By Mark Martin
My parents were a most unusual couple. They met in college after World War II. My father, H.E. Martin, was a decorated Navy veteran. My mother, Dorothy Lepp, was a small-town girl who, with her mother’s help, defied her father to get an education. He wanted her to wait tables in a beer joint; she wanted to become a teacher.
At Sam Houston State College, Mom and Dad were on the yearbook staff. However, if you think that is how they fell in love, you would be wrong. No, my parents did not get along. My father was the yearbook editor and his suggestions were not taken well by Mom.
My father, H.E., was conditioned by his service in the Navy. Before the war he was an outgoing, athletic, and talkative young man. After years of combat on a torpedo bomber, he was a changed man. Most of his friends were killed. This aged my father. My grandmother said H.E. went to war young and came back a serious, determined man; aged beyond his years.
My mother, Dorothy, had spent the war at Sam Houston State Teachers College, both attending classes and teaching public school. You see, when my mother arrived at college, she had no money.
My grandmother, Blanche, had secretly saved a bit here, a bit more there, all in coins to get my mother to college. In fact, they rode a bus to Huntsville, Texas, without my grandfather’s knowledge.
Dorothy had enough money for only one semester. However, due to the war, there was a serious shortage of teachers. My mother was astounded at the first college welcome meeting when the president made an appeal for volunteers to teach all day and take special evening classes. This opportunity enabled Dorothy, not only to pay for college, but to stay on after graduation to earn her Master’s degree. This experience transformed her into an independent, self-assured teacher.
So, there they were, H.E. transformed by combat in WWII, who was closed within himself, and Dorothy, who was determined and independent.
How in the world did they come to be man and wife? Pride. The college had a dance at the start of the new school year.
My parents were caught off guard when mutual friends maneuvered them into a blind date! Their evening together was a riot of laughter for everyone but them. Their pride kept them at the dance talking little at first, but more and more as the night progressed. Gradually their conversation turned to WWII. H.E. shared his experiences and grief as Dorothy shared the loss of her brother, Will. Will was killed by a Kamikaze plane at Okinawa. (Will’s sacrifice is remembered on the Wall of Honor at Texas A&M University, class of 1944.)
They bonded through grief. What was the startling result of their blind date? H.E. and Dorothy married two weeks later. In 1997 they celebrated 50 years together.
By the way, never underestimate the power of pride.
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