Philadelphia area couples celebrate their 50th anniversaries

In 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated president, urging Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit 61 home runs to break Babe Ruth's long-standing single-season record.

Alan Shepard became the first American in space, aboard the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7.

And Ann and Ed Markowski, who met at a dance at the old Boulevard Ballroom in the Northeast, tied the knot.

"He loved to polka," Ann Markowski said with her husband smiling at her side, as he has done for the last half-century.

The Markowskis were among scores of couples celebrating their golden anniversaries Sunday at a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul with Cardinal Justin Rigali.

It was quite a turnout for a milestone that many who marry, according to marriage statistics, will never see. As Cardinal Rigali said, "Marriage is in a precarious situation" in a society that views it as a temporary situation rather than a long-term bond.

Not for these couples. The Markowskis, parents of three and grandparents of seven, were like a pair of matched shoes.

"We're soul mates," Ed Markowski said. "We even had brain MRIs together. She was in one room and I was in another. They found nothing, so we're lucky."

Said his wife, stylish in a champagne-colored cocktail dress with matching short jacket: "We laugh a lot. We go out all the time."

Their friends from St. Martha's parish in the Northeast, Bill and Ellen Dillon, were also celebrating their 50th.

"It's so special to be at the cathedral," said Ellen Dillon, who with her husband has four children and seven grandchildren.

The couples, who are in their 70s, said there's no big secret to staying together for the long haul.

"There's a lot of give and take. I give and she takes," Bill Dillon deadpanned.

Actually, he said, longevity in a marriage takes a lot of compromise. Younger people "give up too easily. There's too much to lose," chimed in his wife.

Both couples had also celebrated their 25th anniversaries at the cathedral. "It's more beautiful than anything in Italy," Ellen Dillon declared.

Anthony and Arlene Urbanski, also of the Northeast, met when they were 9 at St. Ann's School. Her mother finally allowed her to go on a date with him at age 16.

"And only because he was Polish," she said.

Today, they are still the best of friends.

The septuagenarian retirees, who have two children and four grandchildren, said a key to their marriage was all the volunteer work they did together. They've been involved with Aid for Friends, which makes and delivers meals to seniors, for 37 years, and also help out in the first-grade computer class at St. Jerome's.

"That's a trip," said Alan Urbanski, who used to drive an 18-wheeler.

Their granddaughter Rachel Urbanski, 18, who accompanied them to Mass, said they set a good example. What has she learned from them? "To just keep moving," she said.

Another teen with her grandparents, Olivia Guinette, 13, found out something about her grandmother that left her speechless. Eleanore Joan Valenti of Bristol said that after a friend introduced her to future husband Louis, she used to walk up and down streets, waiting for him to drive by.

"Others would drive by and offer me a ride, but I ignored them. I was looking for him," she said.

Olivia looked stunned; she would certainly have a lot to tell relatives at an anniversary party for her grandparents later in the day.