Fassett, Sugg and Fletcher have lived together for nearly 50 years.

Credit: The Washington Post Fassett, Sugg and Fletcher have lived together for nearly 50 years.

People love to call Margaret Sugg and Barbara Fletcher, both 75, and Nancy Fassett, 83, “real-life ‘Golden Girls.'” But the truth is, the three women have been roommates much longer than fictional TV roomies Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia were.

According to a recent Washington Post profile of the trio: “Their life together began when Lyndon Johnson still occupied the White House.”

The women met in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood in 1967 as renters in a house. Sugg was a congressional staffer, Fassett was a librarian from Minnesota and Fletcher worked for a Congressman from North Carolina. After eight years as renters, the friends decided it would make better financial sense to buy a house together. When they moved into their five-bedroom home in Bethesda, Md., they didn’t think they’d be there forever.

“We thought we’d be there two or three years and somebody would get married or maybe buy a house by themselves,” Sugg told The Washington Post. “But that just didn’t happen.”

“We all dated,” Fassett added, “but not that seriously. We were having too much fun together.”

They grew close to each other’s families, went on vacation together and hosted elaborate parties. In short, they became family. They take care of each other.

As The Washington Post writes: “As the youngest in the trio, Fletcher tends to be the cruise director, financial organizer and chauffeur. She bought a boxy new Ford Flex to drive them to restaurants, their retirement community’s on-site classes (Fassett took one on “Movies That Should Have Won an Oscar but Didn’t”), and to feed frequent Starbucks cravings. Evenings they read, or watch the news, PBS dramas or favorite shows like Project Runway and The Good Wife.”

By Josh Walker Josh Walker is the former social media manager at Next Avenue.

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