Peggy Toffier liked Glenn Pounder's wavy dark hair and the way he carried himself, but those weren't the things that attracted her to him.
Watching the way he treated his sister was what convinced her he was the man for her.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “He was the brother of a friend of mine, and my second thought was that he was the handsomest guy who ever lived. My third thought was that he’s for me.”
He says: “I was impressed with her personality.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I really admired our dresses — mine and my cousin’s. My mother made both of them.”
He says: “I was nervous.”
My advice for a lasting marriage:
She says: “We don’t remember having any clashes. I don’t know if that’s our personalities or something else.”
He says: “It doesn’t hurt to have a good cook.”
Peggy grew up in Dewar, Okla., but went to school in Henrietta, just a few miles away.
"I went to school over there because my parents felt like it was a better school," Peggy says.
She was in the same grade as Glenn, and they knew each other on sight but that was about it.
"He was one of the big chiefs," she explains, meaning he already had an established circle of friends when she arrived.
Right after college, Glenn left for what was then Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater, but he was drafted into the Army in 1944. World War II ended before he finished his basic training, but he was sent to Germany to serve in the occupation forces. Twenty months after he left, he returned to school on the GI bill.
"The first two years I was in college, men were pretty scarce, and then overnight, wow, whammy, you'd go to school and think 'Lord, look at the men,'" Peggy says.
She and Glenn were part of the Valley Club, a group of Henrietta alumni who were studying at Oklahoma A&M. They both went to a club picnic the spring after he returned to school, and Peggy couldn't help but notice he was there with a girl.
"I realized it was his sister," she says. "I noticed that he would get up and get her another drink or some more cookies or something. He was jumping up all night and getting her a fresh drink or whatever.''
Peggy made a point to chat with her. Glenn and his older sister were close, and she was a bit protective of her little brother. However, his sister must have enjoyed Peggy's company. A few days later he mentioned he would like to find someone to date, and she suggested he call Peggy.
"I lucked out," Peggy says, although she admits this might have been slightly orchestrated. "I wasn't stupid, you know? I made my way through his sister."
They enjoyed going to school events -- basketball games, wrestling, concerts and the like. And on Valentine's Day 1948, Glenn gave Peggy an engagement ring.
She can't remember exactly what he said then, and neither can he.
"Different people have asked us that, and we just always assumed we were going to get married," she says.
They exchanged vows June 3, 1948, in First Christian Church of Henrietta and moved into a little apartment near the college fieldhouse.
Peggy graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1949 and got a job as a secretary in the college admissions office. When Glenn finished his degree in personnel management in 1950, he went to work in Shawnee, Okla., and then in the oil fields of New Mexico. He transferred from Tulsa to Little Rock in 1963 for a job with Orbit Valve Co., where he retired in 1984.
Peggy worked for the Enterprise for the Blind and did secretarial work until Glenn retired. After that they bought an RV and camped in every state in the nation, except one.
"We couldn't figure out how to get the RV to Hawaii," he says.
Peggy and Glenn have three daughters -- Diana Pounder and Marsha Edgman, both of Little Rock, and Leah Pounder-St. John of Warren. They have two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
"Our girls, all three of them, have been very attentive in taking care of our needs," Glenn says. "I think our biggest accomplishment in our marriage is that we were able to send three daughters to [the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville] to get degrees."
Peggy says that all these years, Glenn has been every bit the gentleman she witnessed him being with his sister at the Valley Club picnic.
"I went on that theory and it worked."
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High Profile on 06/04/2017