By the time Ken proposed to me in 1954 it was pretty well a given fact among family and friends that we would marry. I did not know until years later that my mother had talked with him before she died in 1952 and asked him to take good care of me.
We met in 1949. His sister, Dortha, sat beside me in the band. She asked me to ride with her to the out of town football game on Friday night. I stalled to see if some boy might ask me to sit with him on the band bus. My “sort of” boyfriend at the time was not in the band and was not going to the game. I finally accepted and time was set for them to pick me up. I had the impression that I was going with her and her Dad. Ken did not know that she had invited a friend until she gave her Dad directions to my house. She had claimed the front seat beside their Dad. We still do not know how she maneuvered to get him to go to the door for me. I opened the door to this boy I did not know who said he was Dortha’s brother. I noticed that she was in the front seat and was not too happy about it. We had been set up. Ken says that when I walked out the door he was overwhelmed and knew that he was going to pursue me. He can still make a good case for love at first sight. I was not on the same wavelength for a while.
We were both students at North Texas State College (now NTSU) in 1954. His roommate had a brother in Kilgore who owned a jewelry store. He had been to Kilgore and bought a ring several months before Valentine Day. On February 13th, he went to Breckenridge to officially get my Dad’s permission for us to marry. The only stipulation was that I finish college. On Valentine Day, we went to the little steak house in Ponder to eat and he proposed to me afterward. 
We were married in May, 1955, two days after he graduated. As they say, the rest is history. We will celebrate our 60th anniversary this year. I refer to him as my protector and keeper, and I thank God for him every day. God knew what he was doing.