By Cathy Spaulding
Jess Frazier said he could not remember having wedding cake the day he married his wife, Grace, in 1934.
Jess and Grace Frazier got more than their share Tuesday, when they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary at Magnolia Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care Community. Jess, who turns 97 next month, and Grace, 91, fed each other chocolate wedding cake as family, friends, residents and staff watched.
“This is a first,” said the center’s life engagement coordinator, Kay Wilkins. “I have never met anyone who’s been married 75 years.”
Jess Frazier attributed the marriage’s success to that promise he made in 1934.
“You know how the preacher told us ‘do you take this woman to honor and cherish and love until death do you part.’ That’s what I did,” he said.
The Frazier’s three children agreed the marriage has been strong.
“They just taught us values,” said daughter Charlotte Visor of Checotah.
“They lived through hard times before the war and after the war,” youngest son, Jerry Frazier of Muskogee, said, referring to World War II. “They came from an era when they didn’t think about divorce, though maybe murder a time or two.
“Their marriage was forever,” said older son, Charles Frazier of Muskogee, who celebrates his 50th wedding anniversary in July.
The love affair started with a chance meeting, Jess Frazier said.
“I lived about five or six miles from where she went to school,” he said. “I was out riding my horse and she was on the outdoor basketball court. I got off, tied my horse up, crawled through the fence and we got to talking. I found out her name, told her mine and I got up and rode off. I decided ‘one of these days I’m going to marry that ole’ gal.”
First, they had to endure a long-distance relationship.
Frazier, who was reared on a farm between Checotah and Eufaula, was working a Civilian Conservation Corps camp near Talihina at the time.
Eventually Frazier returned to McIntosh County and proposed to Grace. They wed six or seven months later at his uncle’s house.
The young couple lived together near her father’s house and ran a grocery store near Elm Grove for about a year. The couple then moved to the Texas border town of Brownsville, where Frazier recalled “we helped build three cotton gins.”
Eventually, they returned to Checotah, where Frazier bought his father’s farm.
“Times were really tough,” he said. “Before we married in 1934, Hoover was president and people were riding freight trains — whole families.”
After World War II, the two lived in Checotah, where Jess Frazier worked at a gas station. He recalled that one night, the Checotah mayor and a council member approached him about being the city’s police chief. That was in 1945. He kept his job until 1977.
Meanwhile Grace Frazier worked at an apparel factory.
The couple reared three sons and a daughter.
Jesse Frazier said his three sons served in the Air Force in during the Vietnam War. One son later died.
Jesse and Grace Frazier now live at Magnolia Gardens. Grace Frazier has Alzheimer’s Disease.
“They were strict, but fantastic,” Visor said. “It was a little town, and everybody knew everybody. But as parents they were fantastic.”
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email
