Faith is important in couple's 50-year marriage

Marilyn Scott

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Marilyn and Lacy James Scott were married on July 20, 1963 in Saint Ann Catholic Church. Courtesy Photo/Marilyn Scott

KEARNS — Marilyn and Lacy James Scott will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary July 20, by renewing their marriage vows and attending a party with family and friends at Saint Francis Xavier Parish, where they are members.

They were married July 20, 1963 in Saint Ann Catholic Church.

Their relationship began at a dance.

"I met Scotty (Lacy) when Holy Cross Nursing School cosponsored a dance with Hill Air Force Base," said Marilyn, who was born and raised in Salt Lake City. "He introduced himself saying, ‘My name is Lacy James Scott, but everybody calls me Scotty.’ I didn’t graduate because we fell in love and decided to get married two years before he would have gone to Vietnam."

Scotty, who was in the Air Force, had been told that he was to be sent to Vietnam. However, he was discharged before he was sent because his enlistment was up.

The couple began their relationship because Scotty thought Marilyn was pretty and he was attracted to her kind ways, he said.

Marilyn was attracted to Scotty because he had good manners, he had been raised to respect women and he was a good-looking young man, she said.

Scotty was born in Radford, Va., and raised in Sparta, N.C. in the Southern Baptist religion. He converted to Catholicism after the couple married and had the first three of their five children so he "would know what to teach them about Catholicism," he said.

Marilyn is also a convert to Catholicism; she converted from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was 15.

"The neighbor down the street was a very devout Catholic woman … who took me to Mass and CCD. She was an angel on earth in my life. My mother had been baptized Catholic as a baby and didn’t realize it until later in life; she had been raised in the LDS faith," Marilyn said.

While the Scotts raised their family, they did many activities together such as fishing and hunting, but "Church has been primary in our lives," Marilyn said. "We were region coordinators of Marriage Encounter for three years, have been Eucharistic ministers, have helped all of the sisters that have been at St. Francis Xavier throughout the years by doing bulletin boards, planning dances over the past 44 years and participated in various activities."

Both are proponents of Marriage Encounter, which "helped us learn respect for each other and to put the other person first in our lives," said Marilyn.

Scotty added, "Marriage Encounter allowed us to have time to give our input to the questions asked, and a lot of times I would be shy to tell Marilyn things, but Marriage Encounter allowed me to open up and we were able to have better communication."

The couple also went to a Marriage Renewal to renew what they had learned, and a Marriage Spiritual to bring spirituality into their marriage.

They have stayed together for 50 years because "we love each other," said Marilyn.

"It’s a 50/50 situation," added Scotty. "It’s give and take. We tease each other quite a bit."

"We have a good time together," added Marilyn. "We work together in everything and that is important. He tills the garden and I put in the plants, we cook together, and when I was going to school to get my associate degree in graphic design he was there to support me and help with the kids. When we have trouble, we talk about it to find the best solution and try to decide what God would want us to do with the situation."

The couple has 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.