Jim and Loretta Beuter of Perry celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary Monday, July 29.
They married on a 92-degree day at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Tipton, Iowa, where West Branch native Jim Beuter exchanged vows with Loretta Corkery in her hometown.
“All the men were in suits,” Loretta recalled, “and the ladies wore hats and gloves — in that heat!”
Jim served in the U.S. Army in Korea as a forward observer from 1951 to 1953, a position with a life expectancy of about two weeks. He said it was Loretta’s regular letters from the home front that kept up his morale.
The couple farmed near Tipton after marriage, and Jim was nominated for Outstanding Young Farmer in 1955. In 1961 he started a 35-year career as a crop production specialist for Dallas County with Growmark, retiring in 1995.
“In those days I knew every farmer in the county,” he said.
Loretta taught at St. Patrick Catholic School in Perry for many years in addition to raising their four children: Bernadette, Pat, Paul and Michele.
“A lot of patience and understanding” are needed to make a marriage work, Jim said, and Loretta agreed.
The Beuters attended Mass July 6 at St. Patrick Catholic Church, where the Rev. Litto Thomas, parish priest, gave the Beuters a special blessing:
“We praise you, O God. We bless you, creator of all things, who in the beginning made man and woman that they might form a communion of life and love. We give you thanks for graciously blessing Jim and Loretta with 70 years of happy married life so that it might present an image of Christ’s union with the Church. Look with kindness upon Jim and Loretta today and as you have sustained their communion amid joys and struggles, renew their marriage covenant each day, increase their charity and strengthen in them the bond of peace so that they may forever enjoy your blessing, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”