After nearly 65 years together couple died hours apart without knowing each other's fate

Eleanor and Frank Turner were born within 26 days of each other in July 1926. They wed 22 years later, starting a marriage that lasted nearly 65 years.



So it seemed fitting, relatives say, that the two would ultimately die hours apart from each other, without even knowing the other’s fate. Eleanor Witt Turner, 87, died first on Friday at 4:40am at Hospice House in Monroe, North Carolina. Then nine hours later, her husband, Frank Eugene Turner, 87, died at Autumn Care of Marshville, North Carolina.

Daughter Linda Purser said she was debating whether to tell her father about her mother’s early-morning death when she received a call from a nursing home saying her father had died at about 1:30pm. The two would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on Dec. 24. Purser described her parents’ marriage as a good, strong one. “They loved each other, and you could always tell they were proud to be out together,” she said. “They were just meant for each other.”



Purser said that while she’s sad she’s lost both of her parents, she’s glad neither of them will have to continue living without the other. Fittingly, they will be buried together on Monday at Lakeland Memorial Park in Monroe. “They thought alike; they both wanted the same things out of life,” she said. “They were the same. And they were lost without each other.”