Worland couple celebrates 60th wedding anniversary
May 2, 2019
WORLAND – Next Wednesday, May 8, Worland residents James and Sunny Pederson will celebrate their 60 wedding anniversary.
The couple was married on May 8, 1959, on James Pederson's parent's small farm between Otto and Burlington. After getting married the couple spent a night, just one, in a motel in Cody, as James had to be back at work the next day.
The couple met during an LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) youth event. "We went on a hayride and we kind of met there, that was our first date with the church mutual group. Mutual was Wednesday nights and it was a get-together for most of the school children," the couple said.
Over their years together, James has never gone one day unemployed. James stated that even when he lost a job he made sure that the next day that he had another one.
The two moved to Worland about six months after getting married and worked the Worland Ranch, which was rented by James's father. "We farmed it for two years and the sugar beet disease curly top got us and we didn't have a very good crop so that's when I went to work for a couple other companies before Ryan Brothers," James Pederson said.
After Ryan Brothers, James went to work for Dow Chemical for a while before moving on to Schlumberger, of which he worked for, for 30 years. "I started out in the shop in Worland, I was there about six to seven years and then I had the whole Western division, which included Williston, North Dakota, Bakersfield, Colorado, Casper and Gillette and then they decided that they didn't want to do that anymore, so I went back into the shop near Denver, Colorado. Then after that I got promoted back into the division again for a while, then they transferred me to Anchorage, Alaska, and I worked in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. I was there for 8.5 years. I helped build a cement plant for them and also a plant at Alpine, Alaska. Then after I retired I went back to work 15.5 years building cement bulk plants, twice in Gillette, Sheridan, Grand Junction, Colorado and Rock Springs and Rock Springs was a big one," James Pederson said.
Sunny Pederson worked at the Cottage Grocery in Worland for a while and also cleaned houses and the Pawnee Motel before deciding that she was better off at home taking care of their five children.
The couple's two daughters live in the area and two sons live in Casper and one son lives in Mesquite, Nevada. They also have five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Before James retired the couple spent many evenings either bowling or square dancing. "We went square dancing all over the Big Horn Basin, we even went to Yellowstone. We square danced until they didn't have a caller anymore," the couple said.
After square dancing, the couple bought a Harley Davidson and enjoyed the open road, going to Sturgis, South Dakota, and a few trips to Arizona. James's sold one Harley and gifted the other to his son in Nevada after their adventures were over.
Now the couple stays close to home, venturing only to see family in Casper due to health problems.
When asked how they were able to stay married for 60 years, in a time when the average marriage lasts seven years in the United States, the couple said that they worked hard at their marriage. Sunny stated that it hasn't been easy as James was gone so much when he was working. James said, "She kept her faith in me, I put her through a lot over the years."
As for the future, James plans on building handrails for older people. "If they can afford it I will charge and if they can't, well it's going to be on me."