Eugene Woodworth, an Oregon man who
recently married his partner of 60 years in Washington, has died.
Woodworth and Eric Marcoux married
earlier this month, Oregon
Public Broadcasting reported.
The men were hoping to exchange vows in
their home state. But Woodworth, who has been fighting a diagnosis
of congestive heart failure, was given just weeks to live.
A proposed ballot initiative would
repeal Oregon's gay marriage ban and legalize such unions. If
approved by voters next year, Oregon would become the first state to
remove a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual
couples by popular vote.
Woodworth, 85, said he wanted to marry
Marcoux, 83, in hopes that he will receive Social Security benefits
as a surviving spouse.
The men met through a mutual friend at
a restaurant in Chicago, they told The
Oregonian last year.
“I was invited by my friend Nathan to
come to a party that evening. And I said, 'No, no, no, I'm going to
a movie with friends.' … I'm looking at Nathan and saying, 'I've
decided to come to your party. And won't you introduce me to your
friend?' I'd never been so forward in my whole life,” Marcoux
said.
“There wasn't anything else. Really.
There was nothing else for me to do other than spend my life with
him,” Woodworth said. “From that very instant that we met. That
was it.”