High school
By Lori Tighe
sweethearts
wedded at 60
Star-BulletinThat was some kiss -- lasting at least 47 seconds, one for each year they've known each other.
Annette Lippa and Jimmy Upchurch, both 60, finally married yesterday after first meeting in the seventh grade at Robert Louis Stevenson Intermediate 47 years ago.
Their classmates from the Roosevelt class of '57 surrounded them at their wedding with hardly a dry eye in the bunch.
"We've still got life at 60," said Nevi Tagupa, a longtime friend who knew the couple when the groom had a flattop and no drivers license. "We're very, very, very happy for them.
"It's invigorating for all of us."
The Rev. Karen Russ of Hawaii Kai Baptist Church married the couple in front of the kapok tree on the Iolani Palace grounds.
"It is too precious to see two people who knew each other all their lives finally find the gift of love before them," Russ said.
The couple, she on the mainland and he on Hawaii, stayed in touch through letters and phone calls during their 47 years apart. They both married and divorced other people; both had kids and grandkids.
Sparks flew at a Roosevelt reunion in Las Vegas this April. Upchurch asked Lippa to marry him as soon as he returned to Hawaii.
Classmate Faith Osurman surprised the couple with a pupu party after the vows, and classmate Vance Cannon wrote a poem for them.
"They had kept in touch for more than 40 years.
"Shared their thoughts, their hopes and fears.
"Sooooooo ... the '57 Rough Riders wish you both a happy, long life.
"Aloha pumehana to you (Jimmy) and Annette your wife!"
