Today I want to share some sad news, and to remember a good man.
Fred Stobaugh, the elderly widower whose love song for his wife of 75 years went viral in 2013, passed away on Nov. 23.
“Oh Sweet Lorraine” eventually made Fred the oldest person to appear on the Billboard’s Hot 100 – and even helped save marriages in the process. Truly, the love he had for his wife was inspiring.
I want to honor Fred today, as well as his sweet Lorraine, by re-running the original post I first shared three years ago. God be with Fred’s family as they mourn their loss. -J.D.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDi4hBWsvkY
Fred Stobaugh is 96 years old, and he misses the woman he spent 75 years of his life with: his wife Lorraine. So when he read in the paper that Green Shoe Studio held an online songwriting contest just six weeks after Lorraine’s death, Fred (who’s not a musician) submitted via postal mail the handwritten lyrics to a love song he wrote as a tribute to his late wife – “Oh Sweet Lorraine.”
The simple words of love after a life well-lived touched the core of the younger men and women running the contest at the studio. They recorded Fred’s song with professional musicians. In the video, you have an opportunity to listen to the song for the first time along with Fred – and it will be difficult to keep the tears from flowing.
Not only should we be inspired by Fred’s love for and commitment to his sweet Lorraine, but our hope should be buoyed as we think about the young men and women who have been touched by their story. First those in the studio, and now all those across the world who are making this video go viral – a simple story of a man who lived a full life with his wife, through the good and the bad, till death do us part – is striking a nerve.
They watch it, they cry and they share it because, deep in their hearts, they know that that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s what God designed, and it is good and honorable to hope for and pray for a lifelong love like what Fred and Lorraine had.
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