Charles J. (C.J.) and Mary (Kochenderfer) Wyland, of Belleville, recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.
The were married Sept. 10, 1943, at the Hagerstown Prebyterian Church in Hagerstown, Md., while he was on a 10-day leave from the U.S. Army Air Corps.
After a brief honeymoon, C.J. left to fulfill his duty as a flight engineer and a belly turret gunner on a B-24 bomber in the Pacific.
Mary worked at the Hershey Chocolate Factory making chocolate bars for American soldiers all over the world.
When C.J. returned from his war service in 1944, he and Mary started their new life together in Belleville.
They are the parents of seven children: Sharon Peoples, of Belleville; Mary Ellen Walker, of Milroy; Steven Wyland, of Belleville; Timothy Wyland, of Dunnellon, Fla.; Susan Wyland, of Chadds Ford; Cynthia Bender, of Lewistown; and Douglas Wyland, of Belleville.
They have15 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, with two more on the way.
Celebrations of their anniversary included dinner for C.J., Mary, their children and their spouses and a picnic for the whole family.
