Photo Feature: Valentines and Cradle Robbers

Something a little different this week, in anticipation of Valentine's Day.

Here are three couples with a few things in common:

• They all married young
• The grooms (and one bride) were all in the service
• Not only were did all six of these people share a surname (after their respective weddings), the grooms share their given names, as well!
• The brides were all VERY young

February 1995, Monterey, California

How young were they? Well, that's the basis for our trivia question - "which of these brides was the youngest at her wedding?"

Obviously, you'll need some dates to make an educated guess, but what with this being the open internet, you'll excuse me for being coy about just posting them here.

First up, you can see a happy young pair of airmen getting their engagement picture taken. Tad was a mature (ahem) 22 years, and Kate was a Bicentennial Baby. They took a lot of ribbing over their age difference, but when they married after a brief, six-week romance, she was 18 - and only just a few months shy of 19.

c. 1968, Glendale, Arizona

c. 1968, Glendale, Arizona

Our next couple could hardly wait for high school graduation to set their wedding date, but wait they did. Teddy was a mature (I am certain) 22 years, and Barbie was a true child of the 1950s. They married in 1968, just one month after her 18th birthday.

c.1942, Phoenix, Arizona

 Ted went on to join the National Guard and trained to be a medical technician, then tried his hand at teaching before settling on his career as a firefighter.


And finally, we have the dashing couple straight out of Casablanca, the heroine and hero of When Things Got Serious. Bobby was a 21-year-old Army airplane mechanic, and Nancy was in high school when they met - and the outbreak of the Second World War lent some urgency to their decision. And so they married in 1942 - about 8 months before her 18th birthday.

So there you have it - I come from a long, well established line of young men who married young brides and survived to tell the tale. I think I can safely claim that none of us has regretted it for a moment.


However old or young your sweetheart is, here's hoping you're as happy as we were - and are.