Couple celebrates 80 (yes, 80) years married

updated 2:29 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2007

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. - A Scottsboro couple recently celebrated the 80th anniversary of their wedding, one of the longest marriages among living people when compared with reports in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records.

Alonzo, 97, and Beulah Sims, 94, marked the anniversary Sunday — a day early — at the northern Alabama nursing home where they have lived since May 2002.

Without their families' approval, the two teens married on Oct. 1, 1927, when he was working at a farm, plowing fields with a mule and picking cotton for 50 cents a day.

The Simses, who raised six children, credit their long lives to hard farm work and eating lots of vegetables. They moved frequently around the state to find farm work, going from Paint Rock Valley near Garth to Atchley Bottom in Madison County and then to Woodville in the 1960s.

'Too busy to fight'
They said their eight decades of marriage have been virtually free of fussing.

''We've been too busy to fight,'' Beulah Sims said.

Alonzo Sims retired from farming in 1966 and did janitorial work at Redstone Arsenal, a military complex near Huntsville, until 1972. They also operated service stations in Paint Rock and Woodville for a few years. Now, they spend their time visiting other residents at the nursing home, listening to gospel music and playing bingo.

''After all these years,'' he said, ''I still enjoy being with her.''

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