Chris & Helen Ebaugh

Chris and Helen Ebaugh, married 69 years (an extraordinary feat on its own), have spent nearly seven decades building a life defined by service, resilience and care for others. 

The high school sweethearts married Sept. 7, 1957, two days after Helen graduated from nursing school. Chris was serving in the Army at the beginning of a military career that would take the couple around the world and move their family 35 times.

Chris served two tours in Vietnam, worked at the Pentagon, commanded a battalion and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1981. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree and attended law school at night, and passed the Georgia Bar. After leaving the military, he worked for Martin Marietta, later Lockheed Martin, for 14 years.

Helen built her own record of service as a registered nurse and devoted military wife. She taught Red Cross first aid and CPR classes, led a candy striper program with about 80 young volunteers and served at military hospitals in Virginia, Georgia and Hawaii.

Both are now 90, living in Clermont’s Heritage Hills community, and remaining active. Chris walks each morning, and the couple still dances, cruises and enjoys a full social calendar. Helen teaches bridge, coordinates a 20-member bridge club and plays mah-jongg and bunco. She also helped organize the community’s Memorial Day and Veterans Day programs for four years.

Most notably, she continues caring for neighbors who are sick or returning home from the hospital, often bringing them her famous homemade chicken noodle soup and biscuits.

“I like to take care of everybody,” Helen says. “That’s just me.”

For the Ebaughs, longevity is about more than staying busy.

“We really care about each other and about other people, plus we do for other people, not just for ourselves,” Helen says. “I think this is why we’ve lived so long.”