‘Will you marry me?’ And 70 years later, that marriage is going strong in Miami

It was love at first sight way back then, and — seven decades later — it still is.

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Miami Beach residents George Elias Jr. 98, and Charme Elias, 91, will celebrate 70 years of marriage.

Asked what the couple will do to mark the occasion, George didn’t hesitate to respond.

“Just having her with me is a celebration,” George said of Charme, who has been struggling with dementia. “These 70 years have been wonderful because she’s a special person. Anyone who meets Charme likes her right away.”

George is from Charleston, West Virginia. Charme (pronounced charm) is from London, Ontario, in Canada. They met in Toledo, Ohio, where they were attending an archdiocese convention at the Commodore Perry Hotel. That was August 1954.

Charme was there with her sisters, Betty and Nancy. George’s younger brother, Albert, liked Betty. Albert, clearly infatuated, wanted George to meet Betty, and that’s when the older brother locked eyes with Charme, who was 19 years old at the time.

“I looked at Charme, and I forgot about everything else,” said George, who at the time was in his final year of law school at George Washington University.

“I just wanted to talk to her. I wanted to know everything about her. She was mature, confident, elegant and yet unassuming.”

Charme and George spoke for two hours that night and two hours the next day, too. During that courtship, Charme revealed that she and her family would be in Huntington, West Virginia, in three weeks.

So, George drove 100 miles round-trip two days in a row just to visit. George then went back to law school, but he and Charme continued to correspond.

Finally, in February 1955, George went to Ontario to have dinner with Charme and her family.

It was a delightful evening during which George had an important message for Charme.

“I’m going to ask you a question but don’t answer it until I’m ready to leave,” George told her.

“Will you marry me?”

Charme, ignoring the agreement, excitedly said, “Yes!”

The couple got married later that year, on Nov. 12, 1955, in London, Ontario.

A growing family

From there, the couple had five children, all sons, in order: Mark; Chris, David, Gregory and Stuart.

Two of the boys were gone way too soon. Chris died at age 9 due from leukemia. Gregory was born prematurely and lived just three days due to an underdeveloped heart.

Of the surviving brothers, Mark is a photojournalist, David is an entrepreneur and Stuart has been in the airline industry for 40 years.

George and Charme, who have four grandchildren, formed a perfect team. He worked on estate planning as a probate attorney, and Charme worked in the home, taking care of the children.

The couple honeymooned in Miami, and, eight years later, they moved to South Florida, where they’ve lived ever since.

Professionally, George was well known in Miami for his law practice. George is also a Navy veteran. He served on a battleship in Korea during World War II, and he was about to be redeployed to Europe when the war ended.

Working with St. Jude

But even with all his accomplishments as an attorney and as a veteran, it was George’s work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that has defined him.

St. Jude was founded in 1962 by actor Danny Thomas, who, like George, had roots in Lebanon.

Back in 1957, George succeeded in his goal of meeting Thomas. Soon after that, George — who at the time was working for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. — started helping Thomas raise money to build what became St. Jude.

George, with the support of Charme, started raising funds to help find a cure for children’s cancer, never knowing that it was their own child, Chris, who would be diagnosed with leukemia nine years later, in 1966.

When Chris got sick, he was treated at what was then called Variety Children’s Hospital near Miami, which used all the same protocols set forth by St. Jude. Chris died in 1970.

“The impact of Chris’ death wasn’t felt just on our immediate family,” Stuart said of his brother. “It devastated our grandparents, our cousins … the entire Elias family.

“It’s something you never get over.”

Following Chris’ death, Danny Thomas reached out to George and appointed him to the board of governors, a post he held for 50 years. George also served two terms as the St. Jude chairman of the board, and he is still an emeritus board member.

“For Dad, St. Jude has been a labor of love,” Stuart said. “With St. Jude, Dad felt a sense of purpose. He gave up a lot of clients in Miami so he could fly to Memphis for board meetings and fundraisers.”

Stuart said the survival rate of leukemia patients when St. Jude opened was only 20%. Now, for the most common types of leukemia, it’s 90%, and that’s a great source of pride for the Elias family.

“If only doctors knew then what they know now,” Stuart said, “we’d still have Chris.”

While George was front and center in his fight to help St. Jude cure children’s cancer, Charme supported the cause behind the scenes.

For years, though, she couldn’t bring herself to visit St. Jude because she knew it would bring back too many painful memories of losing Chris.

Finally, in 1987, she visited the famed hospital.

“It was emotional,” Stuart said. “She teared up quite a bit, but she understood the mission.”

Milestone memories

George, who turns 99 on Feb. 24, remembers that their wedding reception was delayed for three hours because the oven broke and the food wasn’t ready.

He also recalls a train ride from Ontario to Detroit during which an immigration officer told Charme she couldn’t enter the country because she didn’t have the proper paperwork.

Said George: “I was thinking, ‘Dear God, this marriage will never last. It’s a disaster.’ But here we are, 70 years later, and it’s been wonderful.

“I’ve been in love with her ever since I met her.”