Rays celebrate 50th anniversary with wedding bells, mistletoe

Dennis and Jeanette Ray will celebrate their Golden 50th Wedding Anniversary Dec. 24, 2014.

Dennis and Jeanette met, in Alaska, on the Denali Highway in the summer of 1964. Dennis was working for his Uncle and Aunt, Earl and Thelma Butcher, who owned and operated “Butchers Camp” (later known as Tangle River Inn) at Mile 22 of the Denali Highway. Jeanette’s family lived nearby at Mile 20 at Tangle Lakes Lodge.

They were married that same year on Christmas Eve. They are the third generation to be married on Christmas Eve. They share their anniversary with their daughter Darcy who married Bill Neth in 1986, Jeanette’s parents Harold and Bonnadean Nelson married in 1944 and Jeanette’s maternal grandparents Clarence and Marie Shortreed married in 1914.

They moved to a homestead on Johnson Road in Salcha in the fall of 1965 and made it their home for the next 46 years. They moved to Palmer in 2011 to live near family. Dennis worked as a heavy equipment mechanic working for various construction companies before working on Eielson Air Force Base where he retired in 2002. Jeanette worked for the local school bus company as a Special Education Attendant and retired in 2002.

They have two children, Darcy and Jacob; son-in-law, Bill Neth; four grandchildren, Casey and Brett Baron, Dillon and Sarah Neth; and four great grandchildren, Brisol and Jaedyn Baron and Aubrey and Camden Neth.

There was a family reunion celebration, at their home, this past summer in Alaska.