Couple, Married for 71 Years, Dies on Same Day

After their first blind date, Nora Schaddel told Robert Viands that she never wanted to go out with him again. It didn't exactly work out that way. Viands persisted, a romance blossomed, and when he was drafted to go fight in World War II, they decided to get married. They tied the knot in June of 1942, and stayed married until Wednesday, when they both died, with Nora passing just 16 hours after Robert, the Rockford Register Star reports.

"We were blessed to have them pass at the same time," son Bob Jr. says. "She would've been heartbroken without her lover." The two had both been under care at the Northern Illinois Hospice and Grief Center, and will have combined funeral services, according to their obituary. The couple was actually married three times. First they eloped, because Nora, at 17, was too young to marry in Illinois. Then they held Catholic and Methodist ceremonies to appease their respective families. The marriage lasted 71 years, which, if nothing else, was more than enough to beat out this couple. (More obituary stories.)