RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE: His quick wit got him a first date, unique proposal

Shane and Debbie Broadway on their wedding day, March 30, 1996. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Shane and Debbie Broadway on their wedding day, March 30, 1996. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)


Shane Broadway had to think fast to get a date with Debbie Tableriou.

By 1995, they had gotten to know one another casually through Friday afternoon hangouts at Shug's in Little Rock's Riverdale area, each there with their own group of friends.

Debbie had recently moved back to Arkansas from Washington to work in U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton's Little Rock office.

"I was just working the legislative session," says Shane.

On this Friday afternoon at Shug's, Shane's friends and Debbie's crowded around a big table.

"I kind of jokingly said to the group around us, 'OK, y'all, I'm "shopping" so if you see anything good around here that I might need to go meet, y'all let me know,'" she says. "He said, 'Well, what am I?'"

It was a rhetorical comment. Debbie retorted that he hadn't asked her out.

"There is no way that I was in her league," says Shane. "I had never thought that there would ever be an opportunity to date her, so I had not considered what I would do in this situation. I was surprised when she said that."

He was also surprised by what flew out of his mouth.

"He said, 'Do you want to go have lunch on Sunday after church?'" she says.

They met at Faded Rose, where they chatted about their families, their histories and, of course, politics.

"What I took away from it more than anything was that he was a good person," she says. "I liked where this conversation was going because it was so easy, and it was just so real."

Debbie wasn't sure how Shane felt about her, and over the next week or so she even asked some of his friends for insight.

"Then he kissed me, and I was like, 'OK, here we go -- there could be something here,'" she says.

They had dated for a couple of months when Thornton asked Debbie to move back to his Washington office. She and Shane decided to see one another when they could.

Shane couldn't afford a plane ticket, so he bought a bus ticket, riding 24 hours to visit Debbie over the Fourth of July weekend.

On the Fourth, they watched fireworks from the National Mall.

"I remember making a comment to her that I thought she would make a great Mrs. Broadway," he says.

Debbie liked that idea.

That September, Shane learned he was invited to an Arkansas party at the Clinton White House in early October. He bought a ring at Lauray's in Hot Springs and devised a complex plan to propose to Debbie at the fountain on the South Lawn.

He was anxious about getting the ring through security without Debbie's seeing, and he was preoccupied by all the intricacies of carrying out the surprise. Debbie mistook his resulting distance for disinterest. The ring was in the breast pocket of his jacket, inches from her fingertips when she grabbed his lapel to pull him closer and ask what was happening. But the party continued.

Debbie had seen a guest removed from the party by Secret Service earlier that evening, so when she was approached by an agent, she was alarmed.

"Shane was nowhere to be found. This man tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Are you Debbie Tableriou?'" says Debbie, who initially tried to decline when the man said she needed to come with him. "He reached into his breast pocket and I was like, 'I'm going to jail. I don't know what's going on.'"

The agent handed Debbie a letter Shane had written for her to read as she was escorted to the South Lawn. Shane wrote that he loved her and that he had prayed each day that they would always be together. He told her he was going to ask her a question and he hoped her answer would make them both happy.

"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever read in my life," she says.

Shane walked out to meet her, dropping to one knee to propose.

Suddenly there were several other people on the lawn, and the Secret Service was telling them the alarm -- turned off briefly for their private moment -- needed to be turned back on, and there was President Clinton.

"Our friends scooped us up and pushed us to the front so Shane could share with the president what he had just done and tell him thanks for letting him borrow the lawn," Debbie says.

They were married March 30, 1996, in the Arkansas Capitol rotunda.

They missed all the food at their reception, so afterward they got pizza from Iriana's and went to their room at the Excelsior Hotel.

The following Monday, Shane walked back into the space where he had married Debbie and filed to run for state representative. Then they flew to Washington to pack up Debbie's apartment and drive a U-Haul back to their new apartment in Bryant. Later that year, they bought a house together.

"We have advised people not to get married, file for office and buy a house in the same year," says Shane.

But Debbie concedes, "It was all worth it."

If you have an interesting how-we-met story or if you know someone who does, please call (501) 425-7228 or email:

kdishongh@adgnewsroom.com

More News

None

The first time I saw my future spouse:

She says: “I saw a good man.”

He says: “I knew she was out of my league.”

On our wedding day:

She says: “I remember seeing him standing there when my grandfather from Chicago and my brothers walked me down the steps.”

He says: “I remember watching her descend from the steps of the Senate, which I would later become a member of. That was when I knew this was real, that it was really happening.”

My advice for a long happy marriage:

She says: “Always respect your spouse. And listen — hear their words.”

He says: “Have patience and understanding and work through issues.”

 


Upcoming Events