Big numbers highlight fair’s Golden Wedding Party

he Clark County Fair has become an event that produces big numbers.

About 1,600 “eligible” guests were invited to Tuesday’s event at the Expo Center, and 720 sent RSVPs, according to Kyle Green, fair spokesman. And this year’s “Royal Couple,” Cecil and Vivian Mundy, provided another impressive number — 73, the number of years they have been married.

Sponsored by United Senior Services and Kiwanis, the event celebrates Clark County couples who have been married for 50 or more years.

Cecil, 95, and Vivian, 91, plan to keep adding to that number. The key to their success?

“Respect and love for each other,” Cecil said. “We settle our disputes without quarreling.”

Cecil first saw Vivian walking her dog on the sidewalk as he drove by about three quarters of a century ago. He stopped the car and introduce himself. But Cecil asked one of his friends who knew Vivian to ask her if she would go out with him.

Her reply: “He if he wants to go out, he needs to ask for himself.”

Cecil later went to her father to ask for her hand in marriage. Her father said she needed to graduate from high school and be 18 years old first.

Two days after she turned 18, they were married, on March 21, 1942.

“I loved her when I married her and I still do,” Cecil said.

Shortly after they were married, Cecil joined the Army Air Corp and left for WWII. Vivian’s father made a room in the family’s garage, where she lived while Cecil was in the military.

“It got kinda lonesome,” Vivian said, about their temporary separation.

After being discharged from the military, Cecil went to work for his brother at Mundy Market as a butcher.

“I was home most of the time, so I just took care of the kids,” Vivian said.

They have five children (three girls and two boys), nine grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and two great great grandchildren. All of their children were born and raised in Springfield and only one lives out of state, in Washington state.

Meanwhile, Tyler Shaffer’s grandparents were celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary at the Golden Wedding Party Tuesday. So Shaffer thought it was the perfect time to ask his girlfriend to marry him.

He asked Kailee Evans to the stage, then pulled a ring box from his pocket, went down on one knee and proposed.

“Yes,” said Evans, who has been dating Shaffer for four years.

The two Springfield natives met at a Greenon and Northwestern basketball game. Shaffer was a player for Northwestern. After the game, he went over to talk to Evans.

“We started dating a couple days before the fair (four years ago),” Shaffer said.

They had their first kiss at the fair.

Both sets of their grandparents have been married for many years.

“I thought it would be a good setting to ask her,” Shaffer said.