{"id":44834,"date":"2021-09-06T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T01:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/las-cruces-couple-reflect-on-75-years-together\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:21:59","slug":"las-cruces-couple-reflect-on-75-years-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/las-cruces-couple-reflect-on-75-years-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Cruces couple reflect on 75 years together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thomas
Thomas and Dee House sit together at their home Aug. 26 in Las Cruces, N.M. A chance meeting on July 18, 1946, and three weeks together \u2013 that was the beginning of Thomas and Dee House\u2019s 75-year marriage. (Nathan J. Fish\/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP)<\/span>Nathan J Fish<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) \u2013 A chance meeting on July 18, 1946, and three weeks together \u2013 that was the beginning of Thomas and Dee House\u2019s 75-year marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is supposed to be the marriage that wouldn\u2019t last,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

But two daughters, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren later and they\u2019re still the best of friends.<\/p>\n

Dee, 91, was born in Empire, Ohio and Thomas, 97, was born in Charles Town, West Virginia. They grew up during the Great Depression, watching the country slowly move closer toward war.<\/p>\n

In 1941, before the U.S. joined World War II, Thomas joined the U.S. Navy. He was 17 at the time so his mother had to sign for him, but he was determined to get out on open water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the Navy, I love the water,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI had this poster they had during World War II sitting around, said \u2018Uncle Sam needs you.\u2019 So, I looked at it and I said, \u2018You know, I think I need Uncle Sam, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The war ended in September 1945 and Thomas returned home. About 10 months later, he stepped off a trolley in front of a coffee shop in Norfolk, Virginia. Dee was working inside and immediately noticed Thomas. He saw her, too. Neither could keep their eyes off the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought he was the most beautiful thing I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d Dee said, laughing.<\/p>\n

\"A
A photograph of Thomas and Dee House is displayed in their home in Las Cruces, N.M. A chance meeting on July 18, 1946, and three weeks together \u2013 that was the beginning of Thomas and Dee House\u2019s 75-year marriage. (Nathan J. Fish\/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP)<\/span>Nathan J Fish<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomas and Dee talked into the night on his front porch swing and Dee remembers him saying, \u201cIf I feel about you like I do now … I\u2019m going to ask you to marry me.\u201d Three weeks later, he did. Dee said she answered \u201cyes\u201d as quickly as she could.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 9, 1946, the couple married in Indian Head, Maryland, in the home of a Baptist minister who tried to talk them out of it. Only after they tied the knot did Dee \u2013 then 16 \u2013 tell her parents about the union.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy folks were just horrified. They were just so angry,\u201d Dee said. \u201cI was visiting my cousin and I wasn\u2019t supposed to be dating \u2013 sailors especially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon they were whisked off on Thomas\u2019 next duty station \u2013 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Their eldest daughter, Cheryl Samuels was born there in 1947. They have a second daughter, Suzanne Williford.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s job in the Navy moved them all over the world \u2013 Washington, D.C., for his work at the Pentagon; Japan; San Diego; and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He even spent time on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. The months Tom was stationed on a ship at sea were the hardest on their family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so hard on me and the girls,\u201d Dee said. \u201cThey thought he\u2019d left us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom was a chief warrant officer W-3 with a top-secret clearance when he retired from the Navy at Clarksville Base in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The couple moved near Kerrville, Texas, and built a home themselves. By 1990, they were living in Moriarty, New Mexico. But the cold winters were becoming too much, so they moved to Las Cruces in 1994.<\/p>\n

Cheryl passed away in 2006 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease. Suzanne and her husband retired to Las Cruces to be closer to the Houses.<\/p>\n

The Houses faced obstacles throughout their life together, but nothing has hindered their devotion to one another. Tom said when they first met, he was obsessed with the idea of being with Dee. And Dee didn\u2019t want Tom to leave her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got married, we knew we were going to be best friends forever,\u201d Tom said. \u201cAnd we knew we were going to have a hand to hold on to. And we never let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
Thomas and Dee House hold hands at their home in Las Cruces, N.M., after 75 years of marriage. \u201cThis is supposed to be the marriage that wouldn\u2019t last,\u201d Thomas said. But two daughters, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren later and they\u2019re still the best of friends. (Nathan J. Fish\/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP)<\/span>Nathan J Fish<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

and Dee House sit together at their home Aug. 26 in Las Cruces, N.M. A chance meeting on July 18, 1946, and three weeks together \u2013 that was the beginning of Thomas and Dee House\u2019s 75-year marriage. (Nathan J. Fish\/The Las Cruces Sun News via AP)Nathan J Fish LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) \u2013 A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86246,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44834\/revisions\/86246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44834"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}