Local Lakes Couple Celebrates 70th Anniversary

Still Going Steady at 70

Writer and Photography / Robin Myers    

June Tellkamp met Ed Pullen at Purdue University in Indiana in 1947, he proposed August 1949 and they were married on June 9, 1951, in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Just a short 70 years later they are still behaving like teenagers who are still “going steady” in high school.

Fewer than .1% of married couples make it to their 70^th wedding anniversary, but June and Ed were destined to be a part of the few to make it. When asked their advice to young couples who are getting married, they say, “Effort has to be 100% on both sides, never go to bed angry, and respect each other’s right to be stupid.”  Yes, you read that right. These two have a sense of humor about each other and the world.

“We don’t do a lot together, but we have our own hobbies,” Ed says. You’d be wrong if you thought these two folks — now in their early nineties — would be relaxing in their retirement. They are both artistic types. June relishes in her stained-glass window creations and stays healthy playing pickleball. Ed creates stunning wood pieces including raw edged tables. Ed creates beautiful wood pieces including raw-edged tables. In 2010 he took over the floundering Heartland Artist Gallery and turned it into a prosperous and wonderful asset for Plymouth.

“The most monumental thing that happened to me was when I met a girl named June Tellkamp who became my wife, a life-long companion, and my best friend,” Ed says. June acts like a giddy schoolgirl every time he gazes into her eyes. These two have a soul-to-soul way of communicating their love and respect for each other. It’s effortless, profound, and something we should all strive for 70 plus years after meeting our life partner.

Ed and June feel that living on the lake in Marshall County is, “… an ideal place to live out our retirement. This is life in the slow lane. We have room for our hobbies, wonderful neighbors and a good church. We have a beautiful lake to watch year-round as the seasons change it.”

They are the second generation to live in the same home on a Marshall County lake. Ed and June rejoice in all the love bestowed on them from their five grown children and oodles of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The love and devotion they show to each other, their family, community and their faith inspires all who know them to aim for a life as lovely and full as they have created together.

Typical wedding vows include the passage “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better– for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, and thereto pledge thee my faith.”  Ed and June have lived these words from their wedding day to day number 25,550 — that’s 70 years.

Here’s wishing you continued love and happiness all the days to come. Happy 70^th wedding anniversary, lovebirds!