83 Years of Love: Couple who married during WWII recognised as World’s Longest-Married Pair

Florida: Lyle and Eleanor Gittens have been recognized as the world’s oldest and longest-married couple after 83 years of marriage. The couple got married on June 4, 1942, and hold the Guinness World Records title for both the longest marriage and the highest aggregate age of a living married couple, a combined age of 216 years.

The couple, who reside in Florida, have been married for 83 years. Lyle is 108 years old and Eleanor is 107. Their remarkable love story began in 1941 while they were students at Clark Atlanta University.

Lyle and Eleanor Gittens first met in 1941 at a college basketball game that he played for Clark Atlanta University which she attended as a spectator.

The two fell in love and planned to marry despite being certain that Lyle would be drafted into the military because of the second world war. They got married in 1942 after Lyle was granted a three-day pass from training at a US army base in Georgia. After some time Lyle was deployed to Italy with the U.S. Army while Eleanor was expecting their first child.

When Lyle left to serve in Italy with the US army’s 92nd infantry division, Eleanor couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever see him again alive as she was already pregnant with the first of their three children, and she moved to New York City where she met Lyle’s family for the first time.

Eleanor supported their family doing payroll for an aircraft parts producer. Despite the distance and uncertainty of wartime, they stayed connected through letters and remained devoted to one another. However, the military censored the letters so heavily that most of Lyle’s words were redacted.

Over the decades, the couple witnessed some of history’s biggest changes, from World War II and the civil rights movement to the rise of television, computers, smartphones, and the internet.

When asked about the secret to their extraordinary marriage, their answer was simple: love, patience, forgiveness, and choosing each other every single day.

Their beautiful story reminds that lasting love isn't about perfection but it’s about staying together through life’s challenges and growing stronger with time.