By Frank Stanfield
Orlando Sentinel
July 04, 2002
LEESBURG, Fla. - It was 1927 and Babe Ruth was on his way to smashing a record
60 home runs when Leonard and Dorothy McCracken took their wedding vows.
They took them seriously, too. On Tuesday, Willard Scott of television's Today
show honored the couple for celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary.
"It was rather a shock," Leonard said about seeing his picture during a segment on the show in which Scott praises seniors before talking about the nation's weather.
A neighbor sent the couple's photo to the show's producers in New York.
"We never fight," Dorothy said. Added her husband: "You've got to stop if something comes up, give it some thought and then come back and talk about it.
"We haven't had a good hoedown in all our lives," he said, referring to a serious argument.
After growing up just a few blocks from his future wife's family in Warren, Ohio, Leonard finally decided he would go to Dorothy's father and ask his permission to marry his daughter.
The answer was yes, but when Leonard offered to talk to his future mother-in-law, the dad said, "Let me take care of that."
"I found out later she was against it," he recalled. "She didn't want to lose a daughter. She didn't think I'd make it through the wedding. We proved them wrong."
He worked as a banker, a purchasing agent and a salesman for a steel company before retiring and moving his bride to Leesburg 30 years ago. Along the way, they had two children, a son and a daughter. The daughter died five years ago.
Their son, Robert, 65, lives in Kentucky. They have seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.
They say they are both in good health. Dorothy, 94, is recovering "very well" from a stroke, said her husband, who turns 99 in nine days.
Their passion hasn't been fishing or golf, but music and travel. She played the keyboard and he played autoharp and banjo with a combo that traveled the East Coast.
"It's old-time music," he said. "You young people wouldn't even recognize it."
On Friday, they are having an open house for their friends at a Leesburg inn.
"We have lots of friends," Leonard said. "It all fell into place."
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