Affton Senior Shares His Love Story

Jim Brady has one word to describe the theatrical engagements and "bridezilla" weddings popular today:

“That’s a lot of bologna!" Jokingly, he scrunched up his face and said in a high-pitched voice, “Will you be my bride?”

Brady was married to his wife, whom he called “Saint Mary,” for 51 years, and the couple lived in Affton while they raised their five children.

“We just thought we were right for each other,” he said. “I didn’t get down on my knees. I don’t know if I really asked her. We just thought we were right for each other. And if I asked, she might have said no!”

Brady calls their meeting an "accident."

“This is funny. It’s strange how the good Lord works,” he said to start his 51-year-old story. Brady returned from serving in the military only to find he’d been fired from his job. Bitter, he found a new job, where he began working alongside the woman who would become his wife.

Brady married his wife at a small church service and held a reception with an orchestra and dancing.

"No rock and roll!" he said, laughing.

In 51 years of marriage, Brady said they only had one fight. 

"She was pretty easy-going," he said. "She'd have to be, to put up with me."

When his wife's cancer progressed, Brady asked God for an early birthday present. 

"I started praying that the good Lord would take her," he remembers. "She was really suffering, boy I tell you."

She died two days two days before his birthday.

“It was a marriage made in heaven,” he said. “She was a good lady. I’m sure she is up there,” he said, referring to heaven. Brady said when he dies, he hopes to be reunited with her, “if I make it up there.”

“It’s a fifty-fifty chance!” he said with a smile.