Metropolis couple to celebrate 70th anniversary

Growing up, the couple’s families — Charles and Gladys Peebles and Walter and Phoebe Lewis — lived on Ophia Street. The Peebles weren’t far from the old Metropolis High School, now the Metropolis Elementary School property, while the Lewis family lived a couple of blocks down.

Over the years, friendship grew to love and the couple married in 1953 in Corinth, Mississippi, with Rubel L. Phillips officiating. She was 17, and he was 18.

With both being born and raised in Metropolis, there wasn’t much of a guess where they would make their home.

The newlyweds moved back to Metropolis. He worked at Lafarge and she at the Good Luck Glove Factory. They set up their home on Catherine Street and raised three children — son, James “Butch,” and daughters, Jamie and Sherri.

But the couple didn’t stop there. Their house was the gathering place — complete with all of the toys, from dirt bikes to dune buggies to a pool — where the whole block hung out. In addition, all of those kids, and later the couple’s own grandkids, looked to Lewis, a mechanic all of his life, to fix anything for them.

They attend Seven Mile Baptist Church. They also go to as many of their great-grandchildren’s ballgames and programs as they can.

They will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary with their family — their three kids and kids-in-law, James “Butch” Lewis and wife Kay, Jamie Schabbing and husband Larry and Sherri Sisk and husband Randy, all of Metropolis; eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.