Celebrating 70 years: Silas and Gladys Buddin

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Gladys Watts Buddin and Silas Bruce Buddin were born just a field apart, Silas said, nearly nine decades ago in the eastern part of Clarendon County. But the couple didn't meet until they were teenagers. Married at 18, the couple celebrates 70 years of marriage today. The couple married June 22, 1945, and Silas then went into the U.S. Army. “I was 18, and would have graduated high school in 1945; Uncle Sam wanted me, so I dropped out to go,” he said. “After that year, they changed the rule, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that.” Gladys read an article in a local newspaper about the time her husband came out of the Army that ultimately led to him obtaining his high school diploma. “So we were able to send off for it,” she said. “He had everything he needed but the piece of paper. I think if we hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have had that diploma.” Both from the eastern part of Clarendon County, Gladys and Silas met through family friends. “He visited his uncle that lived near me and my family,” Gladys said. “We were both actually born less than a mile apart, about 1,000 or 1,500 yards across a field. And we didn’t know about that until we got older.” Silas said he was ultimately in the Army about two years at the beginning of the couple’s marriage. “I trained in Alabama and then was stationed in Ft. Louis, near Washington,” he said. “I then went for a year to the Nashville Automotive Diesel School.” After graduation from the Nashville school, Silas had trouble finding work. “I never could get a job,” he said. “Every place I applied wanted me to have experience, and I didn’t have experience and they wouldn’t give me a job to let me get experience.” He ultimately went to work for Coker Builders, where he stayed for 42 years. “I went into construction,” he said. “After they went out of business, one of the grandsons started his business, and I worked for him for a few years.” Gladys herself spent 32 years working for David Young and also for a manufacturing plant. “I couldn’t tell you the name of that place now if I tried,” she said, smiling. While the couple were newlyweds and Silas was in the service, she worked in a shop over the old Belk’s store in Manning. “I guess about two years after we first met, we got married,” she said. “I wouldn’t change anything about our lives together.” Silas agreed. “The Lord has really blessed us,” he said. “I don’t regret a thing. It’s been a good life together.” The couple said the secret to their long relationship is really no secret. “I guess it’s been that we respect each other and trust boldly in the Lord,” Gladys said. “We’ve been faithful to one another and to the Lord. We always work together.” Silas said the couple has always “depended on the Lord to lead us.” After seven decades together, the couple devotes much of their time now to their great-grandchildren. “We have them come and visit,” Gladys said. “(Silas) likes to work in the yard, and the children or grandchildren will call and he’ll go help them out with whatever they need.” The couple lives in downtown Turbeville and attends First Baptist Church of Turbeville. They have three sons and two daughters. They also have 14 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.