Milesburg couple to celebrate 75 years of marriage

MILESBURG — On June 26, Joe and Betty Lazar will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Betty will reach the age of 95 on July 17, and Joe will turn 96 on July 19. I had the privilege of talking with them and their oldest daughter, JoAnne Lazar, at the couple’s home at the Eagle Valley Personal Care Home in Milesburg.

The pair met on a blind date when another person didn’t show up and Betty was asked to step in. They danced together, and before the evening ended, Joe had kissed Betty on the cheek. The next day, Joe took his new girlfriend to meet his parents in Long Island, N.Y. Three days after the blind date, they announced they were engaged.

Joe had signed up for the U.S. Army Air Corps and was sent to Ellington Field in Texas for training. Betty quit her job to marry Joe and traveled to Texas. “We weren’t liked much there, because we were Northerners and spoke differently,” said Betty. 

This was in 1943. When Betty became pregnant, Joe wanted her to have the baby at the Mitchel Field Army Station Hospital in Hempstead, N.Y., so she returned to stay with Joe’s parents on Long Island.

JoAnne was born Jan. 13, 1045. While Betty was in labor, Joe was fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Joe was a pilot and bombardier and flew many missions in B-26 planes. Baby JoAnne was was 9 months old when Joe came home.

The book ‘Maraudar Men,’ by John O. Moench, describes the experiences of bombardiers like Joe Lazar. In the book, one mission was against the Germans who held Remagen Bridge. “The pilots had to bomb out either side, but not destroy the bridge,” Lazar said. “That was important, so that the Americans could take control of the bridge then.”

There is a chapter in the book dedicated to a mission that was run by Lazar. He was asked by higher command, but with no orders on paper, to go in and rescue an institute in Germany. He did so, not by flying, but by using large trucks and his wits to get through a checkpoint and get the people to safety.

When Joe returned from the war, he got a job with Bell Telephone, close to where his parents lived. “That’s when I got a car,” said Betty. With five children, she was the major caregiver at home. Two of their children had cerebral palsy, so it was an extremely busy life.

Together with Joe, Betty established a daycare for severely disabled children like their youngest child. They were instrumental in furthering the practice of “patterning,” a series of exercises designed to improve the neurologic organization of a child’s neurologic impairments.

Joe also attended school, and said his schooling was among his best life memories. “I had six years of engineering and four years of law school,” he said. “I had a career as a patent attorney.’

Betty said one of the reasons they lasted so long as a couple was their time away from each other enjoying their own interests. Although Betty was busy raising the five children, she found time to do some designer work. While sewing clothes for the kids, Betty would adapt and modify a pattern to create a certain style.

Daughter JoAnne remembered a dress made from a drapery that once hung at the window. “I wasn’t proud. I told people who asked that it was a drape, but they didn’t believe me,” said JoAnne.

Betty crocheted, too, and once donated 14 blankets to a Masonic home. She also enjoyed garage sales, did the household painting and reupholstered furniture.

Once their family was grown, and especially after retirement, Joe and Betty traveled all over Europe, Australia and New Zealand with an international barbershop harmony organization. When possible, Joe also sang with the Nittany Knights.

Camping was another activity the Lazars did together. Joe bought a motor home and they were able to take their youngest daughter, LuAnne, who used a wheelchair, along on trips to Wyoming, Alaska and Canada. They also were able to take LuAnne to Hawaii and Puerto Rico. She passed away in 1992 at age 32, having lived much longer than many people with cerebral palsy.

When Betty was admitted to the hospital for atrial fibrillation, went to rehab, then landed in the hospital again, “it was time to find a safe place for both of them — but where they could stay together,’ said JoAnne of her parents. “I moved them to Eagle Valley on April 27, 2017, after Betty had been hospitalized with congestive heart failure.”

“They take good care of us here,” said Betty. “They give us our medicine and look out for us.” 

As the couple’s 75th anniversary approaches, Betty said, with a laugh, “I guess I stayed married because I was too lazy to break in another man.’ On Sunday, June 24, their daughter will host a reception for them in her home in Howard. Eleven grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren will be on hand to represent the Lazars’ legacy.