Cherishing time together

On Sept. 3, Roy and Louise Hipperson spent the night at the Davenport Hotel. They hadn’t stayed at the hotel since their wedding night, exactly 60 years before. This time the room was an anniversary gift from their children. However, the Hippersons declined to arrive in the style their family had hoped for.

“We turned down the limo,” said Roy. “We were afraid our neighbors would think someone had died.” They both laughed softly and settled into chairs in the hotel’s lobby to talk about their six decades together.

Their story is laced with Spokane history. The couple met 62 years ago at Natatorium Park. Louise and her sisters had come to hear the band play. “Roy was with some friends,” Louise recalled. “He came up and introduced himself.” She said the old cliché “tall, dark and handsome” was an apt description of the 6-foot-5 Hipperson.

Time has blurred the memories of that first meeting for Roy, but his wife remembers it well enough for both of them. She confided, “I really think he thought I was the most gorgeous girl in the room,” and then she grinned.

That night began a two-year courtship. Louise, a Rogers High School graduate, was working in a surgeon’s office. Roy had just completed a stint of military service and was attending Gonzaga University.

“We gradually knew we were falling in love,” said Louise, “but there was an obstacle: he wasn’t a Christian.” She was passionate about her faith, but her suitor hadn’t been raised in any religious tradition.

“Two different times, I tried to break up with him,” she said. But Roy was persistent and patient in his pursuit. On Sept. 3, 1948, they were married at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on Spokane’s North Side.

The sumptuous penthouse their children secured for their 60th anniversary is quite an improvement on the last room they shared at the hotel. “He really wanted to impress me,” Louise said. “He told me we were going to spend our wedding night in the bridal suite, but it was just a big room.”

They spent their honeymoon in Banff, Alberta, and laughed when recalling the tandem bike ride they enjoyed.

When they returned, Roy taught school for a couple years at Medical Lake High School. “Teaching wasn’t my forte,” he said shaking his head. Instead, he became an accountant and opened his own accounting business.

Within five years of marriage, three children arrived to fill their home. “Those were busy years,” said Louise. “But my heart was heavy because he still wasn’t saved,” she said, referring to Roy’s lack of Christian conversion.

Still, she said, “He was a good husband and a good daddy.”

A fourth child was added to their family. And when Roy’s mother died suddenly, he began to reconsider his stance on Christianity. He had been very close to his mother and was devastated by the loss. One afternoon, in a reflective mood, he told a friend from his Rotary Club that his wife had been praying for him to become a Christian.

His friend offered to pray with him right there in the car, and a short time later Roy attended church with his son and made a public profession of his faith.

All these years later, Louise still cries when she remembers. “It was one of the happiest days of my life.” At last they could share the thing that was most important to Louise. The family joined Fourth Memorial Church, where the Hippersons are still members.

The busy years passed in a blur, and soon their four children were grown and gone. Louise had more time to read, and Roy had more time for golf. “I started playing at age 12,” he said. “I caddied up at Manito.”

“Wives of golfers have to be patient,” Louise said with a smile. Health issues have forced Roy to cut back on golfing, but his face lights up when he talks about his favorite pastime. “I love to walk,” he said. “If you play golf you should love to walk.”

The couple have taken more than 30 trips to Hawaii. “We spent two to three weeks there, every year,” said Roy. But flying isn’t much fun anymore, so these days the Hippersons prefer to stay closer to home and enjoy their 10 grandchildren. In January, they expect to welcome their first great-grandchild.

As they talked about their many years together, Louise said, “Marriage isn’t all fun and games.”

Roy interjected, “Especially when you have a difficult, hard-headed husband.” His wife smiled across the table at him. “He’s mellowed through the years.”

Her advice to couples is simply, “Love each other no matter what.” She paused and glanced down at the table, then up at her husband. “At this stage of life we don’t know how long we have, so we just enjoy every day together.”

As they rose to leave, Louise turned and said, “We’re ordinary people. We haven’t done anything special.”

But many would disagree. Nowadays, a couple celebrating 60 years of marriage is rare and something special, indeed.