70 years together and still going strong
Last week on the Daily Drive Show we had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Marjorie Cunningham – an ordinary woman with an extraordinary story! 
93 year old Marjorie celebrated her 70th wedding anniversary with husband Clarence on April 26th – a major milestone for anyone.
Marjorie and Clarry (as she calls him) celebrated with lemonade and curried prawns at their local services club in Tottenham NSW.
Marjorie and Clarence have known each other forever. They went to the same school, they went “quandonging” (native fruit-picking) together on Condobolin town picnics, and two of her sisters married two of his brothers!
Marjorie vowed that she would “never marry a Cunningham” but she succumbed to Clarry’s charms in 1947.
Clarence had joined the army in 1942, when he was 17. He was involved in the Ramu Valley campaign in Papua New Guinea, and later in the Battle of Balikpapan, a bloody landing in Borneo in 1945.
Marjorie recalls how, when he returned, she would wake up during the night with Clarry on top of her, both hands around her throat trying to throttle her because he thought she was a Japanese soldier.
Clarence spent his life doing hard, physical work; he won the wood chopping competition at the Condobolin Show when he was 72.
Forty years ago they ended up in the tiny town of Tottenham, near Dubbo, where they still live in a small house. They have two children, eleven grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
For years, the only people with whom he would discuss the war were his fellow veterans. It was the only time he would drink, and he often drank so much that he lost his false teeth, leaving Marjorie to scour the floor.
But he can no longer do that on Anzac Day. “All my mates are gone.”
WHEN Marjorie Smith married Clarence Cunningham, she was the third of the Smith girls to wed a Cunningham boy.
There were seven Smith children, who were raised alone by their mother after Marjorie’s father skipped town when she was a toddler, and nine Cunningham kids.
Seventy years later, the Cunninghams say there is only one secret to a long marriage. “You need to work together, and help each other” says Marjorie.
