The Daily Catch

Told Their 1973 Teen Marriage Didn’t Stand a Chance, Couple Celebrate Their 50th Anniversary



Jerry Husman, right, and Teresa Griffin, originally of Red Hook, tied the knot in 1973 when she was 16 and four months pregnant. Since she was no longer “pure,” she dressed in blue (photo courtesy Justin Husman).

When newlyweds Jerry Husman and Teresa Griffin stood at their Red Hook High School graduation in 1974, she holding their infant son Justin, few gave their union a chance.

Months earlier, a last-minute wedding had been called, for which she wore a blue dress. “She was no longer pure so couldn’t wear white,” her son, Justin, recalls. She was four months pregnant.

The pair have proved the naysayers wrong. On Friday, they will celebrate their 50th anniversary, reaching a milestone the U.S. Census Bureau says is attained by only 6 percent of American couples.

While they no longer live in Red Hook, the Husmans come to visit every year, seeing friends and family and reminiscing about the former Red Hook Drug Store located where Annabelle’s Village Bake Shop now stands. Griffin’s father, Dan Griffin, owned it back in the day. Her mom, Anna Margaret Griffin, assisted in the business. She died in Red Hook in February at the age of 95.

“Mom is a Red Hooker through and through,” says Justin. “Circumstances took her away, but it never left her heart.”

The couple now split their time between Prosper, Texas near Dallas and a summer cottage they adore in Lake Pleasant in the Adirondacks. “They’ve had a magical life together, with bumps along the way, and they want Red Hook to know how deep their memories run,” says Justin.

The two started dating in 1972, “running around in Dad’s little MG sportscar to the abandoned manors along the Hudson,” Justin adds. Jerry remembers those days well. The couple called their journeys “rambling.” They’d jump into the car, head for the village Four Corners or over the bridge into Kingston, then make a quick decision about turning left or right. Then they just drove. “We saw a lot of the east side of the Hudson and a lot of the west, too,” Jerry recalls.

Discovering Teresa was pregnant made life complicated. They’d been careless, Jerry says, but an abortion was out of the question. “We threw caution to the wind, some of it ignorance,” he recalls. It was 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was decided. “We knew we could make that choice, but it wasn’t for us,” he says. Not only did they resolve to have the baby, they would get married, too. During pre-marital counseling, the pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on South Broadway, where they tied the knot, again put the question of terminating the pregnancy on the table. No dice, Jerry said. Teresa had been raised Catholic, he Lutheran. “But it wasn’t about religion,” Jerry said.

Jerry and Teresa Husman celebrated their 50th anniversary early with a cruise on the Danube River (photo courtesy Justin Husman).

Teresa’s parents, especially her mother, were not pleased, however. Still, her father petitioned the Red Hook School Board to allow Teresa to continue at Red Hook High. “She wasn’t going away to live with some aunt in hiding,” Jerry says. “She wanted to stay right where she was, in Red Hook.” The board gave the approval.

The couple married on May 19, 1973, she 16 1/2 years old and he 17, as they awaited Justin’s October birth. It was their junior year. “Certainly, in the small town of Red Hook, there was plenty of talk about the viability of their marriage,” Justin says. “No one thought it would last.”

But the young couple persisted. Jerry went from high school to Duchess Community College to pursue a pharmacist’s degree. He remembers the dejection of being turned down for a job by one proprietor in Red Hook who scoffed when Jerry said he had a family to support. But he soon found a full-time job stocking shelves at Grand Union, located where Tops supermarket is today, north of the village of Rhinebeck. Inflation was high, some 8.8 percent according to records, so one week, he’d stamp one set of price labels onto the groceries and the next, he’d take them off and replace them with higher prices. “The grocery business was quite different back then,” Jerry recalled. “People today don’t appreciate the computerization.”

When it proved difficult to support a family and attend school, Jerry took his family of three to Iowa, where he found a job at the University of Iowa that would also allow him to pursue the pharmacy degree. In 1979, a daughter, Corrinne, now 44, was born, and in 1981, another son, Aaron, who turns 42 in two weeks, followed. Jerry abandoned the pharmacy career plan and switched gears, to health administration.

Still pursuing the education to launch a career, Jerry next took a job at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas in the mid-1980s. “We were on the move again,” Justin recalls. Teresa was always a stay-at-home mom – she took a few courses but did not finish college – while Jerry pursued his education. After the associate’s degree in biology at Dutchess Community College, he earned both a B.A. and an M.A. at the Univesity of Texas at Dallas, the latter in public administration.

The Husman Family, circa 2017. Back row: Jerry, Will (Corrinne’s husband) and son Aaron (holding his son Daniel). Middle row: Teresa, daughter Corrinne, Katie (Aaron’s wife), Stephanie (Justin’s wife), and son Justin. Other grandchildren are in front (photo courtesy Jerry Husman).

“Our house was happy, and they are rich in friends wherever they go, so we had plenty of backyard parties in our youth,” recalls Justin. 

Teresa took odd jobs. “But she was always Mom first, sewing our clothes, making our toys, and taking good care of us,” recalls Justin, 49, who, with his brother, owns a successful insurance agency in Dallas. After her children left the nest, Teresa took up quilting and started a quilt-finishing business. 

Jerry says he’s held many jobs and has endured a layoff, too. “I had to find my path constantly,” Jerry says, “because that’s what supporting a family requires.”

The pair had always loved motorcycling, and they took up the hobby again in their 40s, even making it to Germany in 2012 for a two-week, seven-country sojourn before Jerry retired from a job at North Kansas City Hospital in Missouri. “My wife will never do that again,” Jerry said, laughing, “but the freedom to go where we wanted was lovely.”

The pair now have five grandchildren ranging in age from 6 to 15. And Jerry is excited to surprise his beloved of 50 years with some special surprises at their celebration on May 28. He recognizes how unusual it is to have a marriage that lasts half a century. “Very few teenage marriages stand the test of time,” Jerry says. “But beyond that, a 50-year marriage is an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s never easy; it’s always a negotiation. You take life as it comes and make adjustments.”

The children say they are proud of their folks. “They’ve shared a lot of ups and downs, a lot of love, and they’ve beaten the odds,” says Justin.

Teresa and Jerry with their infant son, Justin, in a 1974 Red Hook High School yearbook photo (photo courtesy Jerry Husman).

Jerry recalls Red Hook with fond memories and says he’ll always love the community. “Even though it’s changed, it hasn’t,” he said. “It retains 98 percent of what we grew up with – small town, easy to get around, you know people, it’s not congested.” Red Hook, he says, “is very straightforward. There’s nothing complicated about Red Hook.”

He and Justin asked The Daily Catch not to reach out to Teresa ahead of the big day. “We want to delight her with this little story,” Justin explained. “She’ll be so surprised.”


Editor’s Note: If you have a unique story about your own Red Hook history or know someone who does, share it with us here.

Teresa Griffin’s father owned the Red Hook Drug Store, located in the 1970s where Annabelle’s Village Bake Shop is today (photo courtesy of Historic Red Hook).

 

Justin and Teresa at Oberwesel Castle on the Rhine in Germany on April 1 on their celebratory anniversary cruise (photo courtesy of Justin Husman).

3 responses to “Told Their 1973 Teen Marriage Didn’t Stand a Chance, Couple Celebrate Their 50th Anniversary”

  1. Tom Cathcart says:

    Great story. Congratulations, Jerry and Teresa!

  2. Doug Baz says:

    Great story…and great idea for a column

  3. Evelyn Fluegel says:

    Congratulations Jerry and Teresa! Being in the same situation with Jim and over 50 years together, I admire you and your family.

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