Walt Dickinson made a bold move on DeeDee Williamson early on.
Walt had transferred to Little Rock's Williams Elementary in third grade, in 1964, and it wasn't long after that that he developed a crush on DeeDee.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “He was 300% boy. He was super rambunctious. He was a wild child. I am a girly girl — and he kind of scared me.”
He says: “I said, ‘Well, there is my China doll.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I was nervous and scared, but I just remember I felt just so grown up. I mean, I was only 23.”
He says: “I knew I was going to marry the love of my life and I was a lucky man.”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
She says: “I think of us as a team. We are a unit, and I’m his biggest cheerleader. And I do believe that being considerate and respectful and thoughtful of each other is just a huge thing.”
He says: “We promised each other right after we got married that we would never go to bed mad at each other.”
"He gave me a bunch of colorful magic markers," she says.
DeeDee doesn't remember what she did with the markers, but she knows she wasn't interested in being his girlfriend.
"I think I hurt his feelings," she says.
Walt took his frustration with the situation out on her class picture.
"And I got my markers back, too," he says.
In eighth grade, Walt's friend intercepted a note DeeDee tried to pass to Walt, asking him to go to a church dance with her.
"I was mortified," she says. "That was an embarrassing moment because he didn't feel the same about me."
By 10th grade, though, they were in sync.
They were hanging out with mutual friends one Saturday afternoon when DeeDee realized what she was feeling.
"I liked him," she says. "I really liked him."
Their first date was either dinner at the Leather Bottle or Steak and Ale or a night of riding around -- they can't remember which. Either way, DeeDee says, "It was love at first date."
After high school, Walt went to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and DeeDee went to William Woods University in Fulton, Mo.
"We kind of dated other people, but it just didn't work," DeeDee says. "I mean, I went out with other guys, but they just weren't him."
Walt pledged a fraternity, and he was sometimes expected to find a date for a fraternity function. He dated other girls, too.
"I was always comparing everybody else to her," he says.
DeeDee was homesick that first semester of college, and not being with Walt made the experience even harder. She had a friend whose boyfriend was at UA as well, and the girls sometimes drove there together to visit.
Late that fall, DeeDee invited Walt to her sorority's formal.
"I sent her roses, and she called me and thanked me and told me she missed me, and the rest is history," he says.
They spent as much time together as they could over Christmas break.
"We started really getting more serious," DeeDee says. "We went back to just being with each other in the second semester."
DeeDee transferred to UA for her sophomore year and moved into her sorority's house.
Greek life kept DeeDee and Walt busy during their years in Fayetteville, with formals and parties and other events.
In 1978, they flew with a group of friends to Miami to watch the Razorbacks play in the Orange Bowl.
After she got her undergraduate degree, DeeDee started the dental hygiene program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
She was halfway through dental hygiene school when Walt proposed.
He took her to dinner at Jacques and Suzanne's, the elegant restaurant at the top of the then-First National Bank Building (now Regions) in downtown Little Rock, and afterward, they went back to the house where he lived with his parents and his sister.
"There was no one there, which was very unusual," she says.
Walt got down on one knee in the living room and asked DeeDee if she would marry him.
"Then we went to my parents' house and told them, and then we went to my brother's high school dance at Hall [High School] and told him and just everyone we could think of we went and told that night," she says.
They exchanged their vows on Dec. 29, 1979, at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock, still decorated for the Christmas season.
"It was spitting snow and it was very cold," she says. "It was in late in the afternoon, and it was beautiful."
Their reception was at Pleasant Valley Country Club, and when that was over they flew to Atlanta.
"I can remember getting to the hotel and the first thing we did was order giant cheeseburgers," DeeDee says.
The Dickinsons have three children -- Walt Dickinson III of Vail, Colo.; Mary Dickinson of Austin, Texas, and Will Dickinson of Little Rock.
DeeDee and Walt work together in their real estate company, RE/MAX Affiliates Realty.
Walt likes to tell people that he got two licenses in 1979.
"I got a license to sell real estate and I got a marriage license," he says. "By the grace of God, they are both still active."
A business major at UA, Walt followed his mentor -- DeeDee's father -- into the real estate business after college.
Walt remembers the first time he went to DeeDee's house, initially afraid to meet her father, whom he had heard from people around town was "protective" of his daughter.
While they were in high school, Walt and DeeDee argued about whose house they would hang out in -- each wanted to see the other's family.
Walt also remembers the phrase DeeDee's father repeated over the years, about his marrying DeeDee.
"He would say, 'How fortunate you are,'" Walt says. "I was fortunate. That's true."
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High Profile on 12/08/2019