A sprained ankle turned into a lucky break for Sharon Hays. It's what cast her path into that of Larry Lovett in December 1965.
She was home in Little Rock on break from what is now the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and had tripped on some stairs at her mother's office Christmas party. Sharon was on crutches and couldn't drive, but her best friend could, and Sharon went home with her after church one Wednesday evening.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “I thought what a gentleman he was. What I remember most were his manners and the attention he gave me.”
He says: “She had a radiant personality and she was kind of a jokester person. She was a lot of fun, bubbling and not just a bump on a log. She was very pretty and she was very petite.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I remember trying to get away. We were the pranksters back then but our friends had done a big job of decorating our car. It was hard to find our sense of humor at that point.”
He says: “I remember thinking, ‘My goodness, where did all these people come from?’ I remember looking at her mother and seeing that she was happy. And I remember that Sharon had on a beautiful white dress with a long train.”
My advice for a long happy marriage is:
She says: “Make each other’s needs come first.”
He says: “I go along with that old saying, ‘Don’t go to sleep mad.’ You’ve got to work through your differences, your situations. Never lie to you spouse. Always be honest.”
Her friend suggested that they meet some of her friends at the local hangout, Roach's Dairy Bar -- named for the people who owned it. When they got there, Sharon met the most important of the friends -- Larry Lovett. Her friend was to have her first date with Larry the next night.
When it was time for Sharon's friend to drive her home, Larry asked if he could come along.
"I always just enjoyed being out, being with people and everything. That's why I went out to this dairy bar a lot of times, just to hang out with folks." says Larry.
He did think Sharon was pretty, though, and he liked her sassy attitude.
At Sharon's house, Larry got out and helped her up the steps to the door.
"Cut-up that I am," Sharon says, "I yelled back to her [the friend], 'Hey, can I kiss him good night for his good deed?' She said, 'Sure.' It was just a magical kiss."
Sharon's friend went out with Larry as planned the next night and then left to visit family for the holidays. "He called me the next day and asked me if I would like to go to a movie," Sharon says.
"It was a fun night. It just clicked," she says.
They both had dates for New Year's Eve but made plans to see each other after that. Then Sharon's friend came home.
"I called her because I was so excited. I had two or three more dates lined up with him," says Sharon. "That's when she said, 'Oh, I'm in love!' She was dating two or three other guys and I said, 'Oh, really? Who with?'"
It was Larry. They only had the one date, but she was smitten, a fact that had escaped Sharon when she agreed to go out with him the first time.
A difficult conversation followed, with Sharon telling her that she had gone out with Larry and that she had really fallen for him. Sharon offered to back off, but her friend demurred.
"It was just really sweet, sweet of her to decide that no guy at that point was worth our friendship," Sharon says. "I was glad she thought that way."
In September 1966, Larry went to basic training at Fort Polk, La., for the U.S. Army Reserve, came home for a couple of weeks and then left for more training at Fort Ord, Calif. During his two-week leave, he asked Sharon's father for her hand in marriage.
On Christmas Day, Larry gave Sharon a big wrapped box with several smaller boxes inside. He had hinted that he knew it was something she could wear.
"I said it was something beautiful and it was small, it would look really, really good on her," he says. "We had talked about getting married, and I had told her that I loved her and wanted to spend my life with her, but there hadn't been anything said about a ring, so she was quite surprised."
Larry had to report back to the Army base for two more weeks and Sharon wanted to marry as soon as he got home, but they opted to wait a little longer.
They exchanged their vows on Aug. 4, 1967, in Gaines Street Baptist Church in Little Rock.
Sharon's friend -- Larry's one-time date -- was a bridesmaid.
"I will forever be grateful for her kind spirit by agreeing to not let him or my relationship with him come between our friendship," says Sharon.
Larry and Sharon live in Little Rock. They have three children -- Tammy Batchelor and Brian Lovett of Little Rock and Danna Hope of Lillian, Texas. They have five grandchildren.
Sharon and Larry took a 12-day Caribbean cruise in 2011, and the night they returned Sharon collapsed and broke her neck in five places.
"He's taken care of me. I've had many surgeries since then, and he's just right there," says Sharon. "He is still the romantic. He still opens doors and pulls out chairs for me and he holds my hand when I'm stepping up on a curb. I will find little love notes stuck on the mirror, he has taken me on surprise dates where I didn't know where we were going when we left the house ... he is my Prince Charming."
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High Profile on 08/20/2017