J.E. Sanders was impressed by Jerrie Ann McAdoo's stage presence, or maybe it was her swimsuit. The first time he saw her she was likely wearing plaid pants -- fashion forward for Hot Springs in 1963 -- but it's the image of her in the white one-piece she wore for her solo that stuck in his memory.
They both graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville on Jan. 26, 1963, but they don't recall seeing each other there.
The first time I saw my spouse:
She says: “I thought he was real cute. He had on a pair of wheat jeans, a multicolored vertical striped brown sweater, blond hair, dark socks and pointed-toe brown shoes, and he had a big smile.”
He says: “I was taken by her figure and her beauty, and I would have to say, if those things matter, maybe it was love at first sight. I thought, ‘My goodness she is a beautiful girl, and I haven’t seen her around town at all and I want to get to know her.’”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
She says: “He would say, ‘I apologize for doing that,’ and he had done nothing. I had to learn that from him. You always say you’re sorry even if it’s not your fault. And you always place God first in your life.”
He says: “When people were going through the reception line at our wedding, my aunt held both of our hands and told us both not to let the sun set on an argument without making up. So we never have gone to bed angry at each other.”
J.E. grew up in Los Angeles and had gotten an honorable discharge from the Marine Officer Candidate Corps in Quantico, Va., because of his father's sudden death. He had come to Hot Springs to sell real estate while caring for his mother.
"The Community Players was doing [George and Ira] Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing, and a friend called and told me they were looking for someone who was willing to sing a solo and wear a bathing suit across the stage," says Jerrie Ann, then an elementary teacher. "They also needed a man who could do a [John F.] Kennedy accent. J.E.'s mother had breakfast with a woman whose son was already in the play and she told her, 'My son can do a Kennedy accent.'"
Jerrie Ann knew at the first practice that, fake accent aside, he was different from the other boys in town.
"All the boys I knew invited me out for a Coke," she says. "All the boys I knew at that time had crew cuts and wore wingtip shoes. This boy walked in the door and he had on pointed-toe shoes, a little bit longer hair on the sides and asked me out for coffee."
Their first date was on Halloween night, a late movie after play rehearsal.
"And I fell fast asleep," she says.
She fell asleep on their next two movie dates as well. He didn't mind much, though.
"When she fell asleep, her head was on my shoulder," he says.
On nights when they didn't have rehearsal they would watch television with her mother while Jerrie Ann painted patterns on shoes to match her dresses.
J.E. noted her passion for footwear, as well as her shoe size, and gave her a pair of high-heeled black suede cutout pumps for Christmas.
"No one had ever given me a pair of shoes as a gift, especially not a boy," she says. "And they fit perfectly."
They went out to supper clubs, too, to see well-known acts brought in by the gambling industry.
"We were living sort of a fantasy life and I was spending about all the money I could make taking her out and wining and dining her," J.E. says. "It was really sort of Camelot in a way."
J.E. rarely ate much on those nights.
"I would usually order a filet and a baked potato and a salad. J.E. would usually say, 'I've already eaten, I'm just going to have a salad,'" Jerrie Ann says. "It wasn't until after we were married that I found out he could only afford one meal and, therefore, he bought mine."
For Valentine's Day, he took her to Judd's Steakhouse. When they ordered dessert, J.E. took a black velvet box out of his pocket and silently put it on the table. She opened it without a word.
They hadn't discussed marriage and she wasn't sure what to say.
"I looked up and my mother and some friends were coming in the door," she says. "My mother saw us and came over and looked down and I had just put the ring on my finger and immediately put my hands in my lap. I hadn't said yes. I hadn't said anything, and I was wondering what in the world I should do."
Then J.E. spoke.
"He told me, 'I don't think I can make any money here. I have to go to California and I don't know if you will go to California with me,'" she says. "I didn't know if I loved him enough but I knew that if I didn't marry him it would be the biggest mistake of my life. I just felt very sure of that. I accepted the ring and he left in three weeks to get settled and I didn't see him again until the week before we got married."
He was working at a savings and loan and couldn't take time off before that, he explains.
They were married on July 12, 1964, in Second Baptist Church of Hot Springs.
J.E. and Jerrie Ann lived in Los Angeles for a few years before returning to UA-Fayetteville so J.E. could go to law school. After he got his law degree, they settled in Hot Springs.
They have two children, Jay Mac Sanders of Houston and Mary Candyce Sanders of Hot Springs. They also have three grandchildren.
Not long before she met J.E., Jerrie Ann won the Miss Poultry Princess contest and the Miss Hot Springs title and competed in the Miss Arkansas pageant.
"When I say she was strikingly pretty in a bathing suit, I know what I'm talking about," J.E. says. "She is as beautiful inside as she is outside."
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 05/17/2015