Freddy Burton's talking and tardiness got him in a little trouble on a lot of occasions. They also helped land him a date with the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, Brenda Smithson.
Freddy, a senior at Benton High School in 1965, didn't have any classes with Brenda because students at their school were grouped by alphabetical order.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “I knew that he was the one, without a doubt. It was his looks and that we had so much in common. Our personalities clicked. It was just everything.”
He says: “I thought, my gosh, this is the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen in my life. I wouldn’t have thought in my wildest dreams that I would date her because she was so gorgeous, so sexy, so beautiful.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I was excited. We were going with our best friends, and we were sitting in the backseat.”
He says: “We went home with our friends and spent the night in their trailer.”
My advice for a long happy marriage is:
She says: “We have always spent a lot of time together. We’ve always been very close.”
He says: “I married someone easier to live with than myself. Brenda is always the same. Not moody and seldom nags. I know this sounds corny but she is just plain sweet.”
But at 3:30 p.m. on a late spring afternoon they ended up in detention together.
"I'm sure Freddy was in detention more than I was. He was a regular," Brenda says. "But I was very talkative, so I got detention fairly often."
Kids in detention were supposed to study or read quietly, but on that day Freddy's focus was on gaining Brenda's favor. He thought she was beautiful, with her long blond hair and bright smile and her short mini skirt.
"I was pinching her, and pulling her hair and all that stuff kids do," he says. "I was just doing everything I could to get her attention, to get her to look at me. I was just kind of goofing off, acting silly like I always did."
Freddy had a car but he had gotten in some trouble at home, and his father revoked his driving privileges. When detention was over they both bummed a ride with a guy who was in detention with them. The guy drove Brenda home first, and as she got out she turned to ask Freddy if he would like to come in for a while.
"What fool wouldn't take up that invitation?" Freddy says. "It was like I was in a dream world. She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I was blown away. It was like I was in a good dream that I was afraid I was going to wake up from."
He hopped out of the car and they went inside, stopping to chat for a bit with her mother as she made dinner. Then Brenda put James Brown's single, "Please, Please, Please," on her record player.
"The next thing I know we were up dancing, just laughing and carrying on like kids do," she says. "We liked the same music, the same artists, the same food, all of our similarities were there."
She took him home a couple of hours later, taking time to drive around talking and listening to the radio for a while first.
They became exclusive not long after that and spent every spare minute together over the summer after graduation. In the fall, he left for Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas in Conway). She left for Henderson State College (now Henderson State University) in Arkadelphia.
Trips home every weekend -- and even his periodic hitchhiking to see her -- weren't enough. Brenda transferred to Freddy's school the following year so they could see each other every day. He gave her an engagement ring over Christmas break in 1966, and they made plans to marry the following summer.
But they eloped on Dec. 31, 1966, instead.
Their friends Annette and David Moreland drove them to Malvern. Freddy and Brenda had gone there three days earlier for the requisite blood test and marriage license application. They had arranged with the Hot Spring County clerk to have the courthouse opened so they could get their marriage license and have a Methodist minister to do the ceremony.
After they exchanged their vows they went home with the Morelands, also newlyweds, for the night. High school friends -- none of whom were told Brenda and Freddy had just married -- dropped by for a New Year's Eve party.
Freddy and Brenda went to their respective homes the next day, neither sharing the news with their families. Their plan was to let their parents get used to the idea of their engagement before telling them they eloped, but the marriage license arrived in the mail at Freddy's house a few days later. His father found it and woke Freddy up one morning.
"He says, 'What have you done, Freddy?' I just pulled the covers up over my head," Freddy says.
With their secret out, the pair dropped out of college to work. They lived with his father for a few months until they could afford a place of their own.
Freddy worked for Burton Ford, founded by his father, for 20 years, and then he went into politics, serving as county clerk for Saline County for 20 years. Brenda went to nursing school a few years after they married, and she worked for 40 years as a registered nurse at Saline Memorial Hospital.
They have a daughter, Stephanie Hopkins of Little Rock, and three grandchildren.
Freddy and Brenda have danced and enjoyed much music together since their day in detention.
"In 1965 we were both destined for detention hall, both without a ride, both without a home, both like complete unknowns, like 'Rolling Stones,'" Freddy says figuratively.
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High Profile on 07/30/2017