CENTENARIAN LOVERS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8842, 19 June 1907, Page 1

CENTENARIAN LOVERS.

New York, April 20. A bachelor, who celebrated his 101st birthday in April, is to cross the ocean in June to claim an English lass of ninety-nine. They will return to America and be married on August 27 —the bride’s 100th birthday—at the home of their childhood in Eastern Tennessee. “ The hero and heroine of this ex-

traordinary romance are Mr John B. Bundren, living in the mountains near Tatesville, and Miss Eoee McGuire, of Preston, Lancashire. They were sweethearts 80 years ago,'and wanted to marry, but the girl’s parents, who wore English, objected, and took her back to England. Mr Bundren went west, hoping that a change of scene would help him to bear the disappointment. He was in California at the time of the rich discovery of gold, became rich, returned to Tennessee, and bought his birthplace, the adjoining farm where his sweetheart lived, and other property. Recently he decided to hold a reunion of his old friends, asking none under ninety years of age. An English newspaper copied the announcement, and Mr Bundren received a letter from Miss McGuire, asking : '• Are you the same John B. Bundren, 'who lived in Tatesville long ago ?” The letter explained that the writer was ninety-nine years old, and unmarried. Mr Bundren answered with a renewed offer of marriage He was accepted, and will make his first trip across the ocean in Juno. Mr Bundren’s nephew and namesake in St. Louis, who recently entertained him, says his uncle is remarkably strong and vigorous; has always felt that some day he would find his boyhood’s sweetheart.