Rocky starts don’t stop east Las Vegas couples from reaching marriage milestones

An oft-stated statistic that 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce isn't true, but divorce is commonplace enough that it seems that way. In the east valley, View found two couples who don't believe those odds, and if they did, they're bucking them.

ROCKY START LED TO 43 YEARS TOGETHER, AND COUNTING, FOR EAST VALLEY PAIR

Barb and Wayne Skurow moved to Las Vegas 1½ years ago. They found a home in Stallion Mountain Golf Club on their first day of looking for a house and bought it.

"If you see something you really want, why not do it?" Wayne said.

The pair are quick to make decisions. Wayne decided he was going to marry Barb on their second date, a date that almost didn't happen because he didn't think she liked him and moved 2,000 miles away after the first date.

"I was working at a bank, but I was also working part time as a waitress," Barb said. "He kept asking me to go out for a drink after work, and I kept telling him I didn't date the customers."

She finally relented, insisting that they stick to one drink. When he invited her home for coffee after that drink, she declined, and Wayne thought that was it.

"I was sticking to my guns," Barb said. "I had to work the next day."

Soon after, she and a girlfriend moved to Newport Beach, Calif., from where she had been living in northwest Indiana. She didn't care for California and returned six weeks later, visiting her friends at the restaurant where she ran into Wayne again.

"He asked me if I liked jazz, and I didn't know anything about jazz," Barb said. "He said there was a great jazz place in Chicago, so we went on a second date. I thought he was fun, and he was funny, and he was polite and cute, and everything about him I liked."

It was a long drive back from Chicago, and on the ride back, Barb laid her head on his shoulder.

"He told me later that when I did that, he knew I was going to be his wife," Barb said. "He was just the perfect guy for me."

"She was the perfect lady for me," Wayne said.

The pair eloped to Las Vegas, marrying at the Chapel of the Bells. The pair were frequent visitors to the valley and vowed they would move to Las Vegas when they retired. When they did, they revisited the chapel, 2233 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

"It hadn't changed in 40-some years," Wayne said.

They both credited not trying to change the other as a big part of what has kept them together for nearly 43 years.

"I think we're destined to be together," Barb said. "We're opposites. He's Jewish; I'm Roman Catholic. He's a procrastinator; I like to get everything done right now. But the basic things that we have in common are more important than our differences. Those are the foundation of our marriage, and that foundation is strong."

Barb added that their faith and their belief in God is the real foundation that bolsters the rest of their commonalities. They are willing to compromise and work with each other.

"Even though I'm Jewish, I go to church with her every Sunday," Wayne said. "We respect each other as well as love each other."

COUPLE MARKING 68 YEARS TOGETHER AFTER CROSS-COUNTRY MOVES, SIX CHILDREN

Florence and Harold Tibbs met in high school. She sat two rows over from him in class, and the sparks flew pretty quickly once they met. One day, a poem by Harold ended up on Florence's desk. She still has that poem, along with letters he sent from overseas while he was stationed in Burma, China and India during World War II.

"Saturday night rolls' round again, so up the hill I go," Harold's poem reads, "To spend a quiet evening with super-duper Flo."

Florence explained that, at the time, super-duper was the ultimate superlative, but even though he won her over with his poetry, they still had to clear the wooing with her parents. Harold remembered that Florence told him he would have to ask her parents the first time he invited her to a movie.

"We lived in Gorin, Mo., a little farm town, and we didn't have a theater there," Harold said. "You had to go about 20 miles up to the county seat to see a movie. I went over to her parents to ask if I could take Florence to a movie."

They thought about it a while and told him he could, but only if he took them along. The parents didn't have a car, so they rode in the backseat of an old Model A that Harold's family owned.

"They sat right behind us in the theater, keeping an eye on this farm boy that they didn't know that well," Harold said.

Harold graduated in 1942 and went straight into the Army as many men of his generation did. His father was also young enough to be eligible for the service, and because Harold signed up, his father didn't have to and could continue to run the family farm. That also meant Harold didn't have to run the farm, a task he said he didn't look forward to.

He joined the Army Air Corps and eventually served in a cargo unit that flew oil in 50-gallon barrels from Burma to China.

"He courted me all through the war on V-mail (Victory Mail)," Florence said. "Every other word was marked out because they had been censored."

After the war, Harold used the GI Bill to attend school to become a mining engineer. Florence went to school also and worked for lawyers and real estate agents. In Harold's junior year, they decided to get married. Harold had been surviving on a $90-a-month stipend from the Army, which jumped all the way up to $120 a month after the marriage.

"We call those 'The lean years and the bean years,' " Florence said.

The couple didn't have the funds to purchase a car, so Harold bought a bicycle. When their first child came along, he sold it to buy a baby buggy. He graduated in 1949 when a glut of young men who, like Harold, had attended college on the GI Bill flooded the market, and jobs were scarce. Harold's parents had moved into town by then, so the young couple and their child moved into the farmhouse while Harold sent out resumes.

"The farmhouse had no electricity and no plumbing," Harold said. "We lived there until we got a job. I borrowed my brother's car and went looking. The first place I drove to was a gypsum and wallboard plant in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They hired me. I had sent out all kinds of letters, but I found out if you really want a job, you've got to knock on doors of places that are hiring. I started working for $1.05 an hour."

Harold worked that first job for 11 years before going to work at other mining operation in Montana, then back to Iowa and then on to Colorado. By the time he was offered a position building the new Pabco operation near Lake Mead, the family had grown to eight.

They got caught in a snowstorm on the way from Colorado and were stranded in Taos, N.M., for a week. On New Year's Eve 1964, they arrived in Las Vegas with six children, including a 6-month-old, as well as a puppy, and no reservations.

"We did find a house, but it was on the other side of town from the motel we were staying at, and our furniture didn't arrive for two weeks," Florence said. "It was mid-semester for the kids, and Harold got shipped off to Chicago the first two weeks we were here. I had never driven in a big town before, and every day, I had to drive the kids to four different schools on the other side of town from where we were staying."

When the plant was finished, Harold was offered a job at a gypsum operation in California, but the Tibbses were tired of moving, so he applied for and got a job at the Nevada Test Site. They raised their children, some of whom stayed nearby, while others moved to Los Angeles and Reno.

The couple both retired on the same day and drove to a quiet dinner at a local restaurant. They didn't want to make a big fuss about it.

They tried to avoid a fuss for their 50th wedding anniversary as well by taking a trip to Australia, but when they returned, their children threw a surprise party with 76 family members in attendance. When their 60th anniversary came around, they knew better than to try to slip away, so they took their children, their children's spouses and their grandchildren on a cruise to Alaska.

The couple say that the secret to the longevity of their marriage is respect and compromise.

"You've got to admire each other, even though their interests might not be yours," Harold said. "You've got to meet them halfway."

Super-duper Flo conferred.

"Everyone's different," she said.

The pair have 24 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with another on the way. In June, they'll celebrate their 68th wedding anniversary.

— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.