They met at Roosevelt Junior High School, attended each other’s high school sports games and got married on Nov. 28, 1946, after the bridegroom returned from serving his country in World War II.
Homer and Evelyn Cole, Pittsburg, are still together. Even better than that, they’re happy about it.
“Friends of ours, Bill Endicott and Peggy Cochran, made date for us,” Mrs. Cole said.
The two couples often double-dated. Sports were also a big part of their lives. Cole played baseball and basketball and his future wife played basketball and fast-pitch softball.
“I’d sit in the stands and watch her play, and she’d sit in the stands and watch me play,” Cole said.
“We bowled in the junior bowling league at the old Pittsburg YMCA,” Mrs. Cole added. “They had a bowling alley in the basement.”
Cole graduated from Pittsburg High School in 1943, and got drafted that September, serving in the military from 1943 until the end of 1945.
His future wife graduated from PHS in 1945 and went to work for the Telephone Company. When Cole came home, he attended PSU on the GI Bill and they got married.
“Homer was playing baseball and basketball at college, and his coach, John Lance, told him he could have Thursday, which was Thanksgiving, and Friday off, but he’d have to be back on Saturday for practice,” Mrs. Cole said.
“Our friends Bill and Peggy had gotten married a month before we did and moved to Wichita, so for our honeymoon we went to their house in Wichita,” Cole said.
Mrs. Cole continued working.
“I had the night shift at the Telephone Company, and sometimes he’d be getting on the bus to go to school when I was getting off the bus coming home,” she said.
To make extra money, her husband mowed lawns for $1 with a push mower.
“I used my mother’s scissors for trimming,” Cole said.
After he graduated, he taught and coached for a year at Goddard. His salary for the year was $3,000.
“That was good money in those days,” Mrs. Cole said. “But Goddard was a very small town, with nothing to do, so we stayed home.”
“We lived in an eight-room house, with furniture for three,” Cole said. “I coached all three sports — football, baseball and basketball. We had our oldest daughter the year we went to Goddard.”
“They let me ride with the baby on the bus to games out of town,” Mrs. Cole said.
After returning from Goddard to Pittsburg, Cole worked three years for McNally Manufacturing.
“It was just supposed to be a summer job,” his wife said.
After that, he spent nearly 10 years as Parks and Recreation director at Joplin before going to manage two bowling alleys in Oklahoma from 1963 to 1965.
“Then Ted Hoffman called and asked me to help with Holiday Lanes here,” Cole said. “Three or four years later, we bought Ted out. We had the bowling alley almost 20 years, and my wife put in long hours behind the counter and doing book work.”
She also helped with women’s bowling leagues.
“We’d go to the bowling alley around 7 a.m. and come home around midnight,” Cole said. “None of the help wanted to work Thanksgiving or Christmas, which were some of our biggest days, so we’d work and not have our Christmas until late at night.”
They are now retired, comfortable in their home of 40 years, a lovely old home built in 1904 by the Baxter family. They are fortunate to have all three of their children — daughters Cathy and Cindy and son Mike — living nearby. Mike Cole has two children and Cindy Bugni has three. There are also two great-grandchildren, Faith, 4, and Gunner, 8 weeks, and Mrs. Cole has been enjoying caring for the baby while his mother works.
“It really takes a burden off my granddaughter, because she was afraid to leave him with somebody she doesn’t know,” she said.
She and her husband still enjoy sports together.
“We go to every PSU game — except we haven’t gone to much volleyball,” Cole said.
They believe being compatible is important for an enduring marriage.
“You’ve also got to give and take,” Cole said.
“If you do have an argument, you need to settle it before you go to bed,” Mrs. Cole said. “You don’t want to get up in the morning still not speaking to each other.”
She thinks that money is a major cause of trouble in marriages these days.
“Young people now want to have everything that it took their parents years to get,” she said.
Mrs. Cole had a recent battle with cancer, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
“That’s the longest I’ve ever sat in a waiting room,” Cole said. His wife said that he also went with her every chemo treatment.
“My wife has been my right and left hand all the way through it,” Cole said. “She’s been my joy.”
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They met at Roosevelt Junior High School, attended each other’s high school sports games and got married on Nov. 28, 1946, after the bridegroom returned from serving his country in World War II.
Homer and Evelyn Cole, Pittsburg, are still together. Even better than that, they’re happy about it.
“Friends of ours, Bill Endicott and Peggy Cochran, made date for us,” Mrs. Cole said.
The two couples often double-dated. Sports were also a big part of their lives. Cole played baseball and basketball and his future wife played basketball and fast-pitch softball.
“I’d sit in the stands and watch her play, and she’d sit in the stands and watch me play,” Cole said.
“We bowled in the junior bowling league at the old Pittsburg YMCA,” Mrs. Cole added. “They had a bowling alley in the basement.”
Cole graduated from Pittsburg High School in 1943, and got drafted that September, serving in the military from 1943 until the end of 1945.
His future wife graduated from PHS in 1945 and went to work for the Telephone Company. When Cole came home, he attended PSU on the GI Bill and they got married.
“Homer was playing baseball and basketball at college, and his coach, John Lance, told him he could have Thursday, which was Thanksgiving, and Friday off, but he’d have to be back on Saturday for practice,” Mrs. Cole said.
“Our friends Bill and Peggy had gotten married a month before we did and moved to Wichita, so for our honeymoon we went to their house in Wichita,” Cole said.
Mrs. Cole continued working.
“I had the night shift at the Telephone Company, and sometimes he’d be getting on the bus to go to school when I was getting off the bus coming home,” she said.
To make extra money, her husband mowed lawns for $1 with a push mower.
“I used my mother’s scissors for trimming,” Cole said.
After he graduated, he taught and coached for a year at Goddard. His salary for the year was $3,000.
“That was good money in those days,” Mrs. Cole said. “But Goddard was a very small town, with nothing to do, so we stayed home.”
“We lived in an eight-room house, with furniture for three,” Cole said. “I coached all three sports — football, baseball and basketball. We had our oldest daughter the year we went to Goddard.”
“They let me ride with the baby on the bus to games out of town,” Mrs. Cole said.
After returning from Goddard to Pittsburg, Cole worked three years for McNally Manufacturing.
“It was just supposed to be a summer job,” his wife said.
After that, he spent nearly 10 years as Parks and Recreation director at Joplin before going to manage two bowling alleys in Oklahoma from 1963 to 1965.
“Then Ted Hoffman called and asked me to help with Holiday Lanes here,” Cole said. “Three or four years later, we bought Ted out. We had the bowling alley almost 20 years, and my wife put in long hours behind the counter and doing book work.”
She also helped with women’s bowling leagues.
“We’d go to the bowling alley around 7 a.m. and come home around midnight,” Cole said. “None of the help wanted to work Thanksgiving or Christmas, which were some of our biggest days, so we’d work and not have our Christmas until late at night.”
They are now retired, comfortable in their home of 40 years, a lovely old home built in 1904 by the Baxter family. They are fortunate to have all three of their children — daughters Cathy and Cindy and son Mike — living nearby. Mike Cole has two children and Cindy Bugni has three. There are also two great-grandchildren, Faith, 4, and Gunner, 8 weeks, and Mrs. Cole has been enjoying caring for the baby while his mother works.
“It really takes a burden off my granddaughter, because she was afraid to leave him with somebody she doesn’t know,” she said.
She and her husband still enjoy sports together.
“We go to every PSU game — except we haven’t gone to much volleyball,” Cole said.
They believe being compatible is important for an enduring marriage.
“You’ve also got to give and take,” Cole said.
“If you do have an argument, you need to settle it before you go to bed,” Mrs. Cole said. “You don’t want to get up in the morning still not speaking to each other.”
She thinks that money is a major cause of trouble in marriages these days.
“Young people now want to have everything that it took their parents years to get,” she said.
Mrs. Cole had a recent battle with cancer, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
“That’s the longest I’ve ever sat in a waiting room,” Cole said. His wife said that he also went with her every chemo treatment.
“My wife has been my right and left hand all the way through it,” Cole said. “She’s been my joy.”
