Life

Iowa women who married after 72 years together tell their story

Iowa women who married after 72 years together tell their story
Vivian Boyack and Alice Dubes
Vivian Boyack and Alice Dubes

Earlier this month we told you about Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes, a lesbian couple in their 90’s who married after being together 72 years.

Now, in an interview with The Des Moines Register, Boyack, 91, and Dubes, 90, are sharing more of their story, from their first meeting, to their first date, and how they came to be married more than 70 years later.

Vivian was a farm girl near Creston. Nonie a farm girl near Yale. Vivian was an indoor girl, spending hours “teaching my dolls,” practice for her dream of becoming a teacher. Nonie was an outside girl, helping on the farm and playing basketball, such a rough-and-tumble guard that she once broke a rib during a game.

Neither considered romance much back then. Vivian caught the interest of a boy once who became a friend but she cut that short by telling a schoolmate: “I wouldn’t go with him to a dogfight.”

Then Nonie saw Vivian from afar one day, and it changed everything.

[…]

“This is difficult for us to talk about,” Vivian said.

“No one knew what was happening,” Nonie said. “We didn’t even know it was anything special. I was just drawn to her. That’s all.”

“The hand of God was there,” Vivian added. “Suddenly, we were in love.”

From that day forward, they felt like they were in hiding.

Watch a clip below, and read more of their story at The Des Moines Register:

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