Jim and Elaine Salmon are readily apparent to even a casual observer as polar opposites.

He’s softspoken. She’s feisty. He would like to do some traveling, now that they have the chance. She likes to sleep in her own bed every night.

But no matter the minor disagreements they’ve had over the years, the Salmons still have been married for 60 years and counting.

The couple, who both recently turned 80, celebrated the attainment of six decades of marriage during a party Friday with family and friends.

They attended Suffolk High School together and graduated in 1954. They got married Feb. 12, 1956.

Their marriage would go on to produce two daughters and a son, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, who currently range in age from 14 years to three weeks.

Jim Salmon got a job as a salesman at the Sherwin-Williams paint company about two months after he married Elaine.

“I was telling people at that time I had a new wife and a new job,” he said.

About five years later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army for two years and was stationed at Fort Meade, Md. He returned to his Sherwin-Williams job after his service and would ultimately stay there 23 years.

In 1979, the couple opened their own business, Salmon’s Paint and Decorating Center. They worked the business together for 26 years, with all three children joining them at various times.

They were active in the Retail Merchants Association and in their church, and he is a lifetime member of the Kiwanis Club.

“We tried to be active in church and other business-related things,” Jim Salmon said. “We were very active in the community.”

They sold the store and retired in 2005.

The couple’s advice on longevity of marriage involves respecting one another.

“If you treat your wife like a queen, and she treats you like a king, you’ll have a happy life for the rest of your life,” he said.

Predictably, his wife puts it a bit differently.

“You have to give him just as good as he gives you,” Elaine Salmon said.

The Salmons have three children, Rhonda, Tommy and Brenda; six grandchildren, James Salmon III, Rebecca Lynn Johnson, Chelsea Wynter Sari, Ricky Lee Gregory Jr., Jackalyn Kelly Knight and Juliette Elaine Knight, who range in age from 34 to 19; and three great-grandchildren, Alexis, 14, Colton, 22 months, and Cash, 3 weeks.