They promised to love, honor and cherish -- and they meant it

Donald and Anjoinette Banker no longer wear wedding rings.

After more than six decades, they don't need reminders of their life-long commitment.

Married in Iron Springs, Mich., and now residing in Las Vegas, the Bankers -- he's 90, she's 86 -- are among those rare couples seemingly destined for each other.

Their 65th wedding anniversary on Wednesday -- they were married May 6, 1933 -- should be proof of that.

When they first met, while living in Gary, Ind., they were courting other people -- in fact, Anjoinette was coupled with Donald's brother. She had moved there from the upper peninsula of Michigan at the urging of her sister, and worked in a foreign exchange office.

He was from rural Wisconsin and relocated at the urging of his brother, to work for the American Sheet and Steel Plate Co.

Soon, they were dating.

"I don't remember what we did on the dates," Donald says.

The two married about a year after meeting and returned to her hometown for the small ceremony, then rushed back to Indiana so Donald could continue at work.

"I don't remember ever going on a honeymoon," he says.

Work dominated their lives in those days -- he was with the steel company, which eventually transferred the family to its Pittsburgh plant, and she was at home tending to a son and daughter.

"My biggest regret is that I had to work so many hours," Donald says. "I didn't get to see enough of the family. I worked so hard when the kids were small -- 16 hours a day and more. That's when I should have been home enjoying them."

Their son, Donald Jr., died of cancer in California in 1990. Daughter Joan, who still lives in Pittsburgh, visits them in Las Vegas three or four times a year, as do a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and other friends and relatives.

The Bankers always were a close-knit family -- perhaps a little too close.

So when Donald retired from the steel company after 44 years, he began traveling. He's been around the world three times and, coincidentally, was in the USSR in 1986 when the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl melted down.

He left the country at every opportunity, which made his wife happy because as soon as he was gone, she came to Las Vegas.

"I looked forward to his trips so I could gamble," Anjoinette says, smiling. "They were a good break for me."

Anjoinette has always loved cards. While living in Pittsburgh, every Saturday night she played in a poker game; on Sundays it was pinochle. In her spare time, she played with three bridge clubs. (The Bankers are the last survivors of a close group of 20 couples that regularly played cards.)

The fact that they wound up spending their retirement years in Las Vegas happened almost by accident.

In 1974, on their way to visit their son in Northern California, they stopped here to gamble and look at some apartments, on the chance that they might decide to make it their home, though they had intended to retire in Phoenix.

The first apartment complex they visited was searching for a manager -- the Bankers took the job.

The following year, the couple moved and stumbled into another arrangement -- this time managing a hotel off the Strip. Two years later, Donald went to work for a friend who owned a convenience store.

Anjoinette feels like she's been living in heaven the past few years -- being out of the cold weather country and able to gamble anytime she pleases (or at least when she can, as she no longer drives).

"I still like my gambling," she says, noting how she once won more than $1,000 playing nickel slots, and just as much when she hit a royal flush on a video poker machine.

"I don't begrudge any penny I've lost gambling," she says. "If you're not content with losing, stay home."

Donald, however, has never been as avid a gambler as his wife. Sometimes, while both still drove, he says he would be preparing to go to church when she arrived home after a night spent gambling.

Once, when she wasn't home by midnight, he enlisted a friend to take him to the casino where she was playing and reminded her of the time. Anjoinette bawled him out and told him never to come looking for her again.

"The secret to a good marriage is communication," she says. "If you have something on your mind, say it. Don't hold it in."

There have been a few more serious arguments in their 65 years together. But, "as long as you agree with everything he says, there's no argument," she says.

Except when it comes to Donald's sense of humor. "She doesn't like my jokes," he says.

"And I don't like it when he doesn't answer you -- he never answers a question directly," she contends.

During his 90 years, Donald has seen a lot of changes in the world -- among them, the proliferation of marriages that don't last long.

Today the Bankers spend most of their time at their assisted living apartment complex in southeast Las Vegas.

They've had their share of health problems: Anjoinette suffered a minor stroke five years ago, which left her with speech problems. Donald was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago, but he says it's in remission.

For the most part, they spend their days enjoying each other's company and memories of the experiences they have shared over the decades.

When Anjoinette left the room to find some old photographs for a visitor, Donald leaned forward and commented softly, "She was a good mother to our kids -- the best."

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