Arvada couple married 70 years say they got there ‘one day at a time’

By John Gleason

On Sept. 20, when the annual Mass was said for those couples who are celebrating wedding anniversaries of 25, 50 and 50-plus years, among the hundreds gathered in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception were John and Kathleen Brennan. 

Wedded on Sept. 5, 1938, the Brennan’s were the longest married couple attending the anniversary Mass. 

Asked to what he attributed his long marriage, John Brennan, 93, was forthright.
“Well I don’t think we looked that far ahead,” he told the Denver Catholic Register.  “Looking at it one day at a time has done us alright.”

The couple met each other through mutual friends.

“My niece was just a few months older then I was,” said Kathleen, 88. “We were raised like sisters and one day a many who she had a date with asked if he could bring a friend along.  The friend turned out to be John.  The four of us double-dated for awhile before my niece and her guy broke up.  But John and I stayed together and eventually got married.”

“We did take a liking to each other,” John added.  “And we still do.”
Married in St. Catherine of Siena Church in 1938, the couple could not afford to take a honeymoon so they began their life in an apartment at 29th Avenue and Zuni Street in Denver.  Determined to do the best for each other and their family, the couple were soon the parents of three children, Patricia, John Jr. and Deborah.  Today, they also have eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, and two more on the way. 

After the couple married John continued to work as a checker at the Safeway at W. Colfax Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard.  Initially, Kathleen taught sewing and also made porcelain dolls but when the Second World War began, the couple found work at the arms plant, known today as the Federal Center in Lakewood.  John worked in maintenance and Kathleen inspected bullets.
In 1943 John enlisted in the Army Air Corps and for the next two years he was stationed in Oregon working as a crew chief.   After he was discharged he returned to Colorado and went to work for United Airlines and later Monarch Air, a forerunner of Frontier Airlines.  He retired in 1982 and ever since he’s been working around the house.
“I just never seem to get anything finished,” he added with a chuckle.
Offering her secret to a long maxrriage, Kathleen was as guileless as her husband.
“When you have bumps in your marriage—and they’re going to happen—you have to simply face them together,” she said.
“We got along well from the beginning,” John said. “But to continue to do that you have to work at it.”
The couple agreed two foundations are important: faith and family.
“Family is very, very important,” John said.  “Our kids are our treasure, just as my wife is mine.”
“Our faith has been a big part of us keeping that treasure,” Kathleen said.  “Without that, I don’t know what we’d have done.”