LITTLE ROCK — Don Knight didn’t expect to see again the beautiful brunette he’d spotted at a traveling skating rink in summer 1948. He left without even knowing her name.
“And then a friend asked me to go over to her house for a party,” says Don, who lived in Hamburg.
“I was going with somebody else,” says the former Jo Ann Hightower. “I didn’t know anything about him, I was just being nice to my friend, and I said I would just have these people over for an ice cream supper.”
Don understood the event to be a set-up of some sort but had no idea the hostess was the girl from the skating rink. Before agreeing to go to her house, he asked to see a picture of her.
“He doesn’t believe in blind dates,” Jo Ann says. “He wouldn’t date me until he saw a picture of me.”
Jo Ann soon broke up with her boyfriend. She and Don were seniors in high school when they had their first date - a trip to the movie theater.
“I had no mode of transportation so I had to hitch a ride to Crossett to see her and to attend church with her once a week,” Don says, “It was worth it.”
Jo Ann’s parents took her to see Don play football in Hamburg every week, and the rest of the time they kept in touch mostly through letters.
Jo Ann had planned to attend what was then Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia after high school.
“I could only go to Ouachita - my parents were very devout Baptists,” she says.
Don was offered a scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He didn’t want to be that far away from Jo Ann, though, so two weeks before classes were to start he decided to go to what was then Henderson State Teachers College (also in Arkadelphia) on a track and football scholarship.
Ouachita and Henderson have long been rivals in football, and Don was “kidnapped” during the lead-up to the annual Battle of the Ravine, a grudge game held on Thanksgiving Day, as he visited Jo Ann on campus.
“I had to walk over there to see her and date her, so we could walk downtown or whatever,” he says. “As I got over there the ROTC group was parading around the campus, and I walked right past them, waved to them and walked her to the dormitory. When I started outside there, I saw them break rank, and all head for that dormitory.”
“They wanted to shave his head,” Jo Ann says.
He was let go with his hair intact, though, on the orders of a Ouachita football player, with a warning not to return until after the game the next day.
“It was all in fun,” he laughs. “They didn’t hurt anybody.”
In their sophomore year they sometimes sat together on the bleachers after footballpractice at Henderson. On one of those occasions, Don proposed marriage.
“You know she said yes,” he says.
They were married on Nov. 4, 1951.
After the wedding, they ate dinner at a nice restaurant in Pine Bluff before driving on to Little Rock to stop overnight before continuing on their way to a honeymoon in the Ozarks.
“That night, while we were in the hotel, it snowed four inches,” Jo Ann says. “We decided to just move into a nicer hotel downtown and enjoy the snow and spend our honeymoon there.”
As newlyweds, they went back to Crossett to work for a year. After that, Jo Ann got a job as a bookkeeper in Monticello and Don went to schoolat what was then Arkansas Agricultural & Mechanical College. He graduated in two years with a degree in physical education. Next they went to Baton Rouge, where Don went to Louisiana State Universityon a scholarship for a master’s in education. Jo Ann worked as an abstractor for a law firm. She also had the chance to sing with the Billy Graham Crusade while they were there.
They moved to Pine Bluff when Don finished his degree, and Don got a job as assistant football coach, track and basketball coach at Watson Chapel High School. He taught science and served as principal before retiring after 38 years. Jo Ann was a data processor for the Pine Bluff Arsenal for 20 years, and they also owned Mexican and catfish restaurants and a washateria.
They moved to Little Rock 20 years ago, and have been active members of First Baptist Church and various community organizations.
The Knights have two daughters, Jan Eager of Little Rock and Jill Gray of Clarksville. They also have three grandchildren.
“We worked hard because we didn’t have a lot of extra money to spend,” Don says. “We had a good time on everything.”
The first time I saw my future spouse, I thought:
She says: “He was nice-looking and I was intrigued by his ability to play ball. He was also very kind and very polite.” He says: “She was a beautifullooking young lady that I would probably never get to meet.”
The first time I met my future in-laws:
She says: “I could see he got his politeness and his kindness from his mother.” He says: “When they invited me over for dinner, I found they were the most caring people. Her dad believed in sticking by his gun and by the law, and her mother was a quiet, reserved lady and she never said a bad word about anybody. I fell in love with all of them.”
My advice for a long happy marriage is:
She says: “Love has to be the most important thing. Be a good friend, too - that makes a marriage go well. And have a few things that you enjoy doing together.” He says: “You have to be a good listener - you have to know what your wife is thinking and saying. And you have to be able to accept the good with the bad.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “When I looked down the aisle and saw him, I felt secure. I knew I was going to be married to a person who would take care of me and be kind to me.” He says: “I knew I was the luckiest guy in the world.”If you have an interesting how-wemet story or know someone whodoes, please call (501) 378-3496 or e-mail:
High Profile, Pages 45 on 10/30/2011