EPPING 60th

Otto and Juanita Epping celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Nov. 1, 2014, at the Coos Bay Church.

They met at a skating party in the nurses’ gym at Takoma Park, Md. Otto was stationed at the Army base in Fort Mead, Md. After five months, he was sent to Texas and then to Korea. Their courtship was by mail for some time.

Juanita graduated in 1954 from nurses training at the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital (later named Columbia Adventist University).

They were married Oct. 14, 1954, in Takoma Park. Otto was a timber faller for Weyerhaeuser, and Juanita was a registered nurse for 40 years last until she retired from a Bay Area hospital.

The Eppings have been involved in prison ministries at Shutters Creek for 16 years.

Their family includes Jeff and Leeona Epping of St. Cloud, Fla.; Valerie and Melvin Tucker of Caldwell, Idaho; Cindy Martin of Myrtle Point, Ore.; Gordon Epping of Patoka, Ill.; David Epping of North Bend, Ore.; 13 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.