Three-Day Courtship Leads to a Lasting Marriage


A blind date and a short courtship led to a marriage that has lasted more than half a century


Time now for StoryCorps, this project is recording Americans talking about their lives. Today, a story that begins 57 years ago in Indianapolis. Frank Newby was working at a gas station while attending college. Gayle Burton was going to nursing school. They met on a triple blind date.

I spent all the afternoon of the date sunbathing. I was red as a beet. My hair was a mess and I really didn’t wanna go. And as we were walking down the stairs I saw the three guys sitting there and I said to my friend “look at the hick with no tie, I'll bet I get stuck with him.” And I did. We went out. And I knew he didn’t have any money. They wanted to stop for a hamburger and a Coke and, and he just frankly told me “I can’t afford it. ” Somehow or other that seemed honest to me. I said let’s just sit in the car and talk. And talk we did. Talked ourselves right into love and marriage. And then I called him. And we deicided maybe we wanna to see each other again, but friends from Chicago had come in and they took me out to lunch. So I stood him up.

I waited longer for her that day than I have ever waited for anybody in my life. I don’t think I really was mad, I was disgusted and I just wrote this girl off. And so I went back to work, worked Monday night, worked Tuesday night, in Wednesday evening the manager said, ''Frank you've got a telephone call.'' And in her little girl’s voice, She started explaining to me. And the sucker that I was, I accepted the apology. And on Friday, I took her out to the farm to meet my mother and dad. And I told Dad Saturday, ''If you can find us a minister, we are gonna get marry tomorrow.'' And on the honeymoon, we got halfway to Lake Shafer and I discovered that I only had $20.

So we honeymooned on $20 and it was fun.

I found a motel for $3 a night. We discovered a beer garden where you get a hamburger and a bottle of beer for, I think 75 cents. So we lived 3 days and 3 nights.

On hamburger, beer and love. And I’ve never once regretted. A 3-day courtship.

Gayle and Frank Newby at StoryCorps in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They have been married 57 years. Their conversation and all StoryCorps interviews are archived at the Library of Congress. Subscribe to the project’s podcast at npr.org.

Support for StoryCorps comes form AT&T, with additional funding from the Corperation for Public Broadcasting.