Tribute to a Golden Tradition

Barney and Breezy Brown celebrated 216 years of marriage Friday, displaying their black-and-white 1952 wedding pictures alongside the half-century anniversary photos of three past generations.

While the good-humored Buena Park couple did not want a big fuss--”When I heard my wedding dress was going to be on display I said, ‘Oh come on!’” Breezy said--there is no such thing as a small party with this family.

They are 62 in all, with seven children and their mates, 23 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Five more great-grandchildren are due this year.

It’s impressive enough that the couple, formally known as Byron and Helen, survived 50 years of marriage--and their nicknames. But the Brown brood paid tribute Friday to four generations of Browns who have shown they can commit.

Barney Brown’s parents, grandparents and great-grandparents each were married for more than 50 years to the same spouse.

With all those years of experience, no Brown wisdom has been passed down for succeeding at wedded bliss. But they knew how to celebrate it. Barney Brown still remembers attending his grandparents’ 50th anniversary party when he was 13, and later, that of his own parents. Both were at the same Falcon Avenue house in Long Beach.

“It comes on slow, one year at a time, and then huh! There it is, 50 years,” Barney said, clearly enjoying the company of his offspring all stuffed into the family homestead off La Palma Avenue.

And how, apart from room additions, did they raise seven children?

“People ask me that,” Breezy said with a smile, shaking her head, “and I don’t know either, but you get up every morning and live the day.”

Their son had one explanation, referring to dehydrated food, for how his parents made ends meet: “I didn’t know milk was liquid until I was 4.”

“Yes, Paul wasn’t the brightest child,” Breezy joked of her son, who graduated from college with a degree in biochemistry.

The roots of the marriage were unique. Breezy, 68, and Barney, 72, were born and raised in north Long Beach and attended Jordan High School there.

But they met at a dance at the local Mormon church, where Barney was a member, when Breezy was just shy of 16. Soon after, they became a couple, and Breezy later was baptized into the church.

Barney joined the Army right after graduating and spent a year in Korea. While he was gone, he thought he and Breezy should get engaged.

“All the other girls in school were getting them, so I figured I’d get her a ring before I got home,” he explained.

So he sent a brochure home to his parents and his father bought a ring. Barney’s parents invited Breezy and her parents to dinner, and Barney’s father made the wedding proposal.

“Everyone was there but you,” joked Breezy.

“Wait, she hadn’t seen you in a year and married you 10 days after you got back from Korea?” asked third child Diane Jones, 45, of Seattle. “Wow, Mom. That’s brave.”

The Browns married when Breezy was 18, and had their first child a year later. They moved 47 years ago to their present home, which was then brand-new. Fields of corn grew around them, and nearby Knott’s Berry Farm was still a working farm. Barney ran a printing business out of the garage.

The Brown children aspire to the half-century marriage.

“Me and my husband have only been married six years, and it’s sure given us a goal,” said Elizabeth Anderson, the youngest Brown child. “My oldest sister, Diane, has been married 25 years, so she’s halfway there.”