During World War II, Bob Tennis and Eva Korman of Tyrone met and fell in love. However, the world conflicts made times seem uncertain for new romance and kept the new couple away from each other. Tennis was a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. military, and he was stationed overseas.
Right before his division rushed in to fight the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, he sent his girlfriend, Eva, a card because he was thinking of her always. It was actually a Christmas card that the 82nd Airborne Division designed and created itself because the soldiers could not find a safe place to buy cards while fighting in treacherous conditions.
“The division is the one who made up the Christmas cards because we couldn’t buy them over there,” said Tennis. “I think it was just before they rushed us into the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, the Christmas before we went up to the Bulge is when I sent the card.”
The mail was slow during the war, so it was hard for Bob and Eva to keep in constant contact with each other. But their feelings for each other only grew stronger with the passing days and the passing distance. Eva kept the cards and letters that Bob sent to her. He was stationed many places around the world including: Sicily, North Africa, Italy, Ireland, England, Normandy and Holland.
“We were airborne, so they used us every place,” said Tennis.
Even though he was all over the world, the only place that was on Bob’s mind was home, and when his service duty was finished in November of 1945, he rushed home to Tyrone to Eva. They were married one month later in December of 1945 after six years of dating. They have been married now for 57 years.
Now that the years have passed, Bob is now 81-years-old, and Eva is 82. They live in the Pennsylvania House in Tyrone. Over their time in Tyrone, they have both lived active lives. Bob worked at the railroad, and Eva worked for Sylvania during the War and retired from the Chicago Rivet Machine Shop. They have three children: William Robert of Allentown; Vera Bonsell of Thomastown and Mary Jane McCahan of Tyrone.
Bob keeps busy by collecting historical information about Tyrone. He has bins full of old photographs and write-ups of area landmarks, clubs and special events that are hard to find anywhere else.
“I’m a collector of pictures of Tyrone, old Tyrone,” he said.
After 57 years, Bob and Eva’s love is still going strong and can be an uplifting inspiration to everyone for Valentine’s Day.
However, when he was asked what gift Eva was receiving for Valentine’s Day, Bob jokingly replied, “She’s got me broke.”
But when he was asked what the secret to the success of his marriage was, Bob seriously replied, “I guess we are in love, that’s all. And you go half and half to get along. That’s why we never separated.”
