LITTLE ROCK — Kathy Gavitt was a waitress at a joint named Charlie’s in the little community of Dunn’s Corner, R.I., not far from the naval auxiliary base at Charlestown, and she had a date with a guy named Darryl, whom she had met when she served him a meal.
Darryl, well, who knows how the chemistry of love works, but Darryl just seemed like a delicious dish to this waitress.
But then, as the night approached, Darryl had to work. Rather than serve Kathy with the proverbial raincheck, he did something very gentlemanly, nay, foreclosing. He suggested she go out with his friend Jack instead.
“I did not go on blind dates,” she told Darryl. “He told me Jack was a really nice guy and that I would enjoy going out with him ... I finally said OK.”
Single girls need to seem selective without actually being too choosy.
Jack had been stationed at the naval auxiliary base for 18 months but had since been transferred to Quonset Point Naval Air Station, 45 miles away, but he returned to Charlestown on weekends to visit his buddies, including Darryl.
Jack was not a fan of blind dates, either, and he initially refused the date Darryl was trying to arrange, too. But, as has often been said, single boys like to be choosy, but be too choosy and surely theylose-y.
Or something like that.
“I thought I would go down there and take a look before I got committed too far,” he says of the trip he made to Charlie’s for a sneak peek.
He wasn’t sure which waitress was Kathy, “but I didn’tsee anything that I would reject,” either.
On their first date, Kathy and Jack spent an hour or two strolling around a traveling carnival before heading to the drive-in movie theater.
“I don’t have a clue what we saw,” Kathy says. “We talked the whole time about our families, and just getting to know each other.”
They only got to go out a few more times before Jack shipped out of Quonset three weeks later for a naval cruise in the Mediterranean, but they were smitten.
How much did she write him the seven months he was at sea?
“If I didn’t get mail, no one got mail,” Jack says.
She still has all the letters he sent - he wrote just as often - each filed lovingly in a box in order of the date she received it.
Yet, it was Kathy’s senior year in high school, and Jackencouraged her to live that out to the fullest while he was gone.
“I dated some of the boys in my class and some of the sailors, and I just had a good time,” she says. “But he was always in my heart.”
Jack made it back in March 1961, and he and Kathy went out until he was discharged from the Navy in January 1962 when he headed back to Little Rock, his hometown, to work for his father at the Town and Country Esso station at Asher and University avenues.
Jack bought a new Chevrolet Impala convertible and drove it 1,400 miles to Rhode Island in May that year to seeKathy. With her in the car, they had a grand time driving around with the top down, despite a chilly air that was not optimal for a ride in a convertible. Kathy didn’t know that their circuitous route was due, in part, to Jack’s trouble finding a private picnic spot where he might propose.
They drove back to the beach, not far from her house, at a quiet spot overlooking the ocean. As they ate grinders in the car, with oil dripping down to their elbows, Jack asked Kathy to open the glove compartment, which is where she found the tiny black velvet box with an engagement ring inside.
They were married Feb. 9, 1963, at Central Baptist Church in Westerly, R.I.
A week later, they packed up their wedding gifts and all of Kathy’s belongings and headed to Little Rock. Today they call Ferndale home.
Jack took over the gas station in 1983, but got out of the business in 1991. He went to work at Laboratory Corporation of America, where he was employed for about 17 years before retiring in 2008.
Jack and Kathy have four children - Karen Harrison of Maumelle, Steve Walton of Paragould, Jeff Walton of Alexander and Susan Hawkins of Little Rock. They also have 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Kathy did go out with Darryl once after she met Jack, but he turned out not to be her dream guy. As it turned out, though, he was a serendipitous middleman.
“We have had 50 wonderful years together,” Kathy says. “We feel truly blessed to have been married so long and also for the wonderful family we have.”After our first date: She says: “I knew he was probably the one.” He says: “We made a date for the next time I was going to be in town.” My first impression of my future spouse was: She says: “I was totally smitten when I saw his bright blue eyes and blond hair, and heard that Southern drawl. I thought he was so cute. He had such a great sense of humor and was so much fun to be around.” He says: “I thought she was too good looking to go out with me and that she would be disappointed.” On our wedding day I remember: She says: “That after spending most of our courtship apart, I was so excited our wedding day had finally arrived.” He says: “Fear - of having to get up in front of all those people. But in order to get her, I had to do it !”If you have an interesting howwe-met story or know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or e-mail:
High Profile, Pages 37 on 02/10/2013