BATON ROUGE - Love is in the air Friday and some couples may be celebrating their first Valentine’s Day; for others, it may be their 20th or 50th year together.

One couple at The Claiborne senior living facility in Baton Rouge has celebrated more than 75 Valentine's days together and says they are still madly in love.   

Sam and Ruth Stapleton met in grade school in 1940 in St. Francisville when they were both 12. 

"I don't know if you can fall in love when you're 12, but I did," Sam said.

Their relationship grew through letters for eight years after that when Ruth was sent to another school and Sam started attending West Point. They got married in 1948.

"We were married at my graduation, and I thought well I'm finally going to get to find out what she's like and the war started the next week," Sam said.

The couple spent two more years exchanging letters after Sam was deployed to serve as a soldier in the Korean War. Ruth, who was still in Louisiana, sent her husband care packages while he was overseas.

"I'd send him food, I'd also send him long underwear because he was freezing to death," Ruth said.

The two spent their marriage traveling around the world while Sam was stationed in Korea and Vietnam.

Army service left lasting effects on Sam’s health. The harsh conditions in Korea caused permanent damage to his legs, leaving him in a wheelchair nearly seven decades later.

Despite the challenges Sam has faced, Ruth has been by his side, providing the emotional and physical support that has kept their relationship strong.

After so many decades together, they had some advice for all relationships. 

"We had arguments but we had rules to overcome them and the longer you live together the closer you get and after 75 years I'm still in love with her," Sam said. "We always kissed before we went to sleep, so we would always have made up by then. It’s been a wonderful 75 years together."

The Stapletons said they'll spend the holiday the same way they do most days — enjoying time together.