List of long marriages

This is a list of long marriages. It includes people who have been married for at least 80 years. The length of marriage is based on the reported death of either member, or reported divorce, or the most recent report that both members of the couple were still living.

Background

A study by Robert and Jeanette Lauer, reported in the Journal of Family Issues, conducted on 40 sets of spouses married for at least 50 years, concluded that the long-term married couples received high scores on the Lock-Wallace marital satisfaction test and were closely aligned on how their marriages were doing.[1] In a 1979 study on about 55 couples in marriages with an average length of 55.5 years, couples said their marriages lasted so long because of mutual devotion and special regard for each other.[1] Couples who have been married for a long time have a lower likelihood of divorcing because "common economic interests and friendship networks increase over time" and during stress can assist in sustaining the relationship.[2]

Another study found that people in long marriages are wedded to the idea of "marital permanency" in which "They don't see divorce as an option".[3] Sociologist Pepper Schwartz, AARP's relationships authority, said that it was helpful to have a spouse who is quick to recover when there are surprises in life.[3]

A study of 1,152 couples who had been married for over 50 years found that they attributed their long marriages to faith in each other, love, ability to make concessions, admiration for each other, reliance on each other, children, and strong communication.[4] Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family and Marriage Research found that 7% of American marriages last at least 50 years.[3]

Recording longest marriages

The longest marriage recorded (although not officially recognized) is an emerald wedding anniversary (90 years) between Karam and Kartari Chand, who both lived in the United Kingdom, but were married in India. Karam and Kartari Chand married in 1925 and died in 2016 and 2019 respectively.[5][6]

Guinness World Records published its first edition in 1955.[7] In the 1984 to 1998 editions, the longest recorded marriages were between Temulji Bhicaji Nariman and Lady Nariman, and Lazarus and Mary Rowe according to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, both of them spanning 86 years.[8][9] Guinness has since recognized couples with longer marriage spans, with the current world record holders being Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher.[10] Guinness also keeps record of the oldest married couple by aggregate age.[11]

Other organizations have created events where they honor couples with long marriages. In 2011, World Marriage Encounter (WME), an American organization that was responsible for making a World Marriage Day, created a Longest Married Couple Project (LMCP), where they pick a couple with a long marriage and honor them on Valentine's Day.[12][13] They have since expanded the awards to representatives in each of the 50 states, although the candidates selected are not necessarily the ones with record-setting marriages.[14] Starting in 2004, the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF) has honored its own annual list of long-time married couples in that particular state.[15]

List of marriages reported to be more than 80 years
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

  At least one spouse is deceased   Both spouses are living   Disputed or unverified

Names Marriage date Length of marriage End date
(person's death)		 Residence
(at date of last report or death)		 Notes Refs
Karam Chand
Kartari Chand		 11 December 1925 90 years, 291 days 30 September 2016
(Karam)		 Bradford (England), United Kingdom Not recognized by Guinness World Records[16] [17]
K. Philipose Thomas
Sosamma Thomas		 17 February 1918 88 years, 2 days 19 February 2006
(Sosamma)		 Kerala, India Not recognized by Guinness World Records[18] [19][20]
Herbert Fisher, Sr.
Zelmyra (née George) Fisher		 13 May 1924 86 years, 290 days 27 February 2011
(Herbert)		 North Carolina, United States Current Guinness World Record for longest marriage, recognized in 2008[10][21] [22]
Temulji Bhicaji Nariman
Lady Nariman		 1853 86 years 1 August 1940
(Temulji)		 Maharashtra, India Temulji and Lady Nariman married as cousins when they were 5 years old.
This was noted as longest marriage recorded through 1940.
Shared Guinness World Record with Lazarus and Mary Rowe for editions up to 1998.[9]		 [23][24][25]
Lazarus Rowe
Mary (née Webber) Rowe		 1743 86 years 27 June 1829
(Mary)		 New Hampshire, United States Shared Guinness World Record with the Narimans for editions up to 1998[9] [26][27][28][29]
Liu Yung-Yang
Liu Yang Yang-Wan		 1917 86 years 21 July 2003
(Yang Yang-Wan)		 Taoyuan, Taiwan Was recognized by Guinness World Records 2004 (published in 2003) as world's longest marriage[30][31] [32][30]
John George Betar
Ann (née Shawah) Betar		 25 November 1932 85 years, 291 days 12 September 2018
(John)		 Connecticut, United States Winner of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter's Longest Married Couple Project in 2013[12] [33]
Duranord Veillard
Jeanne Hermina Veillard		 29 November 1932 85 years, 184 days 1 June 2018
(Duranord)		 New York, United States [34]
Maurice Kaye
Helen Kaye		 27 August 1934 83 years, 330 days 22 July 2018
(Maurice)		 Bournemouth (England), United Kingdom [35]
Henry Andrew Johnson
Lena (née Knudsen) Johnson		 8 February 1920 83 years, 231 days 27 September 2003 (Lena) Iowa, United States [31]
William B. Ritchie
Claudia Lillian Ritchie		 12 April 1919 83 years, 224 days 22 November 2002 (William) Kentucky, United States Recognized by Guinness World Records as world's oldest living married couple in 2002 [36][37][38][31]
Norman James Burmah
Norma "Mickey" (née Depland) Burmah		 27 January 1931 83 years, 222 days 6 September 2014 (Norma) Louisiana, United States [39]
Marshall N. Kuykendall
Winifred Louisiana "Winnie Louise" (née Macnab) Kuykendall		 14 February 1929 83 years, 221 days 22 September 2012 (Winnie) New Mexico, United States Winner of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter's inaugural Longest Married Couple Project in 2011[12] [40][41]
George L. Briant
Germaine (née Thibodeaux) Briant		 20 July 1921 83 years, 192 days 25 January 2005 (Germaine)
28 January 2005 (George)		 Louisiana, United States Honored by Governor David Vitter in the Louisiana Family Forum's inaugural Louisiana's longest married couple contest in 2004 [42]
Steven "Steve" Wrubel
Victoria Virginia "Vicky" (née Puvalowski) Wrubel		 28 September 1929 83 years, 192 days 8 April 2013 (Vickie) Florida, United States Were recognized by Guinness World Records in 2011, but did not clinch the record[41] [43]
Arend Noordhuis
Aaltje (née Nijstad) Noordhuis		 22 January 1938 83 years, 15 days 15 November 2020
(Arend)		 Drenthe, Netherlands [44][45][46]
Masao Matsumoto
Miyako (née Sonoda) Matsumoto		 20 October 1937 81 years, 209 days 17 May 2019
(Masao)		 Kagawa, Japan Guinness World Record for "Oldest living married couple, aggregate age", recognized in August 2018[47]
Guinness World Record for "Oldest married couple, aggregate age" (17 May 2019)[lower-alpha 1]		 [47][11][48][49]
Michael Nikolaus
Katharina Nikolaus		 26 December 1924 80 years, 358 days 19 December 2005 (Katharina) Siegen, Germany [50]
Warren Clinton Snell
Arline (née Larson) Snell		 25 February 1940 80 years, 347 days Iowa, United States [51]
Loyd Monroe Collins
Evelyn Eunice (née Garlington) Collins		 11 August 1934 80 years, 333 days 10 July 2015 (Evelyn) Louisiana, United States Recognized by the Louisiana Family Forum in 2012 [52]
John Henderson
Charlotte (née Curtis) Henderson		 22 December 1939 80 years, 299 days 16 October 2020 (John) Texas, United States Recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest living married couple. [53]
Jon Magnusson
Rita Magnusson		 14 July 1940 80 years, 207 days Hvidovre, Denmark [54]
Ronald Gilbert Collings
Esther Elizabeth Collings		 19 October 1938 80 years, 187 days 24 April 2019
(Esther)		 Adelaide, Australia Australia's oldest couple mark 80 years together[55] [55][56][57]
William Dean Olive

Vacle G Olive

 25 January 1941 80 years, 12 days Arkansas, United States [58]

Notes
  1. At the time of Masao Matsumoto's death, on 17 May 2019, he (born 9 July 1910) was aged 108 years, 312 days and his wife, Miyako Sonoda (born 24 November 1917), 101 years, 174 days, a combined age of 210 years, 121 days.

References
  1. Lauer, Robert H.; Lauer, Jeanette C. (1 December 1986). "Factors in Long-Term Marriages". Journal of Family Issues. 7 (4): 382–390. doi:10.1177/019251386007004003. PMID 12280519. S2CID 28822228.
  2. Lamanna, Mary Ann; Riedmann, Agnes (2012). Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society (11 ed.). Belmont, California: Cengage. p. 410. ISBN 978-1-111-30154-5. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  3. Antoniades, Christina Breda (11 February 2016). "The secret to a long-lasting marriage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  4. Alford-Cooper, Finnegan (1998). For Keeps: Marriages That Last a Lifetime. New York: M. E. Sharpe. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-315-29337-0. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  5. "Karam Chand, 110, believed to be longest-married dies". BBC. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  6. Wood, Alexandra (9 January 2020). "Tributes paid to Bradford's oldest woman who died aged 107 Over the course of her remarkably long life she gave her family "blessings, moral values and togetherness"". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  7. "Celebrating 60 Years". guinnessworldrecords.com.
  8. McWhirter, Norris (18 October 1983). Guinness Book of World Records 1984. Sterling Publishing Company. ISBN 9780806902562 – via Google Books.
  9. Young, Mark C. (18 July 1998). The Guinness Book of World Records, 1998. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553578959 – via Google Books.
  10. "Longest marriage". Guinness World Records. 27 February 2011. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  11. "Oldest married couple, aggregate age". Guinness World Records.
  12. "2019 Worldwide Marriage Encounter's Longest Married Couple Project Accepting Nominations Beginning Valentine's Day – Feb. 14th – Standard Newswire". standardnewswire.com.
  13. Walters, Tim (13 February 2015). "CBS News will feature local couples long marriage project". Florida Today.
  14. "Longest Married Couple Project award goes to St. Pascal Baylon couple". 23 February 2017.
  15. "Morgan City couples among La.'s longest married". St. Mary Now. 14 February 2019.
  16. Waring, Olivia (11 December 2015). "World's oldest married couple aged 110 and 103 celebrate their 90th wedding anniversary". Metro. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  17. Articles pertaining to Karam and Kartari Chand:
  18. "Man part of the world's longest marriage passes away". Weddingstreet.
  19. Jacob, George (26 June 2005). "The world's longest-married: now a claim from Kerala". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  20. "Death separates world's longest married couple". Kerala News. 21 February 2006. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  21. Hendricks, Carla Adair. "World's Longest Marriage, Guinness World Record, Longevity, Couples, H..." AARP.
  22. Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher references:
  23. Temulji and Lady Nariman references:
  24. Khilnani, N. M. (1993). Socio-political Dimensions of Modern India. New Delhi: M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-85880-06-8.
  25. "People: Marriage that has lasted for 75 years". The Independent. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  26. "Obit: Lazarus Rowe 1725 – 1829." The Connecticut Courant. 29 September 1829.
  27. Taylor, Robert L.; Lord, Edward S. (1991). History of Limington, Maine (2 ed.). Heritage Books. pp. 2+3.
  28. Rudge, David. "Descendants of a Webber family from Bideford, Devonshire Co. England". Dave Rudge's Genealogy Page at Western Michigan University. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  29. The Columbian Star and Christian Index. W.T. Brantly. 1829. p. 224. It is presumed the United States do not contain another man and wife, who have lived so long in the conjugal state
  30. Folkard, Claire (2003). Guinness World Records 2004. New York City: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-58712-8.
  31. Challender, Mary (8 February 2003). "Long-wed couple: 83 years have sped by". The Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. Liu Yung-Yang and Liu Yang Yang-Wan references:
  33. John George and Ann Betar references:
  34. Duranord and Jeanne Veillard references:
  35. Maurice and Helen Kaye references:
  36. "83 years of marriage declared world record". Billings Gazette.
  37. "Did You Know..." Chippewa Herald-Telegram. 11 May 2003. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. "Paris Residents Recognized as World's Oldest Married Couple". Kentucky New Era. Associated Press. 28 August 2002. pp. A6. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  39. Norman and Norma Burmah references:
  40. Marshall and Winnie Kuykendall references:
  41. Stevens, Bill (28 September 2011). "For Steve and Vickie Wrubel, it's a love 82 years strong". Saint Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  42. George and Germaine Briant references:
  43. Steve and Vicky Wrubel references:
  44. "82 jaar getrouwd en nog steeds verliefd: 'We kunnen niet zonder elkaar'" (in Dutch). 22 January 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  45. "Echtpaar Noordhuis liefst 82 jaar getrouwd" (in Dutch). 22 January 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  46. "Arend Noordhuis uit Ruinen, man van het langst getrouwde stel van Nederland, overleden: 'Hij heeft een mooi leven gehad'" (in Dutch). 16 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  47. Senda, Masakazu (8 August 2018). "Couple together for 80 years with combined age of 208 set oldest living married couple record". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  48. "Secret to Japanese couple's 80 years of marriage – wife's patience". The Japan Times. Reuters. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  49. "Family recalls husband in oldest married couple as living full life". The Asahi Shimbun. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  50. Michael and Katharina Nikolaus references:
  51. "'We're good friends as well as in love': Happiness abounds between Iowa couple married almost 80 years". 13 February 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  52. Grant, Tim (21 February 2012). "2012 Longest Married Hall of Fame". Louisiana Family Forum. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  53. "Congratulations: World's oldest married couple celebrate 80th wedding anniversary". Kiro7. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  54. "Rita og Jon har været gift i 80 år: 'Det er den store kærlighed' Parret på 101 og 96 år kan i dag fejre såkaldt egebryllup" (in Danish). 14 July 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  55. Wilson, Roxanne (18 October 2018). "Married for 80 years: Ron and Esther's incredible love story". The Advertiser. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  56. "STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE – Collings, Mrs Esther and Mr Ronald". 18 October 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  57. "THE ADVERTISER TRIBUTES". The Advertiser. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  58. "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
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