RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE

Collection plate card ushered in 50 years of love

Lisa and Garlan Brandom on their wedding day, July 2, 1965
Lisa and Garlan Brandom on their wedding day, July 2, 1965

Some volunteer work and a move in the summer of 1962 ushered in a new era for a shy delicatessen manager and the new girl in Wichita, Kan.

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Garlan Brandom was so sure he would hit it off with Lisa Sims on their first date he asked for a second one before she answered ‘Yes’ to the first one. “I was head of a chain of delicatessens for a grocery store, and I kind of worked long hours and I knew my schedule and I wanted to take advantage of my time off.”

Garlan Brandom, then 22, had dropped out of college because the long hours he worked in a grocery chain's delicatessen kept him from studying. He found time to do good works, though, through the Shriners, the Masonic Lodge and his church. It was while ushering at Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita one Sunday he noticed that new girl in the sanctuary, a brunette in a yellow polished cotton dress that highlighted her dark tan.

Lisa Sims, 17 at the time, had just moved from her grandmother's house in Mississippi to live with her mother and stepfather, and she didn't know another soul. She sat at the end of an aisle that day and watched Garlan gently leading elderly church members to their seats.

"He was very attractive," she says. "He had a nice smile and he was very kind to people. I sort of set my eyes on him, but I also had my eyes set on one of the choir members, who was also a blond young man, very attractive. I liked blonds, I guess."

Garlan had been a groomsman in several weddings but wasn't sure he would ever meet anyone he wanted to marry. He wasn't even sure how to start a conversation with the new girl, but he knew from the visitor's card she put in the offering plate he passed around that he could reasonably expect to have another chance.

"If you were on duty to sort and put the money and those cards away, it was pretty easy to see those cards and figure out if she was a visitor or what," he says. "You marked the card if you were interested in coming back there."

He found himself watching the door before the next few services.

"I was anticipating her coming back," he says.

A couple of Sunday evenings later, Garlan arrived early for a Baptist Training Union meeting and found Lisa sitting all alone, waiting for everyone else to get there.

It was the perfect opportunity for him to start a conversation, and that's just what he did.

When the meeting ended, they walked out together and he didn't ask her for one date but two. "He said, 'Why don't we go out to eat Friday night? There's this wonderful restaurant called the Hickory House,' which is still one of our favorite memories of living in Wichita," she says. "Then he said, 'And maybe Saturday night we could go see a movie.'"

Garlan was really that sure they would hit it off on their first date, but his decision to ask for a second one before they even had a first was a matter of optimizing time.

"I wanted to feel comfortable and get to know her as quickly as possible and I thought having back to back dates would be good," he says. "I was head of a chain of delicatessens for a grocery store and I kind of worked long hours and I knew my schedule and I wanted to take advantage of my time off."

Soon the couple were seeing each other regularly. Lisa enrolled in secretarial school and then worked as a secretary while attending Wichita State University at night to become an English teacher.

He gave her a ring in 1963, but it was two more years before Lisa went back to Mississippi for a short time and he realized he couldn't live without her.

"I knew I missed her very much," he says. "We talked on the phone as often as we could and we agreed that we should get married."

They exchanged their vows on July 2, 1965, in her hometown, Tutwiler, Miss.

The newlyweds were going to honeymoon in Florida but the heat and humidity convinced them to change their plans. Instead, they drove through Wichita and dropped off their U-Haul full of wedding gifts and Lisa's things on their way to the cooler climate of Colorado.

A few years later they both started college at the University of Mississippi at Tupelo. Garlan finished in three years and got a job in Ruleville, Miss., while Lisa stayed for another semester to finish her master's degree before becoming an adjunct professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss.

In 1972, they moved to Springdale, near Garlan's hometown of Gentry, and he went to work for Spring­dale Memorial Hospital, now Northwest Medical Center. Lisa taught at Southwest Junior High School, Shiloh Christian School and John Brown University. They retired and nine years ago moved to central Arkansas to be near their son, Chris, who lives in Little Rock, and four of their five grandchildren.

Their daughter, Kimberly Hendricks, lives in Seattle.

As their 50th anniversary approaches, Garlan reflects on the passage of time.

"It doesn't really feel like we've been married that long unless I stop and think about it; we've done a lot of things," he says. "We've traveled a lot and really enjoyed each other."

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 05/24/2015

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