On July 20, 1948, Henry K. Mayberry Jr. couldn't wait to hit the road in his Ford convertible.
So, in the wee hours, the 20-year-old left a note on the steering wheel of his father's 1931 Buick sedan in front of the Mayberry home in Colusa.
"I'll be right back," the note said.
Mayberry returned three days later as a newlywed. He and his girlfriend, the former Elizabeth Woods, had eloped to Reno to tie the knot.
Now, Henry and Elizabeth Mayberry are preparing for their 60th wedding anniversary in North Highlands.
"I feel nervous, just like I did when I was getting married," Mayberry, 80, pastor of Pioneer Baptist Church in Citrus Heights, recently said about his fast- approaching diamond anniversary. "I'm just anticipating."
His wife is amazed at the passage of time.
"I feel like it's a miracle. We've made it 60 years," she said. "Whoever thinks they're going to live to have a 60-year anniversary?
"It's a real blessing, a lot of hard work."
The couple's six children said they plan "something special" for July 20 to honor their parents.
Mayberry was a construction worker in Colusa when a friend introduced him to his future wife, who was then a nurse in training at a city hospital.
"We met on July 3, 1948, and had our first date the following day. We went to a July Fourth dance at the Colusa Fairgrounds," Henry Mayberry Jr. said.
Sixteen days later – on July 20 – Mayberry proposed to Miss Woods.
To his delight, she said, "Yes."
Later that day, he drove her to Reno in his 1940 Ford convertible. They were married at the Reno courthouse the next morning, on July 21, 1948.
After honeymooning in South Lake Tahoe, they returned to Colusa, to be embraced by family and friends.
The Mayberrys remained there for about three years before moving to Esparto and then to Woodland.
Being married for 60 years requires "hard work" by both parties, Elizabeth Mayberry said.
"What happened to us is that we came to know the Lord Jesus," she said. "So the Lord Jesus has kept us together."
God called out to Henry Mayberry in the mid-1950s, in Woodland. Soon after, he announced his intention to spread the Gospel.
In 1955, he and his family moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where he took his first steps toward the pulpit by attending a Bible college on a part-time basis.
Mayberry, who was ordained a Baptist preacher in 1961, eventually returned to Northern California with his family.
From 1969 to 1972, he was pastor of a church in Washington state.
He later pastored churches in, among other places, Hayward and Fairfield.
The Mayberrys have lived in North Highlands since 1977, renting their house to relatives during the time of his church service in Hayward and Fairfield.
Sharon Kent, one of the couple's three daughters, said she and her siblings rate their parents No. 1.
"We're very happy that my Mom and Dad are alive and that they've been such a great example to all of us," she said.
The Mayberrys have 17 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and one great-great granddaughter.
Call The Bee's Edgar Sanchez, (916) 321-1088.
