John and Ann Betar eloped on Nov. 25, 1932, fleeing their close-knit Syrian neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and driving as fast as they could to Harrison, New York, to avoid Ann’s father’s plans to marry her off to a man 20 years older.
Now, as their 81st wedding anniversary approaches on Monday, the couple, named on Valentine’s Day by Worldwide Marriage Encounter as 2013’s “longest married couple” in America, can only laugh as they look back on the commotion they caused.