Love Story: Blind date led to 70 years of marriage for the Dixons

A blind date led to Connie and Dallas Dixon becoming an extremely rare couple.

On Jan. 7, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Only 0.1% (1 in 1,000) couples in the U.S. reach their platinum anniversary.

Dallas grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. Knowing the draft was coming, he joined the Air Force and was sent to Fairchild Air Force Base.

“I’d never been to Washington, but I heard there were good-looking women there, so I said that’s where I want to go,” he said, smiling.

On Mother’s Day 1955, he met one of them.

“I was a junior at Roger’s High School,” Connie said. “A friend was dating a guy from Fairchild, and she asked if I wanted to meet one of his friends.

The foursome drove to a park on the Little Spokane River and visited.

“I liked what I saw, so I gave Dallas my phone number,” she said.

He called the next day and asked her for a date. It didn’t take long before both of them were smitten.

“I don’t know if I ever proposed,” said Dallas.

Instead, Connie recalls him saying, “I think we ought to get married.”

When they found out he’d be sent to Guam for a temporary duty assignment, they set a wedding date.

“I didn’t want him to go without being married,” she said.

On Jan. 7, 1956, the day before her 18th birthday, they had a small church ceremony. Connie wore a pink suit, and they honeymooned in town at their first apartment.

“Then, he went to Guam, and I finished high school,” she said.

Dallas served four years of active duty and four years in the Air Force Reserve. He attended Eastern Washington University before transferring to Spokane Community College to study electronics.

After graduating, he applied for a job with the Federal Aviation Administration, but was initially turned down.

Puzzled, he wrote them a letter, asking for an explanation.

“They asked for my college transcripts,” he recalled. “I had pretty close to a 4.0, so I got an interview and then a job. I worked at Mica Peak as a long-range radar technician.”

Meanwhile, Connie had her hands full.

Twins David and Mike arrived in September 1957, and two years later, daughter Lisa was born.

The family crisscrossed the U.S., stopping at national parks, during road trips to visit Dallas’ mom in Virginia. They also enjoyed camping at area lakes.

“Every summer we went tent camping at Priest Lake,” Connie said.

One of those camping trips proved pivotal.

“While camping with the boys, I met a guy with a sailboat,” said Dallas. “He asked if I wanted to go for a sail – the experience stuck with me.”

So much so that when he and Connie took a trip to Seattle and saw an ad for a Thistle sailboat, he bought it.

“We joined the Coeur d’Alene Sailing Club,” he said. “The boys crewed with me, and we even qualified for the Nationals in San Diego in 1974.”

Connie was content to cheer them from the shore.

“I sat in the sun and hung out at the beach,” she said. “It was fun!”

After the kids were grown, she took a job at the VA hospital and embarked on a 25-year career as the secretary to the hospital’s medical administrator before retiring in 1995.

Dallas beat her to the punch, retiring in 1988 at 55 after 31 years with the FAA. He then dove into hobbies, including astronomy and photography.

Over the years, they’ve visited almost every state, traveled to Europe, and enjoyed an Alaskan cruise.

One memorable Christmas, they hiked into the Grand Canyon.

“On Christmas Eve, we hiked to the bottom and spent the night, and hiked back up on Christmas Day,” Connie said.

Their family expanded to include seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

As they looked back on their seven decades of marriage, neither felt they possessed the secret to a happily ever after. However, Dallas, 92, believes that being able to say “I’m sorry” is important.

“And know when to shut up,” added Connie, 88.

She smiled at her husband.

“He means the world to me,” she said.

For them, 70 years passed in the blink of an eye.

“It only gets better,” said Dallas.

When asked if he would do it all over again, he didn’t hesitate.

“In a heartbeat,” he replied.

Contact Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com.