A husband and wife, inseparable in life, were buried in one casket after dying 30 hours apart.
Raymond and Velva Breuer were never very far apart.
They grew up near each other in a rural area of Missouri. They attended a one-room primary school and graduated from the same high school. They married in 1940. Velva went to Lenoir Woods Rehab Center late last year, so Raymond slept on a cot in her room.
When Raymond died on Aug. 4th, Velva was at his side, holding his hand. She survived him by only 30 hours, perhaps their longest separation in more than 77 years of marriage.
They went home together, snuggled close in one casket, holding hands. They were buried near their parents and family members.
Their son, Bobby Breuer said, “Dad told one of the nurses before he passed, that if they went close together, that they should just be buried together, in the same casket,” “Jokingly, I think. But other people heard it and we asked the funeral director. Mother was a very small woman, and Dad wasn’t that big.”
State Representative Cheri Reisch, who knew the Breuers well said, “They would always hold hands and sit in the front-row pews of the church,” “They never left each other’s side. It was true love.”
Raymond was 97 and Velva was 96. They had six children — four boys and two girls — and three survive. They also had 18 grandchildren, with so many great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren that no one in the family has an accurate count.