Putney couple celebrated 70 years of marriage in 2025: ‘I’d do it all over again’

PUTNEY – In their quiet home in the Putney countryside, where they’ve lived since 1968, Curt and Ann Poole’s walls are decorated with memories: photos and scrapbooks, marking each decade spent together.

In September, the couple reached a milestone less than 1% of U.S. couples reach: their 70th wedding anniversary.

The Pooles celebrated the milestone with a party alongside their children and grandchildren. Their daughter, Sandra Vest, said each anniversary felt significant, especially when her parents’ strong relationship set the stage for the generations after them.

“It was the basis,” Vest said. “It was the foundation for everything that flowed from it, and they showed their children and anybody that was around them what true love looked like every day.” 

Their love story began in 1954 in Columbus. The two take turns retelling this story, looking to each other to confirm their memories and adding bits and pieces. 

Freshly out of Air Force boot camp, Curt Poole was going out with friends when he knocked on Ann Poole’s door and asked her to be his date one night in 1954.

“‘Oh, no, I can’t. My boyfriend won’t like it,’ she said. I said, ‘What he don’t know won’t hurt him,’” Curt Poole said, a sly smile on his face. “So we talked on the porch, and she said, ‘If you don’t find a date by 6:30, I’ll go with you just as a friend.’”

Curt Poole didn’t look for another girl. He called Ann back. She told him to pick her up an hour later. 

The two went to the drive-in and then ended their night at Idle Hour Park in Phenix City, Ala. 

“That’s when he sat me up on the table and said, ‘Would you like to make my coffee in the morning?’” Ann Poole said. “And I said, ‘Well, that might be nice.’”

“I didn’t even drink coffee,’” Curt Poole said. 

Poole arrived at his duty station in Denver, two days later and bought Ann’s rings at the military exchange. He mailed them to her, returned home a few months later and they married. 

The couple was young – Ann only 16 and Curt 17. When Curt returned to Denver, Ann waited for an allotment check of $91 so she could buy a bus ticket to join him. It was a big deal at the time for a woman so young to travel alone, halfway across the country.

“When I got on the bus in Columbus to go to Denver at 16, I didn’t even know where Denver was,” Ann said. “The bus driver says, ‘Well, young lady, where are you going?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going to Denver, but I’ve never been out of Columbus by myself. If my husband ain’t standing outside of that door when you open it, I don’t know what I’ll do.’ But as soon as we got to Denver, the doors opened, and there he stood.”

She arrived in Denver on Curt’s birthday.

“That was a good birthday present,” he said. 

Ann Poole said seeing her husband standing outside the bus to meet her in Denver is her favorite memory. The two would settle in Roswell, N.M., where they welcomed their first baby girl into the world. When Curt finished his military service, the two returned home to Georgia. 

Curt Poole landed a government job in 1960 with the Department of the Army’s missile program at Turner Field, which brought the couple to Albany. Three more children were born at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. 

The Pooles were seldom seen apart.

““Their love and commitment to each other was just evidenced day in and day out,” Vest said. “They never argued. They were always a team and a partnership.”

In 1975, Curt and Ann became business partners when they founded Skyline Equipment Co., a local Albany business that celebrated 50 years in business this year. It’s been in the Poole family for three generations, and is now operated by Curt and Ann’s grandson and his wife. 

Vest said their faith was central to their partnership and their family. The Pooles were committed members of the Putney Methodist Church for 50 years until it was forced to close its doors about three years ago. Vest’s parents emphasized the importance of prayer.

“Even when things were difficult, there was always gratitude and faith and a strength from God was just always there,” Vest said. “It wasn’t an overbearing heavy thing, it was a celebratory, grateful, appreciative kind of thing – always understanding how blessed we are.”

She said the childhood her parents provided her and her siblings was special.

“I thought that was the norm, and it wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s or so that I realized how extraordinary my family life was, and it was because of them,” Vest said.

The two enjoyed a vibrant life as new retirees. With their children grown, they traveled all over, visiting each state except for Hawaii. Together they took on new hobbies, buying a farm in Terrell County for deer hunting or a home in Florida for deep sea fishing.

On their 60th anniversary, the couple revisited Idle Hour Park and relived Curt’s proposal. 

“He said, ‘I didn’t have a ring that night, so you give me the one off of your hand, but if I get on my knees, I don’t think I can get up,’” Ann Poole said, laughing at the memory. “The maintenance crew was there cutting grass. They said, “If you get on your knees, we’ll get you up.”

One of the Pooles’ family members snapped a photo of this renewed proposal. 

Today, the Pooles live at their family home in Putney, enjoying a quiet life and supporting each other through sickness and health.

Ann Poole’s secret for 70 years together is to maintain respect and admiration for each other.  

“Always pay attention to the lady,” Curt Poole said. 

Ann advised couples “not to put off until tomorrow what could have been done that day.” 

“We didn’t worry too much about the later years because we’d heard so many friends say, ‘I wish we had done this or I wish we had done that, but we were saving for a rainy day,’” she said. “So we enjoyed the sun, the rain, and all the rest of it.”

The Pooles say they are proud of the family, business and life they’ve created. 

“If I had to, I’d do it all over again,” Ann Poole said. 

“Me, too,” Curt Poole said.