Current:Home > News2 teens who dated in the 1950s lost touch. They reignited their romance 63 years later. -AssetVision
2 teens who dated in the 1950s lost touch. They reignited their romance 63 years later.
View
Date:2025-04-12 12:39:14
Two teenagers who were high school sweethearts in the 1950s broke up after a few years and didn't see each other until a little over a year ago. Now, Caroline Reeves and Eddie Lamm are newlyweds — sharing a love that is blossoming 63 years after they first met.
"We feel young again," said Reeves, who turns 82 on Thursday.
"When you're in your 80s, you don't have to grow old," she said. "We keep our minds going and we're active and we have fun and laugh and tease and cut up and just want to just live as long — the best life we can live."
Back in 1956, Elvis was on the jukebox and President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House — while Reeves and Lamm were in love.
"Once I saw her, it was all over," said Lamm, who is now 85.
Reeves thought he was the cutest boy on campus.
The only meal he ever bought her back then was french fries and Coke — but it wasn't a fancy dinner she was looking for. She had her eyes on a high school class ring and all that it would signify.
"It was an engagement ring," she said. "And I was the type of person that would have committed myself to him for the rest of my life with that ring."
But she didn't get the ring — at least not then.
Lamm had set his sights high, joining ROTC at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with dreams of flying planes in the U.S. Air Force. It was Reeves' senior year in high school and he couldn't find the words to say a proper goodbye, so he didn't.
"We pulled up in her driveway and I said,' May I kiss you?' And so I kissed her, goodnight, then, not knowing that that's the last time I would kiss her in 64 or 65 years."
Reeves said he didn't follow up with, "Could I take you out? Could we go to a movie? Can I see you again before I leave?"
"I opened that car door and I got out of that car and ran up the steps and slammed the door and went upstairs and cried all night," she said. "That was it."
Their lives then followed far different paths. She became Miss Nashville 1959. Two years later, in 1961, they got married to other people. Reeves married Charles Wallace and Lamm married Polly Piper.
Lamm went on to serve 21 years flying KC-135s in the U.S. Air Force. Reeves traveled the world, was an interior designer, has been a magazine writer and wrote three novels.
In December of 2021, Lamm's wife, Polly, the mother of their two sons, died from ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. They'd been married two days shy of 60 years, and in Polly's final years, Lamm was her caretaker.
"It just shows you his strength and how sweet and kind and gentle this man is and always has been," Reeves said.
After Reeves' marriage to Wallace ended in the 1980s, she married a man named George Kennedy, who died in 2001.
Reeves said she wondered "all the time" over the course of her life how Lamm was, and Lamm said he wondered, too, how Reeves was doing.
In April 2022, Lamm was living in California and Reeves was in Nashville.
"All at once something hits me. I said, 'I've got to call her,'" Lamm said.
He tried nine times before finally reaching her.
"After the second day, it was comfortable. It was natural. By the third day, that third night, he told me he still loved me. And I knew my life had changed. And then the next morning, he calls and he says, 'I apologize for being so forward last night.'"
But his confession of love was what Reeves wanted to hear, and he flew to Nashville to see her.
This time, she was in the driver's seat. When she went to pick him up, they didn't get too far from the airport — at first.
"He peeked his head into my car and I just — he took my breath away," Reeves said. "I've never seen anything like it in my entire life. I just can't even explain it. So I got out of the parking lot, zoom, zoom, zoom, went around and found the FedEx parking lot. And it was the warehouse. It was closed at night and they had all these security lights. And I got out and jumped around and we hugged and kissed ... and I remember looking up at the security lights and insects were swirling all around."
"So, FedEx does deliver," she said, to a burst of laughter.
After Lamm arrived in Nashville, he waited five days before asking her to move with him to California. Three months later, at the age of 84, he popped the question.
He had planned to give her his mother's ring, but Reeves said it was too precious and should be saved for one of his grandchildren. Instead, she wanted his high school class ring, and he put it on her finger.
She called it "miraculous" that they found their love again.
"And we asked God all the time, 'why did you do this?' And now we know: to take care of each other," she said.
veryGood! (744)
Related
- Taylor Swift Eras Archive site launches on singer's 35th birthday. What is it?
- Polaris Dawn mission: What to know about SpaceX launch and its crew
- US Open: Iga Swiatek and other tennis players say their mental and physical health are ignored
- Tennessee not entitled to Title X funds in abortion rule fight, appeals court rules
- Average rate on 30
- Bowl projections: Preseason picks for who will make the 12-team College Football Playoff
- Michigan mayor dismissed from lawsuit over city’s handling of lead in water
- Who aced the NHL offseason? Grading all 32 teams on their moves
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Kaitlyn Bristowe Says She Staged a Funeral Service and Fake Burial for Her Last Relationship
Ranking
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- Ben Affleck is 'not dating' RFK Jr.'s daughter Kick Kennedy, rep says
- Lil Baby arrested in Las Vegas on gun charge; 'defense attorneys investigating the facts'
- Breaks in main water pipeline for Grand Canyon prompt shutdown of overnight hotel stays
- Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
- Scooter Braun Addresses Docuseries on His and Taylor Swift's Feud
- Tori Spelling Shares Why She's Dressing 7-Year-Old Son Beau in School Clothes Before Bed
- Trump campaign was warned not to take photos at Arlington before altercation, defense official says
Recommendation
Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
Teen who nearly drowned in Texas lake thanks friend who died trying to rescue her: Report
Iowa water buffalo escapes owner moments before slaughter, eluding police for days
The best 2024 SUVs for towing: all sizes, all capability
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
American Idol's Scotty McCreery Stops Show After Seeing Man Hit Woman in the Crowd
2024 Paralympics: Kate Middleton and Prince William Share Royally Sweet Message Ahead of Games
Owners of Pulse nightclub, where 49 died in mass shooting, won’t be charged