"HOW WE MET..."

How I met Donald-

In reflecting back many years ago, I recall my teenage years as being wonderful. I
have the best memories of teenage. I would love to live them all over again. There was
me, Pat McNamara, Linda Browning, Sue Browning, Judy Browning, Doris Nall, Jackie
VanOsdell, Jackie Ficklin, Linda Jones and Shirley Thomas, which were all around the same age,
and active at the lst LDS church, built in Baton Rouge, on Hiawatha Street.
From the time I was 14-17 ten of us attended many church activities and dances
together. We would all stick together at church and in High School. My parents or the
Browning girl’s parents or Brother and Sister Avery (our church leaders) would take us to
activities and dances at home and in other wards in the Stake. I have fond memories of
many dances we attended in Biloxi. There was an air base called Keesler in Biloxi,
Mississippi and the LDS church was across the street from the base. Many of my friends
dated and married LDS boys they met at Keesler. Our leaders tried to keep us dating in
the Church.
There was a dance scheduled at Gonzales Ward in the summer of 1959. Doris Nall
(Cummings) and I decided to drive down. This is where I met Donald for the first time.
They had some great music. I think Donald’s brother Patrick was helping pick the music.
We had great songs like “The Great Pretender” by the Platters, one of my favorites and
other songs like “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis. Donald asked me to dance all
night. He was a great dancer! I remember Donald’s Daddy was there and seemed to be
happy we were dancing together. He really wanted Donald to go with a girl in the
Church. I had a long ponytail and Donald had a gorgeous head of wavy hair. As we
jitterbugged, my ponytail would hit him in the face. The dance was wonderful!
It was July of 1959. Donald was 18, a graduate of Gonzales High School and
attending L.S.U. I was 17 and had just graduated from Istrouma High and would attend
L.S.U. in September. I really liked Donald. He called me and took me out. We started
dating August of 1959 and one year later August of 1960 we were married in the Salt
Lake Temple.

Barbara Kleinpeter Richardson

How I met Barbara-

Back in the late 50’s or early 60’s young people in the church did not get to mingle with young people in other wards and branches. To facilitate getting the young people together, different units would sponsor a dance and invite the other local units to join in. Church units in the area at the time were Baton Rouge, Gonzales and Pride. There were also units in Lafayette, Albany and New Orleans but these were too far away to participate…so usually it was just the three.

On this particular night Gonzales was host for the dance. A couple of girls from Baton Rouge had shown up and there was a good crowd for the dance. There was this cute thing from Baton Rouge that I asked to dance (everybody danced with everybody all night…as Uncle Bill used to say, “If nobody else wanted to dance with the girl I was with, I didn’t want to dance with her either.”). She was smooth on her feet. I enjoyed dancing with her and we danced several times that night. The only problem was her pony tail…it was the same height as my neck…and it kept hitting my neck all night while we were jitterbugging. I am not sure to this day if it was accidental or deliberate and she won’t say. Her name was Barbara and she could dance any dance that came up…even the polka. Polka’s were danced with someone else besides me since I couldn’t dance the polka then and still can’t.

She was cute and had a good personality so I asked her out. She said yes and we began dating. Then we dated more heavily and then we were “going steady”. This meant we didn’t date anyone else. I called her often. Her number was Elgin5-9821 and she lived on South Barrow Street in Baton Rouge. Fifty years later I still remember the number…go figure!

I was invited to go with the family to Mississippi for them to conduct some business. I enjoyed the trip, except for the end. They dropped me off where I was staying. I got out and she called out, “Bye, Bye Sweetie Pie.” MOST EMBARRASSING! Fortunately, I was going up the walk and it was dark so no one saw my crimson cheeks. Barbara and her family were doubled over in laughter. Not everyone thought it was that funny,

Around November 1959 we decided to get married the next August if we could figure out a way to make the money work. We agreed to keep this quiet until things were more settled. I had also wanted to talk to her dad before we made any formal announcements. It was the “proper” way to get permission to marry someone’s daughter. Two days later she told me that she dropped the bomb at the dinner table the night before. She was really smooth in the way she handled it. In the middle of dinner she said, “Donald and I are getting married.” Her dad almost dropped his fork.

The last major hurdle for an August wedding was Bishop Lear. He wanted to recommend me on a mission. It was late April or early May of 1960. I told him Barbara and I were getting married in August and if he could get it done by July 1st, I would go. Otherwise it would be too close to the wedding. He couldn’t get my membership record from the Gonzales Branch and the whole thing fell through. We were married in August in the Salt Lake temple. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Don Richardson

Wedding Invitation:

Salt Lake City Temple:

Reception at LDS church in Baton Rouge