Pause today and offer a quiet well-done! to Jerome and Marie Williamson of Piedmont, S.C. On this day 50 years ago, they vowed to love, cherish and honor the other.

And then congratulate Williamson's six siblings, who got married before their kid brother . . . and are still married.

Yes. As of today, all seven descendants of a Sumter County farm couple have been married at least 50 years. Totaled, they have been wed nearly four centuries. They are five brothers and two sisters, ranging in age from 70 to 86. They have been married anywhere from 50 years to 61.

Clearly, the children of Walter and Rosabel Williamson took their vows seriously. Like their parents, married 53 years, they said, "I do," and meant it.

"We were taught, early on, that you make a commitment, you stick to it," said Charles Williamson, 82. The Tucker resident and his 79-year-old wife, Mabel, were wed July 17, 1949. "You marry the right folks, too."

Now, they welcome rookies Jerome and Marie to a landmark that twinkles like a diamond —- the 50th wedding anniversary.

Theirs is a tale of numbers, so let's roll some out:

> 393. That's how many years the five Williamson brothers and their two sisters have been married. The average is 56 years.

>78.7. That's their average age. Add up their years and you get 1,103.

>19. The seven couples have had that many children.

>0. That's the amount of advice they are willing to offer in how to live and love, so long and so well. When pressed for advice, they just laugh and say divorce just wasn't an option.

It's easier to remember how you met the love of your life. Ask David Williamson, 76. Wife Jane is 74. The Stone Mountain couple have three children.

He was in the Air Force, stationed in New York and not liking it much, when young David Williamson met young Jane Lowden. She was a New York girl, but had eyes for a Georgia boy. "That was rather propitious," said David Williamson. "I got her down here and persuaded her to stay." They were married Nov. 5, 1955.

Check with older brother Walter Williamson Jr. of Albany. On April 19, 1953, he married Anne Shellnutt. A former bombardier on a B-17, he was employed at an Athens auto-parts store; she worked for a nearby insurance agency. He asked, she said yes, and three children followed.

"We vowed to get along —- had to get along," said Williamson. "We still do."

Maybe the secret to their marital longevity is age? Walter Williamson, 86, married a youngster: Anne is 79.

A commitment, coupled with happiness, is likely the reason these folks have persevered, said Mary Allender, an economics professor at the University of Portland. Allender, whose parents were married 54 years, did some quick number-crunching.

If the divorce rate is about 50 percent (that has been declining), then at least three of the couples should have split up by now, said Allender. Life expectancy? The national average, said Allender is about 77 —- a little higher for women, a little lower for men. The Williamsons and their spouses have broken that curve. The siblings and spouses also are regular church-goers; all but two are Methodists.

So how big a deal is this, professor? "Well," Allender said, "it is noteworthy."

That's not news to Alpharetta's Emmalene Williamson West —- "Lee," to her siblings.

"We fell in love and got married," said Emmalene West, 80, whose husband, Royce West, is 84. "And that was it."

They met in Florida, when West was in the Air Force. But it was a brief encounter, and Emmalene went back home to Georgia. Then she learned that the nice young man she'd seen in Florida was in Atlanta, recovering from an air crash. The only Christian thing to do, of course, was to visit him.

On May 10, 1947, they made those visits permanent. The Wests have three children.

J. Paul Williamson and his wife, the former Dorothy Jean Carpenter, have one son. They also have 61 years together. They were wed Dec. 15, 1946, after getting introduced in Wesley, Ga. A resident of Americus, he is 84; his wife is 83.

"I don't know how she has put up for me this long," said Paul Williamson.

Couples learn to adapt, said Charlie Williamson. He wooed and won Mabel Banks, whom he met in Atlanta in the years just after World War II. They have three children.

Staying married "is a family heritage," said Charlie Williamson, a tail gunner on a B-24 in World War II.

Divorce never entered Tallulah Williamson Kenyon's mind. She and William Kenyon, who live in Hayesville, N.C., got married on March 23, 1952, after meeting in Atlanta. Theirs was an active romance, she recalled. "He liked to take me mountain climbing."

They liked staying together, too. "We just looked upon marriage as a sacred institution," said Tallulah Kenyon, who had two children. "You uphold your vows."

That brings us to Jerome and Marie, the parents of four children. He laid eyes on Marie Parks more than five decades ago at a drive-in restaurant in Greenville. "I said 'Hey,' " said Jerome Williamson, who was stationed in Greenville in the Air Force, "and that was it."