Lucas Gallegos, a parishioner of St. John the Beloved Church
in McLean, can still remember the first time he saw his wife
of 70 years. As children living in Albuquerque, N.M., their
two families knew each other. When Lucas met his future wife
in 1928, Earlene was only 4 years old.
More than a decade later, the pair started dating when they
were in high school. Lucas was a senior and Earlene a junior.
When her family moved to Colorado before Earlene’s senior
year, the two wrote letters to each other.
At the time, Lucas was 18 years old. Both of his parents had
died years earlier leaving him responsible for his younger
brother and sister.
“We had to take care of ourselves,” he said. “I needed to
take care of my younger brother and sister to keep the family
together.”
To be closer to Earlene, Lucas and his siblings moved to
Colorado, where Lucas worked as a printer apprentice in
Denver and then for a bakery in Colorado Springs. During
weekends, he would spend time with Earlene.
The summer after she graduated high school, the couple
married. The ceremony took place Aug. 1, 1942, and was very
small, with only Lucas’ younger brother and sister in
attendance. Knowing her mother wouldn’t approve, they kept
the ceremony a secret. To celebrate, they bought a 49-cent
cake from Safeway.
From the beginning, Earlene and Lucas were caregivers – first
taking care of Lucas’ younger siblings and then, in the years
to follow, six children of their own. The couple moved to
Virginia a few months after their marriage. In the early
years, Lucas worked at a print shop in Washington and the
couple lived in what is now Tysons Corner.
“Where Tysons Corner is now, we used to go berry picking,”
Lucas said. “It was really out there – really country.”
After a few years working in the government printing office,
Lucas decided to heed the advice of his deceased mother and
became an independent businessman. Since he had worked in
several bakeries and enjoyed baking, he and his brother
decided to buy a bakeshop.
“We didn’t know hardly anything about baking, but we hired
good people and studied a lot,” he said.
Eventually the business – Lee Bakery – took off. At one
point, the bakery had five locations in Alexandria, Mount
Vernon, Cherrydale, Chesterbrook and on Pershing Drive in
Arlington. When Lucas’ brother died in 1976, Earlene stepped
into the business and helped take care of the bakery’s
finances. This kept up until 1992, when Lucas retired. After
42 years of operation, Lee Bakery closed.
Today, Earlene and Lucas have 11 grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren. They live in McLean, in the same house
where they’ve lived since 1958, and their youngest son is 55
years old. After retiring from the bakery, Lucas worked in
banking and helped found Embassy International Bank in
Washington. He also spent many years traveling to Eastern
Europe, where he taught baking in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania
and Russia. Through it all, he said Earlene has always backed
him up and provided great support.
“She has been the mainstay of the whole family,” he said.
This summer, Lucas and Earlene celebrated their 70th
anniversary three times. First they celebrated with friends
from St. John the Beloved, where they have been parishioners
for more than 50 years. On their actual anniversary, they
celebrated in Chicago with Lucas’ younger brother and sister,
the two people present at their wedding. And then, upon
returning to Virginia, their children threw them a
family-only anniversary party.
“It’s been one party after another,” Lucas said. “Maybe we’re
party animals.”
When it comes to making a marriage work, both Earlene and
Lucas believe it’s valuable to have the same faith.
Throughout their marriage, they always have been engaged
Catholics, sending their children to Catholic schools,
attending Mass together and remaining active in church
organizations like the Knights of Columbus. Up until last
year, Lucas was an altar server at 6:30 a.m. daily Mass. For
the past four years, he has taught religious education.
“Mostly what has kept us together is our faith,” he said. “It
could have been different. Each marriage has their problems
somewhere along the line and you just resolve them, talk them
out.”
That faith involvement, he believes, has helped keep their
marriage on track.
“If one parent’s going one way and another’s going a
different way, there’s not that unity, that singleness of
purpose,” he said. “That’s important.”
