Quote[/b] ]Compatibility remains strong after 71 years
By Rodger Mullen
Staff columnist
BLADENBORO - Mennon and Mary Wright's marriage has survived the Great Depression, typhoid fever and a doctor's death sentence.
Contributed photo
Mary and Mennon Wright have been married for 71 years.
Seventy-one years after they wed, the couple is still together. In fact, except for the rare hospital stay, Mennon and Mary have rarely been apart.
Credit the remarkable longevity to compatible personalities.
"We didn't never have no fights, did we?'' said Mary, looking over at her husband of seven decades at the couple's Bladenboro home.
"Noooo .... '' Mennon said, considering the question. "We've always gotten along.''
Mennon, 90, and Mary, 89, live quietly in a house that Mennon built 60 years ago. They don't want for company; all six of their children, their seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren live nearby.
When I visited the couple last week, Mary was cooking okra. Family members wandered in and out of the house on Pine Ridge Circle.
Health concerns have slowed Mennon and Mary in recent years. Mennon has had to use a walker since a recent fall, and Mary had to have a pacemaker implanted.
But Mennon and Mary have survived worse setbacks.
Starting as neighbors
Mennon Wright and Mary Ann Edwards grew up as neighbors in Bladenboro. They got to know each other at funerals - Mary's nephew and Mennon's brother died around the same time.
Mennon and Mary, who both worked in the cotton mills at the time, started dating, often taking in a movie or going to dinner. They were married May 13, 1933, when Mennon was 19 and Mary was 18.
Mennon remembers that he had enough money to get married, but nothing left over for a honeymoon - his pay at the time was 8 cents an hour. A friend gave the couple $5 so they could go out to dinner.
Two weeks after the wedding, Mary contracted typhoid fever, the couple's daughter Liz Holley said. Mary was quarantined in her home until she recovered.
Mennon continued his work at the cotton mill, while Mary tended a grocery store the family owned nearby. Their first child was born in 1937; today the children range in age from 67 to 51.
In the 1940s, when Mennon was making $37.50 a week, he scraped together enough money to buy several lots off N.C. 211. The land is still in the family; Mennon and Mary's children now live there.
Mennon - who was unable to serve in World War II because he is deaf - built the house, where he and Mary still live, in 1944. Mary remembers that because of wartime building supply shortages, the house was without doors or windows the couple's first nights there.
Holley, who was born in 1952, remembers a home that was filled with love. Mennon and Mary would open their house to friends in need, even though money was often tight.
"Sometimes they had a car, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes we had decent clothes, sometimes we didn't,'' Holley said. "But they were always there for us.''
Through the years, the Wrights enjoyed mostly good health. But Mennon got a frightening diagnosis in the 1960s, Holley said. A doctor told him a suspected brain tumor would kill him within six months.
"They said he wouldn't live if they didn't operate on him,'' Holley said. "He wouldn't let them operate on him.'' The diagnosis was mistaken.
Health adjustments
Their recent health concerns have forced Mennon and Mary to make adjustments. Mary laments that she can't clean the house like she used to, and the couple is no longer able to work in their garden.
But they still pick pears, apples and pecans off the trees out back, and Mary still makes biscuits for dinner every day. "I love my biscuits,'' Mary said.
Holley said her parents' long partnership is an inspiration to her. She hopes her own marriage lasts as long.
She's only got another 44 years to go.
Rodger Mullen's column appears Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. He can be reached at
mullenr@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3561.
