Carolyn and Ken Wills

The first time freshman Carolyn Phillips, a Central High grad, saw freshman Kenny Wills, a Greenwood grad, in Mareta Williams’ English class in 1956, her heart flipped.

However, she was dating someone else and thought it would pass — until she caught herself doing something odd. “I started hiding (my boyfriend’s class ring) in the palm of my hand when Kenny would walk by. I just had a little talk with myself and I said this is not right.”

She and her boyfriend soon decided to break up amicably — so amicably, in fact, he is still friends with the Willses today.

“There was no question about what move I was going to make next,” Carolyn said. She invited Ken to an Alpha Delta Pi sorority dance in February 1957.

Couple became serious quickly

“It was fun to be around her. I felt very comfortable with her,” Ken said.

Many dates took place in McDonald Arena, since Ken was a basketball player his first year and a statistician the next three. They also went to football games, movies and Greek events — Ken is one of the founders of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Missouri State.

She watched him play tennis (he was a doubles champion), and he watched her play bass with the city’s symphony. They went to sock hops in the Bears Den and occasionally ate at the College Inn or with Carolyn’s family in their house just blocks from campus.

But the big romantic moments came at dances in the former Student Center.

“There was a big hallway with double doors and you could walk out on a balcony,” Carolyn said. “That warm spring air just wafted across.”

They were pinned in August 1957, announced their engagement Christmas Eve 1958 and were married June 12, 1959.

Careers followed college

Ken was in U.S. Navy Reserve Officer Candidate School, so each summer during college he would travel to Newport, R.I., for training. Carolyn stayed in Springfield, taking summer classes. She graduated in August 1959.

“I got a job at Eugene Field elementary,” Carolyn said. “I was the very first second-grade teacher there.”

Ken finished his degree then waited for his Navy orders — which came July 4, 1960, the same day he won a city tennis tournament. Within two weeks, the couple reported to Rhode Island. Weeks after that, Ken was on a destroyer as a communications officer.

Carolyn took a job teaching, until: “Ken called me one morning from Denmark and said, ‘Do you mind if we move to Washington, D.C.?’”

Ken, laughing, said: “She couldn’t mind it too much, because the Navy was going to send me there either way!”

After the move, they had three children in three years and Carolyn became a stay-at-home mom.

Both feel a calling to seminary

Ken was discharged as a lieutenant in 1966. He had a series of jobs in the D.C. area, including one at the Department of Defense. They then moved to New Jersey, where Ken ran a New York office for a research and development company and was involved with NASA.

Kansas City was their next move, and Ken earned an MBA and worked for several companies.

Carolyn was a substitute teacher seeking a master’s in special education. But “one day, it was as though God said, ‘This is not what I want you to do. I want you to go to seminary.’ I waited a whole year because I was sure God did not know what he was talking about! … But finally, one day, Ken was out mowing the yard. I went out and I made him turn off the mower. I said: ‘I need to go to seminary.’ And he said: ‘I know.’”

Ken would later feel a calling of his own: He left a job in the late 1980s to form the nonprofit Happening Ecumenical, a peer ministry for teens, after seeing the profound change a similar program made in his own family. He later decided to complete seminary as well.

Carolyn and Ken were each appointed to minister at United Methodist churches around Kansas, but they are now retired in Estes Park, Colo. — although both still perform weddings and fill in for other ministers when needed.

Retired, but busy as ever

Now, they spend their time reading and hiking (they live just a block from Rocky Mountain National Park). Ken still plays tennis and likes to fly-fish. Carolyn plays the harp and likes genealogy — she’s tracked family roots back to 832. They love to travel, especially to Europe. Carolyn’s family hosted exchange students in the 1950s, and the couple are enjoying reunions made possible by the Internet.

“There was no question about what move I was going to make next.”

They often come back to Springfield for MSU or Greenwood events since they have so many ties to campus — in fact, Ken’s mother was also an alumna.

They are both glad they heeded their instincts about each other decades ago.

“I just thought he was amazing. I never looked back,” Carolyn said. “I wasn’t going to let him get away.”

“Well,” Ken said, “I wasn’t going to let her get away either!”

Carrie and Ron Sharp

For Ron Sharp, it was not exactly love at first sight.

“I thought, how ridiculous and typical — these stupid little freshmen!” he said, still laughing decades later.

He is talking about Carrie and Cathie Arnold, twins who made a faux pas at the start of the 1963 school year.

Carrie and Cathie were fresh off a summer teaching at cheerleading camps and wanted to check out their college squad (which both of them would eventually join).

“One of the first campus activities was a maroon-and-white intersquad football game,” Carrie said. It was August, it was hot… and after the first half, the twins got an idea.

“We saw a drinking fountain on the field. That should have been our first clue it wasn’t for the public. But, being freshmen, we said, ‘Let’s go!’ The very moment we were getting a drink, the team came charging back onto the field! Ron said he looked over to see two pony-tailed girls drinking out of the team fountain. It was the first time I ever laid eyes on him. He was the star halfback and very good-looking.”

‘I got more and more interested in this young lady’

Around Homecoming, their paths crossed again. Sam Claxton, a teammate of Ron’s, was dating Cathie. He asked his buddy to take her sister to the dance.

Ron, a senior, drug his feet — he was seeing someone else.

Finally, he told Sam to set it up. “He probably rues that day,” Carrie said with a laugh, “but we’re together now more than 40 years later!”

That’s despite another tiny little gaffe.

“I decided to be appropriate and meet her a little before Homecoming,” he said. “We went out, and she promptly spilled her Coke in my car!”

But the couple, who both describe themselves as gregarious extroverts, were able to see each other’s personalities in those moments.

“She was a lot of fun, and she was a very pretty young thing — I would be amiss if I didn’t say that,” Ron said. “I had a number of other dates while dating her. But over time, I got more and more interested in this young lady. She just made me laugh.”

A proposal at The Shady Inn

When they were dating, they went to events hosted by S Club (athletic lettermen’s group), Kappa Alpha fraternity and Alpha Delta Pi sorority. They hung out at the Sycamore Inn, College Inn, Student Union and Steak ‘n Shake. Carrie got the campus honor of being named Miss Cranberry Sauce one year: “I got to dance with a guy dressed as a turkey.”

By winter break, Ron decided to break off dates with anyone except Carrie.

“I had to work hard to be his shining star,” she said.

Ron agreed: “She was hell bent for leather. Her father told me after we were married, ‘She came home that first Christmas and was talking about you. You didn’t have a chance.’”

Ron gave Carrie his lavalier before summer break 1964, signaling he was serious about her.

“She was a lot of fun, and she was a very pretty young thing…”

In spring 1965, Ron, who was in ROTC, knew military orders would be coming shortly after his graduation. One night, he took Carrie to Springfield institution The Shady Inn. With him was an engagement ring his parents had helped him choose.

“He said: ‘I am leaving to go to my assignment; I want you to go with me,’” Carrie said. “I didn’t think ‘I need to finish college or stay with my sister’ … I just said yes before he even had the question done, practically! But he’ll tell the story differently!”

In one of the couple’s long-running jokes, “I always tell everybody she proposed to me,” Ron said.

Military, civilian careers follow college

They married Sept. 26, 1965, and moved to Texas. Ron was a lieutenant in the Army and Carrie was a substitute teacher on base.

After Ron was discharged, the couple moved back to Springfield and Carrie finished her degree.

Ron, who had worked for the local Sears store throughout college, was asked to be part of the company’s leadership-training program. After his Army service, he re-entered the program. That led to a 38-year-long career as an executive at Sears stores around the country.

Carrie worked as a teacher and as a stay-at-home mom to their two children (who are now both doctors).

Retirement lets them explore adventurous streak

The couple retired in Colorado, and both of their adult children have made homes there as well.

Carrie and Ron both like golf and live in a community with a course (“I am basically a fanatic,” said Ron, who plays at least three times a week).

Carrie plays tennis in national leagues for seniors, and has won state and regional competitions.

They’re also both involved in their church.

And they admit having an adventurous streak — they have traveled extensively and want to do more (Alaska and Italy are up next).

“My wife just helped me cross something else off my bucket list: She bought me a skydive trip last year,” Ron said. “It was one of greatest thrills I’ve ever had.”

MSU spirit alive, well in Colorado

The Sharps also continue to support Missouri State. Ron, who was part of the undefeated 1963 regular-season football team that played for a national championship in the Mineral Water Bowl, has been a part of team reunions.

The couple also goes to University alumni events with neighbors Dan (‘67) and Carol Johnson.

“We went to orientation in our neighborhood, and they said they were from Springfield,” Carrie said. “I said, ‘Ron is from Springfield.’ They said, ‘Where did you go to college?’ I said, ‘MSU.’ They said: ‘Oh my gosh, you’re one of the Arnold twins!’ So now we go to Denver-area alumni things together. We put on our Missouri State garb. We love it!”

Lisa and Joe Lochner

Fitness brought Joe and Lisa Lochner together — and remains a huge part of their lives.

The two first locked eyes in the late 1980s during PED 100, the Fitness for Living class all students take. The professor had girls sit on one side of the class and guys on the other.

“We would look across the room at each other when something funny happened, and I could just tell we had the same thought process — before we even talked we were on the same wavelength,” Joe said. (Turns out he was right: The two were even born on the exact same day in the same year.)

A first date on campus

When an assignment was given that required a partner, Joe approached Lisa Rodgers.

“We played racquetball at Hammons,” she said.

“It was a hopeful beginning,” Joe said, which led to weeks of getting to know each other.

Or so Joe thought.

“We were having Chinese food for a picnic in the park. I put a note in a fortune cookie.”

“Even before that,” Lisa said, “I did my own checking up on him. He played baseball, and I lived with some girls near Meador Park where he played. I was a big sports fan and we would go watch him pitch. I asked around to find out what he was all about. There was a girl in my sorority who was friends with him. She knew he was from the Chicago area and came from a family of 10 … she knew enough to pique my interest.”

They became serious shortly after meeting, around October of their sophomore year.

Their dates were “pretty competitive,” they both said: “We ran a lot,” Lisa said, since Joe needed to train for baseball. They could often be found at McDonald Arena or Hammons Student Center. They also hung out at events put on by Lisa’s sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. When they ventured off campus, they had dates at Olive Garden or McSalty’s Pizza Cafe, or went to area lakes.

Proposal in the park

After college, they both moved to Chicago. He was working for parks departments; she was working in human resources for Hyatt hotels.

She had just been transferred to Colorado when he popped the question.

“We were having Chinese food for a picnic in the park. I put a note in a fortune cookie,” Joe said.

Lisa was completely surprised (but pleased) by the proposal: She had already accepted the out-of-state job, so they were apart for almost two years until Lisa was transferred back to Chicago.

“That was a test, for sure,” Lisa said. If so, they passed: They were married in April 1992.

Moving back to Missouri

In 1994, a business in Lisa’s family — Wallis Oil Company — gave the couple a chance to move back to her hometown. Joe worked for Wallis in several capacities until he had the chance to buy his own Mobil station in Union, Mo., where he does everything from manage nine employees to stock shelves.

“My favorite is waiting on the customers. … If they’re local, I know them.”

Lisa took a job at Missouri Baptist Hospital, where she has worked ever since and is now in administration; about 10 departments report to her.

Cheering for their children

Outside of work, they stay busy with —you guessed it — sports. All three of their children are involved in teams: football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading.

“We go from game to game to game to game to game to game!” Joe said.

But that’s not a problem: “I would rather be on a bleacher watching my kids play than doing just about anything else,” Lisa said.

They also golf. Every October, Joe comes to Springfield for a golf outing for Missouri State baseball alumni. “I play with four guys from my former team. We catch up on each others’ lives.”

‘I love Lisa and Missouri State’

Speaking of Missouri State graduates, it was Lisa’s co-worker Maggie (Mason) Head — an alumna from the class of ’03 — who urged the Lochners to tell their love story. But as soon as Lisa sent us her email, she had a slight moment of regret: “What have I done?!”

That’s because Joe and Lisa are fairly reserved — they don’t do Facebook or otherwise tell their business to the world. In college, they even had a conversation about how Joe just didn’t like to hold hands on campus.

“You won’t run across anyone more private than me,” Joe said. But he explains why he agreed to put his affection on public display: “I love Lisa and Missouri State.”

LaShawn and Mark Walker

Mark Walker didn’t pursue LaShawn Long aggressively, though he was captivated the first time he saw her.

“He was staring at me and I thought, oh, he’s kind of cute.”

It was before the start of fall classes, and freshman LaShawn was among a group of new students socializing on the tennis courts when Mark, a sophomore football player, joined the gathering.

“I saw her and said, hmm, she’s looking pretty good!” he said, laughing and glancing at her slyly all these years later.

LaShawn noticed him too: “He was staring at me and I thought, oh, he’s kind of cute.”

Though the whole group was talking, the two of them spoke just a bit more to each other. Mark started a strategy he would use until they got together.

“He said if I ever needed him to show me around campus, then he would be there to help me out,” LaShawn said.

‘She played hard to get’

Mark continued to see her — they would run into each other around meal times or between classes.

“She played hard to get,” he said, and he didn’t ask her out. Instead, “I would ease my way over to her. I always put a few words in her ear about ‘if she needs help’… that’s what my whole thing was, to try to be more friendly than come on to her.”

It worked. “He was just so sweet,” LaShawn said. It didn’t hurt that he was a cute outside linebacker — “I’m just being honest!” she said with a laugh.

Love struck them both quickly

That autumn, the two friends decided to go on an official date. They dressed to the nines and headed to (drum roll, please): Bass Pro.

“I came up with Bass Pro!” Mark said. “You see, I’m from Oklahoma where we’re used to fishing.” LaShawn, a city girl, had never been to the outdoors store.

Mark’s friendly strategy worked — they were a solid couple from that first date.

Their bond intensified during winter break when they were both home with their families. LaShawn was faced with a medical issue that turned out fine, but it made them realize how much they mattered to each other.

“I thought I was not going to be able to come back to school,” she said. “I told him, you need to move on. But he was like, no. I thought, oh my goodness — he does really care about me.”

Over a long-distance line, Mark told her he loved her for the first time.

LaShawn got good news and was able to come back to Springfield. They became a typical college couple, going to parties with friends, hanging out in the union and shopping at the bookstore. One of their special places was Blair-Shannon, where she lived for three years: Their first kiss was on the steps.

After college, a wedding and a move

Mark proposed when he was a senior and she was a junior, which took her completely by surprise. “He had a ring and I was like (blustering) how did — how did you — you can’t afford this! But he had saved up the whole summer when he was working part time.”

And “at first she was like, aren’t we too young?!” Mark said. But she was also excited and said yes right away.

They both agreed to graduate before the wedding. Mark finished school in spring 1992 and moved to Oklahoma for a job. LaShawn graduated that winter.

They married June 12, 1993, in Kansas City. She was planning to go to Oklahoma to be with him, but got a great job offer. He decided to come to her instead, and they have lived in the area ever since.

Mark works in the printing industry at Fine Line Graphics, a company that does prepress work — including tasks related to making cookie bags for Keebler.

LaShawn has a career in sales and has worked for banking and pharmaceutical companies. She now works as a national sales manager for the commercial division of satellite company Dish Network.

Son discovered as a basketball phenomenon

The Walkers both dote on son Mark Jr., who displayed his dad’s talent for sports pretty much from the time he was born. He was featured in a Reebok commercial when he was 3, shooting hoops in their garage — he made 18 in a row. That exposure led to television appearances on talk shows around the nation; the family even flew to Japan to do a show about talented kids. “It was amazing; we couldn’t believe it,” LaShawn said.

Family is the focus for both

Now that the excitement has died down, Mark Jr. is focused on school. He is an honor roll student who still loves basketball but has branched out to baseball.

The family likes to travel (Mark takes fishing trips back to Oklahoma), watch sports and be outdoors.

Mark and LaShawn will be married 19 years this June.

LaShawn’s goal for their future: “To continue to support each other, to live a long life together and continue to carry out our purpose.”

Becky and Ben Gabriel

For Becky and Ben, love really was blind — a blind date, that is.

Becky Wilkerson had gone out on a “kind-of date” with Ben’s friend Brian Hofmeister, and the whole night he kept telling her: “You should date my friend, Ben. You should really go out with Ben. You and my friend Ben have so much in common.”

Another friend thought so as well: Ben’s roommate, Greg Hronick, set them up for Becky’s Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority dance in 2000.

“They set up two couples that night, and the other couple they set up is also married now,” Ben said.

They ‘hit it off really well, pretty quick’

The couple originally found common ground based on pop culture.

“I think the first thing we talked about was probably Aerosmith or ‘Animal House,’” Becky said.

“It was probably ‘Animal House’ because we had the poster,” Ben said.

Their friends were right — they “hit it off really well, pretty quick,” Becky said. “We haven’t been apart for more than a few days since that first day.”

During college they went out to eat, to parks, to movies and to events with Theta Chi fraternity and Alpha Sig sorority. They also have special memories of meeting up in the vending-machine area in Glass Hall and at restaurants in Plaster Student Union.

A proposal at Homecoming

When Ben graduated, he moved to Kansas City for work and began planning the next phase in their relationship.

“It was the week of Homecoming 2002,” Becky said. “When they paired sororities with fraternities, mine was paired with Theta Chi. That week, you do things with the fraternity every night.”

On Wednesday, the men were coming to serenade the women.

“I think the first thing we talked about was Aerosmith or ‘Animal House.’”

“I had worked pretty hard to make you think I was in Kansas City and I wasn’t going to be able to come down,” Ben said to Becky.

But the fraternity members asked Becky to sit at the bottom of the stairs at the Alpha Sig house.

“They were singing ‘Dream Girl of Theta Chi,’ and as they’re singing, one of his friends handed me a dozen roses.”

Ben snuck in from behind — with an engagement ring.

Continuing the MSU vibe, they took engagement photos at the fountain at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

A wedding, a move away — and a move back

They were married Sept. 13, 2003, at the Madrid Theatre in Kansas City, a renovated venue with a history that appealed to the two fans of “The Godfather” movies.

“It was built during Prohibition,” Ben said, adding Al Capone was rumored to be a patron. “In the back room, where some of us got ready, there were bullet holes.”

“There’s a big stage,” Becky said, “and we got married on stage and had our reception there.”

After the wedding they moved to Minneapolis for work, then back to Springfield.

Now they both work at Jack Henry, providing technical support for banks.

Homecoming still important to them

Outside of work, they go to movies and concerts when they can get baby-sitters (“Last summer we went to see Poison and Mötley Crüe. It. Was. Awesome,” Becky said.) Ben also follows the Minnesota Vikings.

But their main focus is their young family — Becky uses her textiles background to sew children’s clothing and diaper bags under the name LulaBug Designs on Facebook.

Many of their Missouri State friends have entered the same phase as they start their own families.

“Homecoming is a big time of year for us because we have a ton of friends who come back to town,” Becky said. “When everyone first started coming back, it was like, yes, party weekend! And now everybody has kids, so we all meet at the parade and everybody’s got strollers.”

Their daughter Gracie starts school this fall, and the Gabriels will have another reason to love campus. “We’ve signed her up for Greenwood,” Becky said. They found out in March she was accepted to the laboratory school.

It’s also likely they’ll be hosting Homecoming guests for a while. They hope to buy a house near campus or build one in an outlying town.

Also in the future plans: “I’d like to retire wealthy and young,” Ben said.

Becky’s response is typical for this light-hearted couple always ribbing each another: “Oh, geez.”