Harley Utz, 103; He and Wife Had the Longest Marriage

Harley Utz, one-half of the longest-married couple on record, has died just five months after he and his wife celebrated their record-setting 83rd anniversary. He was 103.

Utz died Monday at the nursing home where he and wife, Sylvia, lived.

The couple got married June 15, 1918, at the home of the bride’s parents in Pitsburg, a town near Dayton.

They couldn’t afford a honeymoon, and moved to Dayton, where their first rent was $19.50 a month. They also lived in Rochester, N.Y., and Chicago before returning to Ohio during the Depression.

Utz worked as an accountant for a Greenville bag manufacturer until he retired in 1965.

At the time of their 83rd anniversary, Sylvia Utz, who is also 103, said she does not believe in divorce and has preached the importance of marriage to the couple’s three children, all of whom have had long marriages.

The Guinness Book of Records had certified that the couple had the longest marriage of a living couple.

Besides his wife, Utz is survived by two sons and a daughter.