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Local couples recall how they met
Sometimes, Mother knows best
Tracey Lamm/Associate Editor
Valentine's Day - hearts, flowers, candy and romance. And memories of the past and how you came to know your sweetheart.
My story is particularly cringeworthy - my mother introduced me to my husband. They worked together at the same jewelry store. The owners used to tease Mike about my mom one day being his mother-in-law, well before we ever met. He protested too much and sealed his own fate. We've been married going on 14 years.
My husband's best friend, Scott Matlock, and his wife, the former Victoria Hoenig, have been married for 16 years. They accompanied us on our first date. Mike was Scott's best man and Scott was Mike's best man.
The similarities don't end there, however. As Victoria relates, their beginning was also borne of an introduction by her mother. “I had just turned 18 and the truth was, my mom hated my boyfriend at the time,” Victoria said. The Hoenigs farmed in the Montrose area, and Victoria's mom Kay had been hauling grain to the Montrose Elevator all summer. Scott worked there, and if you know him at all, you also know that you aren't a stranger for long with him. “She had hinted around to him all summer that she had a daughter,” Victoria said.
“She conned me into delivering some popcorn down there and he came into the room and he lost his speech and I lost mine. And it just went from there,” Victoria said.
As for the engagement, Victoria said Scott proposed after she picked him up from the midnight shift at Fruehauf. “It was my birthday and there is an inside joke there, but I'm not about to share that,” Victoria said.
“But for the record, we are both still as totally in love as the day we met. That doesn't happen a lot anymore,” Victoria said.
More than half a century of love
As for my in-laws, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this May.
But their life together began many years before their wedding day on May 5, 1957.
As my mother-in-law, Dorothy Lamm, relates, she first met my father-in-law, Jack, during summer Bible school when they were youngsters. “My mother was the Superintendent of the Bible school at the time and he gave her a hard time. I don't think that scored him many points,” Dorothy said. Jack's family were members of the Sharon Presbyterian Church. Dorothy and her family were members of the church at Primrose.
They got to know each other a little better when the youth groups from their churches combined for activities during the seventh and eighth grade. Their first date was the FFA Fall Frolic - a square dance - their freshman year at Donnellson High School.
“We dated pretty much from then all through high school,” Dorothy said.
After graduation, Dorothy went to Quincy, Ill. to business college. She returned home and began work as a secretary at the Hubinger Company in Keokuk. Jack proposed to Dorothy on her birthday, Aug. 20, 1956 and they were married on May 5, 1957.
And now, five children and 12 grandchildren later, they are approaching a milestone I know my husband and I hope to share someday.
Some blind dates make for a 20-20 future
Robin Delaney
Managing Editor
Looking for Mr. - or Miss - Right.
One need only see the scores of advertisements for eHarmony.com, Match.com, Lovesites. com or the 100-some other Internet dating and “compatibility” services to see that it occupies the minds and time of many.
But before chat rooms, the Internet and online matchmaking, there were those old-fashioned ways to meeting one's soulmate... and you didn't have to put a membership fee on your credit card.
Greg and Sandy Smith of Fort Madison were placed in the right place, at the right time, by another couple in August of 1986.
“I was friends with the wife and he was friends with the husband. They had us over and we met at their house,” Sandy said.
“And they're now divorced,” Greg added. “But they were great at putting other couples together.”
And meeting was all it took. Sandy and Greg Smith dated from that time on and became Mr. and Mrs. in 1987.
“After one month (of dating) he sent me one rose, and after two months, he sent two. He sent a dozen on our wedding day,” Sandy said.
Start with a laugh
A sense of humor helps - before and after exchanging vows - as Al and Linda Heitz
will tell you. Al says he was sitting in a car with a bunch of friends in Burlington when they spotted a young woman attempting to parallel park her small red Comet.
“And she wasn't very good at it,” Al said.
Al and his friends, parked right behind her, laughed as Linda attempted to get that little car into the parking space.
“Oh, I remember them laughing,” Linda said. “I was so embarrassed and I finally just gave up and drove off. I still don't like to parallel park.”
“But she's gotten better at it,” Al added.
It wasn't until later in college that the two ran into each other at the student union at Kirksville. They chatted and ended up going to a concert there. They saw Kenny Rogers & The First Edition perform that night. Linda was obviously willing to forgive those making fun of her parallel parking.
“Hey, I wasn't making fun of her - I was laughing at her. Don't go getting me in trouble here,” Al said.
That was more than 36 years ago. The two married in August of 1971.
She has a right to change her mind
A mutual friend, Dale Helling, gets the credit for playing matchmaker in the 1960s to then-college student Bev Groene and a still wet behind the ears Fort Madison police officer named Bill Link.
“I was in college and had a boyfriend. I was back for the summer and I let him (Bill) know that it was just a summer dating thing,” Bev recalled.
But it must have been quite a summer. Bev says she returned to college and ended up breaking up with that boyfriend.
‘‘I came back and let Bill know I had broken up with my boyfriend, and, you know ... that he could take it from there,” Bev said.
And obviously Bill did. The two dated for about 18 months and were married in 1968.
What's your major?
Mike and Mary Brockman were at the University of Kentucky when Cupid made his move in 1967.
Mike says he owes it all to Betty, a French major at the university, which was also Mary's major.
“Betty and I were just friends. I was in the math department and she was in the French department. We ran around together and one night this gay guy, a friend of Betty's, had a party and she asked me to go with her,” Mike said.
And guess who happened to be at that same party? Betty's friend and fellow French major, Mary.
“It took me five days to get up the nerve to ask her out,” Mike said.
But once he did, the two didn't waste any time. After dating about six months, Mike popped the question, but not in the usual romantic setting.
Mike says he had agreed to babysit for some friends who went out of town, leaving him with their five young sons.
“I proposed to her right there on the couch,” Mike said.
And obviously she said yes. They were engaged about five months and married on Dec. 28, 1968.
“I'm Catholic and Mary is Lutheran. We were married in a Lutheran church by a Catholic priest in Wisconsin,” Mike said. “I had a friend that was a priest. He had to go through three bishops to make it happen for us.”
You find it when you're not looking
Some embers burn slowly, gradually and naturally, says Earl Albers. That is how it was with his wife Julie.
Earl says he had known Julie for many years. He was good friends with Julie's husband, who was later diagnosed with cancer.
“We sailed, went boating together. Then he was diagnosed with cancer and I was around a lot during those last months, just trying to help out,” Earl said.
After the death of Julie's husband, Earl continued to help out around the house and to take care of his friend's widow.
“It just kind of grew gradually from there. We went out to dinner once in a while, and I'd try to do a few things for her around the house and help with some things she wasn't used to having to deal with,” Earl said.
But one and a half years later the two realized that things had changed. They weren't just friends, but were something more.
Earl and Julie Albers will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this October.
“We always made it a point to have a romantic dinner once a month - with lobster, fillets, or something. And I'd send her flowers at work. Women really like getting them at work,” Earl said. “Come to think of it, we need to get back to those romantic dinners. Those were special.”
Nice pick-up line, Dad
My own parents, Jerry and Sondra Bottenfield of Oskaloosa, met and married young. At the ages of 19 and 16 the two met at the municipal swimming pool in Perry, Iowa. My father, an Iowa State engineering major, told his young new acquaintance that she had “beautiful, big brown eyes, just like a cow.”
(Smooth, Dad, very smooth. All girls like to be compared to barnyard animals.)
But somehow it must have worked. They married when they were 18 and 21, despite all the warnings from others about their ages. And they celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary last August.
It sounds worse when he tells the story...
“Tell them how we met, you know, how you chased me into the men's restroom that night at the country club,” my husband suggested, with his friends as an audience.
First of all, I did not chase him anywhere. That is just some fantasy he's been sharing with people for the last 23 years.
But my husband loves telling people that we met in the men's restroom of the Fort Madison Country Club. Of course, those of you who know my husband also know that he and the ole' blarney stone are also the best of friends.
Yes, it was at the Fort Madison Country Club, at my first Employee Appreciation Party in January of 1983. I had been on the staff of the Daily Democrat a whole six months and went to the party with someone I'd been casually dating. My date didn't want to dance, but as I recall, I didn't want to do anything else.
Having had plenty of drinks myself, I therefore proceeded to dance with anyone I could find and, while dancing, often talked to Mike Delaney, the lead guitar player of Brass Ltd.
As I finished dancing with someone (I don't remember who) the band members put their instruments down and went on break. The guitar player and I continued talking and while doing so, I did actually walk through the door of the men's room before realizing where I was.
I then promptly left and returned to my date, however Mike later joined us at our table.
We ran into each other a few times after that, but didn't start dating until August of 1983, spending the weekend at the Sweet Corn Festival and every evening and weekend together after that. We were married several months later, in May of 1984.
So no, I wasn't hanging out in the men's room passing out my phone number like my husband makes it sound, but I'm sure he will still be sharing his version, probably with our grandkids, but I'm prepared.
Tracey Lamm/Associate Editor
Valentine's Day - hearts, flowers, candy and romance. And memories of the past and how you came to know your sweetheart.
My story is particularly cringeworthy - my mother introduced me to my husband. They worked together at the same jewelry store. The owners used to tease Mike about my mom one day being his mother-in-law, well before we ever met. He protested too much and sealed his own fate. We've been married going on 14 years.
My husband's best friend, Scott Matlock, and his wife, the former Victoria Hoenig, have been married for 16 years. They accompanied us on our first date. Mike was Scott's best man and Scott was Mike's best man.
The similarities don't end there, however. As Victoria relates, their beginning was also borne of an introduction by her mother. “I had just turned 18 and the truth was, my mom hated my boyfriend at the time,” Victoria said. The Hoenigs farmed in the Montrose area, and Victoria's mom Kay had been hauling grain to the Montrose Elevator all summer. Scott worked there, and if you know him at all, you also know that you aren't a stranger for long with him. “She had hinted around to him all summer that she had a daughter,” Victoria said.
“She conned me into delivering some popcorn down there and he came into the room and he lost his speech and I lost mine. And it just went from there,” Victoria said.
As for the engagement, Victoria said Scott proposed after she picked him up from the midnight shift at Fruehauf. “It was my birthday and there is an inside joke there, but I'm not about to share that,” Victoria said.
“But for the record, we are both still as totally in love as the day we met. That doesn't happen a lot anymore,” Victoria said.
More than half a century of love
As for my in-laws, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this May.
But their life together began many years before their wedding day on May 5, 1957.
As my mother-in-law, Dorothy Lamm, relates, she first met my father-in-law, Jack, during summer Bible school when they were youngsters. “My mother was the Superintendent of the Bible school at the time and he gave her a hard time. I don't think that scored him many points,” Dorothy said. Jack's family were members of the Sharon Presbyterian Church. Dorothy and her family were members of the church at Primrose.
They got to know each other a little better when the youth groups from their churches combined for activities during the seventh and eighth grade. Their first date was the FFA Fall Frolic - a square dance - their freshman year at Donnellson High School.
“We dated pretty much from then all through high school,” Dorothy said.
After graduation, Dorothy went to Quincy, Ill. to business college. She returned home and began work as a secretary at the Hubinger Company in Keokuk. Jack proposed to Dorothy on her birthday, Aug. 20, 1956 and they were married on May 5, 1957.
And now, five children and 12 grandchildren later, they are approaching a milestone I know my husband and I hope to share someday.
Some blind dates make for a 20-20 future
Robin Delaney
Managing Editor
Looking for Mr. - or Miss - Right.
One need only see the scores of advertisements for eHarmony.com, Match.com, Lovesites. com or the 100-some other Internet dating and “compatibility” services to see that it occupies the minds and time of many.
But before chat rooms, the Internet and online matchmaking, there were those old-fashioned ways to meeting one's soulmate... and you didn't have to put a membership fee on your credit card.
Greg and Sandy Smith of Fort Madison were placed in the right place, at the right time, by another couple in August of 1986.
“I was friends with the wife and he was friends with the husband. They had us over and we met at their house,” Sandy said.
“And they're now divorced,” Greg added. “But they were great at putting other couples together.”
And meeting was all it took. Sandy and Greg Smith dated from that time on and became Mr. and Mrs. in 1987.
“After one month (of dating) he sent me one rose, and after two months, he sent two. He sent a dozen on our wedding day,” Sandy said.
Start with a laugh
A sense of humor helps - before and after exchanging vows - as Al and Linda Heitz
will tell you. Al says he was sitting in a car with a bunch of friends in Burlington when they spotted a young woman attempting to parallel park her small red Comet.
“And she wasn't very good at it,” Al said.
Al and his friends, parked right behind her, laughed as Linda attempted to get that little car into the parking space.
“Oh, I remember them laughing,” Linda said. “I was so embarrassed and I finally just gave up and drove off. I still don't like to parallel park.”
“But she's gotten better at it,” Al added.
It wasn't until later in college that the two ran into each other at the student union at Kirksville. They chatted and ended up going to a concert there. They saw Kenny Rogers & The First Edition perform that night. Linda was obviously willing to forgive those making fun of her parallel parking.
“Hey, I wasn't making fun of her - I was laughing at her. Don't go getting me in trouble here,” Al said.
That was more than 36 years ago. The two married in August of 1971.
She has a right to change her mind
A mutual friend, Dale Helling, gets the credit for playing matchmaker in the 1960s to then-college student Bev Groene and a still wet behind the ears Fort Madison police officer named Bill Link.
“I was in college and had a boyfriend. I was back for the summer and I let him (Bill) know that it was just a summer dating thing,” Bev recalled.
But it must have been quite a summer. Bev says she returned to college and ended up breaking up with that boyfriend.
‘‘I came back and let Bill know I had broken up with my boyfriend, and, you know ... that he could take it from there,” Bev said.
And obviously Bill did. The two dated for about 18 months and were married in 1968.
What's your major?
Mike and Mary Brockman were at the University of Kentucky when Cupid made his move in 1967.
Mike says he owes it all to Betty, a French major at the university, which was also Mary's major.
“Betty and I were just friends. I was in the math department and she was in the French department. We ran around together and one night this gay guy, a friend of Betty's, had a party and she asked me to go with her,” Mike said.
And guess who happened to be at that same party? Betty's friend and fellow French major, Mary.
“It took me five days to get up the nerve to ask her out,” Mike said.
But once he did, the two didn't waste any time. After dating about six months, Mike popped the question, but not in the usual romantic setting.
Mike says he had agreed to babysit for some friends who went out of town, leaving him with their five young sons.
“I proposed to her right there on the couch,” Mike said.
And obviously she said yes. They were engaged about five months and married on Dec. 28, 1968.
“I'm Catholic and Mary is Lutheran. We were married in a Lutheran church by a Catholic priest in Wisconsin,” Mike said. “I had a friend that was a priest. He had to go through three bishops to make it happen for us.”
You find it when you're not looking
Some embers burn slowly, gradually and naturally, says Earl Albers. That is how it was with his wife Julie.
Earl says he had known Julie for many years. He was good friends with Julie's husband, who was later diagnosed with cancer.
“We sailed, went boating together. Then he was diagnosed with cancer and I was around a lot during those last months, just trying to help out,” Earl said.
After the death of Julie's husband, Earl continued to help out around the house and to take care of his friend's widow.
“It just kind of grew gradually from there. We went out to dinner once in a while, and I'd try to do a few things for her around the house and help with some things she wasn't used to having to deal with,” Earl said.
But one and a half years later the two realized that things had changed. They weren't just friends, but were something more.
Earl and Julie Albers will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this October.
“We always made it a point to have a romantic dinner once a month - with lobster, fillets, or something. And I'd send her flowers at work. Women really like getting them at work,” Earl said. “Come to think of it, we need to get back to those romantic dinners. Those were special.”
Nice pick-up line, Dad
My own parents, Jerry and Sondra Bottenfield of Oskaloosa, met and married young. At the ages of 19 and 16 the two met at the municipal swimming pool in Perry, Iowa. My father, an Iowa State engineering major, told his young new acquaintance that she had “beautiful, big brown eyes, just like a cow.”
(Smooth, Dad, very smooth. All girls like to be compared to barnyard animals.)
But somehow it must have worked. They married when they were 18 and 21, despite all the warnings from others about their ages. And they celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary last August.
It sounds worse when he tells the story...
“Tell them how we met, you know, how you chased me into the men's restroom that night at the country club,” my husband suggested, with his friends as an audience.
First of all, I did not chase him anywhere. That is just some fantasy he's been sharing with people for the last 23 years.
But my husband loves telling people that we met in the men's restroom of the Fort Madison Country Club. Of course, those of you who know my husband also know that he and the ole' blarney stone are also the best of friends.
Yes, it was at the Fort Madison Country Club, at my first Employee Appreciation Party in January of 1983. I had been on the staff of the Daily Democrat a whole six months and went to the party with someone I'd been casually dating. My date didn't want to dance, but as I recall, I didn't want to do anything else.
Having had plenty of drinks myself, I therefore proceeded to dance with anyone I could find and, while dancing, often talked to Mike Delaney, the lead guitar player of Brass Ltd.
As I finished dancing with someone (I don't remember who) the band members put their instruments down and went on break. The guitar player and I continued talking and while doing so, I did actually walk through the door of the men's room before realizing where I was.
I then promptly left and returned to my date, however Mike later joined us at our table.
We ran into each other a few times after that, but didn't start dating until August of 1983, spending the weekend at the Sweet Corn Festival and every evening and weekend together after that. We were married several months later, in May of 1984.
So no, I wasn't hanging out in the men's room passing out my phone number like my husband makes it sound, but I'm sure he will still be sharing his version, probably with our grandkids, but I'm prepared.
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