Tuolumne couple celebrates 50th anniversary by saying ‘I do’

“Our marriage is a testament to her stubbornness,” said Rusty Jones, 70, of Tuolumne.

“Fifty years and she hasn’t admitted her mistake yet.”

Jones was referring to his wife, Shari, 66.

On July 25, the Joneses celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by getting remarried in a private ceremony surrounded by their friends and family in Twain Harte.

The couple met on a blind date in Fremont when Shari was 16 and living in Hayward. Rusty, then 20, was in the Navy and stationed aboard the USS Midway in Alameda.

Their first “date” consisted of conversation, Coca Cola and french fries and nothing serious, according to Shari, but just four months later the couple got married.

“I just fell in love with him,” Shari said. “It must have been the sailor’s uniform.”

“She just couldn’t get rid of me,” Rusty added.

Married in Reno on July 28, 1959, after arriving there by bus the night before, the couple’s ceremony at the courthouse was brief, but memorable.

“We laughed through the first ceremony,” Shari said.

The banter between them is non-stop and shows how close they have become over the five decades they’ve been together.

“For the first three years of our marriage I thought my name was ‘get off the couch’,” Rusty joked.

Before moving to Tuolumne, the Joneses lived in Fremont, where they raised two children, Kelly and Steven.

Rusty worked as a research and development machinist and Shari was a corporate vice president for Dentco Enterprises, a company that manufactured motorcycle accessories in Fremont.

Taking a trip to Tuolumne to watch the Cottle train run from West Side Lumber in Tuolumne to Camp 6, the Joneses fell in love with the area.

“We moved here lock, stock and barrel,” Rusty said.

Renting a 10- by 20-foot West Side Lumber Co. cabin, which had been part of the Tin House, a former brothel, and before that, housing for the lumber company employees, was an experience.

“The house was on skids,” Rusty laughed. “There was an outhouse and if you had to bathe there was the creek.”

In 1971 the couple bought a different West Side cabin in Tuolumne, which they expanded and still live in today.

Since moving to Tuolumne the Joneses have been involved in community organizations including the Tuolumne City Merchants Society, which they help found, the Republican Central Committee and the Friends of the Sierra Railroad.
 Though Rusty is retired, he keeps busy serving as quartermaster for the Keith Dale Wann Post 4748 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars   and historian for the American Legion. 

The job of historian allows Rusty to indulge in his passion, photography.

“I’ve taken over 10,000 photos over the years,” he said.

Shari still works and is the office manager for Dr. Gerard Ardron at Donaldson Eye Care Associates, and serves as chairwoman of the Tuolumne City Design Review-Planning Advisory Committee.

“We love living here,” Shari said. “We’ve made so many friends.”

Since their first wedding wasn’t a typical white wedding, complete with loved ones, cake and entertainment, the Joneses decided to get remarried on their 50th anniversary.

“We wanted to have a ceremony with our friends and family. We thought it would be special,” Rusty said.

Longtime friend Jerry Morrow, of Mi-Wuk Village, married the couple in front of their 22 guests.

The couple’s son, Steven Jones, 38, of Tuolumne, organized the event, which included a party with live music before the evening vows, and served as his father’s best man.

“They don’t make them any better than our son,” Shari said.

Maid of honor for Shari was daughter Kelly Bauer, 46, also of Tuolumne.

“The ceremony went exceptionally well,” Rusty said. “It was great to have our daughter here.”

Getting remarried was Rusty’s idea, according to Shari, who claims he only asked her because he wanted to see what the answer would be this time around.

“She said yes. I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Rusty joked.

  In addition to their two children, the Joneses have two grandchildren, Rhianna Bauer, 26, who recently passed the state bar exam in Los Angeles, and Phillip Bauer, 27, an automobile mechanic in Montana, along with two dogs, Angel, a malamute, and Brandie, an Anatolian-St. Bernard mix. 

The Joneses enjoy taking short road trips in their classic 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

According to both Rusty and Shari, their years together have been wonderful.

“It’s been a thrill. It’s gone by so fast,” Rusty said.

“Rusty has so many good qualities,” Shari said. “I’ve buried him in the backyard a few times, but I always dug him up.”

All joking aside, Rusty, who sent Shari 50 gold roses to her office for their anniversary, said he’s still in love with his wife after all these years.

“She was the sweetest lady I ever met in my life. She’s still that way,” he said.