When he was a youngster living in Altamont, Delbert Rexwinkle’s primary mode of transportation around town was his bicycle.
He remembers vividly one bright, spring day when he spotted a girl, not much younger than he, walking door to door with an armload of May baskets to deliver to the elderly.
He offered young Erma a ride.
She accepted.
That gesture soon blossomed into friendship.
Then a relationship.
Five years later, the couple were married.
Sixty-five years after that, they can reflect on a marriage that has borne three children, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Delbert, now an Iolan, and Erma, who’s staying temporarily at Windsor Place for health reasons, are celebrating their 65th anniversary today.
They visited with a Register reporter briefly to discuss how they stayed happy during their extended union.
“When we got married, we said there was not going to be any fussing or fighting,” Delbert recalled. “We’d have our disagreements and we’d settle them. That’s what we’ve always done.”
“Never go to bed angry,” Erma added. “Of course, we were hardly ever angry.”
THE PLAN was for the Rexwinkles to stay in Altamont for Delbert to work on the farm.
That changed in 1952, “when Uncle Sam was hot on my tail,” he recalled.
Delbert was drafted into the Marines, and after boot camp in San Diego, was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California.
Erma moved out to be with her husband.
She worked briefly while Delbert was in active duty, until Erma became pregnant. She eventually had three children while the Rexwinkles lived in California.
After Delbert fulfilled his military obligations, the Rexwinkles stayed in California for a few yeas while he worked as a welder and an airplane mechanic at Travis Air Force Base.
But he was laid off from his government job in 1960.
“There wasn’t much of a chance to farm in California,” Delbert said.
“We decided if we every wanted to farm, we needed to go back to Kansas now,” Erma added.
The Rexwinkle family returned to Labette County, eventually buying their own farm just outside Altamont.
Delbert farmed while holding down at times two other jobs to make ends meet. His multiple jobs often meant working 16- to 18-hour days.
That changed when Erma became postmistress in Altamont.
“I told her I was going to quit the railroad if she got the postmaster’s job,” he said. “That’s what I did.”
With two incomes, the Rexwinkles eventually put all three of their children through college.”
Son Jeff lives near Iola. (He’s the reason the couple moved to Allen County in 2006 after Erma suffered a stroke.)
Other son, Steve, lives on the outskirts of Houston.
Daughter Debra Hanf, who worked as a schoolteacher in Paola, died of cancer in 2006.
“I always told our kids, ‘if your mother says no, don’t come and ask me,’” Delbert said. “‘And if I say no, don’t go ask your mother.’”
The strategy worked.
“We’ve had three wonderful kids,” he said.
The Rexwinkle children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be in town on Thanksgiving to celebrate Delbert and Erma’s milestone.
