Seven siblings toast nearly 400 years of marriage

BROWNSBURG – Newlyweds could probably learn a few things from the five Estes sisters and their two brothers, who between them have amassed 391 years of marriage, and counting.\nIn an age when nearly half of new marriages are expected to end in divorce, the seven surviving children of C.M. and Minnie Estes have all been wed 50 or more years.\nThe youngest, Sue Bass, completed that golden anniversary streak Saturday when she and husband Edwin marked their 50 years together in a laughter-filled banquet room, surrounded by Sue’s six surviving siblings and many of the couples’ 71 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.\n“We’re the last. We made it,” Sue, 69, said after the Basses’ celebratory spotlight dance. Added Edwin, 73: “The others made it and we weren’t about to get beat!”\nThe Estes siblings, ages 69 to 84, attribute their marital success in large part to the moral example set by their late parents, who were married 58 years.\nC.M. Estes and wife Minnie raised their nine children – one died as a toddler and another is deceased – with the clear expectation that marriage is for life. The family lived in Kentucky before moving to Indiana in the mid-1940s.\nSeventy-four-year-old Joyce Samples said her parents endured hard financial times but set a loving example that she has emulated in her 57-year marriage to John Samples, 74.\n“They always showed respect for each other, which made us know that was part of marriage,” she said. “There wasn’t a lot of verbal advice. You just watched them and knew how it was done.”\nAside from Joyce and Sue and their husbands, the other Estes children and their spouses are: Agnes and Howard Byrd, wed 61 years; Douglas and Kathleen Estes, 60 years; Charles and Grace Estes, 57 years; Eula and L.B. Champion, 54 years; and Gladys and Bob Maple, who were married 52 years when Bob died in 1999.\nAn eighth Estes sibling, Joe, died in 1992, by which time he and his widow, Ruth, had 48 years between them. Their marriage boosts the Estes’ matrimonial total to 439 years.\nThe couples all live in Indiana except for Douglas and Kathleen Estes, who reside in Florida.\nStephanie Coontz, a professor of history at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., said it’s unusual for so many siblings to have such long marriages.\nCoontz, who has studied marriage trends for 25 years, said many marriages that began in the 1950s ended because of the marital divisions sparked as more women entered the work force in subsequent decades. That wasn’t an issue for the Estes siblings; all the wives were homemakers.\nDavid Popenoe, a professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University, said religion, commitment to the marriage itself and a willingness to overlook problems are often factors in long unions.