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‘End of their 81-year love story;’ Butler County couple, married for 79 years, die hours apart

HAMILTON — A Hamilton couple, who celebrated their 79th wedding anniversary and 100th birthdays earlier this year, died just hours apart next to each other in hospice care last week.

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Frances “June” and William “Hubert” Malicote, both 100-years-old, first made local, and national headlines in the summer when they celebrated the marriage and birthday milestones.

Last week, both Hubert and June passed away just 20 hours apart, according to their obituaries posted this week. Hubert passed away Nov. 30 at 9:15 p.m., while June died at 5:40 p.m. Dec. 1.

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“Hubert preceded June in death by only hours, marking the end of their 81-year love story,” Hubert’s obituary states.

“They went out together,” their son Sam Malicote told the Hamilton Journal-News.

The Malicote family was able to celebrate Thanksgiving together a day early before June became seriously ill that night, Sam said in an interview with the newspaper.

June was placed into hospice care, but when Hubert visited his wife Nov. 25 he “broke down,” Sam said.

Hubert was later admitted to hospice himself and shared a room with June, the Journal-News reports. They were unconscious for days but their hands were placed together.

Sam said his father died of a “broken heart,” he told the newspaper.

The couple met in September 1941 and were married in 1943.

“When I saw her, I said she’ll be a good one,” Hubert Malicote said in an interview earlier this year with CBS affiliate Local 12 in Cincinnati.

Hubert was a World War II veteran, enlisting in the Navy in 1942 and serving in the submarine service at Pearl Harbor. During WWII, June worked in a Hamilton factory where she built torpedo parts to support the war effort.

The couple later settled in Hamilton where Hubert would work for Diebold Inc. until his retirement as shop supervisor in 1990, the Journal-News reports.

The Malicotes survived by their three children, Sam, Jo, and Theresa, seven grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

Visitation services for the Malicotes will be held Thursday at the Eaton Road Church of God in Hamilton at 10 a.m., followed by the funeral services at noon.

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