Couple Together 65 Years Dies Hours Apart

A former Huntington Station couple who spent 65 years together died Saturday, 10 hours apart.

Samuel Robert Lewis, 87, and Viola Rosalie Lewis, 82, will be buried in a joint service Friday.

Viola Lewis "had stopped eating" the day her husband's health began to deteriorate last week, her eldest son, Sam Jr. said Thursday.

"They had made a vow to each other never to put each other in a home," he said.  But "Mother was suffering from Alzheimer's and my father wasn't in the best of health. We had to put her in a home two years ago. He felt he broke his vows to her." The decision, he said, affected his father's health.

When Lewis Sr.,  already contending with diabetes and heart problems, began complaining of back pains several days ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his family was told he had six to eight months to live. Five days later, at 11 a.m. Saturday, he died at their home.

Sam Lewis Jr., who had flown in from his home in Massachusetts, got the news at the airport. He and his siblings went to the nursing home to see their mother,  who was unconscious. They left after a few hours, but got a call that she had died at 9 p.m.

 "She knew we were there. It was time for her to go. She was okay until (last) Thursday," he said, which is when his father's condition had begun to deteriorate.

"My father used to always say, "Hurry up, I don't want to be late, but take your time'," Sam Jr. said. "It was time."

They spent nearly their entire adult lives together.

At 17, with World War II raging, Lewis Sr. had dropped out of high school and persuaded his mother, an Italian immigrant who didn't read English, to sign papers allowing him to join the Navy. 

When he came home to Huntington Station after the war, he took up carpentry and at one point, was working on a home next door to where the 17-year-old Viola lived.

Even though the two hadn't met, she told friends she would marry him.  Eventually, some of her friends, who knew some of his friends, introduced them at the old Five Corners Diner in Huntington Station. They wed on Feb. 8, 1948.

Lewis was a general contractor with Lewis and Kaufman for many years on Long Island.

 He also was a post commander of the VFW Nathan Hale Post #1469 in Huntington Station, where he was a lifetime member. He also was a former VFW Suffolk County commander.

After raising her family, Viola Lewis went on to a business career, and served in the VFW Ladies Auxiliary of the Nathan Hale Post.

About 18 years ago, they decided to retire to New Mexico.

 "They were good people," Sam Jr. said. "They raised seven kids and none of us are in jail."

They are survived by Madeline Glenn, (Viola’s sister), Samuel, Jr. and wife, Dot, of Hyannis, Mass., Lorelei Blake and husband, Ben, of Griswold, Conn., Valerie Fickes and husband, Gary of Edgewood, N.M., Nicky and wife, Dixie of Davenport, Iowa, Stephen and wife, Lynda of Placerville, Calif., Neil (Laurel) of Reno, Nev., and Kevin and wife, Donna of Woodbridge, Va.,; 13 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

On the funeral home's website, a couple wrote, "Even though it is hard for those left behind, Mom and Dad are together again and in a much happier place."

And another wrote, "Very sad that they were gone, yet very fitting that they went on to a better place, together."

Visitation is scheduled for Friday at FRENCH-Lomas funeral home in Albuquerque, followed by a service at Santa Fe National Cemetery.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Hospice de la Luz, 3812 Academy Pkwy N., NE Albuquerque, NM 87109.