A sign commissioned by Josh Black, the grandson of Marvin and Elanor McBride, includes a quote from the New Testament to mark their diamond anniversary. 

ALDER SLOPE — How do you make a marriage last three-quarters of a century?

First off, live a long time.

Marvin McBride is 95 and his wife, Elanor, is nearly 93.

Next, have a plan.

As grandson Josh Black quoted his grandpa’s explanation to the longevity of the marriage: “I stay outside; she stays inside.” 

But Grandpa said that wasn’t quite right.

“Well, she was outside a lot bucking hay,” he laughed.

The retired ranchers hosted a gathering of about 40 family and friends at the home of one of their sons, David, on Saturday, Aug. 3, even though the actual anniversary isn’t until Sept. 25. (There were family members who couldn’t make it in September.)

But that didn’t keep the McBride clan from getting together on a bright, sunny summer day to enjoy each other’s company and have a barbecue.

Long time in Wallowa County

The elder McBrides met in Marysville, California, where Elanor grew up and to where Marvin moved when he was just 13.

The couple met through her brother, who was a friend of Marvin’s. But Marvin was going with someone else at the time.

“I was going with a different gal and Elanor took her place,” Marvin recalls simply.

It seems his stomach was the key to his heart.

“He was going with Pat and my brother was dating her sister,” Elanor recalls. “I baked (Marvin) a birthday cake — it was his 19th birthday — and he decided that Pat wasn’t quite what he wanted.”

But that didn’t leave Pat heartbroken, Elanor said.

“She married a good Catholic man from down the road and had a family and we had ours,” she said.

Longtime ranchers

The McBrides started ranching on about 100 acres in Northern California, but their herd only grew to about 30 head, Elanor said. Then, they set their sights on Wallowa County and split their operation between the two places.

“We’d get in the car and drive up and then work the ranch,” Elanor recalls.

Eventually, they moved all their herd to their ranch in the Imnaha area, where they worked and lived for more than 22 years. Later, they bought a place on Alder Slope, not far from where son David lives. They’ve been in the county for about 45 years, they said.

Although Marvin held welding jobs occasionally while in California, he’s provided for his family mostly through ranching. They had about 400 acres on Alder Slope surrounded by Forest Service land.

“There were hard times selling hay,” he said, adding that dairy farmers — of which there used to be several in the valley — were having difficulties. “They didn’t have any hay to speak of except for what we had.”

The McBrides raised registered “Brahngus” — a crossbreed of Brahman and Angus cattle.

“When we first came here, there wasn’t a black cow here,” he said. “Then we sold several bulls, but they were all white-faced.”

That led to a mix of breeds in valley cattle.

Their years in ranching came well before any wolves migrated to Oregon from Idaho. But they never had any problems with other predators, such as cougars or bears. It was the elk that gave them trouble. They became so numerous they’d crowd out the cattle from where they wanted to graze.

“They’d lay down and just stay in that area,” Marvin said.

He tried a big “blasting gun” to scare off the elk, he said, “But all that did was aggravate the neighbors.”

The state allowed them to kill two elk and they were allowed to keep one and give the other to the sheriff’s office who’d give it to a school or someone else who needed the meat.

The state planted alfalfa on about 10 acres where it would’t need irrigation; elk would eat it down low and stay in the woods.

Family

Elanor said she never had to work outside the home, keeping busy as a ranch wife and mother of their two sons and two daughters. She said his paycheck always was sufficient..

“That was even when he got 50 cents an hour — and then it went up to $1 an hour,” she said. “But gasoline was only 10 cents a gallon then.”

Their kids are all named beginning with “D” — David, Dennis, Diana and Darlene.

“We had a little trouble thinking of the last one for Darlene,” Marvin laughs.

Those four have produced prolifically.

Asked how many, Elanor quipped, “Who’s counting?”

But the kids were able to count them up: 11 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren.

Dennis and Darlene live with their parents at the longtime home on Alder Slope, while David’s a bit farther up the slope and Diana lives in Amarillo, Texas.

Were Marvin and Elanor good parents?

The four kids seem to think so.

“The best. Look at the prodigy,” Darlene said. “This is about a quarter of the grandkids. My oldest daughter couldn’t be here and she has eight kids.”

“They were great,” Diana said.

“They were very good,” Dennis said.

David, too, gave his parents an A-plus in the parenting category. And he added: “They’re still working on it,” he laughed. “They’re teaching us how to grow old gracefully.”