They finally said 'I do': gay couple marry in Iowa after 72 years together
Church wedding for pair in their 90s who were college sweethearts in 1942 made possible when US state of Iowa legalised same-sex marriage
To find out when Alice "Nonie" Dubes met her new wife, Vivian Boyack, you need to wait through a discussion between the couple as they try to recall "back then". That's because the two women, 90 and 91 respectively, have been together for 72 years.
"1942, she says," Dubes concluded, after a back-and-forth with Boyack between laughs as they confirmed dates, names and places from their extraordinary history together.
The lifelong Iowa residents met at college in Cedar Falls, a small town in the north of the US state, far from the crucibles of the gay-rights battles that would be waged in the years ahead in cities such as New York and San Francisco.
"It just hit us immediately - if you can understand that," said Dubes. "Kind of like a regular marriage, the boy-and-girl meet, well that was just the way we were."
Except that in the 1940s, their relationship was anything but regular. It would be 57 years before Iowa legalised same-sex marriage. On Saturday, Dubes and Boyack went public with their relationship, when they got married at the First Christian Church in Davenport, their home since 1947.
"I think a lot of people knew, but didn't ever say anything - and we didn't tell them," Dubes said. "If they wanted to know about us, that's their problem."
Boyack taught at schools across Iowa until the couple settled in Davenport. Dubes, meanwhile, did administrative work for a local newspaper and then a scrap metal company. They finally moved to a retirement village in 1987.
Iowa's supreme court legalised same-sex marriage in 2009, making it the third US state to do so, and the first in the Midwest - an area commonly associated with conservative values.
"We haven't been able to get married until the last few years, so that's why we're so old when we're getting married," said Dubes. "We've been fine all along the way," she added. "Suppose we've had our ins and outs, but that's how it goes with any relationship."
Their wedding was the first same-sex marriage at First Christian Church, which they have been attending for 66 years.
"The church has always loved these two ladies and is proud to be able to have Vivian and Nonie get married in a place where they have always been loved and accepted," said the Reverend Linda Hunsaker, who presided over the ceremony.
The First Christian Church is part of the Disciples of Christ, a mainstream Protestant denomination which voted last year to allow same-sex marriages to be performed in its churches, though it allows individual churches to decide whether to perform such ceremonies.