Couple celebrates 50 years together
May 12—Don Groom recalled how he happened to meet the love of his life in a Muskogee nightspot.
"I went over there and asked her to dance," Groom said. "And the minute — I swear to God — the minute I looked into her eyes, I fell in love with her and I wanted to marry her immediately. We danced one dance and the next week, I took her to Las Vegas, Nevada, and we got married. That quick."
It's been a love that carried Don and Aletha Groom through 50 years building a family and a business, of traveling through the mountains. Most recently, it brought them to Brookdale Senior Living, where they marked their golden wedding anniversary on Tuesday.
Groom said he and his wife came to Brookdale about 30 days ago for health reasons.
Brookdale Executive Director Peter Blanchard said a 50th anniversary doesn't happen very often at a senior living center.
"It is a rarity to have a marriage that is as strong as the Grooms," he said. "Aletha loving on Don and being married for 50 years is truly something special."
He said the center wanted to highlight and celebrate the anniversary.
"It makes us feel appreciative being a part of the family and being a part of this occasion," Blanchard said.
Don Groom said he never expected to live long enough for a 50th anniversary.
"My mother didn't even put up with me that long," he said, nodding toward his wife. "She threw me out after 30 years, and you picked me up and married me."
Groom, an east Texas native, said he was traveling selling hardware to stores back before he and his wife met.
"I stopped off on my way to Kansas City to call on a store in Muskogee," he said. "That's when the Holiday Inn was open here. I stopped off by the bar/club they had then."
By chance, Aletha and a friend also were in the bar, he said.
Aletha Groom said she lived in Muskogee and worked at Citizens Bank at the time.
"She owned a house on Elliott Street, and she had two daughters," Don Groom said. "We had another daughter."
After they got married, Groom eventually quit his job as a traveling salesman and started an insurance agency with his wife's help.
"I just started from scratch and built Groom Insurance Agency, selling all types of insurance for all types of companies," he said. "Me and her worked shoulder to shoulder for 25 years. We both retired about 15 years ago."
He recalled early times when they lived paycheck-to-paycheck.
"But we were in love, so we didn't ever notice it," he said.
Together, they raised her two daughters and one they had together. One daughter died last October, one lives in Oklahoma City and one lives in Muskogee.
Aletha Groom said her husband "has always been there."
"If anything happened, he was right there," she said. "Bless his heart, he just did the things I asked him to do."
She said her favorite memories involved how Don took care of the daughters.
"He'd give me a little afternoon off," she said.
Don Groom attributed the marriage's success to God.
"We spent 43 years over at West Side Church of Christ," he said. "I'd have to say it was God's divine wisdom to keep us married and keep us together. I think God had a big hand in it."
