Steve and Sharon Soames celebrated 50 years of marriage Sept. 9, 2022. The couple met in 1969 after Steve transferred to University of Washington. Sharon Newquist was a UW cheerleader. After college, Steve worked with his father and grandfather at Soames Paper Co. in Pike Place Market. Sharon worked in obstetrics and psychiatry at University Hospital.

Steve and Sharon were married by her father, Rev. D.C. Newquist, in Yakima. They eventually bought a circa 1870s Port Blakely Mill Co. home. Sharon repaired the old house and raised children Alicia, Dylan and Garrett. Sharon’s garden was on the 1990 Bainbridge in Bloom Garden Tour showcasing a 100-foot-long caterpillar topiary laurel hedge. She later opened a home-based floral business, Rose of Sharon’s.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, the couple did at least one special event a month that re-created a memory: including attending a Three Dog Night concert that in 1969 was their first date; a Beach Boys concert at the Washington State Fair; and they returned to the Sun Mountain Lodge where they first honeymooned.