Jawanda Pulliam and LeMoyne Smith knew each other in their previous lives, back when they were married to other people and lived in other places.
In 1958, LeMoyne was teaching at Arkansas Polytechnic College (now Arkansas Tech University) in Russellville when a man named Jack Pulliam got a job teaching sixth grade in nearby Pottsville. Pulliam was looking for a room to rent, and LeMoyne's father had just such a dwelling (LeMoyne was still living at home in the small town). The two men struck up a friendship.
The first time I saw my spouse (again, after all those years):
She says: “He was just this old friend and I was delighted to see him and he looked wonderful.”
He says: “I walked up to the house and rang the doorbell and here came Jawanda. And we just had the most wonderful embrace and a great big hug and I thought here is this beautiful, beautiful lady that I haven’t seen in years.”
I knew he/she was the one for me:
She says: “I was convinced I wouldn’t remarry. I didn’t want to. I had dated quite a lot in those years and I never allowed myself to be vulnerable. I started looking at him in a different light and then I realized that this was the man with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life.”
He says: “When I was out West and had an epiphany. That was also after living every day thinking I would never remarry.”
My advice for a long happy marriage is:
She says: “Laugh a lot. Enjoy life. And don’t sweat the small stuff. People, my gosh, get all bogged down with little things that just take a lot of energy. My mother always told me you should treat your spouse like company — always be on your best behavior.”
He says: “Remember always to be kind.”
LeMoyne left the college and moved to Cincinnati to work in textbook publishing, but he visited Jack and met his new wife, Jawanda, in 1961; she and Jack were expecting their first child.
LeMoyne married, too, and lived happily for 45 years with his wife, Selma. They were sporadically in contact with the Pulliams, who'd settled in Searcy.
Jack Pulliam died in 2003.
Selma Smith died a few years after that.
In 2010 LeMoyne was driving from his home in Little Rock to Jonesboro to visit his nephew and he asked if Jawanda would have lunch with him as he passed through Searcy. He hadn't seen her since 1988, when they exchanged a brief greeting at his parents' 50th anniversary celebration.
Jawanda treated him to a meal at the Searcy Country Club, and the conversation flowed. Jawanda was planning a trip to Europe for her birthday then, and LeMoyne said he would call her when she got back.
"Things rocked on for a year. I did call her back. It was just sort of a casual social engagement sort of thing," he says.
In the summer of 2011 LeMoyne went to Yellowstone National Park with the Arkansas Tech alumni association.
"I had seen Jawanda the night before I left on this trip, and the whole time I was out there I just felt this calling that I must get back in touch with Jawanda," LeMoyne says. "I did, and I said, 'I miss you and I wish you were out here,' and I thought, 'I think I'm falling in love with this woman.' When I got back from that trip I told her I thought I was in love with her."
"Which scared me to death," she admits.
After some thought, Jawanda realized she felt the same way.
"I always thought of LeMoyne as being Jack's friend," she says.
"And, of course, Jawanda was always Jack's wife and I never thought of her as anything else before that," he says.
LeMoyne told a couple they were friends with that he wanted to marry Jawanda and the friends suggested he propose at the Eiffel Tower. He began planning a trip but realized he didn't want to wait that long.
They were sitting on the couch at his house when he proposed that fall.
Both had busy schedules -- Jawanda was owner and manager of the Mayfair Hotel in Searcy and an active volunteer, and LeMoyne was involved in many activities at Arkansas Tech -- and finding a weekend they were both free to exchange their vows was a challenge. They discussed their plans during a road trip to Atlanta to celebrate Jawanda's brother-in-law's birthday that December.
"LeMoyne said, 'Well, what are we going to do for New Year's Eve?' And I said, 'I don't know. Do you want to get married?'" Jawanda says.
They were wed on Dec. 31, 2011, in the chapel at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock with their children and grandchildren looking on.
"We were going to have a tiny little wedding," she says, "It ended up being an affair which was just all family, and it was wonderful."
Jawanda has three children, Jacqui Whitehead and Jill Eschbacher, both of North Little Rock, and Jeff Pulliam of Searcy. She also has seven grandchildren and one great-grandson. LeMoyne has one daughter, Jenny Short, of Minneapolis, and two grandchildren.
Days after they married, Jawanda and LeMoyne left for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where LeMoyne underwent cancer treatment.
"It was very successful," Jawanda says. "But, yes, we did honeymoon at M.D. Anderson."
There was a reception for them the following May, and friends and family from all over celebrated with them at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock.
Since then they have traveled the world -- Australia and New Zealand, the British Isles -- and are planning trips to Cabo San Lucas and Paris in the next several months.
When they began considering marriage, age was a part of the discussion.
LeMoyne, 81, retired as president and chief executive officer of Southwest Publishing Co.
"LeMoyne said, 'If we can have 10 really good years, it will be worth it.' Well, it's been four and we're thinking about talking to God and seeing about extending our lease," says Jawanda, 73. "We're not sure 10 years is going to be long enough."
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 11/22/2015