RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE: His manner of dress didn’t faze her at first meeting

Mauri Thomas and Lee Douglass (left) were married on June 8, 1973, at Pulaski Heights Methodist Church, with a reception that followed at Trapnall Hall. They will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year in the same place — Trapnall Hall. “We’re excited about it,” Mauri says. “We think it will be a lot of fun.” The Douglasses, posing at right, say they have found humor throughout their marriage and still enjoy laughing together. “We send each other text messages during the day, and when something funny happens I can’t wait to tell him about it,” Mauri says. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Mauri Thomas and Lee Douglass (left) were married on June 8, 1973, at Pulaski Heights Methodist Church, with a reception that followed at Trapnall Hall. They will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year in the same place — Trapnall Hall. “We’re excited about it,” Mauri says. “We think it will be a lot of fun.” The Douglasses, posing at right, say they have found humor throughout their marriage and still enjoy laughing together. “We send each other text messages during the day, and when something funny happens I can’t wait to tell him about it,” Mauri says. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)


Lee Douglass was dressed in a poufy shirt, knee-length pants, long black socks and black shoes when Mauri Thomas first saw him -- definitely not customary college student attire.

"He said, 'I don't usually dress this way,'" says Mauri, who was a sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in October 1971.

Mauri might have found his outfit odd, but he was there to see the friend she was spending the night with so she kept her thoughts to herself and scurried off to bed.

It was late in the evening and Lee had just gotten off work, waiting tables at Steak and Ale on Cantrell Road in Little Rock.

"It was a themed restaurant, supposedly like an English pub," Lee explains.

And while Mauri's goal was to not interrupt Lee's "date" with her friend, she learned later that there wasn't actually a date at all. They were just friends.

A few months later, Mauri was at a party her sorority, Chi Omega, hosted with the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

"Someone handed me a beer and I did not drink beer," she says. "I guess I was looking for someplace to put it. I saw Lee -- I had barely met him -- and I sat down next to him and I spilled the beer on him."

Mauri was embarrassed.

"He made me feel better about it, I know that," she says. "He just laughed about it."

She was dating someone then, but they broke up soon after.

"A mutual friend of ours called me and asked me if I knew who she could set Mauri up with," says Lee, also a sophomore at UALR. "I said, 'Well, how about me?' I volunteered rather quick. I kind of zeroed in because she was really cute."

They double-dated to a Red and White game at War Memorial on April 22, 1972.

Mauri had broken up with her boyfriend by then, but he was persistent and she went out with him a few times while also dating Lee.

"It didn't take long to realize that Lee was the better man," Mauri says. She ended that relationship and became exclusive with Lee.

The summer after they started dating, Mauri went with her family to visit her aunt in California.

"Lee called me in California, and my whole family was so impressed that 'that boy really likes you,'" she says.

Her grandmother lived with their family and upon meeting Lee, she declared, "'That boy is built like a movie star," Mauri says.

By October that year, they were engaged.

"We were at the State Fair with another couple," Mauri says. "We just kind of looked at each other and started talking about getting married."

They were wed on June 8, 1973, at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock. Their reception was at Trapnall Hall.

They had just completed junior year when they married.

In 1976, they moved to Fayetteville, where Lee went to law school and Mauri taught in the Springdale public schools. A few years later they returned to Little Rock, and Lee became a deputy prosecutor in the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office. Mauri started teaching then in North Little Rock schools. Lee later moved to the Arkansas Insurance Department as chief legal counsel and then deputy commissioner. In December 1990 he was appointed insurance commissioner by then Gov. Bill Clinton. He retired in 2017 as vice president of law and governmental relations and chief legal counsel at Blue Cross Blue Shield. Mauri retired in 2010 from the North Little Rock School District's Quest program.

They have three children -- Keri, Jay and Sam. They have one grandson.

After they began dating and as they got to know each other Lee discovered that she graduated from Little Rock's Hall High School where she was on the drill team. Lee played football at Hall's rival, Little Rock Central High.

"He's the left-handed logical thinker lawyer. I'm the right-handed creative one who likes to write and create art and my career as a teacher of gifted children was perfect for me. He's tall. I'm short. He's quiet. I'm talkative," Mauri says. "I think that is one reason we fit together so well."

They have discovered, of course, many things they have in common as well.

They love to travel, even though their last big trip was two weeks in Italy shortly before the pandemic began.

"We had a wonderful time, and we have a few more places that we want to go. We both love art and we always go to art museums when we travel," Mauri says.

They are both avid readers and they share a love of animals, and they spend a good deal of time dealing with their four dogs, each of which has a special need or illness.

"We love taking care of them," she says. "It is hard now to travel but that's OK."

Mauri and Lee learned in passing one other common factor between them.

"Lee and I discovered at some point that we have the same pin number in our respective Greek chapters," Mauri says. "We think we were destined to be together."

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


The first time I saw my future spouse:

She says: "He had on the Steak and Ale uniform. I thought he was really tall and pretty cute but he was there to see my friend so I just kind of disappeared."

He says: "I wasnt paying a whole lot of attention because Mauri didnt hang around very long."

On our wedding day:

She says: "It was the most gorgeous day. There was not a cloud in the sky. I remember thinking this will be a good omen for us."

He says: "I was really nervous. I could tell the minister who married us was trying to lighten the mood by telling somewhat off-color jokes, which I thought was kind of funny."

My advice for a long happy marriage:

She says: "Just laugh a lot. We laugh together a lot."

He says: "When I make a mistake I laugh at myself and we laugh together about stuff like that."

 



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