationed in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. Cadets weren’t supposed to be married and once when Rick returned to the base after curfew, having secretly tended to his ailing bride, a smug duty officer wrote him up, eager to bust Rick’s chops. Was seeing Molly a few minutes more that night worth it?

“Of course,” Rick said.

It didn’t hurt later when Rick — aboard a troop transport taking newly minted naval officers to N.A.S. Barber’s Point, Oahu, Hawaii — greeted that same duty officer, washed out and dishing up chow.

On the heels of the Korean War, Rick’s squadron, the VP-6 “Blue Sharks,” were sent to the Far East to patrol shipping lanes in the Western Pacific. Back in Honolulu, Molly spent those eight months apart from her husband making lifelong friends with the other squadron wives and dreaming of starting her family.

The Navy deployed VP-6 to Kodiak, Alaska, in October 1954; once again Rick took to the skies while Molly returned to Everett. Two months later, Rick tried to surprise Molly for their anniversary by flying down, but snowstorms turned him back. Meanwhile, Molly flew to Alaska to surprise Rick. (Eventually they met up.)

By summer 1955, Rick and Molly had left active duty and hired on with United Airlines. Rick attended flight training in Denver and a few months later the couple was assigned to Los Angeles, but it was an exceptionally lonely time for Molly.

“I knew no one,” she said. “Our friends were still in Denver, and Rick was flying puddle-jumpers for three or four days at a time.”

A few years later, Rick, furloughed from United and working for Continental Airlines, returned to Denver for more flight training while Molly stayed in Mountain View to sell their house.

Eventually, United recalled Rick, and Molly, who was visiting family in Everett, rejoined him just in time for their son, Richard Lee, to make his own debut in August 1958. After the babies started coming — over 10 years, MaryAnne, David, Susan and Nancy joined the family — Rick gained enough seniority to bid time off to welcome each arrival.

Until he retired in 1989, Rick’s commercial flying career took him from Bangkok to Boston, and all points in between. Of course, there were scads of vacations and family times together, but the skies always beckoned. After retirement, Rick and Molly were rarely apart for more than a few days at a time.

During the times Rick was away for either country or career, Molly held her own with the Navy, neighbors and naysayers; when reunited, the couple simply picked up where they left off, and it has worked for 60 years.

Is the old chestnut true — did absence make their hearts grow fonder all those years?

Molly nods and takes Rick’s hand. Rick simply grins.

Lucille and Marv Lemke in 1943

Marv and Lucille Lemke, of Issaquah, celebrated their 68th anniversary Sept. 2.

Marv and Lucille both grew up on dairy farms near Milwaukee, Wis., and met at a friend’s wedding reception dance. Marv, smitten by Lucille Lueder, asked if he could drive her home, but she refused. Through a friend, Marv found out where Lucille lived and drove by her family farm the next day, finding her standing at the well pump. He asked her for a Saturday night date, she accepted and they continued seeing each other every Saturday night for the next year.

They married in Thiensville, Wis., on Sept 2,1943.

Marv served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and set foot in Japan on Sept. 2,1945, right after the USS Missouri battleship was in Tokyo Bay for Japan’s signing of the official instrument of surrender.

After his discharge from the Navy in 1945, Marv worked at the Washington State Employment Office, in Seattle, and helped reactivate the Washington National Guard, which was demobilized at the end of the war. He rejoined the Navy in 1948 and worked at Sand Point Naval Air Station until he was transferred in 1966 to the U.S. Navy Reserve Fleet in

Marv and Lucille Lemke in 2011

Bremerton, where he worked for 10 years.

Marv then worked at the Safeway Beverage Plant, in Bellevue, until his retirement 14 years later.

Marv and Lucille have always been very active in the Lutheran church, both serving in many leadership roles. Over the years, they, along with their son Paul, traveled to every state, camping in all of them with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii. They have lived at Providence Point for 26 years.

Sally and Tom Montgomery in 2011

Sally grew up in Metaline Falls. Tom, originally from Minnesota, moved to Spokane during his childhood. The two met at North Central High School in Spokane but didn’t date until after high school. They were married in Spokane on July 1, 1961.

Tom and Sally then moved to Issaquah. Tom, an aeronautical engineer, worked for The Boeing Co. and Sally, a trained physical therapist, worked for the Issaquah School District after the couple’s four children were grown. Their children are Paul Montgomery, of Bellevue, Ann Doherty, of West Seattle, Susan Montgomery, of Seattle, and Clark Montgomery, of Billings, Mont. They also have nine grandchildren who keep them busy.

Tom and Sally celebrated their anniversary in Chelan with their entire immediately family.

Gloria and Richard James in 1961

Richard L. James and Gloria M. Troxel, both from the same hometown of Sargent, Neb., began dating at Nebraska University at Kearney, Neb., in 1960. They were married June 4, 1961, in Sargent.

Both are graduates of Sargent High School. Parents of the couple were David and Janice James, and John and Georgia Troxel, of Sargent.

For the past 35 years, the couple has lived in Issaquah and have one daughter, Susan, and one granddaughter, Jessica.

Richard was employed by Western/Delta Airlines; Gloria was employed by the Issaquah Post Office.

This fall, they are planning a 30-day cruise to Tahiti from Seattle.

Jim and Kathleen Green

Jim and Kathleen Green, of Klahanie, celebrated their 50th anniversary Jan. 21, 2011, with their four children Laura, Mike, Mary Lou and Joanne.

VonEmma and Rueben Wagner in 1960

Wagners celebrate 50th anniversary

Rueben and VonEmma Wagner celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on March 6, 2010, in Kauai, Hawaii.Rueben and VonEmma met in Scottsbluff, Neb., while still in high school. VonEmma was born and raised in Scottsbluff, while Reuben was raised in Gering, Neb., just a short distance away.

On March 6, 1960, shortly after graduating from high school, they were married and made their home in Scottsbluff.

In 1963, they started their family when daughter Shelly Dawn was born. Two years later, they had son Jason Richard.After visiting family in the Seattle area and seeing the opportunity for employment, along with several other reasons, they decided to make the move to the Northwest. In 1970, they left Scottsbluff for the small town of Issaquah.

Rueben and VonEmma Wagner in 2010

Rueben and VonEmma both enjoyed long working careers — Rueben spent 30 years with the Totem Foods Co. while VonEmma spent 25 years with The Boeing Co. Both have been retired for several years and they enjoy trips to Arizona every winter.

When home in Issaquah, they enjoy gardening and spending time with their family, which now includes three grandchildren.

Lorna and John Bonner in 1959

John and Lorna Bonner, of Sammamish, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a Panama Canal cruise aboard the Zuiderdam, in the company of Lorna’s sister Janet and brother-in-law Henry Arens.

John, of Pittsburgh, and Lorna, of Vernon, B.C., Canada, were married Nov. 21, 1959, in Sacramento, Calif., where Lorna was a nurse and John was in navigator training with the United States Air Force. Immediately following the wedding, John was assigned to Naha, Okinawa, Japan, with Lorna following a few months later.

The couple also lived in Grand Forks, N.D.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Pittsburgh; and Ogden, Utah, during John’s 20-year Air Force career. Upon retirement, the Bonner family moved to Issaquah. John then undertook a second career with The Boeing Co., while Lorna went to work as the charge nurse of oncology at Overlake Hospital.

John and Lorna have five children — Barb, of Juneau, Alaska; Dan, of Redmond; Susan and husband Joe Bennett, of Seattle; John and wife Melinda, of Snohomish; and Maureen and husband Gerald Petz, of Sammamish. Grandchildren include Nick and Tony Larson; Molly Petz; Ellie, Jack and Katherine Bonner; and Connor and John Bennett.

The Bonners consider themselves fortunate to have enjoyed good physical and mental health in their retirement, which has allowed them to stay busy with the activities they love. These include gardening, golf and many church activities at the parish of Mary, Queen of Peace.

Additionally, John spends time volunteering with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul while Lorna donates many of her afternoons at Eastside Baby Corner.

John and Lorna Bonner in 2009

Above all, the Bonners are grateful that all but one of their children, and all eight of their grandchildren, live in the Seattle area. This has allowed them to remain devoted to family and be able to spend much time cheering on the grandchildren in football, soccer, basketball, track, ballet and other activities.