"My mom often said she didn't want to see my father die, and he didn't want to live without her," Daniel, the couple’s youngest son, told the Long Beach Paper..
Helen died on July 16, and Les died on July 17. The Southern California couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in September.
"It was a real love match, wasn't it?" their oldest son, Les Jr., told the newspaper. "They were together every day for 75 years."
According to the sons, the pair met at Huntington Park High School and eloped on Sept. 19, 1937, at the age of 18 against their parents’ wishes. They thought a match between a wealthy man and a working-class woman would never work out..
The couple moved to Long Beach in 1963. He was a photographer for the Navy. She sold real estate. They had seven grandchildren.
The two, who were friends with many of their neighbors, were known to take road trips and worshipped at Kingdom Hall as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Eventually, Helen was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and Les suffered from Parkinson's disease.
"Like the Bible says, 'They were as one,'" Bob Brobst told the Press-Telegram, who was a friend of the couple's for a decade.
