Still young love 67 years later

Alicia Boisson
South Peace News

It took four years and one proposal, but 67 years ago on Feb. 18 one local couple tied the knot without looking back. Sam and Ruth Stout were married on a blistery cold day in 1940. The story of their love is one that today may seem strange and romantic, all at the same time. The pair met in 1923 in Hallsferry, Oregon seven miles outside of Salem. Ruth was four, and Sam was 10. As fate would have it their families were neighbors and even at the young age of four, Ruth knew Sam was the man of her dreams. “I started kissing her at four. She wouldn’t let me leave without giving her a kiss on the cheek when my family came to visit. Some of these women you have to win early you see,” says Sam. “At that time I was more interested in her sister who was eight.” Ruth says she liked Sam because he was very kind, and seemed like a very nice “young fella”. As they grew up the families stayed friends and when Ruth’s family moved to the High Prairie area it wasn’t long before Sam’s followed. However, fate played a small game with the long term couple. Sam married Ruth’s older sister Mildred, who became the mother to Sam’s first three children. One spring, two weeks after the birth of their third child, Sam’s first wife passed away, and left him to tend to three children. “The roads were too bad, and we couldn’t get to town Mildred had to have the baby at home,” says Sam. To help him out, Ruth and her parents took in the infant, and Sam, for two months afterwards looked for a new wife. “I prayed for God to help me find another mother for my children,” says Sam. “One day I was looking out the window at Ruth’s parent’s house, and I could see Ruth sitting on the porch holding the baby on her lap and then I heard a voice tell me ‘There she is,’ “So I went over there and asked Ruth if I could sit with her. She didn’t say anything. She just moved over. That’s when I told her I wanted her to be my wife and raise my children, but told her she didn’t have to answer me right away, that she could think about it.” At 17, Ruth wasn’t able to answer for herself and her parents and family were against the proposal. For four years the pair were not allowed to speak and had to find new ways to express their affection. “Eyes can say more than words,” says Sam. “We were always eyeballing each other whenever we were at the same event. At that time you had to be 21 to speak for yourself. The only one who supported us was my father.” One February day in 1940, a few days before the 18th, Ruth appeared on a horse drawn sleigh. “I went to her and asked her if she had made up her mind and she said yes she would,” says Sam adding the next few days went by like a gust of wind. “Ruth lived with Mildred and me for three years, so she knew what kind of devil I was before she married me.” Their honeymoon was a 26 mile ride to his homestead which saw Ruth dumped out of the horse and buggy. “She still stayed with me even after that,” says Sam. When asked why the marriage has been so successful both Sam and Ruth had their own thoughts. “I just loved him. It is important that you get along with each other,” says Ruth. Sam says Ruth’s loyalty is what has kept him in love with her. “She has been a 100 per cent wife to me,” says Sam adding with a smile, she was a hard worker. “She would help me pick rocks in our fields. Not once did I have to ask her she just volunteered. She took pity on the old man in the field. She picked the big rocks while I picked the small ones.” The secret to a loving marriage say the Stouts, is mutual respect. “Everyone has the right to their opinion. If she wants to believe the moon is made out of cheese that’s her business. There is no use arguing about it,” says Sam. “I treat her the way I want to be treated.”

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