FOX LAKE – Harry and Elaine (Raska) Purdom of Fox Lake celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with family on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2012.

The young sweethearts eloped to Kohoka, Mo., on Sept. 7, 1951. After a short time in Antioch and Huntley, they put down roots by buying Elaine’s parents’ home on Raska Lane in Lake Villa. The home has stayed in the family, first bought by their son, Jim, and his wife, Kathy, of Huntley and now owned by their daughter, Tammy, and her husband, Jim Tolonen.

In 1972, the couple opened their grocery store, Harry’s IGA, on the Square in Huntley. In the mid-1990s, they retired to Long Beach, Calif., but missing their family, they returned to Fox Lake in 2002 and took up residence in Leisure Village.