Laurieton's Jim and Jean Munyard say 68 years of marriage isn't all a bed of roses

The way Jim ‘Pablo’ Munyard tells it, he fell in love with Jean Parker at first sight.

He lived in a boarding house at Shepparton in Victoria, opposite the Parker family home. Jim worked for the same company as Jean’s father and managed to place himself so that the two men would work together, so that he could ask “permission to call on Jean.”

“I knew Jean from walking up and down the street,” Jim said. 

“But I wasn’t allowed to go out until I was 18,” Jean added.

“When I asked if I could call on Jean I was going on 20 and Jean was 18. We married just over a year later,” Jim said.

Jim’s mother died when he was just seven years old. His father was unable to care for both Jim and his brother, so Jim was sent to live at the boarding house. 

Jean was the second oldest of six children and Jim was welcomed as part of the family.

Jean and Jim were married at the Scots Presbyterian Church Shepparton on November 6, 1948.

Jim’s father had left him and is brother a block of land, a 1928 car and 100 rabbit traps when he died.

“I swapped the car with my brother for the land, I paid about ninety pound for the block,” Jim said.

The newlyweds worked hard saving money and within 12 months had built their first home at Shepparton.

“Jim worked two jobs to pay for the house and helped to build it,” Jean said.

“I got paid $3 an hour to work from 5.30pm until 11pm and 75 cents an hour for 12 hours during the day,” Jim said.

“But we had a lovely home,” Jean said.

Jim’s varied career included jobs in transport, farming, professional fisherman, owning trucking, earth moving and garden and landscape supply businesses.

Jim and Jean had three children Dianne, Robert and Jennifer. They have five grandchildren, six great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

They moved to Laurieton 28 years ago, building a house at St Albans Way. They now call Camden View Village home.

“We were on a trip around Australia and we were travelling down from Port Macquarie when we came to the roundabout at North Haven, overlooking the river and the mountain and thought ‘this is it, we’re in love with this place’,” Jim said.

A dinner at Oasis by the River Restaurant marked their 68^th wedding anniversary. So what are Jim and Jean’s tips for a long-lasting union?

“We’ve always done everything together,” Jean said.

“She’s always been there for me,” Jim said.

“When I had health problems Jean fed the pigs, milked the cows and got three kids off to school.”

“We support each other,” Jean said.

“It’s not all a bed of roses.”