Two friends decided, independently of each other, that Julia Sutton and Louis Carlock should meet, but Sutton and Carlock tacitly refused. It took a presidential scandal to accomplish what those prescient friends couldn’t.
Julia’s best friend told Louis that she wanted to introduce him to someone.
“The person I thought she was talking about wasn’t a person I would have been interested in,” he says now.
Another friend, an older woman who worked at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where Louis and Julia were juniors, also told him there was someone he should meet - Julia.
When she got that message, she was resistant, too. “I just didn’t want to meet him because I didn’t like going with people that someone else suggests,” she says.
It just so happened that Julia and Louis had similar schedules and wandered into the student union at the same time one day in August 1972 for an update on the Watergate scandal of President Nixon. And it also happened that they sat near each other in the student union full of students so they could see the events unfold on television.
“I dropped something, and he picked it up and gave it back to me,” she says. “He says I was just trying to flirt with him. I wasn’t.”
Julia thanked him, and they talked a little. She gave Louis her number when he asked, and then it was time for them to head to the next class.
“That really appealed to me,” Julia says. “He was such a gentleman. He took my books and he walked me to my class, and then he asked me for a date.”
Their first date was to a game at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
“We were very poor and neither of us had a vehicle, but we caught a ride and double-dated and we shared our refreshments,” Julia says. “We got a Coke and we drank from two straws. I thought everything went well and I was so excited because he was all I ever dreamed of.”
She was baffled by his reaction the next time she saw him.
“I said, ‘Hey!’ and he said, ‘Oh. Hi,’” Julia says.
It would be a while before she would ask him why. When she did, he would tell her it was because she was so pretty that he thought she must have several boyfriends. He didn’t want to get hurt when she chose one of those imaginary suitors over him.
He did ask her out again, though, a couple of weeks later.
“We usually went to MacArthur Park because we were poor. We would sit and look at the stars, and we would see other young people there,” she says. “Sometimes we went to house parties and activities they had on campus.”
Louis was a sociology and anthropology major. Julia was studying voice.
“Believe it or not, I asked him if he was ready for marriage,” she says. “And he said, ‘Not yet.’ So I said, ‘Well, I didn’t want to marry you anyway. I was just checking to see what you were going to say.’”
Julia’s query was the result of her arrival at a crossroads. She dreamed of singing with the Metropolitan Opera and listened intently when a woman from the Met visited UALR.
“I realized that you would have to be married to the opera. I believe that was the motivation for me to see if he was serious and if I should continue to pursue this endeavor of being a Metropolitan Opera singer,” Julia says. “I needed to know that. I think it all sort of hinged on that. I think I wanted him to say yes because my feelings were going that way.”
At Thanksgiving, two weeks after he told her he wasn’t ready for marriage, Louis presented her with an engagement ring.
“She had all these attributes and characteristics that I wanted and I didn’t know if another opportunity like that would come along,” Louis says.
They were married on Feb. 3, 1974.
They couldn’t afford to continue in college as newlyweds, but they did go back when their employer offered education assistance. Both completed bachelor’s degrees in business from Philander Smith College in 1994 and then went on to get master’s degrees in human resources development from Webster University in Missouri in 1997.
The Carlocks have two sons - Reginald, who lives in Little Rock with his wife, Erika, and Phillip, who lives in Little Rock with his wife, Tosha. They also have eight grandchildren.
Their friends were glad they found each other, with or without their help. And all these years later, Julia thinks her path to the altar was better for her than the one she could have taken to the stage. She still loves music and has used her voice in churches, choirs and private lessons.
“I have no regrets,” she says. “I’m happy with the way things turned out.”My biggest memory from our wedding day:She says: “I smiled all day and then I was sick all night. I was so happy I didn’t know I was sick, but when I settled down I said, ‘Oh, I don’t feel well.’” He says: “I was glad when the wedding and reception were over with because my cheeks felt like they were up to my eye bones after all the smiling and laughing and shaking hands. My face actually hurt.”My advice for a long happy marriage:She says: “Put God first, and work at each other’s happiness. Marriage does not make you a prisoner. You should work for each other’s creativity, each other’s happiness and each other’s individuality. Grow together and continue to work to be attractive to each other.” He says: “Put God first. Know when to speak up and also know when to shut up. And sometimes things are better thought than they are said.”The first time I saw my future spouse:She says: “I wondered if he was the one.” He says: “I said, ‘That’s the woman for me.’ From physical qualifications, she met all of the requirements. She was beautiful, she had a beautiful smile and I liked the way she carried herself.”If you have an interesting how-we-met story or know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or email: cjenkins@arkansasonline.com
High Profile, Pages 37 on 02/23/2014