Ray and Edith Atkinson will mark their 75th wedding anniversary on Sept. 29. They were married in 1945 when Ray returned from World War II.

A strawberry patch and a possible match-making uncle were the start of the 75-year marriage that Ray and Edith Atkinson will celebrate Sept. 29.

Currently residents of Lowrie Place, 100 Stirling Village, Ray, 95, and Edith, 94, tied the knot on his return from World War II in 1945.

They met when she was 17 and he was 18 in the strawberry fields of his uncle Harry Dyke's farm.

“I met him in a strawberry patch picking strawberries for his uncle,” she said. “He's a good picker, but I was a faster picker than him.

“His uncle always had us work together,” she said. “I think he had ideas for us.”

This is an excerpt from a story that appeared in Thursday's Butler Eagle.