So. Calif. couple unlawfully wedded for 48 years
REDLANDS, Calif. (AP) - After spending nearly a half-century as husband and wife, Bob and Norma Clark are finally married.
The couple from Redlands, an inland California city halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, celebrated their 48th anniversary in August, and in November they were getting their end-of-life documents in order and sought a copy of their marriage license for Social Security purposes.
The Clarks, who met in college, took their vows at a church south of San Francisco in August 1964, shortly after Bob had served in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
But when clerks at the Hall of Records in San Mateo County tried to pull the license last month, they came up empty.
"They went back to the year 1956, but no record of our marriage could be found," Bob Clark told the Redlands Daily Facts.
The church where they had married still had a record of the ceremony so they knew they hadn't imagined it, and several of the couple's family members and friends who had been wedding guests were about to come to town for Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 21 they made their marriage legitimate, filing their paperwork and obtaining their license at the San Bernardino County Hall of Records, with the maid of honor and a junior usher from the original wedding serving as witnesses.
Bob Clark brought flowers for Norma, and at the urging of family and friends kissed the bride to seal the deal.
"I got her a nice bouquet, and it was just a hoot," he said.
The couple from Redlands, an inland California city halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, celebrated their 48th anniversary in August, and in November they were getting their end-of-life documents in order and sought a copy of their marriage license for Social Security purposes.
The Clarks, who met in college, took their vows at a church south of San Francisco in August 1964, shortly after Bob had served in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
But when clerks at the Hall of Records in San Mateo County tried to pull the license last month, they came up empty.
"They went back to the year 1956, but no record of our marriage could be found," Bob Clark told the Redlands Daily Facts.
The church where they had married still had a record of the ceremony so they knew they hadn't imagined it, and several of the couple's family members and friends who had been wedding guests were about to come to town for Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 21 they made their marriage legitimate, filing their paperwork and obtaining their license at the San Bernardino County Hall of Records, with the maid of honor and a junior usher from the original wedding serving as witnesses.
Bob Clark brought flowers for Norma, and at the urging of family and friends kissed the bride to seal the deal.
"I got her a nice bouquet, and it was just a hoot," he said.
Of course I may be wrong, but it seems to me that if a couple presents themselves as married for almost 50 years, without intent of deception, and without being already married to someone else, then under any sense of the word or in any jurisdiction they are as married as anyone can be. Â License be damned.
 @RatchetRanger Not legally.
 @RatchetRanger Which also includes the settlement of an estate or making medical care or financial decisions for an incapacitated "spouse"; plus, it gets messier with juvenile children and legal guardianship.
 @RatchetRanger common law
 @whirledworld  @RatchetRanger Only where common law is legally allowed.  Oregon and Washington have never legally allowed it and California (where this couple is from) abolished it in 1895!
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According to the gospel of Wikipedia:
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Common-law marriage can still be contracted in nine states (Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Utah and Texas) and the District of Columbia. New Hampshire recognizes common-law marriage for purposes of probate only, and Utah recognizes common-law marriages only if they have been validated by a court or administrative order.
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Common-law marriages can no longer be contracted in the following states, as of the dates given: Alaska (1917), Arizona (1913), California (1895), Florida (1968), Georgia (1997), Hawaii(1920), Idaho (1996), Illinois (1905), Indiana (1958), Kentucky (1852), Maine (1652, when it became part of Massachusetts; then a state, 1820), Massachusetts (1646), Michigan (1957),Minnesota (1941), Mississippi (1956), Missouri (1921), Nebraska (1923), Nevada (1943), New Mexico (1860), New Jersey (1939), New York (1933, also 1902â1908), North Dakota (1890), Ohio(1991), Oklahoma (Nov. 2010), Pennsylvania (2005), South Dakota (1959), and Wisconsin (1917).
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The following states never permitted common-law marriages: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The slime ball preacher who did our ceremony didn't send in the paperwork and kept the money. After about 25 years of being "married" we went to get a copy of our marriage license that we never did get and were told we weren't married. In Oregon we were considered common law marriage.
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To this day my wife and I joke that we need to stop living in sin and get married some day. We have been married for over 38 years, i think. I am not very good at the year we got married but I know the day really well.
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Harry? Time to up the dose!!
 @RalphCramden That is odd because you go to pay for and pick up the marriage license at the courthouse yourself for decades now. Then you take it to be signed by the officiant, the newly weds and there you have it.  We  ( me & the ex) got ours in Multnomah Co. and got married in Marion Co. at Champoeg State Park and took the marriage license there  for signing after the ceremony (but before the cake and champagne) and  brought it back home with us.Â
 @whirledworldÂ
I don't think that is how it worked when we got married. My wife took care of it.
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I do know that there is no record of us being married and we paid the pastor to file the marriage certificate and paid him money to take care of it. He did this to a lot of people we later found out.
Hard to make a smart aleck comment on this one. Congrats.
So the church married them but they didn't file the govt paperwork and the govt says they're not married? I guess the anti-marriage equality people can finally realize that in this country marriage is a govt sanctioned union, and has nothing to do with religion.
I do congratulate them on finally getting married though.
Did she wear white?
That's a little different, for sure..! Â Â Glad they discovered it while both of them were alive and well..! Â Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Clark ~ may you spend many more happy years together..! Â :-)