Local Couple celebrating a Lifetime of Love

Mr. And Mrs. Charles Eugene Wood of Madill will celebrate their 75^th wedding anniversary on November 25.

Eugene Wood married Imogene Troutman on November 25, 1944 in Yuma, Ariz. Mr. Wood was serving with the US Navy in Banning, Calif. Miss Troutman, having turned 18 the month before, traveled by train from Oklahoma, arriving at 2:00 a.m. in Yuma, where they married shortly thereafter b a Presbyterian minister who officiated hundreds of wartime weddings.

Mr. Wood was later transferred to San Diego and San Jose, Calif.; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Seattle, Wash., at one time, on the USS Massachusetts. Near the end of World War Two, he was aboard a Navy ship bound for action in the Pacific. However, an outbreak of the mumps caused the ship to return to Seattle. The war ended before Mr. Wood was called to further combat duty.

Upon his release from the Navy, Mr. Wood returned to his job as a telegrapher with the St. Louis San Francisco (Frisco) Railway, working in Seneca, Mo. And Foyil and Fairland Okla. In 1950, the family moved to Madill. In 1956, the Woods purchased one of the first six homes in the new Sunset Drive subdivision, owning it until 2018. He retired from the railroad in 1983.

The couple are the parents of three sons: Russell of Garland, Texas, and twins David Michael of New York, N.Y. and Dan of Sharon Springs, N.Y. All are graduates of Madill High School and the University of Oklahoma.

Eugene and Imogene are longtime members of the First United Methodist Church in Madill. He served several terms on the church’s governing board and taught adult Sunday School classes for many years. They helped with many church activities such as the annual Zelma Bazaar, at which Imogene’s clove cakes, neck pillows and embroidered tea towels were big sellers.

Mrs. Wood was primarily a homemaker. She worked part-time for several years as a posting clerk at the Madill Lumber Company and served as an election clerk.

Eugene is a life-long baseball fan and enjoyed statistical research as a member of the Society of American Baseball Research. His favorite time of the year was October during the Major League Baseball playoffs leading to the World Series.

For many years, Mr. Wood wrote witty, wry letters published in The Madill Record. He enjoyed quite a following for his pithy observations on state and national politics, union activities, pets, local policies and family life. One letter was aptly headlined, “Eugene has a lot on his mind.”

They now reside in Brookside Manor in Madill.