Father of the Bride

Sarah and LeRoy on Sarah’s wedding day. 

Photo by

  
Krizan Photography  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

After a year of dating I worked up the courage to ask Paula Grisham to marry me. After she said yes it took several more months before we had the nerve to ask her parents.

I had a pretty high opinion of myself, and since Paula and her mother seemed to share that opinion, I just assumed that Paula’s father, Paul, would be equally impressed.

Paula, her mother Katie, and I proceeded as if all were in agreement, and it seemed to eventually wear down Paul enough that I gave her an engagement ring for her September 25th birthday. Then the wedding was set for June 5th, 1965.

As a student at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri, I had supported myself by working part-time. I had recently gotten a good job at the Frisco Railroad terminal and would be working full-time during the summer of 1965. This meant that Paula, their oldest child, would be moving to Springfield to live with me right after the wedding.

The day of our wedding came at last. It was a big church wedding at Paula’s church in town. I happily anticipated seeing Paula come down the aisle on the arm of her father. So far as I knew all had gone pretty smooth. Well, except for my nervousness, Paula’s sister’s (the maid of honor) crying, and the fact that unbeknownst to me, my best man Delbert Hunter, had provided some entertainment as he nervously searched through all of his pockets during the early part of the ceremony; he did find Paula’s ring in time for my exchange of rings.

About 20 years later Paula finally told me the real excitement before the wedding. It seems that her father had run away from home and stated that Paula was ruining her life, and he wasn’t going to the wedding.

Paul Grisham and my dad had gone to high school at Elk Creek together and had remained friends through the years. It would take many years before Paul and I would truly become friends. Paul was apparently jealous of me on our wedding day, and I was jealous of the father-daughter bond that he and Paula shared.

I would not completely understand Paul’s feeling until boys started hanging around and dating my daughters, Lora and Sarah. Then and only then did I know that a father could fear for a daughter’s long-term happiness and wonder if anyone was good enough to be allowed to take her away from their home.

It pleases me that Paul and I are now close friends and willing to share some of the weight from life’s load with each other. Paul looks after my dog when we’re out of town and often mows my big lawn for me. He is loved by and truly loves my three children and seven grandchildren - and this from the man who almost didn’t lead my bride Paula down the aisle to me.

12/31/1999