Couple celebrates 100 years and decades of adventures

MARION — For over 70 years, Ann and Will Wingate have traveled around the world, and this year the couple is embarking on a journey that Ann said they wouldn’t have made without each other: turning 100 years old.

“Together we’ve made it,” she said. “We’ve always enjoyed being together.”

Will and Ann met in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1952 while Will was serving in the Air Force and Ann was working with the Office of Strategic Services running the officer’s club.

“And the rest is history,” Ann said.

Born in New Jersey in May 1925, Will said when he was a kid he “always wanted to go to sea.”

“When I graduated from high school, Uncle Sam was looking for merchant seamen, and I was ready to go,” he said.

On July 2, 1943 he volunteered for service in the U.S. Maritime Service and on his third voyage he spent seven months aboard the SS Chief Charlot, which carried 7,000 tons of munitions, a deck cargo of lumber and three fighter aircrafts.

From early November 1944 to January 1945, Will and his crewmates laid anchor off Tacloban City, Philippines as a floating munitions warehouse to support the battle for the Philippines.

“We and other anchored ships were subject to round-the-clock attacks by Japanese fighter and kamikaze pilots,” he said. “Our U.S. Naval armed guard aided by many of our seamen tirelessly participated in the defense of our ship during each of these attacks.”

Will added that his ship was credited with downing a Japanese plane and was awarded the Merchant Marine Combat Bar, the Pacific War Zone and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one star from the War Shipping Administration.

Born in November 1925, Ann graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in political science and has traveled worldwide, including a trip to China in 1983 shortly after the country opened up to visitors as part of its Open Door Policy.

“It was the trip of a lifetime,” she said.

Because it was a transitional period for the country and because of the language barrier, Ann mostly stayed with her group, but one morning she adventured out on her own and met a group practicing Tai Chi.

“After a few minutes I smiled at them and a few smiled back, so I tried to do a little bit with them, but I wasn’t very good,” she said.

A few people came over to her when they were finished and while the language barrier was too large for them to talk, they smiled, shook hands and exchanged some of the belongings they had with them, Ann said.

“It was wonderful,” she said.

Ann, who also saw the Royal Palace, the Terracotta Army and walked The Great Wall, said, “I would go back to China if I could visit.”

Will proposed to Ann in 1954 in Bremerhaven, and when they got engaged someone painted them a large mural in the city, Carolyn said, adding that her mother still has it.

After getting married in Florida, the couple moved to New England and have lived across Massachusetts, including in Cape Cod and Mattapoisett.

When Will, a project manager in construction, saw that there was a building slump in 1978, he decided it was time to move again.

“He was like, ‘Well, we’re either going to move to Florida, Saudi Arabia or Arkansas,’ so we went to Florida,” Carolyn said.

Then 20 years ago, while others retired to Florida, the Wingates returned to the South Coast to live in Marion.

The couple celebrated their birthdays at the Marion Council on Aging on April 10 — the 100th day of the year — surrounded by several of their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends.

Carolyn said that when the Marion Council on Aging reached out about throwing her parents a birthday party she “fully expected” her dad to call the idea ridiculous.

“But from the get go he was like, ‘Oh, yes, let’s go,’” she said.

Carolyn and her band, Best of Friends, provided the music, playing songs including “Tonight you belong to me” because it’s 99 years old, “Going to chapel” to honor her parents’ marriage and some Glenn Miller songs because both of her parents enjoy his music, Carolyn said.

She also sang a rendition of “On a bicycle built for two,” re-writing the lyrics to fit her parents’ bicycle adventures.

“Some of the things they’ve done I look at today and say, ‘Boy, I feel awfully insignificant compared to them,’” Andrew Wingate, who is one of their sons, said.

Together Ann and Will traveled to approximately 28 countries and said their favorite country to visit is Scotland.

According to Andrew, his dad still jokes about wanting to go back to Scotland.

“I suspect they’re going to be around for quite a while,” he said.