Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994 TAG: 9402090052
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Kathleen Wilson STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Semi-retired, semi-hysterical columnist Ben Beagle met "the greatest station wagon driver of them all" when he was a student at Roanoke College.
Prince Ranier first fell for Grace Kelly on a movie screen. Later he married her and made our American movie princess his princess of Monaco.
Noel Taylor, Roanoke's "mayor for life," found his wife, Barbara Jean - he calls her "B.J." - in the church choir.
Harry met Sally in Chicago when they shared a ride to New York City.
Robert Paine of Salem met his wife, Alice, when she stole his beach towel. (At least that's his story.)
The rest is bliss-tory.
Call it timing.
You know: right place, right time. Love at first sight stuff when "some enchanted evening, you will meet a stranger, across a crowded room . . . "
It's destiny. The cosmic tumblers click with such force that fate locks one person to another for the rest of their lives.
Destiny's cosmic tumblers nailed Johnny Carson five times before he met current mate Alex Mass on the beach near his Malibu hideaway.
She was wearing a bikini and carrying an empty champagne glass.
Gregory Peck found his wife, Veronique Passani, when she was a news correspondent in France.
Veronique fiddled a bit with fate by turning down an interview with a prominent French political leader for the opportunity to interview the American actor she'd long admired.
You couldn't tell it from the silver screen, but not all romance is rooted in Hollywood.
When Ben Beagle met his wife, the former Mary Ann John, she was dating his college roommate.
"I was madly in love with someone else," admits Ben. "But I got over that pretty fast."
For some reason Ben will never understand, his roommate wasn't as taken with the driver as he was.
What was it that caught Ben's eye?
He's always been partial to blondes.
"But it was really her eyes," Ben admits rather shyly of his wife. "They are huge and beautiful bright blue eyes."
Karen G. Jackovich - a staff writer for People magazine's Los Angeles bureau who was described by a People researcher as "the person who knows everything about everybody" - recalled the circumstances behind some other famous couplings.
According to Jackovich, when Eddie Murphy first saw model Nicole Mitchell at an NAACP awards dinner, the comedian said, "now there's a woman I would marry without a pre-nuptial agreement."
For many stars destiny strikes with one look at a magazine, television or movie screen.
Michael Caine found his wife, Shakira, on television in a coffee commercial.
But for most of us just regular folks, sure we can window shop all we like in the pages of magazines, on television and in the movies for our ideal mate.
This isn't timing. It isn't even destiny.
Many of us meet through the dreaded blind date.
Fortunately for some, fate is kind on occasional blind dates.
Billy Crystal met his wife of many years on a blind date to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium.
"He says he told a friend immediately, `this is the woman I am going to marry,' " relates Jackovich
Local Elvis fanatic Kim Epperly didn't even want to go out on a blind date with Donald Epperly - the man she eventually married.
She lived an hour or so from an Air Force base near Danville, Ill., where Don was stationed. He was from Fincastle, Va.
"My friend was going with a guy named Max," explains Kim. "She wanted to know if I'd go out with his friend Don."
She really didn't want to, but finally decided that "if he didn't act right or drive right" she'd just put an end to it right there and then.
"He was a perfect gentleman," admits Kim.
Two months later she married him.
By Hollywood standards, that's a long courtship.
"After all, Julia Roberts married Lyle Lovett on their fourth date," points out Jackovich of "People." And then there are those who just plain take matters of love and destiny in their own hands.
Robert and Alice Paine of Salem have been fussing at each other for years.
"She took my beach towel!" declares Robert.
Alice was a student at West Hampton College, and Robert was attending summer school at the University of Richmond. They were swimming off the same dock.
"I came out of the water and she was sitting on my beach towel," is still Robert's story, lo these many years.
And Alice's?
"he was sitting on my towel," One way or another, they've been married for 48 years, and, she says, "It's a miracle."
by CNB