MARYSVILLE — Ken and Ethel Cage hope that guests will join them as they celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary from 1-4 p.m. on May 11 at the Marysville American Legion Post 178, located at the corner of Second Street and Cedar Avenue.

Ken and Ethel were living in Colville, Wash., when they first met in the summer of 1950. The two joined mutual friends on a huckleberry gathering trip one Sunday, but Ken admitted that it took him a little bit to figure out what a good thing he had in Ethel.

“She likes to tell people that we met up the very next day and I didn’t even recognize her,” Ken Cage said. “She was just so dressed up compared to how she’d looked before.”

Ken and Ethel got married on May 3, 1953, while Ken was on leave from the U.S. Navy.

“I was in the fleet from 1950-54,” Ken Cage said. “Two years of that was spent in the Philippines, one year was spent on board ship and another full year was spent just waiting in line.”

Just as the Cages request no gifts from their guests except their presence at the couple’s anniversary open house at the Legion Post Hall, so too does Ken see Ethel herself as enough of a present for their years together.

“I married her when I realized that I couldn’t live the rest of my life without her,” Ken Cage said. “All my plans for the rest of my life changed because of her. I love her just because she’s her. She’s a lady who respects herself.”