Bond of fondness

Wilbur and Mary Kahl of Shipman celebrated 73 years of marriage in February and are still devoted to each other, standing by each other through good times and bad.

The couple, who fell in love in high school, attends the Shipman Alumni Banquet each year. The oldest couple there, they recently went to their 79th banquet. He graduated in 1933, and went 12 years of school, walking two miles, without ever being absent or tardy. She graduated in 1935.

"Nobody had a car; it was horse power," Wilbur Kahl said. "Everything was dirt. I was not sick enough to be home. I have 12 cards to prove it."

Kahl, 96, went to Blackburn College for awhile, and then went to work at Shipman Elevator in 1935. His wife said he earned $1 per day until they were married in February 1938, then they raised his pay to $2.

"Sixteen boys wanted that job," Mary Kahl said. "He drove a gas truck on mud roads, servicing farmers. He was a good driver."

She said her husband still is driving and still is a good driver. He has been in the hospital recently, suffering from pneumonia. She has experienced pneumonia and knows about the illness.

"I had it in one lung," she said. "I miss him a lot. I was in the hospital six different times, two strokes and six operations. He always looked after me."

"I drove here (on a recent) Sunday," Wilbur said. "I had no idea they would put me in the hospital."

The couple lives in the house they built in 1955 in Shipman. They look after each other and have worked hard. Mary took care of her children and home.

"I grew up farming," Wilbur said. "There were no tractors in those days. It was manual labor."

Wilbur Kahl served on the Shipman Town Board for 20 years. He was Macoupin County school director for about 40 years, and also retired in 1980 from the Macoupin County Service Co., where he worked 42 years. They have been members of Shipman Methodist Church, where he served on the church board and she was head of the children's Sunday school for several years.

Mary Kahl, 94, is self-sufficient, using a power wheelchair. Her husband always is ready to reach items for her, and when she baked his favorite banana cake to take to the hospital, she had to improvise and make her own buttermilk because she couldn't reach the back of the refrigerator where it was kept. A member of home extension for 72 years, she knows her way around the kitchen.

"Mary's a good cook," Wilbur said. "She made the girls' clothing. She was a seamstress. She's given demonstrations on sewing. She's able to take care of herself."

Wilbur has been a member of the Masonic lodge for more than 73 years. He saw Robert Wadlow taken into the Franklin Lodge of Alton in 1939. They are longtime members of Eastern Star, too. Wilbur has an extensive knowledge of the Shipman area and remembers much of the history when there was no electricity and only dirt roads.

They spoke of the recent death of their oldest adopted son, Paul, who had lived in East Alton. He checked on them. They suffered loss early in their marriage, having lost babies at birth.

"After 16 years of marriage we adopted three children," Mary said. "We had babies die at birth. Wilbur had to take care of funerals for each boy as in those days the mother was kept in the hospital eight to 10 days."

The couple has supported each other through the hard times, which they accept as part of life. Mary said they worked together and never had a disagreement. They say they have had a good life.