Ballards share secrets of 60-year marriage

In the Sand Hills of Nebraska, a person can look for miles and find nothing but a flat and barren landscape.

However, 60 years ago, two local residents gazed across those Nebraska plains and found a lifetime of love and happiness.

Valentine's Day is already a special day for romantics everywhere. But for Shorty and Hazel Ballard of Encampment, this Friday will mark the 60th Valentine's Day they have spent together as a married couple.

In 1953, Shorty went to the Sand Hills to go visit Hazel's brother. While Shorty was there, he asked Hazel to go out on a date with him.

"I told him I didn't go out with old men," Hazel said as she originally thought Shorty was older.

"He showed me his drivers license and showed me he wasn't an old man."

Their first date was at a drive-in movie theater in Alliance, Neb.­-a town 70 miles away from where Hazel lived.

In October of that year, Hazel and Shorty agreed they should get married.

"I went out with him again and he said 'I think we should get married.' And I said, 'yeah, we just as well,'" Hazel said.

On Feb. 14, 1954 they became Mr. and Mrs. Ballard.

With their two kids, Boyd and Cindy, the Ballards lived all over the region including areas in Nebraska and Wyoming. They spent their life working together as a family on several ranches in those areas.

Hazel and Shorty said that in their 60 years together, the one thing that made their marriage last was that they never fought.

And for good reason.

"When we first got married," Shorty said, "she hit me right between the eyes and knocked me down and said 'that was for nothing, now look out."

"We haven't had a fight since," Hazel said jokingly.

Shorty believes that if relationships are going to work, there is one phrase every man should know.

"You have to learn how to say 'yes ma'am'," he said.

Communication has always been key to the Ballard's successful 60 year marriage.

"If the kids did something, we talked about it. We didn't fight about it," Hazel said. "We never had a lot money, so we didn't ever have to fight about that."

Over the years, the Ballards said that when times got bad, they grew closer together.

"I think the thing that brought us closest together was when the kids were sick," Hazel said.

"We survived those things, we just took it one day at a time," Shorty added.

As much as our world has changed in the past 60 years, the one thing that has remained constant throughout the years has been the Ballards' relationship.

"Nothing has changed. Just our age," Hazel said.

The Ballards said that they were happy to leave the Sand Hills of Nebraska and settle in the Platte Valley. But they said throughout their long marriage, they wouldn't change a thing.

"It's been good. We would do it all over again."

Shorty and Hazel will be celebrating their anniversary from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Grand Encampment Opera House.