Texas couple celebrates 80th anniversary

PALESTINE, Texas, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Melvin and Minnie Lou Scott enjoy the simple pleasures in life in their Texas town and recently a rare one -- celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary.

At the age of 100 and 99 respectively, Melvin and Minnie Lou may be the oldest married couple in the United States, having celebrated eight decades together last month, the Tyler Morning Telegraph said Tuesday.

While the pair's habits of eating bacon almost every day and doing their own yard work may not be recommended for anyone their age, they do offer some key advice to a lengthy successful marriage.

"If people want to stay married, I guess I would tell them to live right, stay off dope and live a clean life," Minnie Lou said.

Yet Melvin remains dead-set that his active lifestyle and unchanging diet is the key to keeping a marriage going through eight decades.

"We've always worked," he told the newspaper. "We still work. And we eat three meals a day."