Living side by side for decades and devoted to each other, an elderly couple in US died just within hours of each other.

Presley Bradshaw died in his Louisville, Kentucky nursing home on Monday, just four hours before his wife Ethel of 73 years passed away in their shared room.

"They were a true epitome of the word love," the Daily Mail quoted Chasity Stoudemire, unit manager at the Meadowview Health and Rehab Center, as telling Wave3.com.

The couple married in 1938 and had one daughter.

Four years ago, Ethel, who was suffering from dementia, moved to the nursing home but her husband was never far away.

"He would come several times a week to visit and just hold her hand, kiss all over her, tell her how much he loved her and missed her," Shannon Bass from the centre said.

Two years later, Presley joined his wife at the home.

"Every time you pass them, they would be sitting together. He would stop you and say: "Have you met my blushing bride?" Bass said.

Following deteriorating health, Presley died aged 101.

Staffs believe his wife, who died aged 99, was aware her husband had gone.

"Even though she couldn't talk to us and she couldn't tell us what was on her mind, and she couldn't express that something about him not being there made her feel something was missing," Stoudemire said.

Their lives and deaths share similarities with the film 'The Notebook', in which an elderly couple who have loved each other since their teenage years die within hours of each other.

The couple leaves behind their daughter, one granddaughter and two great granddaughters. (ANI)