A Full Life: Gerry Couple Is Married More Than 7 Decades

Some nonagenarians are blessed to see 70 years of marriage with their mates. Lynn and Margaret (Peg) Johnson are one of those couples who have been married nearly 72 years ago.

Lynn a life-long resident of Gerry is 91 years old. Margaret is 94 and has lived in many places. She was born in Philadelphia, where she lived briefly before moving to Detroit, Chicago and Watertown. Her father moved his family to Gerry to take over the restaurant that used to be at the four corners, renaming it Congdon’s of Gerry.

“The daughter was a sophomore when she arrived at Cassadaga Valley Central School where she met her husband. “I chased him until I caught him,” she says. “I played a lot of sports in high school. All of the sports, really,” says her husband.

He remembers a few occasions during World War II when he walked home from school after practice, seeing only three cars the entire five or six miles because gasoline was rationed. Both husband and wife recall blackouts during the war, when all lights had to be turned out when a siren sounded.

Lynn joined the Navy in 1945. He was sent to Chicago by train after basic training at Camp Perry, Va. “I was sent to Chicago to be trained for electrical engineering, but I never made it. When I arrived, my feet were so swollen I couldn’t walk. A doctor who was on the train put me right in the hospital when we got to Chicago.”