Allein Beall had been set up on many blind dates by a group of girls he grew up with, but when those girls were unavailable another friend chose the right blind date.
Allein had just recently returned from fighting in World War II when he started classes at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in January 1946. Jean Stevenson was already a student there when he arrived.
"Several girls from home helped me get dates," says Allein, who grew up in Helena. "There was a week there that they were going to be gone, and they said, 'You'll have to get your own date.'"
One of his friends from the fraternity house said his girlfriend could set him up with her roommate.
Allein was wearing his leather Naval jacket, with a turned-up fur collar, the first time Jean saw him.
"My roommate took me over to the student union and pointed him out," she says.
Allein's friend had given him a heads up that that might happen.
"He said, 'I think your date's going to walk by. They're checking you out,'" Allein says. "So these two pretty girls walked by and that was the first time I saw her."
They went to a Razorbacks basketball game on that first date
"I remember exactly what he had on when he came to get me," she says. "Back then boys wore hats, and he had on an argyle sweater over his shirt and tie and a sport coat that I'm sure he had leftover from high school. It was probably four or five years old. But he looked very handsome and well-dressed."
Jean had to be back in the dorm by 10:30 p.m.
"We had a good time," he says. "We didn't do a lot of visiting but I thought I had a good date."
They saw each other again the next day, a Saturday.
"I went to a dance with a boy I had a date with and you were there," Jean says to Allein. "And I told somebody at our table to go ask you to come ask me to dance, and you did."
That dance didn't last long, or at least not long enough, in their opinions. They started seeing each other as often as they could after that.
Allein gave Jean a Kappa Sigma fraternity pin, though she insists they weren't focused on formalities.
"We didn't think much about it," Jean says. "I think it was just what we were supposed to do."
There were several activities going on around campus -- sports and parties in various locations and for different groups, and they went to many of those together.
"We just did whatever was going on. There wasn't a whole lot to do because you had to go to school all day," Jean says. "You know, classes and we were supposed to be studying some."
They rarely went home on weekends.
"Fayetteville was a long way away. I had to catch the train to Little Rock and then catch the train to eastern Arkansas to go home," says Jean, whose father was a Methodist pastor, assigned to a different church every four years.
Allein had bought a 1940 Plymouth coupe for $700, but the journey to Helena was still too long to make for the weekend.
Neither remembers getting engaged.
"We were married and she asked me one day, 'Did you ever ask me to marry you?' And I thought about it and I said, 'No, I don't think so. Did you ask me to marry you?' And we both agreed that we hadn't done it that way," Allein says. "It was just something that happened, and we knew."
The summer before they married, Allein took a month-long trip to the West Coast with his family, planned the year before when he returned from the Navy.
"He had given me a beautiful diamond ring," she says. "He only telephoned me once because it was so expensive. I was glad because everybody's house just had one telephone and when the phone came out everybody perked up and listened to our conversation."
They were married on Aug. 28, 1946, seven months after their blind date. Her father officiated in a small Jonesboro church.
Jean wore her sister-in-law's wedding gown, with only minor alterations, and Allein wore a white linen suit.
They honeymooned on Lake Taneycomo near Branson.
"Back then you weren't picking up or flying to Europe or anywhere like that," Allein says. "So we went up there and we had a great time."
Allein went to work in his family's business in Helena, and the Bealls made their home there for many years. He retired at age 65 and he and Jean moved to Little Rock.
They have three daughters, Nina Waters of Little Rock, Elizabeth Hickman of Memphis and Jeanie Berna of Scottsdale, Ariz.
They also have six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Neither Allein nor Jean is sure if the girls who had set him up on so many dates before were disappointed he no longer required their assistance.
"I don't know if they missed him or not," she says. "I just wasn't interested in them. I was just interested in him."
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The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “We decided they looked alright.”
He says: “She was this beautiful brunette. She had this wonderful smile.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “My sisters were my only attendants. I couldn’t have a big, elaborate wedding. The girls wore pretty rose-colored dresses.”
He says: “I kissed her for more than a minute. Somebody laughed and said I was holding her too long.”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
She says: “Just try to be unselfish and think of the other person. Old age is very hard. You just have to smile and go on and sometimes the next day is better.”
He says: “Things happen, sometimes good and sometimes bad — so many good things have happened to us, and we’ve shared them all together. We just kind of grew up that way in our marriage.”
Allein Beall (shown around 1940) and Jean Stevenson were married on Aug. 28, 1946. Jean says she and Allein knew they were meant to be together almost immediately after they met. “I guess we just knew that we were going to get married when we first started dating,” she says. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Allein Beall and Jean Stevenson (shown around 1940) were married on Aug. 28, 1946. Jean says she and Allein knew they were meant to be together almost immediately after they met. “I guess we just knew that we were going to get married when we first started dating,” she says. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)