John McKay frequently came to visit her in Milwaukee. He proposed one month later.
The young bride wore a simple, short dress to the wedding, which she gave away years later. And when she stares at their wedding photo, memories of their whirlwind courtship and 53 years of marriage come tumbling back each time.
“He used to joke that he married me for my cute little boy,” she said. “He used to tell my son war stories and treat him like his own son. He ended up adopting him and was very good to him.”
The McKays would go on to have four more children. In the early 1980s, McKay was surprised when her daughter, Joan Melvin, decided to wear her 1942 wedding gown in her own ceremony. Disenchanted by the gaudy beaded dresses in fashion at the time, Melvin fell in love with her mother’s simple and classic gown from her first marria