Congratulations: World’s oldest married couple celebrate 80th wedding anniversary

AUSTIN, Texas — They are a record-holding married couple, and Texas residents John and Charlotte Henderson have just begun celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary.

Family and friends kicked off the celebration at the Longhorn Village senior living community in Austin, Texas, KXAN reported. John Paul Henderson, 105, and the former Charlotte Ruth Curtis, 105, were married in Harris County, Texas, on Dec. 22, 1939, according to Texas marriage records. They are recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest married couple by aggregate age, and also the oldest living married couple by aggregate age.

John Henderson was born Dec. 24, 1912, while Charlotte Henderson was born Nov. 8, 1914, according to Guinness.

Wednesday in Austin, friends parked a 1920s-style roadster, similar to one John Henderson used when courting Charlotte in the days before World War II, WXAN reported.

John Henderson had lettered in football at the University of Texas in 1935, while Charlotte was studying to become a teacher, the television station reported.

“They are a wonderful couple, and an example of a very happy couple – glad to be around each other, travel together, and live life,” Jason Free, the couple’s great-nephew, told the television station. “They’ve always been very forward-looking people, always very positive about the future, looking forward to tomorrow and what the future holds.

“They’ll tell you the stories of the past, but they don’t dwell on the past – they remember it, but they look forward to the future, and they’ve always been that way."

Guests at the anniversary party enjoyed a large spread of food, while photos of the couple were projected onto a wall, KXAN reported.

Jim Bissett, a resident at Longhorn Village who has known the couple for 10 years, said he helped John Henderson buy a new computer monitor, the television station reported.

When Bissett told Henderson it came with a three-year warranty, Henderson joked that it didn’t matter because he would not live that long.

That was five years ago, KXAN reported.

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