80 Years of Marriage: One Couple’s Faith-Centered Advice

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By Makeilah Law, Church News

Gloria Hanson Wright first noticed Amos L. Wright in their high school orchestra and was immediately smitten.

“I thought, ‘That’s the one for me,’” she recalled.

Taking decisive action, she dropped a previous class and asked the orchestra director to teach her an instrument — just to be able to join Amos in the ensemble.

The couple met formally at a football game played at Utah State University after a fellow bandmate introduced the two of them. With encouragement from that same friend, Amos asked her to an upcoming school dance.

He was just as enamored.

“She said she’d go with me,” he said. “We went to the dance together, and I just fell in love with her immediately.”

So began something extraordinary — a partnership that has become a marriage of 80 years and counting. Amos Wright is 101 years old, and Gloria Wright will turn 100 in March.

After high school graduation, Amos Wright left to attend the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and Gloria Wright stayed in Logan, Utah, where she attended college.

For three years, their courtship developed through regularly exchanged letters. Gloria Wright even sent a photograph — one he treasured.

“I kept that in my locker, where I could see it all the time,” he said.

A couple of years later, when Amos Wright returned to Utah as a cadet in 1945, the high school sweethearts married in the Logan Utah Temple.

With World War II still ongoing, Amos Wright was hesitant about the timing of their marriage, still not knowing where he would be sent.

Upon learning his next assignment would be in Germany, the young couple decided to wed before he left, even though she wouldn’t be able to go with him.

“We got married rather quickly,” he chuckled. “I asked her on a Wednesday, and we got married on a Saturday.”

Amos Wright remained deployed in Germany for several months before being reunited with his wife. In 1946, she traveled on one of the first ships bringing military dependents to Europe after the war.

Gloria Wright arrived earlier than Amos Wright’s classmates and their wives, but it wasn’t long before they joined her.

“It was fun,” she reflected. The group of Americans quickly learned to get along with the German people.

Germany would become a defining chapter in their marriage.

Both learned to speak German fluently, and Amos Wright later became a director for the Church in Germany, helping to build temples in then-East Germany, West Germany and Sweden. The couple even served in the Germany Munich Mission together.

Amos Wright’s career in the Army had the couple move roughly 35 times. From living in Japan to New York came many changes — but one constant remained: their service in the Church.

Sometimes, they would hold up to five callings where they were.

“The Church was really the wonderful thing about our lives,” Gloria Wright said.

When it comes to a strong and lasting marriage, they suggest their faith-fueled formula.

“Stay active in the Church, wherever you are,” Amos Wright said. “That’s our strong advice.”

Stability Through Service

The couple acknowledged the Church’s role in helping them raise their five children and remaining close throughout their marriage.

Though they moved often, Gloria Wright noted the Church provided a community that always eased the upheaval.

“We immediately had a whole bunch of friends, more than we could handle,” she said.

The temple has also been a factor in strengthening their marriage and helping them draw nearer to Christ, Amos Wright said.

Despite rare opportunities to attend the temple because of distance when they were first married, their temple marriage often reminded them of their covenants.

“That was terrific, and we were able to renew those [covenants] when we got to a place where there was a temple,” he said.

Starting their family taught them the values of sacrifice and compromise as they navigated their roles in providing for their children.

While Amos Wright was deployed miles away, Gloria Wright took care of their family.

“I think having that challenge and successfully negotiating through that time was helpful for us,” Amos Wright said.

Those attributes were enhanced through Church callings.

“The Church was a major factor in keeping us together and having us work together,” Amos Wright said.

Music’s Sustaining Role

“It really is a crazy statistic,” said Rebecca Phillips, one of the couple’s daughters.

She described her parents as amazing examples of how to support one another in a marriage.

“As they get older, it’s just been inspiring to see them rely on each other more and more at different times,” she said. “They’ve just really stepped up to do that.”

Growing up in an environment where both parents were loved and respected by each other influenced how Phillips wanted to approach her own relationships.

“They taught us that you can create a home that has peace and love and you can resolve conflict without yelling or demeaning another person,” she said.

Music was integral in their marriage, and Amos Wright recommended having a shared hobby with a spouse.

Oftentimes, when Amos Wright sang in church meetings, Gloria Wright accompanied him on the piano.

Though his wife can’t play anymore, and he can’t sing, Amos Wright said they still listen to music together.

“That aspect of our marriage was very wonderful and strengthening. Music is still important to us,” he said.

Phillips said her parents’ love for God is evident in the way they treat each other, adding that they continue to pray together each night.

“She sits down, and my dad kneels next to her,” she said. “It’s pretty humbling to watch them do that still, and to know that they’ve done that for 80 years together is pretty incredible.”

“We were made for each other, and I think we had a good life, but the Church was the background of it,” Gloria Wright said. 

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