70 YEARS OF BLISS : FOR HAPPILY MARRIED OAK PARK COUPLE, FIRST SIGHT WAS ALL IT TOOK.Byline: R.A. Hutchinson Daily News Staff Writer When Sylvester Scagnelli spied spied v. Past tense and past participle of spy. the pretty redhead at his father's box factory in Fairmont, W.Va., he knew Madonna Smith would be the love of his life. ``She was a beautiful girl. I wasn't going to let her go,'' Scagnelli said. His wife knows the story well, having heard it often in the 71 years since they met. ``He happened to see me and tell his friends that he was going to marry that pretty red-headed girl,'' Madonna Smith Scagnelli recalls. ``I had gotten a summer job at the factory.'' They courted for a year, with Sly traveling 12 miles by street car to her house in Grant Town, and they wed Aug. 14, 1926. That's 70 years of matrimony MATRIMONY. See Marriage. the Oak Park husband and wife have shared. ``He told me he loved me and wanted to marry me. Only ours stuck. So many kids today say those things, but they don't mean it,'' Scagnelli said. They credit their years together to a shared love of music - Sly played in a big band-style orchestra for 35 years while working as a maintenance man at Consolidated Coal Co. - and their commitment to their church. They both joined and were baptized bap·tize v. bap·tized, bap·tiz·ing, bap·tiz·es v.tr. 1. To admit into Christianity by means of baptism. 2. a. To cleanse or purify. b. To initiate. 3. in a Methodist church in West Virginia West Virginia, E central state of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland (N), Virginia (E and S), and Kentucky and, across the Ohio R., Ohio (W). Facts and Figures Area, 24,181 sq mi (62,629 sq km). Pop. . Since moving to California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). 10 years ago to live near their daughter, Madonna Vance, they've shifted their membership to the United Methodist Church United Methodist Church, in the United States, religious body formed by the union in 1968 of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church (see Methodism). in Westlake Village. ``You have to have faith,'' she said. ``We joined the Methodist church when we were 19, and we're still members.'' She said the greatest challenge to their family was living through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Rural West Virginia was hit hard with few jobs available for the hundreds of people seeking them. Scagnelli opened a milliner's shop, renting rooms in the back of the hat shop to help ends meet. ``It helped pay my rent,'' she said. She remembers one occasion when there was no food in the house, so she went to a neighbor and asked if she could pick some apples from his tree. ``I made apple dumplings that night for dinner. That's all we had to eat.'' Her husband believes the reason their marriage has survived is because they've both been willing to put the other first. ``We get along good. We never had any trouble,'' he said. Madonna Scagnelli agrees. ``We love each other and we always think about how to care of each other,'' she said. ``We've been blessed in everything over the years.'' The Scagnellis have one grandson Grandson (gräNsôN`), Ger. Grandsee, town (1990 pop. 2,473), Vaud canton, W Switzerland, at the southwestern end of the Lake of Neuchâtel. , John David, and one great-granddaughter, Barette Terese. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (ran in CONEJO only--color) Madonna and Sylvester Sc agnelli of Oak Park will celebrate their 70th anniversary this month. Michael Owen
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