Jake and Peggy Leverette have known each other nearly their whole lives. The two first met at four and five-years-old and grew up around each other attending the same schools and living in the same Sherman, Texas community.
In June of 1947 when Peggy was 17 and Jake was 18, they began to date and were married by December that year.
“We just knew this was it,” Peggy says fondly.
For years Jake worked in sales in Texas when he saw a vision of his future—a call to God. So he got in contact with someone running a bible school in Peace Hills, Alta., and in September 1950 Peggy and Jake made the move north.
After graduating from bible school Jake served as an evangelist in Peace Hills for three years. In 1957, he received the call to come work in Pastoral Ministry at the Mission Church in Wetaskiwin.
Throughout their life Peggy and Jake have lived in multiple provinces across Canada and states in the U.S.A., although they always seemed to make their way back to Wetaskiwin. In fact, they moved back to Wetaskiwin four times before retiring here in 1999.
Jake says that living in Wetaskiwin is a blessing.
“This is home,” says Peggy.
Of their six children, three were born here in Wetaskiwin.
Peggy and Jake now live at Peace Hills Lodge in Wetaskiwin. Peggy says, “It has become home and the people around us have become part of our family.”
Now Peggy, 93, and Jake, 94, have celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. They celebrated surrounded by friends at Peace Hills Lodge.
When the Pipestone Flyer asked them what the key to a 75-year-long marriage they both emphatically agreed that for them God is what gave them strength and love through the years.
“He has loved us and we have loved each other,” says Jake.
“The most important thing was our unity together and our unity with him,” Peggy agrees.
shaela.dansereau@pipestoneflyer.ca
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