GIBSONIA — Several couples at St. Barnabas Retirement Village enjoyed the fancy cake-and-champagne party held Wednesday to celebrate golden wedding anniversaries, but two smiling pairs of nonagenarians also raised their glasses to a combined 145 years of wedded bliss.

Jim and Clara Staudenmaier, ages 94 and 93 respectively, recently celebrated their 73rd anniversary. Dick and Madalyn Hartig, 95 and 93, come in second with 72 years of marriage.

The Staudenmaiers remain affectionate nearly three-quarters of a century after their elopement during the Great Depression. They kiss each time one leaves or arrives home, and Clara kisses Jim's head each day when she finishes combing his thick white hair.

"You think you're in love when you get married," Clara said, "but you don't know what love is until you're together this long."

The Staudenmaiers also have a ritual when another day is done.

"When I get in bed, I give her a kiss, then we pray," Jim said. "Then we say 'I love you.'"

"Those three words¿" Clara said quietly.

The Staudenmaiers courted for three years after meeting at a church picnic and decided to elope to Wellsburg, W.Va., which was famous for quickie weddings at the time.

"I took her away so no one else could get her," Jim said with a hearty laugh.

"We didn't have money for a wedding," Clara added.

The couple lived their entire married lives in the Manchester section of Pittsburgh, where Jim worked as a police detective. At the end of an investigation, Jim would tell Clara what happened and she would type the information up.

"Then I'd turn in 'my' report," Jim said.

Asked for advice for young couples tying the knot, Clara counsels fortitude.

"Just go along and live day-to-day. Just take it as it comes."

Kathleen Brenneman, director of public relations, said the Staudenmaiers are well known at the St. Barnabas complex, where they have lived for 10 years.

"They're certainly one of the more visible couples. You see them together all the time," Brenneman said. "They're always smiling. You can see they're still so much in love. I think it's inspiring to the other residents as well as the staff members."

New to the independent living facility are the Hartigs, who moved from their home in New Jersey to The Village at St. Barnabas to be near their daughter.

The couple cut a dashing figure as they moved along a hallway, with Dick in a nautical blue suit jacket and Madalyn wearing a black and gold metallic ensemble.

The Hartigs also met and married during the Great Depression, when Madalyn's brother brought Dick to her house to play cards.

"She sat next to me," Dick said. "And we liked each other."

The couple dated for two years before Dick landed a job at the Singer sewing machine company, where he worked for 42 years. His employment meant the couple could finally afford to wed after the lean years of the Depression. He was 23, and she was 21.

After a February 1936 wedding, the newlyweds moved into one side of a duplex. Madalyn's mother lived in the other residence.

"I had no problem," said Dick, spreading his hands for emphasis. "She was a wonderful, beautiful woman."

Madalyn recalled her mother enjoying the couple's company, as her father worked in Vaudeville and was rarely at home.

After their three children were grown and Dick retired, the couple rounded out their lives with activities ranging from ballroom dancing to archery. Their two surviving children, both in their 60s, have provided three grandsons and two great-grandsons.

Asked about the secret to a long and happy marriage, Madalyn counsels patience and keeping active. Dick said hanging on during the lean times makes the good times sweeter.

"It will make your marriage stronger," Dick said. "Hardship will bring you closer together."

Pam Fickes, director of recreation at St. Barnabas, looked on happily as the Staudenmaiers, Hartigs and 34 other couples enjoyed being toasted for achieving or exceeding 50 years of marriage as a violinist strolled the room.

"These people have so much to offer, so much experience," Fickes said. "It's nice to celebrate marriage and the fact that they have all been together for so long."