So what is the secret to celebrating more than a half century of Valentine’s Days together?

    Ask Deon Auger and she said she doesn’t think there is a secret to being married to husband William (Bill) for a long time.

    “You just have talk to each other,”  she said. “You just have to love and respect each other, and try and get along.”

    Then there is Jo and Gordon Lasley, who linked up 60 years ago when the girl from Idaho Falls was smitten by the boy from Rockland.

    “We’ve been a team,” Gordon explains. “I wasn’t superior, nor was she. We worked together.”

    The Augers were high school sweethearts. Their lockers were next to each other. They were both in the orchestra. He played the trombone and she played the violin. He remembers carrying her violin up to the top floor of the Oneida Stake Academy. She doesn’t remember him carrying her violin up there, but they walked up there together and became good friends.   

    Deon remembers Bill as being quite a character, always cracking jokes and popular with about everyone.

    “He had a redheaded girlfriend and got in an argument with her. He told her if she didn’t quit arguing he was going to take the other redhead home. That was me,”  Deon said.

    That’s when it started. He was a junior and she was a sophomore.

    The high school had only been open for a year and the Academy had the stage and orchestra room where they held music practice. The two played for the school opera and graduation.

    Bill Auger and Deon Hall were married on Feb. 13, 1943, 70 years ago, halfway through World War II.

    Bill had already received his draft notice and left one week later to serve nearly three years in the U.S. Navy. Following basic training and schooling, he was assigned to the USS Ara as an electrician’s mate and gyro compass operator in the South Pacific area.

    Upon his return to Preston, Bill and Deon were sealed in the Logan LDS Temple by his grandfather, Hyrum D. Jensen.

    “Marriage is good. I told her if she keeps up the good work, I’ll keep her on,” Bill said.

    The Lasleys were not high school sweethearts. Jo was a junior in high school in Idaho Falls when she first laid eyes on Gordon in the congregation at her LDS ward. Gordon was there with a roommate from Ricks College in Rexburg.

    Jo said she was instantly impressed with Gordon’s “gorgeous hair, blue eyes” and slender build.

    Shortly after that glimpse in the church, Jo and a friend accepted a ride from that same Ricks College roommate of Gordon’s and Gordon was in the backseat. An introduction followed and Jo made up her mind.

    When the girls waved goodbye, Jo turned to her friend and said, “Did you see that tall, skinny guy in the backseat? I’m going to marry him.”

    Jo said Gordon was hooked before he knew it, although Gordon is quick to point out  he is the one who wrote and asked Jo out on a date. She cancelled a date she had already made to go dancing with Gordon.

    Gordon left the area to serve an LDS mission in Western Canada, but wrote often. He sent her a diamond ring just before his mission ended and they were married Sept. 27, 1952 in the Logan LDS Temple.

    Jo said their relationship has grown through commitment, character and respect.

    “Love comes and goes,” she said. “It’s those things that last. We’ve always been there for each other. I love this man. I trust him one hundred percent.”

    “We did things as a partnership all the way through,” Gordon explains.

    The Tremonton Leader contributed to this story.