Ralph's return from Korea marked the beginning of more than the end of his wartime service. While still serving in the United States Army, he met Betty Jane Nonnweiler, a Sheboygan native who would become his wife and companion for the next forty-seven years.

Ralph and Betty married on July 26, 1952, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. From their first years together in Wisconsin to the home they later built in Illinois, their marriage became the center of a growing family that would eventually include six children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Over nearly five decades, they shared the ordinary and important moments of life—work, raising children, weddings, grandchildren, celebrations, retirement, and the everyday routines of a life built together. Their photographs preserve many of those years, from a young couple beginning their marriage to grandparents surrounded by the family they had created.

In July 1999, Ralph and Betty celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary. Ralph died only weeks later, bringing to a close a marriage that had begun almost half a century earlier while he was still a young soldier.

As Ralph's overseas military service drew to a close, his life was about to change in a way he could not have anticipated. After returning to the United States, Ralph spent time in Wisconsin while still serving in the Army.

According to the eulogy written by his son Marty, Ralph was on leave when he decided to go dancing. It was there that he met Betty Jane Nonnweiler, a young woman who had been born and raised in Sheboygan. Marty later described Betty as “the girl of his dreams.”

Betty's roots in Sheboygan ran deep. Her parents and extended Nonnweiler family lived there, and The Salvation Army was an important part of the family's life. Her mother, Clara Nonnweiler, and her sister Martha were also involved with the Sheboygan Salvation Army.

For Ralph, who had grown up in Tennessee and recently returned from military service overseas, meeting Betty marked the beginning of an entirely new chapter. Before long, the young soldier from Tennessee and the young woman from Wisconsin had decided to build a life together.

On July 26, 1952, Ralph and Betty were married at The Salvation Army in Sheboygan, while Ralph was still serving on active duty in the United States Army. Their marriage certificate records John Nonnweiler as a witness.

Their wedding marked the beginning of the life they would build together. Sheboygan became Ralph's first home with Betty and the place where the young couple began their married life

After their marriage, Ralph and Betty made their first home together in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the city where Betty had been born and raised. With Ralph's active Army service coming to an end, the newlyweds began settling into the everyday routines of married and civilian life.

For Ralph, Sheboygan was very different from the rural Tennessee community in which he had grown up. For Betty, however, it was home. Her parents and extended Nonnweiler family were nearby, giving the young couple a family connection as Ralph adjusted to civilian life and to making Wisconsin his home.

Ralph also began the everyday work of supporting his new household. Marty remembered that his father worked at a tannery in Sheboygan during these years. Although the tannery and exact dates of his employment have not yet been identified, the family recollection provides a glimpse of Ralph's working life between his Army service and the steel-mill career that would follow in Illinois.

Sheboygan was also where Ralph and Betty began their family. Their first child, Marty, was born in 1955, followed by Jim in 1956. In only a few years, Ralph had gone from a young soldier returning from overseas to a husband, civilian worker, and father of two young boys.

Ralph and Betty remained in Sheboygan until 1956. By then, the couple who had begun their marriage there were preparing for another major change—leaving Betty's hometown and moving with their young family to Illinois.

Sometime between February 1956 and October 1957, Ralph and Betty left Sheboygan and moved with their two young sons, Marty and Jim, to the Chicago area. Their exact living arrangements during those first years in Illinois have not yet been documented, but by the time their son Tom was born in October 1957, the family had made Illinois their home. The move brought Ralph back to a part of Illinois he had known before his military service and marked the beginning of the place where he and Betty would spend the rest of their lives together.

Ralph began working at Acme Steel, where he was reunited with his identical twin brother, Ray. The brothers worked in the same building, and Marty remembered hearing that coworkers sometimes had difficulty telling the twins apart. After the years when military service had taken them in different directions, Ralph and Ray were once again living and working near one another.

As Ralph settled into his new job, he and Betty continued building their family. Tom was born in 1957, followed by Lillian in 1960, Troy in 1966, and Ann in 1967. Together with Marty and Jim, Ralph and Betty became the parents of six children.

Those years brought the responsibilities of a growing household as Ralph worked to support the family and Betty cared for their home and children. Illinois was becoming more than the place Ralph had once traveled to find work. It was becoming the place where he and Betty would put down permanent roots.

By 1960, with four children and a growing family, Ralph and Betty were ready to establish a permanent home of their own.