John and Daisy Humphreys recall wartime hardships, lifetime relationship

When 15-year-old Daisy first caught 17-year-old John’s eye, she was standing on her head at a family party. John and Daisy’s mothers worked together in London, so the families were often thrown together for social events.

“She was very cheeky,” John Humphreys, 98, recalled of the first meeting of his wife of 75 years. “She was full of life.”

“I had my eye on him,” Daisy, 95, said with a twinkle in her eye. “He was handsome, really handsome. I think he is now, too.”

Today, the Humphreys celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. The couple have lived in Corvallis for three years, but their romance first blossomed in the English countryside, where the tom-boy and the nature-lover became frequent companions.

On their first date, John took Daisy to the cinema to see the silent film “Moby Dick,” starring John Barrymore.

“Daisy can still remember the type of chocolate I bought her,” John said.

“I like all chocolates,” Daisy announced.

After a while, John began taking Daisy around on his motorcycle. They’d head out of London and drive into the countryside. John was passionate about the English countryside. His father owned a farm in Birnam Green, Hertfordshire, that John adored.

“The air in London was of a champagne-like quality,” John said of his youth in England. “It was a pleasure to be alive at that time.”

It was during a trip to the farm, a few years after they first met, that John proposed. The couple were taking a walk on his father’s farm, and stopped at a bridge overlooking a stream.

“We were sitting on the edge of the bridge when I suggested to her that we be married,” John said. “She accepted.”

The couple made plans to be married on Dec. 26, a holiday known in England as Boxing Day, in 1931. They rented an apartment and pooled their money to furnish it, but two weeks before the wedding, disaster struck when John lost his construction job.

Luckily, Daisy was working as a dressmaker, so they were able to get through the wedding and move into their new home, but for two weeks after the wedding, they had to live on 2 shillings and sixpence, about 30 cents, which even in 1931, didn’t go far.

“I’m not sure how we existed on our so-called honeymoon,” he said, although the couple fondly recalls one idyllic picnic during those first weeks, during which it began to snow.

The couple lived in various places around England as they began their family, with sons John and Ray soon adding to their brood. John’s work as a contractor landed him a lot of work during World War II, and caused the family to move from place to place for various jobs.

While in Birmingham, Daisy and the children were at home when the Germans bombed the city. Their house was struck, although the family remained safe by hiding under the stairs.

The house was destroyed by the bomb, and Daisy had to help the boys out a shattered window to get them to the bomb shelter across the street, where John eventually found them when he arrived home from work.

The economic hardships of post-war London pushed the family to look elsewhere for a living. They moved to South Africa for several years, and then on to Rhodesia, where John worked as a building inspector and Daisy had her own business as a dressmaker. They returned to England and then moved to Canada for a time, before deciding that America was where they wanted to settle.

They went briefly back to England while waiting for their American visas, and in 1960, they came to the United States, where they settled for good, living in various parts of California.

They added a third son, Michael, to their family, and now, living in close proximity to son Ray and his wife, Pat, in Corvallis, they are supported by the love of seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. They still live independently and still love each other fiercely.

And through their lives, they say, they’ve always found a soul willing to help them or get them through the hard times.

Their secret to a long and happy marriage combines a faith in God with a faith in each other, and a willingness to go wherever they needed to go to succeed and make a good life for their family.

“All our lives, we have, in our troubles, been sustained by the first line in the 23rd Psalm,” John said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”