And They Lived Happily Ever After!

Tuesday is Valentine's Day and love is in the air. Love has lots of definitions but some of the best and most enduring love stories exist right in my own family--Stories of love, sacrifice, and eternal devotion. Today's question for my #52 Stories Project is "Do you know the story of how your grandparents met and fell in love?" And so on this Valentine's Day I'd like to share love stories for Russell and Eyvonne Black, Mark and Nina Black, and Var and Forest Porter--my parent's and grandparents.

Russell and Eyvonne Porter Black

Here is Rusell and Eyvonne's story in Eyvonne's own words. "After I graduated from High School I went to Snow College. While there I met Joyce Peterson and we became real good friends. Joyce was from Ferron, Emery county.

I don’t remember the reason we went to BAC (Branch Agricultural College), it must have been something to do with sports because Joyce and I were walking from the BAC campus to town, when the car stopped us and asked if we wanted a ride. The car belonged to Cecil Olson, a friend of Joyce’s from High School. The passenger was Russell. Russell doesn’t remember this so I’m sure I made a great impression.

I quit Snow after two quarters and went home to work in the telephone office with two of my lifelong friends. Gloria Staples and Carla Mason. After a year at the telephone office I decided to go back to school, so went to BAC where all my high school friends had gone. 

In the dorm was a buzzer with each girl’s name so if someone wanted to talk to you they buzzed your name. I went to BAC after Christmas for the Winter quarter. Russell, Cecil, and Vic Wood decided to come over to the dorm and see if there were any new girls; so they buzzed me and I went out to see who was buzzing me and there were these three guys giving me the third degree. Needless to say I was not impressed. (according to Russell, the cutest little redhead answered the bell). Russell's side of the story is this: “She had just checked into the girl's dormitory on campus [and] was unpacking her things when a buzzer sounded. Her roommates told her that is was for her and she needed to go out to the reception room to check on it. When she got out front she found three of the local college boys pressing the call buzzer of all the new girls checking in. She was very shy but answered their inquiries which were very close to the third degree. A little over a year later she married one of these three boys, Russell Charles Black from Kanosh.”

A year later we just decided we’d get married. Russell just said “let’s go pick out a ring.” We told our parents “we are going to Las Vegas to get married.” Forrest (Grandma Porter, Eyvonne’s mother) talked us out of going to Las Vegas. She said, “oh, get married here.” So Grandma Forest put a wedding together in about 3 days and we were married in her living room. We were married in March on a blustery snow windy day. I used a formal that I already had. It was strapless so my mother’s friend made a little jacket for it—I still have the dress. My bouquet was white sweet peas. My maid-of-honor was my best friend Betty McCormack from Fillmore; Russell’s best man was Vern Wood a friend of both of ours from Cedar City. President Daniels—Stake President from Annabella performed the ceremony. It was a very small wedding—Nina and Mark, and Russell’s Grandma Pearl, and Russell’s sister Judy (she was12-13 and she cried all through it). My grandmother Arvena Nielson was also there.

They had written all over our black car “just married.” We stopped in Sevier canyon and washed it off in a snow storm then went to Las Vegas for 3 days. We had a small wedding but a big reception a week later. 

We were sealed the next year May in the Manti Temple. About 5 years after, we were spending Christmas at Mother’s, we were hanging up our stockings. I looked in mine and saw a lump of coal, so I threw it in the fireplace. Russell, Mother, and Dad all jumped toward it, “no!” Under the lump of coal was a jewelry box with a wedding band with 5 diamonds. Russell said he had always felt bad he hadn’t been able to buy a nice one the first time."

Var and Forest Nielson Porter

Var and Forest's story as told by their daughter, Eyvonne Black. "My parents, Var Niels Porter and Forrest Nielson met when my dad was driving the school bus for Richfield high school from which he graduated. He was 3 years older than Mother who went to South Sevier high school [in Monroe, Utah]. Dad [Var] drove the Richfield High school for a ball game where he met mom.

After my dad went to Susanville to work he mailed mother a ticket to Fallon, Nevada so she could come out to California and get married. They lived for a short time in a tent in Uncle Lamar’s front yard then were able to get a small house. Grandmother Nielson had never met dad because as soon as the older children [Nielson children] were able they found jobs outside their home to help Grandma [Nielson] money wise. Mother was living with a school teacher and his wife because his wife just gave birth to twins and needed some help. Their name was Melville. So Mother and Dad’s courtship took place between Melville’s and Central. Grandma Nielson wrote Dad a letter telling him how much Mother meant to her and for him to be kind to her, and take good care of her—which he always did. I never remember Father going to work without kissing Mom goodbye each morning."

Mark and Nina Warner Black

“I met him Mark about a year before I graduated from high school. He was a returned missionary. I think the first time I ever went with him we went to Homecoming. We used to have dances after all the ball games and I met him at a dance. We dated before I went to Salt Lake to school. We got married on the spur of the moment. Golden Black, Mark's cousin from Delta, Utah was teaching school in Kanosh and living with Mark’s folks. Golden went with Loa Baker. Golden and Loa decided to get married and talked us into going with them.

We eloped and got married Dec 24th in the Manti Temple. I think it probably upset my mother, but at the time I didn’t think about it.” Nina Black interview with Mary Black Olson abt 1990.