1 of 3

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Married Couple
Margaret Farrell rests her hand over her husbands Charles’ at their home in Vestavia Hills on Jan. 6. The Farrells have been married since September 1961.
2 of 3

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Married Couple
Margaret and Charles Farrell at their home in Vestavia Hills on Jan. 6. The Farrells have been married since September of 1961.
3 of 3

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Married Couple
Lewis Eberdt and Annette Eberdt at their home in Vestavia Hills on Dec. 19. The Eberdts have beenmarried since 1951.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Vestavia Voice interviewed two couples from Vestavia Hills who have been married 58 and 69 years, respectively, and talked to them about what makes a marriage last. Here are their stories:
CHARLES AND MARGARET FARRELL
Charles Farrell knew the first time he saw Margaret Mackin that she would one day be his wife.
The couple met on a blind date, set up by a mutual friend.
“I knew the day she walked out of the front door of this friend’s house down there,” Charles said. “She came down, had pedal pushers on, little penny loafers and a white blouse that was buttoned up. I said, ‘That’s the one for me.’”
Fifty-eight years after they first said “I do” in 1961, the Farrells have three children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren and have lived in Vestavia Hills for 57 years, including the past 43 years in their current house.
Charles grew up on the north side of Norwood, while Margaret spent some time in the south side of Norwood before her family moved to Vestavia when she was 12 years old.
In addition to being from two different sides of town, Charles said he was Baptist while his wife was Catholic.
“It was difficult, but we made it work,” he said.
A few decades later, Charles joined the Catholic Church. The couple now attends St. Peter’s Catholic Church.
The Farrells were married a few years after Charles returned from serving in Korea after the Korean War. From 1957 to 1959, he served with the Army Corps of Engineers, reconstructing the area. At one time, he said he wanted to go back.
“But then I met her (Margaret), and I couldn’t go back,” he said.
When the couple first got married, it wasn’t easy, the Farrells said.
“It was a struggle because we didn’t have any money,” Margaret said. She said she was fortunate to be a stay-at-home mother, but times were still hard on the family. Being a stay-at-home mom, she enjoyed receiving and reading several magazines to pass the time.
However, she realized she could no longer afford to keep the magazines, unless she gave up smoking. The cigarettes were thrown away, and she started putting 29 cents in a jar to save up money for the magazines. She said both her and Charles’ decisions to stop smoking probably saved their lives and helped them live longer.
Since moving to Vestavia Hills in 1963, the Farrells said they have seen the city grow and change with the times.
“It’s grown tremendously,” Margaret said.
When they first moved to their current home, Post Oak Road was still a dirt road, Margaret said.
As their children were growing up, Margaret got involved as a “cookie mom” for the Girl Scouts. The couple also took time to visit different parts of the country, such as New Hampshire, where they enjoyed her brother’s new sailboat.
While in New Hampshire, Charles took a picture of his wife next to a lighthouse. “She keeps me off the rocks,” he said.
After so many years of marriage, the Farrells said the key is for both husband and wife to give 100%, not 50-50. Marriage, Charles said, has taught him patience, commitment and trust.
“We work together and make decisions together,” Margaret said.
LEWIS AND ANNETTE EBERDT
High school sweethearts Lewis and Annette Eberdt have been married for 69 years and still live in the house they built themselves in 1968.
Both Lewis and Annette grew up in the Hueytown area, and both attended Hueytown Methodist Church with their parents. After growing up together, the two started dating in high school, and both attended Auburn University.
Lewis joined the National Guard in 1947, and in the first quarter of his junior year, President Harry Truman activated the guards, sending him to South Carolina.
In January 1951, Lewis received a four-day pass from the National Guard to go home and marry Annette. They were married on a Sunday at Hueytown Methodist and then went together back to South Carolina, where they lived in an apartment in Columbia.
One night, Lewis said he came in late, and his wife had accidentally locked him out, forcing him to throw rocks at the upstairs screen door to alert her to his predicament.
Eventually, they both graduated from Auburn, and Lewis took a job with an air conditioning company, using his mechanical engineering degree. He took $30,000 less in his yearly salary to stay in Alabama because he didn’t want to leave.
The couple found their way to Homewood, where they adopted a boy, Mike, through the state of Alabama, and later adopted a girl, Diane, who was from New Orleans.
In 1968, Annette drew up the plans for the couple’s home in Vestavia Hills, where they’ve lived ever since.
“I thought she did a pretty good job,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the couple has always been compatible and enjoyed doing things together. When he began his own engineering consulting business before retiring in 1993, his wife would help as he worked at home. The couple also spent months at a time traveling after Lewis retired. Traveling across the country, they would stop for days at a time to see everything they could.
Lewis said he’s not sure they have ever had an argument.
“I can’t imagine not being married,” he said. The secret, he said, is to be compatible, to enjoy the same things and to have love for one another.