By KATH GANNAWAY
IF RAY and Olive Emonson have any advice for young couples thinking of marriage, it’s not a complicated message.
“There’s a lot of give and take in life in general, and in marriage too,” Ray said.
Ray married his sweetheart Olive Learmonth on 24 April, 1954 at the Methodist Church in Yarra Junction, where they met. They haven’t strayed far from the valley they love ever since.
Olive was a local girl whose father had the blacksmith’s shop in Little Yarra Road.
Ray came down to the Yarra Valley from a wheat farm up in the Mallee chasing work which over the years included earthmoving in the logging industry, growing potatoes and working the family farm at Gladysdale.
“I always enjoyed my work, working up in the bush, as long as the days were fine you could get stuck into it and really work,” Ray said.
Olive said they worked together on the farm and raised their three children, who went to Gladysdale Primary School and Upper Yarra Secondary College.
Ray and Olive celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a family party, including three generations of grandchildren.
