It’s getting harder to find World War II veterans these days — particularly two living under the same roof. But two St. Paulites have been doing just that for 63 years.

Greater East-Siders Richard and Doris Edge, 94 and 96, respectively, both went to Johnson High School and both served, but they didn’t meet until years after the war. That’s when Richard walked into a downtown bar and heard Doris hammering away at the ivories of an organ.

“We don’t have any secret; we just stayed together,” said Doris, the ranking officer of the household, when asked for tips on how to stay together for more than six decades.

The couple will be two of nine veterans honored at the Minnesota Twins game Sunday.

Called low-key by those that know them, Richard Edge says, “I think it’s kind of a nice idea they have the veterans there,” but he doesn’t gush much beyond that.

“I’m just glad to be around yet.”

He’s comfortable talking about the war, though. Back in 1943, “I graduated (high school) and the next day I was in the Army.”

Sent to the European Theater, Richard fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and as a staff sergeant he led a mortar squad in the 84th Infantry Division.

He vividly remembers the day he was wounded — when an artillery shell landed in a barn on the west bank of the River Rhine that some members of his unit were walking through. Two of his men died, three more were wounded, and Edge was out of commission for months.

Doris Edge enlisted the same year her husband did and served in the women’s branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve, better known as WAVES, for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

Stationed in Pensacola, Fla., she was a yeoman until her time was up and she was slated for discharge.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to get out, I’m not ready,’ ” Doris Edge said. Her officers listened, and sent her to Corpus Christi, Texas, to learn how to use the “LINK” system: a GPS system of sorts that functioned as a flight simulator for Navy pilots.

When Richard came back home in 1945, he tried working as a store manager for a while but soon took a job as a purchasing manager for the Metropolitan Transit Commission.

When Doris left active duty in 1948 and returned to Minnesota, she took two years off from the military but then joined the Navy Reserve in Minneapolis.

A few years later, Richard walked into a downtown St. Paul bar named Renee’s and couldn’t help but notice the night’s musician, a young lady playing popular music on the bar’s organ. H

e got up the courage to approach her, they quickly hit it off, and they were married the next year.

An avid pianist, Doris attained a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Minnesota while serving another 11 years with the reserves, ending her career as a lieutenant. She soon settled into a career teaching piano.

They found a house on St. Paul’s Greater East Side and have stayed since.

Sunday’s Twins game against the Texas Rangers, coinciding with the return of the Minnesota Red Bulls headquarters division from the Middle East this month, will include a salute to nine World War II veterans. The Edges will be two of those taking the field, in part to celebrate Richard’s 95th birthday.

As one of the Twins’ “military appreciation days,” the game will be prefaced with other events, including a C-130 flyover and service members from all five military branches, including the U.S. Coast Guard, lining the bases for the national anthem. Related Articles Sept. 30 is last day for public comment on Pigs Eye Lake makeover

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Spouses of deployed service members, the majority of them Red Bulls, will accompany players to their starting positions on the field, and suites will be given to Gold Star families for the game.

The Black Daggers out of Fort Bragg, under the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command, will parachute onto the field to deliver the ball for the first pitch.