the silvers

Fredericksburg Couple Celebrates 63 Years of Marriage

By Kathleen Mahoney
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 3/1/07)

Canon Hayes, Josephine Woods’ priest in her hometown of Chester, England, sternly warned her not to wed Rupert Silver of Virginia’s Stafford County but she married him anyway.
Josie, 80, and Rupert Silver, 83, met during the height of World War II in Chester, about 18 miles east of Liverpool. They courted and married on Jan. 1, 1944, at 2 p.m., with Josie being 10 minutes late, according to Rupert. He must have figured she was worth the wait because they celebrated 63 years together on New Year’s Day.
Rupert, one of five sons, brought his young wife and first baby back to Fredericksburg in April 1947. They believe Josie was the area’s first war bride. It was a rough transition for Josie. She encountered “miserably hot” weather and had great difficulty finding a place to live with very few apartments available after the war.
The Silvers eventually settled in a house on Bunker Hill Street and became friendly with their neighbors, Dr. Marty and Lil Blatt. It was a friendship that would last a lifetime. Ironically, it was through Blatt, a Jew, that the Silvers got to know Father James Widmer, pastor of St. Mary Church, and his priest associates.
Long before people talked about the importance of ecumenism, Blatt, an optometrist, and Father Widmer, both Brooklyn natives, had a close relationship and a mutual respect. The Silvers frequently were dinner guests along with the clergymen of St. Mary at the Blatt residence.
The much beloved pastor still has a long list of admirers today among Catholics who worshipped at the original church site on Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg’s historic downtown. Father Widmer holds the record for service as pastor: he arrived in 1942 and died on Dec. 19, 1959.
The Silvers were blessed to have 10 children: Sandra, Janet, Karen, Terry, Donna, Anne, Maureen, Andrea and Suzanne. Kevin Wade Silver, better known as “Rusty,” arrived in the middle of his nine sisters. He was named for a favorite priest at St. Mary, Father W. Henry Wade, who was killed at 32 years of age in an automobile accident near Shadwell.
Why didn’t the Silvers want to name their only son after his father? Rupert has a ready answer for a question he obviously has been asked many times. He said good-naturedly: “I don’t really like juniors and, besides, how many Ruperts do you know?”
All the siblings still live in the area except for Karen who lives in Denver. The Silver children attended Montfort Academy, Fredericksburg’s first Catholic school. It was well-worth the financial sacrifice, Rupert and Josie said, and the school uniforms made dressing the girls much easier.
Josie was blessed with a fantastic singing voice and she spent most of her time at the ante-bellum St. Mary in the choir loft. It’s gorgeous round window is a strong memory for her as well as are the blood stains on the wooden floor, reminders of the tragedies of the Civil War when the church was used as a hospital. The historic church was sold in advance of building the new St. Mary Church, dedicated in 1971, on the corner of William Street and Stafford Avenue in the city’s College Heights section.
Josie would still love to be singing, but she has been confined to bed, totally disabled for the past six years. First diagnosed in 1991 with syringomyelia, she began coming to church with a cane, then progressed to a walker, and finally to a wheelchair. The neurological disease has left her a quadriplegic with Rupert acting as care giver. Regarding this heavy cross, Josie said, with resignation, “The Lord gave me this, and I have accepted it.”
She watches Mass on television and is thankful for Nicolina Corey, part of the parish’s Eucharistic Ministry team, who visits her on Sundays.
“I just love Josie,” said Corey. “She’s so vibrant and truly a beautiful person. And that wonderful singing she still can do. And she never, never complains.”
Corey has an equal admiration for Rupert. “We should be all so blessed to have such a spouse,” she said. “The young couples today certainly could take a page from this book of such life-long devotion.”
While more than one priest has joked that Rupert Silver knows a ton more about the Church than many “cradle Catholics,” especially since he was a star student in so many “inquiry classes” over the years, he remains a non-Catholic. His status often is cause for surprise like at the times over the years when the Knights of Columbus have tried to recruit him for membership.
The misgivings of Josie’s pastor in England in 1944 were baseless and Canon Hayes would undoubtedly be most happy to admit his error. It’s clear that Rupert was and is a prince of a man and the Silvers’ loving devotion has remained steadfast in good times and in bad.

Epilogue: Canon Hayes, in line with church teaching, insisted that Rupert have a Catholic as his best man. Rupert didn’t know any Catholics at the time, but eventually found Lavern Abts, a fellow soldier in his unit, who agreed to do the honors. Abts shipped out from Chester shortly after their wedding and the Silvers never saw him again.
The Silvers’ daughter Karen of Denver, through the Internet, was able to locate her parents’ best man this past year after they wondered aloud if he were still alive and how he fared all these decades. They feared that either of the Normandy Invasion or the Battle of the Bulge might have claimed him. They were delighted to learn that Abts survived the war and spent his years as a Midwestern lawyer and as the father of five. He and the Silvers hope that he will be able to travel to Virginia for a grand reunion in Fredericksburg since Rupert cannot leave Josie’s side.