SLO County couple married in 1951. How they met and the secret to a 75-year union
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- Couple marks 75th wedding anniversary while living independently at 95.
- He still drives 35 miles to Costco, volunteers and sometimes cooks at home.
- Pair raised large family, sustained marriage through compassion and teamwork.
A Cambria couple will commemorate a meaningful milestone few can ever hope to reach when they celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary on Feb. 28.
Beyond that noteworthy accomplishment, William “Bill” and Jean Carter are exceptional for an assortment of reasons.
The vibrant, alert 95-year-olds still live independently in the hillside, ocean-view home they’ve owned for 43 years and lived in full time for 33 of them.
He still drives and makes twice-a-month shopping jaunts to Costco, 35 miles away in San Luis Obispo. Bill also goes to Thursday night dinners at the American Legion Auxiliary and brings home the take-out meals to share with his bride.
“Bill’s a really good driver,” Jean said.
His favorite Costco products are in the food aisles, he said with a laugh.
“He also cooks, although we have some food brought in,” his wife said.
Bill and Jean tell excellent stories laced and presented with humor, according to their friend, Taylor Hilden.
They’ll mark their special anniversary day with some of their five surviving children, who live in Southern California and Utah, Jean said.
Their sixth child, Kathy Carter, died in 2015 after losing her battle with cancer.
Their other children are Rick Carter, Dave Carter, Karen Rae, Sandy Fisher and Susie Lampe.
The Cambria couple donated lots of time to the town they love
For years, the Carters were well known as volunteers in Cambria.
In 2009, Bill designed and built the first scarecrow frame for the town’s annual Scarecrow festival, Hilden said.
“His prototype is still used today, with very few modifications,” she said. Then in 2010, “Bill led the frame-building portion of the first public scarecrow-making workshop.”
Not to be outdone by her talented husband, now of seven decades plus, Jean’s art “was beautiful sewing and quilting, and she owns numerous sewing machines,” Hilden said.
“Yes, I was good at it,” Jean said.
For now, however, her primary hobby is crocheting, and Bill’s main volunteer effort is making signs for the Community Presbyterian Church of Cambria’s twice-yearly thrift sales.
The couple devoted many hours to those events, which always draw huge crowds of shoppers.
“Bill made sure donations were in working order, and Jean worked with clothing and everything else,” Hilden said.
Jean also contributed to the church in other ways, such as by creating items for the annual craft fair.
Life and marriage took them from Bakersfield to Cambria
Jean was born in June 1930 in Mineral, Texas, and Bill almost five months later in Bakersfield.
“We knew each other through four years of high school … graduating in 1948 … and two years of junior college in Bakersfield,” Bill said.
Jean would occasionally set up dates for Bill, the couple recalled.
One bitterly cold day, they were both having lunch with mutual friends at a local burger joint, he said. Jean was cold, and Bill offered to let her wear his letterman’s sweater.
Jean remembers being thankful for the loan.
Bill, however, was suffering from “heart flutters,” he said, and thought “maybe I can get a date?”
Soon thereafter, he got up his nerve, called her and asked if she would like to go to a drive-in theater that night.
Jean’s quick response?
“No. If you want a date, you have to call ahead and set a date and time. Also, I don’t go to drive-in theaters on a first date,” she told him firmly.
Bill had never been turned down before, but he followed her two rules, he said, and got the date.
“We saw a movie at the Fox Theater,” he said. But they did wind up at a drive-in afterwards … a restaurant where they got root-beer floats.
As Bill said, “the rest is history,” and a long one, at that.
After they married, he worked for a time for Ed Cummings Trucking (Cummings was Jean’s dad), then as processing manager for Kern County Equipment.
After their youngest child entered kindergarten, Bill said, Jean got her teaching credential and went to work as a special education instructor.
The Carter family grew by leaps and bounds
The Carters now have 14 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and counting.
Their branch of the direct Carter family currently totals 52 people including the anniversary couple and spouses, Bill said.
Neither Bill nor Jean know why they’ve managed to live such long lives, they said.
“I guess God was good to us,” Jean said. “We do try to take a walk every day,” even though she walks a lot more slowly these days.
How did their marriage endure to their diamond jubilee?
“Compassion, persistence and the ability to accommodate each other’s needs and wants,” she said after mulling it over for a while.
Bill had a ready answer and a mea culpa to go with it.
He attributes it all to his wife.
“Thinking back, I was not a very good husband,” he said. “If I could do it all over again, I would show Jean lots of appreciation for all the things she did to make our family function.
“Jean gets all the credit for our long marriage,” Bill said lovingly.
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
