Love Story 40 years in the making

Zettalee Rollins met Bill Bartlett in 1976 when she was in high school and he was a first-year science teacher. Forty years passed, and they connected via Facebook, with no student-teacher taboo anymore their relationship flourished and they are now engaged. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

As love stories go, Bill Bartlett and Zettalee Rollins’ is fairly new – the couple have only been together three months. But this is a tale that’s been 40 years in the making.

Zettalee first saw Bill in 1976 at a high school pep rally in tiny St. Ignatius, Montana.

“Who is THAT?” she asked a friend, thinking a hot new guy had transferred to their school.

“That’s Mr. Bartlett, the new science teacher,” her friend replied.

Her disappointment at his unavailability didn’t dampen her interest. Though she didn’t take any science classes, she still found reason to see him on a regular basis.

“I took a lot of shop classes my senior year and that took me right by his classroom,” she said. “I’d stand in the doorway and watch him. If he saw me he’d say ‘Hi’ and sometimes wave.”

In their Spokane Valley home, Bill smiled at her. “That’s my first memory of Zettalee – standing in the doorway,” he said. “She was blond and attractive, but what I really noticed was that very few girls took shop classes”/ Cindy Hval , SR Love Story. More here.