A Dress, a Tie, and a Ring

By Julian R. Hanley

There are still fairy tales for grandfathers to tell, but this one is true. It began with a meeting across a crowded room which led to sixty-four years of marriage and a lifetime of love and affection. Like all fairy tales, this one has a scary part with an ogre of sorts, but it is a true romance with a happy ending.

So, once upon a time there was a dress, a tie, and a ring, symbols of a love that had no end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490826639

Julian R. Hanley

For many years I was a country lawyer practicing in Wyoming County, New York. First, I became a county prosecutor and later a Wyoming County judge. I am a published writer having authored and co-authored several textbooks on criminal justice and evidence. On retirement to Florida in 1976, I served for several years as pro bono attorney in the Public Defender's office, receiving an award for this from the Florida Supreme Court. At the age of ninety I continued my career as a writer doing biographies and American history. Now, at the age of one hundred and a widower after a sixty-four year marriage, I live with my daughter in Naples, Florida. I am blessed with three children, multitudes of grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2014 Julian R. Hanley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover Art by Emilie Walker

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2662-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2663-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903023

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/14/2014

Contents

Across a Crowded Room

The Early Years

The War Years

Post War Years

Resurrection House

A Diamond Is a Girl’s Best Friend

And Then There Were Three

DSKLM

Vive La France

Sunshine Years

Epilogue

Acknowledgment

This story would never have been written without the urging of the family. The children all had a part in its composition. Suggestions, memories, the actual typing of the manuscript, its molding into book form, all came about with the family’s help. Each one had his part and to each I give my loving thanks.

J. R. H.

Readers Say…

A beautiful piece of work. Straight from your heart.

Felix Smith, author of China Pilot; New Berlin, Wisconsin

What a precious and endearing love story to share with those blessed in reading it.

Becky Jarrell, social worker; Naples, Florida

It was a pleasure to read, although my reading was interrupted by tears of sadness. There are so many parallels in our two marriages.

William Beranek, Professor Emeritus of Financial Economics, University of Georgia

I don’t know what it is about your books. When I pick one up to start reading it, I continue to the end. What a moving and unusual account of devotion embedded in spirituality.

Emilie Walker, artist; Naples, Florida

Best book I ever read.

Betty VanArsdale, airline owner retiree; Naples, Florida

Some enchanted evening; you may see a stranger,

You may see a stranger across a crowded room,

And somehow you know, you know even then,

That somehow you’ll see her again and again.¹

CHAPTER I

Across a Crowded Room

It was 1933. I was 20 years old. The Depression of the thirties was still with us. These were hard times. Money was scarce and there was wide unemployment. I had just finished two years of pre-law at Colgate University and had entered Albany Law School.

The school had no dormitories but supplied incoming students with a list of available rooming houses. I found a room two blocks from school in which two other freshmen lived. Fred Scofield was one of them. Freddy was an outgoing, social type who soon found his way around the city. He became acquainted with the girls in a sorority at Albany State College across town from law school. I had a girl back home that I was engaged to and I was not interested in meeting others. I was quite contented with my personal life and the way I was living at school.

Came mid-winter college party time and Fred was dating a girl in this sorority at the teachers college. He wanted me to go to the next sorority formal dance, but I refused saying, You want me to go stag? I don’t know anybody there and besides, I never went stag to a dance in my life. Count me out, but Fred kept insisting. He knew I had my brother’s tuxedo and I could borrow a white shirt and a black tie from Dad, so Come on and go. Don’t be a stick-in-the-mud was his challenge. For some reason that I did not then understand, I finally gave in and said I would go. I would be a sideline stag. I had no idea why I did this because it was completely out of character for me, but strangely, I went anyway.

At the dance I stood on the sideline watching the other couples dance by. Suddenly, I saw the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life. She was dressed in an off-the-shoulder ball gown with a blue ruffled top and a long, flowing gold skirt that outlined her femininity. She was smiling up at her dance partner and simply radiated charming warmth. I was dumbfounded. Her beauty and charm overwhelmed