My Parents Were Bob and Betty

This week marked the seventh anniversary of the end of an era.  The era of Bob and Betty Landry started in the early 1950s and continued until the third week of January in 2017.  It was a long run.  It was a good run.  My siblings and I were pretty sure that when one of them died, the other would be following along not long after.  Yet, we were taken off guard when they both died in the same week.  Having both of your parents die at the same time and having a joint funeral made for a difficult time.  But it was appropriate that their close-knit relationship would end at the same time.  They were happily married for 64 years.

Betty Bucklin Landry and Bob Landry on April 8, 1966. Easter in Lafayette, Louisiana.

So, when I was thinking about them all week, I knew I’d be writing about them tonight.  But I didn’t know exactly what I’d say or what photo I would use.  I surely couldn’t use a photo I used before!  (I hope I haven’t used this one before!)  That’s no problem, because I have lots of photos of my parents through the years.

I considered using the photo from their second wedding anniversary, but then thought I’d use it later this year around their wedding date.  I also thought about using a photo that they posed for while singing together at some function.  I do like photos of them showing them doing what they loved to do.  We had a very musical family.

When I went looking for a photo, this one caught my attention right away.  I had already edited it previously, so it just took a little more tweaking for it to be ready for publishing.  It’s also another one of those photos that is very calming to me.  They just look so content with each other.  This is what my parents looked like when we were kids.

This picture was taken at the Bucklin family Easter get together for 1966.  It was held by my mom’s older sister Sylvia Bucklin Pilcher and her husband Ronald Pilcher.  The Pilcher family lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Leonpacher Rd.  One of my most memorable events from one of those times we got together was when my mom’s younger brother Austin’s family moved back to Louisiana after being in Australia.  He had gotten married and had three children at that point, and they were introduced to the family.  So when someone told my cousin John that all of the other kids were his cousins, he pointed at me and said, “I don’t want that one!” in a cute little Australian accent.  That story has always made me laugh.

Back to the photo.  My dad’s name was Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. and my mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Most people knew them as Bob and Betty.  My dad’s family may have said Bobbie and Betty, while my mom’s side would say Betty Lou and Bob.  They were in their 30s when this photo was taken.  I remember thinking that they were old back then.  I would look at old photos of them and was so surprised that they still looked similar.  What was I thinking?  They had only been together for 15 years.  

Look how cute they were.  And they were not pretentious in the least.  They were just happy to be together raising their kids in Southern Louisiana.  What could be better than that?