Luther and Liane Brown, of Ooltewah, recently celebrated 60 years of marriage.In the late 1950s, a young Long Island, N.Y., engineer named Luther Brown used his blue 1957 Volkswagen beetle as a conversation starter to talk to a pretty young German woman, Liane Guddat, whom he had met at church.
Luther told Liane he needed her to translate some German words on the VW's engine. (Smooth move, Luther.)
Liane played along, although she said she doubted that her halting English would be good enough to translate technical words.
Soon enough, Luther revealed his real motive: He asked Liane on a date.
"Sometimes, perhaps," she replied, coyly.
Later, Luther would gush to his parents: "I bought a German car and a German girl came with it. When may I come and show them to you?"
The anecdote, told today with wry smiles and sideways glances, has become one of the foundational stories of a long, loving marriage. Luther and Liane Brown celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this month.
Last week, the Browns, who recently moved to Chattanooga from Florida to be nearer some of their children and grandchildren, had an anniversary reception at Wellspring Church on Lee Highway. Friends and family members flew in from around the country to honor the couple and eat authentic German torten, Liane's favorite pastry.
The Browns recently sat down at their new home in Ooltewah to talk about their decades together as a couple.
Liane, we learned, immigrated to the United States, sailing past the Statue of Liberty on her 22nd birthday. She was something of a reluctant immigrant, she says.
Born in East Prussia, a German province, Liane and her family were exposed to Russian atrocities in the aftermath of World War II. Eventually, Liane's mother and her four children spent time in a post-war refugee camp in West Germany where they faced persecution and despair. Meanwhile, her father, a soldier but not a Nazi, spent several years as a prisoner of war in Algeria.
After coming to America, Liane worked as an au pair in New York and sent money home to her family. She intended only to stay for a year or two, but then Luther and his blue VW entered the picture. He remembers paying $1,395 for the little VW with its rear-mounted, air-cooled engine. At the time, Luther says, VWs didn't even have fuel gauges, so people were forever running out of gas.
Luther and Liane dated for seven months before he popped the question.
"She didn't accept at first," remembers Luther, 87. "She postponed her answer for a week."
"I had a lot to consider," says Liane, 83. "I had told my parents I would never marry a foreigner."
Eventually, Liane's family was sponsored by an American family who agreed to help them resettle in America. Her father swept floors in New York before landing work with an import-export company. Her mother became a seamstress known for decorating cashmere sweaters, including one eventually owned by first lady Pat Nixon.
In time, Luther and Liane were married and began to raise a family of their own, trading in the VW for a 1958 Chevy Biscayne.
Two of their three children eventually came to Chattanooga to attend the then-thriving Tennessee Temple University. For his part, Luther became a 28-year employee of IBM and eventually moved to Florida for his work.
The Browns say they are "half-backs" now, the term for folks who move from the Northeast to Florida and then halfway back.
They have 19 family members - children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren - in the Chattanooga area, so their calendars should be filled with family gatherings.
"It turns out that only about 3 percent of marriages last 60 years," said Luther. ""We realize it's quite a blessing."
"I never sat and contemplated being married for 60 years until last Saturday [at the reception]," Liane said. "Life flies by. There are always things to do, people to help."
And great-grandkids to hug.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.