Darrel Coleman was utterly unmemorable, but there was still something about him that Kay Goodwin couldn't quite forget.
Kay was introduced to her roommate's boyfriend at the University of Arkansas in the fall of 1961. She was also introduced to the boyfriend's friend, whom she promptly forgot.
The first time I saw my spouse:
She says: “I didn’t remember him. But I thought he was nice and good-looking and I wanted to go out with him.”
He says: “I thought that she was beautiful, and I was especially attracted to her brown eyes.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I was happy and excited.”
He says: “I was very proud to call Kay Goodwin my wife. I had checked her out pretty thoroughly before we walked down the aisle.”
My advice for a long marriage is:
She says: “Love each other and like each other. Have a good sense of humor. We both have many friends who love and support us.”
He says: “Remember the vows that you made to each other. And learn to appreciate your spouse through all the ups and downs of life.”
That was Darrel.
In the spring of 1965, Kay was a senior at the university. She transferred her church membership from her hometown church to First Baptist in Fayetteville before starting a master's program in English that fall.
"That Sunday Darrel came through the line and told me his name and said he had met me before," Kay says. "I said, 'No, I don't think so. I don't remember meeting you.' I immediately wished I had not said that but I was into honesty. I thought he was cute, and I wanted to know more about him."
She asked around and found out he was an office product salesman for IBM and devised a plan to see him again.
"I had a lot of end-of-the-year papers to type on my Smith Corona portable so I decided I would try to rent an IBM electric typewriter," she says.
She called the IBM office and asked for Darrel, who was not in. The man who answered told her the company did not rent typewriters but offered to take her name and number and have Darrel return her call.
She declined.
"I was really embarrassed all of a sudden," says Kay, who went home that summer thinking she probably wouldn't see him again. "But I thought about him. And when I returned to graduate school that fall I was pleasantly surprised when Darrel Coleman called me and asked me to go with him to the Arkansas-Texas game in October. I was very excited and said yes."
Darrel had done some sleuthing.
"I had put out a scouting report, I guess you would call it, to find out what my chances were if I called her for a date," he says. "I didn't want to be rejected."
Before their date, but after Darrel's call, Kay went to the Baptist Student Union with a friend.
"A guy kept talking to me but I didn't know who he was. I asked my friend, 'Who's that guy who keeps flirting with me?' And she said, 'Well, that's Darrel Coleman.' I thought, 'Oh, I've messed up again. I didn't remember him the first time and then I tried to get in touch with him and couldn't after I joined the church, and then I was so excited about having a date with him and I didn't even recognize him.'"
She made her way over to where he was sitting and told him she was looking forward to their date. He replied that he had thought she didn't know who he was.
"She didn't know a whole lot about football. But you know how some men are who are football fans. They enjoy imparting their knowledge of the game to someone who is less knowledgeable about the game," he says. "It was one of the best football games of the century. And that was our first date."
On subsequent dates, they went with friends on a picnic to the Buffalo River, where Darrel owned 280 acres. They dined at various restaurants about town, including the Venesian Inn. And once Darrel even took her across state lines to see the premiere of The Sound of Music in Tulsa.
Darrel thought she would make a good mother to their children, but of course he didn't say that to her at the time. "I just saw a lot of her qualities being Julie Andrews-type qualities," he says.
Kay went home to Little Rock for Thanksgiving and when she got back to Fayetteville the Sunday before classes were to resume, she went with Darrel to AQ Chicken House for dinner.
"Darrel said, 'Well, let's just get married.' And I thought for a minute and I just said OK, yes," she says.
They had been dating for about six weeks. Darrel wanted to marry over Christmas break but at that time the semester ended about nine days after the break and Kay needed to study for finals.
They were married, instead, on April 9, 1966, at Calvary Baptist Church in Little Rock.
IBM transferred Darrel to Little Rock around that time. He has since retired from the company.
Kay left graduate school when they married but she finished her degree several years later at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
They have two children, Kathy McLendon of McGregor, Texas, and Greg Coleman of Plano, Texas, and six grandchildren.
While Kay did have a hard time placing Darrel's face back in the 1960s, her heart must have remembered him because he was still in her thoughts. With her at his side, his heart is light.
"For some reason," he jokes, "I don't think I made a real good impression on her those first one or two times."
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 04/10/2016