Anniversary

Bill and Ellie Grasse

Burbank residents Bill and Ellie Grasse celebrated 55 years of

marriage on Nov. 13.

Bill joined the U.S. Army in 1940, and after many assignments arrived

in Shanghai, China, just as the war ended, and was about to return home.

In 1939, Ellie, her mother, brother and grandmother had to leave

Vienna, Austria, and seek refuge in a country not under Adolf Hitler’s

domination. They traveled by train to an Italian port, and boarded a ship

that took them through the Suez Canal and on to Shanghai, where they

lived for nearly seven years.

As fate would have it, Bill and his buddy walked over the Garden

Bridge that spans the Soochow Creek along the city’s harbor at the same

time Ellie had obtained a rare pass and permission to take a walk. There

they met, crossing a street in the big city.

The couple married on Nov. 13, 1945, in Shanghai, before he left for

home.

Bill was unable to bring Ellie home with him right away, but after

three months, they were reunited when she came stateside as a war bride

on the USS Gen. Hugh C. Scott.

The couple have four children, Bonnie Grasse-Reinhold, James, Larry

and Ron Grasse; 12 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren and two more on

the way.