70th wedding anniversary
For members of the Mitchell family
Richard Mitchell and LaVera Thompson were married on March 19, 1954 (70 years ago today).
They were my paternal grandparents.
Both members of this couple were born in Lamesa, Texas in 1931.
Richard Elbert “Dick” Mitchell was the eldest child of Fred and Irene Mitchell, though he also had two older half-siblings. He graduated high school in 1950 and took a job at a local print shop. He then joined the Air Force after the Korean War began in 1950.
LaVera Ann Thompson was one of three daughters of Lloyd and Blanche Thompson. She graduated high school in 1949, then moved to Lubbock, Texas.
Dick and LaVera knew each other as children. They were neighbors; they both attended the First United Methodist Church in Lamesa, Dawson Co., Texas; they spent their younger days in the same school.
They kept in contact throughout early adulthood. They wrote occasional letters to each other and visited each other’s parents and siblings when they returned to visit their own families. They went on their first official date, just for a cup of coffee, shortly after Christmas 1953.
Dick and Lavera were married on March 19, 1954 at the parsonage of the Methodist Church in Carlsbad, Eddy Co., New Mexico.
Dick was stationed at Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, but was temporarily deployed to Carlsbad Army Air Field. LaVera had to take a long, uncomfortable bus ride through the desert to get there; the bus was delayed and by the time she arrived it was already very late in the evening. The pastor’s children were already asleep in their beds there at the parsonage.
They lived for a short while in El Paso, then returned to Lamesa; they soon ended up in Big Spring, Texas. Dick worked as a civilian aircraft mechanic at Webb Air Force Base. LaVera kept house while their children were young, then eventually made a career in the accounting department of the VA Medical Center.
The couple had two sons together and remained married for the rest of their lives. They were active in their church and various other community organizations, enjoyed traveling after retirement, and spent lots of time with their beloved family members. They also did extensive genealogy research, upon which much of my own work is founded.
Happy 70th, Gran’mommy and Poppy.
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