The chaplain of Baptist Hospital knew all the nurses by name and personality, and he chose Sandi Kincheloe from among them to marry his brother.
Sandi, then 19, was finishing her second year of nursing school at Baptist in June 1964 and hadn't had much time to date. During the first nine months of the program, students were required to be back in the dorm by 7 each weeknight. After that period their curfews lightened only slightly, to accommodate a workload at the hospital that increased exponentially.
The first time I saw my spouse:
He says: “I thought she was very attractive. She had dark curly hair and a very infectious smile.”
She says: “I thought he was probably one of the most handsome guys I had ever seen. Back at that time boys wore dress shirts and he had on a dress shirt and dress pants.”
On our wedding day:
He says: “I just remember how nervous I was.”
She says: “There were lots of our family and friends there.”
When I met my future in-laws:
He says: “They were very friendly and made me feel like I was already a part of their family.”
She says: “I met his mother first. The first time I met his father was when he and Bruce picked me up and took me to Baptist [Hospital] to see his niece, who had just been born. He was very sweet and he and I were big buddies.”
Back then, the hospital was smaller and the staff was closer knit than is possible in today's medical institutions. The chaplain made the rounds every day.
"It was a different time," Sandi says, "and they would come by each floor and visit patients and talk to all the nurses about what was going on and see if there was anything we needed."
The chaplain told his brother he had to meet Sandi.
"He said, 'I have someone I want you to meet,'" Bruce Campbell says. "He said she was outgoing and attractive and she was president of her class and he wanted me to get to know her."
Bruce, a student at Little Rock University -- now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock -- was a biology major minoring in chemistry. He told his brother he would go along with the introduction.
He met his brother and Sandi in the cafeteria at Baptist one afternoon just after she finished her shift. They had coffee and chatted, and then he called her for a date.
He thought their first date went well. They ate Mexican food and watched The Pink Panther with a sense of fun and excitement, and he couldn't wait to see her again. He thought she would feel the same way.
"But when I called her for a second date, she said, 'Well, I have to work the evening shift and I can't go out,'" he says. "I called her back the next week and same thing, so I thought, 'Well, maybe I didn't make too good of an impression.'"
He's not sure he would have called her back a third time, but the chaplain intervened.
"The week after I called her the second time, my brother said a certain nurse told him she was off the evening shift 'and she would like for you to call her,'" he says.
Bruce didn't waste any time dialing Sandi's number.
From then on, they were together as often as they could be. Sometimes that meant he would meet her at the hospital for a cup of coffee or that he would pick her up for a quick dinner. Sometimes time allowed for a more leisurely outing, like to a movie, or a trip to an overlook at West Mountain in Hot Springs.
It was October when they drove to the overlook and the air was cool, so they sat in the car and took in the spacious views of fall foliage.
It was Sandi's 20th birthday, and Bruce gave her a gift.
When she took off the wrapping paper she discovered what was a bit of a gag gift -- a cereal box that was a play on a sarcastic remark she had made in one of their earliest conversations about getting something from a Cracker Jack box. There was a "prize" inside the cereal box, another wrapped package, and inside that was an engagement ring.
Sandi and Bruce were married on March 6, 1965, in a ceremony officiated by Bruce's brother, Bill, the chaplain.
The newlyweds spent the night in Hot Springs, but hurried back so they could be at school and work on Monday.
The Campbells have two sons, Todd Campbell of Alexandria, La., and Keith Campbell of Courtdale, Pa. They also have three grandchildren.
Bruce graduated from LRU and went on to pharmacy school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. He worked for 23 years as a pharmacist at Baptist Health Medical Center. Sandi left Baptist and was director of nursing for the North Little Rock School District for 35 years. They retired a week apart in 2012. Sandi now serves on the North Little Rock School Board.
They like to travel and they still enjoy being together.
On March 7, they had dinner with family and friends following the renewal of their vows. Bruce's brother, their matchmaker, officiated once again.
"It's not very often that the same preacher can do a wedding ceremony and then a renewal 50 years later," Bruce says. "It was pretty special."
If you have an interesting how-we-met story or if you know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or email:
cjenkins@arkansasonline.com
High Profile on 03/22/2015