The State - News from July 17, 1985

They met and were married during the Great Depression, and stayed together for 55 years through financial hardship and the pains of growing old. And when Genevieve Underwood collapsed suddenly in their San Mateo home early last Sunday, her husband, Royal, called for an ambulance and then suffered a heart seizure. They died within a minute of each other, in the same ambulance. “I think they wanted to go that way,” said Marianne Brick, 25, a granddaughter. “They literally lived their entire lives together and left together. I think what precipitated (his death) was that he was so upset about her,” said the couple’s daughter, Jacqueline Brick. “He was in better shape than she was. I don’t think he would have had to go if he hadn’t wanted to.” The San Mateo County coroner said the wife, 82, died of a ruptured blood vessel and that the husband, 85, suffered a heart attack.