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ALBANY HIGH SCHOOL Genevieve Stunkard, Features Editor 5 FEATURE Kylea Gardner, Assistant Editor February 12, 2016 Teachers share personal love stories be around,” Jennie said. “Also, his family Staff speaks about went to Colorado every year, and I got to go with them after we started dating, so proposals, wedding that was always fun.” Bailey says that throughout her mar- stories riage, no problem has ever been too hard to overcome. BY GENEVIEVE STUNKARD “We promised each other from the start Features Editor that divorce would never be a part of our vocabularies,” Bailey said. However, Jennie explains that her “It was a balmy evening in South Flor- marriage has not always been “sunshine ida,” Andre Raymond said. “As a group and roses.” of juene fi lle emerged from the freshman “I guess the most diffi cult time in our dorm, Roxanne caught my eye; her fl axen marriage was when I was sick with breast hair moved softly as a gentle zephyr moved cancer,” Jennie said. “But we stuck it out. eff ortlessly through her dusky tresses. My We’re committed to each other, and when is- heart fl uttered and my knees weakened; sues arise we always work to resolve them.” her beauty had entranced me, and it was Bailey describes how her husband pro- love at fi rst sight.” posed to her. He laughs and then explains that, “My favorite fl ower was (and still is) because life isn’t a romance novel, most daisies, so on my birthday one year, I walked relationships, including his own, don’t into his apartment and there were yellow really start out this way. and white daisies everywhere,” Jennie said. Raymond, who has been married to his “There must have been hundreds of them. wife Roxanne for almost 29 years, says the As I was taking it all in, he bent down on reality of their relationship is like a part- one knee, pulled out a ring, and asked me nership of the soul. to marry him.” “Roxanne and I started out as really good Science teacher Andre Raymond and The pair married on August 3, 1985. friends, actually,” Andre said. “We both wife Roxanne (above) pose for a photo- “We had a traditional church wedding, went to Palm Beach Atlantic University in graph during their summer vacation in as most people did at the time,” Jennie said. Florida, and we just hung around together Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The couple “Our wedding was covered in yellow and on campus. I eventually asked her out, and frequently visits MA and own a cot- white daisies, too. The daisies looked kind she was nice enough to go on a date with tage in Connecticut. The newlywed of unpleasant paired with the deep red me, but it didn’t last very long.” Mr. and Mrs. Raymond (right) smile velvet carpet and tapestries in the church, Andre planned on taking Roxanne on a in a picture taken at their wedding. but oh well.” movie date, but on the way there, she said The couple wed when Roxanne Mathematics teacher Rick Davis and his she had a headache and wanted to go home. was 21 and Andre was 22, and wife, DeVona, have been married equally “Then, a year later, the tables turned, have spent just around 29 years as long as the Baileys. However, their story and she asked me out,” Andre said. “She of marriage together. The two is quite diff erent. invited me to accompany her to a banquet also have two children, Emily “We met at church when we were both she had been invited to, and while we were and Sam. PHOTOS PROVIDED. kids,” Rick said. “She was in sixth grade there, we laughed and laughed and got when she moved to town, and we lived in along amazingly.” New Mexico at the time. I began to really After that, Andre and Roxanne started notice her when she was a freshman in high spending more and more time together. school. I just thought she was the cutest, “It got to the point where we were doing sweetest, most ladylike girl I’d ever met: almost everything with each other exclu- prim and proper, and I’ve always loved sively,” Andre said. “She became my best her smile.” friend over time.” Rick asked DeVona to be his girlfriend One night, when the couple was on the right before his senior year of high school. phone while states apart during summer She was only 15 at the time. break, they realized they had more in “She wasn’t allowed to go on dates yet, common than they had originally thought. so I had to wait a year before I could take “She asked me what I was planning to her out,” Rick said. “So I went to her house do after college, and I replied, ‘I really think to watch TV with her and her family from I’m going to go into camp work,” Andre time to time.” said. “And she said, ‘me, too!’” After DeVona turned 16, she and Rick Then, silence. went on typical movie dates and participat- “I think that’s when we knew we were ed in many church youth group activities going to marry each other,” he said. together. Unfortunately, Rick soon moved Andre remembers well the anxiety he from New Mexico to Texas, but the pair still felt in deciding how to ask for Roxanne’s managed to maintain their relationship. hand in marriage. “Even before I moved, we talked about “I was scared to death to ask her to getting married, so that she could come marry me,” Andre said. “I couldn’t put down and join me here,” Rick said. “Once, off asking forever, but I had to think: what my parents brought her with them from was I risking? I could lose my best friend.” New Mexico to come see me, and one day, Roxanne noticed that he was acting during her visit, we went shopping, and we diff erently, so she asked him what was bought a ring together. We set the date to wrong. get married, and that night I proposed to “I explained everything I had been feel- her under the stars. I was pretty confi dent ing to her,” Andre said. “Afterwards, she she was going to say yes, since, you know, kind of just sat there, and I was so worried we had planned everything out, and I had as to what she was thinking when she said, Rick Davis and wife DeVona bought the ring with her.” ‘Well, you only told me you were thinking (above) are photographed at Davis chose a romantic setting to offi cial- about asking me to marry you. If you’re their daughter’s wedding. The ly ask the all-important question. waiting for a response, you haven’t really two (left) also stand closely “I proposed to her out in the country, asked me yet.” for a snapshot taken at a standing by a pond, in the moonlight,” Rick Realizing his mistake, he popped the Valentine’s dance. The cou- said. “In response, I guess she just kind of question, and she accepted. ple found one another at a rolled her eyes, said yes, and made me stand “And that was that,” Andre said. “There young age, but have grown back up. She had just turned 17, and was was no skywriting or anything. I had in love for 33 years. almost 18 when we got married.” planned to ask her in a diff erent way, but PHOTOS PROVIDED During their engagement, Rick only saw it just didn’t happen.” DeVona four times before the ceremony When Andre and Roxanne married, she because they lived so far apart. was 21 years old, and he was 22. “Getting married was kind of strange, be- “We got married on August 8, 1987: cause even though we were used to talking eight, eight, eight, seven,” Andre said. to each other over the phone, we weren’t Recently, the couple purchased a cottage used to being in each other’s presence,” in Connecticut in the same area Andre’s Rick said. “We were just so young; my wife parents and grandparents lived, and they had just started college. She went before I plan on living there after they retire. did, because when we fi rst got married, I “And when I think about my grandpar- had no idea what I wanted to do. She had ents and how the two of them were able known from a young age that she wanted to grow old together in such a beautiful to be an accountant.” place, it’s wonderful,” Andre said. “Even in During the early years of their marriage, their old age, my grandparents held hands the Davises faced great fi nancial struggle. while sitting on the couch together, and “We had to go to college one at a time that’s what romance is to me: growing old because we could barely feed ourselves or hand-in-hand. I can’t imagine growing old pay the bills,” Rick said. “While she was in with anybody but Roxanne. She is my soul school, I worked manual labor, minimum mate, she’s my wife, and I love her dearly.” wage jobs. It wasn’t until after she graduated Like Andre, Family and Consumer Sci- and our fi nancial situation got a little better ence teacher Jennie Bailey, who has been that I went to college.” with her husband, Bruce, for 30 years, feels The Davises shared a small farmhouse she married her best friend. early on in their marriage. “Bruce and I grew up in the same area, “We were poor, but we had each other,” but I didn’t really know him until I was Davis said. “We didn’t starve to death, either. in high school,” Bailey said. “I was only Sometimes, we were able to scrounge up slightly aware of his existence before then. enough change to go to a nearby café, where He was two years older.” Family and Consumer we’d split a hamburger and a piece of pea- The couple began dating during her Science teacher and nut butter pie. Those are sweet memories.” junior year of high school, when he was a FCCLA Sponsor Jen- Nearby relatives took turns “adopting” freshman at Abilene Christian University. nnie Bailey and hus- the young couple. “We dated for four years, or until he band Bruce (above) “They’d just watch after us, and we went graduated college, because he had promised recreate one of their to church with them,” Davis said. “My wife himself he wouldn’t get married until he wedding photos and I were the only young people who went had a degree and a good job,” Jennie said. (right). The couple there, and I remember we played dominoes She thinks their mutual attraction came attended the same with the old people. They became our best from the fact that they shared similar life high school and friends.” views. married 308= After graduating from college, Rick “We had the same ideals as far as reli- years ago. Jennie began his fi rst teaching job, and has been gious beliefs, family, and, most importantly, explained that educating ever since. my decision to be a stay-at-home mom,” the two have “DeVona and I have been married for Jennie said. been through 33 years, and it just gets sweeter,” Rick Jennie also loved being with Bruce’s many trials, but have said. “I’m so incredibly lucky, and so, so family. remained in love through it all. blessed that she’s never given up on us, “It was similar to mine and very easy to PHOTOS PROVIDED. even after everything we’ve been through.”