Famous Weddings & Divorces in 1961

Jan 28 NFL coach Mike Ditka (21) weds Marge Dougherty

Mar 13 Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (79) weds his French model Jacqueline Rocque (37), until his death

Mar 17 Actor Christopher Lee (38) weds actress Gitte Lee (25)

Mar 25 Playwright Samuel Beckett (54) weds Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil on a secret civil ceremony in England

Apr 1 American televangelist Jim Bakker (21) marries Christian singer Tammy Faye (19)

Apr 30 Lee Harvey Oswald marries Marina Prusakova in Minsk USSR

Jun 26 American NFL linebacker Ray Nitschke (24) weds Jackie Forchette, until her death in 1996

Jul 1 Business magnate Martha Stewart (19) weds Andrew Stewart

Sep 10 Baseball player Ted Williams marries model Lee Howard (divorced 1967)

Sep 10 Nigerian novelist, critic and academic Chinua Achebe ("Things Fall Apart") marries Christie Okoli

Oct 14 American "The Jungle" author Upton Sinclair (83) weds Mary Elizabeth Willis (79-ish)

Nov 19 American television comedy icon Lucille Ball (50) weds American stand-up comic Gary Morton (36) at Marble Collegiate Church, NYC, the second marriage for both

Nov 25 Racing car driver Mario Andretti (21) weds high school sweetheart Dee Ann Hoch (19)

Dec 23 Actor Martin Sheen (21) weds Janet Templeton

Dec 29 Billy Rose remarries Joyce Mathews

Sep 1 American "Gilda" actress Rita Hayworth (42) divorces American film producer James Hill (45) after 3-1/2 years of marriage