Valentines for seven decades: Acostas celebrate 70th anniversary

It hasn’t always been easy, but through good times and bad and plenty of laughs, Stephensville residents Eroy and Leatrice Acosta have reached the 70-year wedding anniversary milestone.
The Acostas, who celebrated their anniversary on Jan. 28, 70 years after being married at Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Morgan City in 1951, are now the patriarch and matriarch of five generations that now have reached great-great-grandchildren.
“I feel like I’m old, but I’m not,” Eroy said last month at his daughter Peggy Fulker’s Stephensville home before they were surprised with a celebratory parade of family, friends, dignitaries and colleagues.
The Acostas had two sons and two daughters. One of their sons passed away.
Leatrice said like any other couple, they’ve had good times and bad, but she said they have had more good.
Eroy added: “And we’ve always had a fun life.”
When he was 14, Eroy started a band, and through money he earned with the band, he opened a grocery store at age 17.
Throughout his life, he has been involved in multiple other ventures, including the boat business, a washateria and rentals.
The Acostas also were instrumental, Peggy said, in the Stephensville Volunteer Fire Department as they raised money through fairs and auctions to build the fire station.
He serves on the board of the South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association and Total Environmental Solutions Inc. and is a longtime member of the water and sewer district in Lower St. Martin Parish.
Meanwhile, Leatrice was a cook and worked at Stephensville Elementary for a few years. In the Acostas’ restaurants, she was famous for her white beans, friend catfish and crab burgers, Peggy said.
Throughout their marriage, they have made each other laugh, too.
“He always had my back,” Leatrice said, looking at Eroy and tapping his hand.
Peggy said it is “amazing” to see her parents reach this matrimonial milestone and celebrate it with them.
“Seventy years of marriage, shoot, that’s unheard of in this day and age,” Peggy said. “It’s just unheard of.”
Working together, Eroy said, is advice he would give to younger couples for being successful.
“The only way you’ll make it in life is to work together as a married couple,” he said.
Leatrice added, “And we did that a lot.”
The Acostas’ daughter, Betty Fusilier, said she can draw from her parents’ marriage in her own, which has reached 48 years.
“The strong marriage they got, it makes my marriage strong,” she said. “I was taught to hang in there and make it go.”