<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of KHQ at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://www.khq.com/story/22966050/couple-married-75-years">http://www.khq.com/story/22966050/couple-married-75-years</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">--------------------------------------</div><div><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><h3 class="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Couple Married 75 Years, Die A Day Apart</span></font></h3></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Les and Helen Brown became high school sweethearts more than 75 years ago, their parents didn't believe the match would last.</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Les' father was a businessman and prosperous landowner in Southern California. Helen's father worked on the railroad. "Both families were not too thrilled about the union," their son Les Brown Jr. told <a href="http://TODAY.com">TODAY.com</a>. "The good news is they proved them wrong."</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Les and Helen, who were born on the same day in 1918, celebrated 75 years of marriage in September with a quiet gathering over cake. "They really enjoyed each other's company," Les Jr. said. "They were really inseparable and were never apart."</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That bond was so strong that neither Les nor Helen wanted to live without each other, though they knew that the end might be imminent. Les had been sick with Parkinson's disease for some time, and Helen was battling stomach cancer.</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Les recently slipped into a coma at the couple's Long Beach, Calif., home, and hospice workers said he might live for just a few more days. Helen, who was expected to survive for some months, became very weak. She passed away on July 16. Les died the following day — he never knew about his wife's death. They were 94 years old.</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Les and Helen's love story, first reported by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, has since gone viral. Their son Daniel told <a href="http://TODAY.com">TODAY.com</a> that his parents wouldn't have shared the same opinion of the ensuing attention.</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Mom hated notoriety. I don't think she would have enjoyed it," he said. His father, though, was a photographer and perhaps had an appreciation for a warmhearted story. "He would have loved it."</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daniel said such differences are what made his parents so well matched. Helen was very sweet but particular about how things should be done. Les, on the other hand, was easygoing, a "man of simple pleasures" who loved coffee and donuts. Helen kept the family humming along while Les helped her relax when life became hectic or complicated. "What one lacked, the other made up for," Daniel said.</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The couple loved to travel and often took road trips up the California coast to San Francisco and Monterey. They doted on their many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They also shared a deep religious faith as Jehovah's Witnesses, which helped them weather a difficult period of their marriage in the 1950s. "They were very forgiving of each other's foibles and weaknesses. They were so willing to work at making themselves happy."</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Daniel said that their marriage was a testament to the power of love: "It knows no barriers and seems to know no bounds. They were from different sides of the tracks and it didn't seem to matter to them. After 78 years, they were very much in love."</span></p><p style="margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">--------------------</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><img src="cid:89D21716-2CE6-4502-B32C-73F40F4FD7E0" alt="22966050_BG1.jpg" id="89D21716-2CE6-4502-B32C-73F40F4FD7E0" width="560" height="420"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">--------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></body></html>