[June 09, 2011] True romance: Of love and war and adventure - 65 years and counting Tweet Jun 09, 2011 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Billy and Virginia Ransom, both 87, celebrated their 65th anniversary on April 1, 2011. The couple met during World War II in Hawaii, where both were serving in the military. Virginia Barlow was itching for action. "I wanted to get out of Nashville to someplace where something was going on," she says. She got her wish in September of 1944 when she was sent to Honolulu with the second wave of the Women's Army Corps. Times were tense there. Remnants of ships and bombed-out buildings were reminders of the attack on Pearl Harbor. "There were about 20 men to every woman in Honolulu at that time," says Bill Ransom, who was in the Naval Construction Battalion when Virginia caught his eye. She was on a double date, getting her picture taken in a grass hut, and Bill knew the guy she was with. "I couldn't tell him that I wanted his girlfriend so I asked if I could have my picture taken with her," he says. "We took so many pictures that by the end, I had her telephone number." "I liked him the minute he walked through the door," says Virginia, who was 21. "He was as cute as he could be." On their first date, they ate at a popular place in town. Beach outings and a glass-bottom boat ride followed. "She liked sports. She played basketball and softball," says Bill, who was 20. "We had a lot in common." In time, they were dating exclusively and talked of marriage. But without warning in May of 1945, Bill shipped out for the invasion of Okinawa. Virginia stayed behind in Honolulu, fretting about him. He was discharged in December of '45 and headed home to Arkansas, from where he wrote to her. But the letters came back unopened. Finally, he called her mother in Maine. Virginia, who'd been discharged and had gotten home about a day earlier, had no idea where or how Bill was. "Today, they have cellphones and you can hear from someone in a minute," he says. "But back then, it was snail mail." He hopped a bus to Maine to go get her, though he wasn't sure what to expect. It had been almost a year since he had seen her. After visiting with her family, he took her back to Arkansas. "They loved her and knew we were going to get married," he says of his family. But the couple needed blood tests first. "Money was very tight," he says. "We didn't have any." They hoped to get a waiver since they had taken blood tests to join the service. Meanwhile, his mother was nervous about having the young couple living under the same roof. "Every time we'd leave the house, my mother said, 'I hope to God you're married before you come back here,'" Bill recalls. One night, Bill's brother invited them to dinner and when he heard about the holdup, he called a friend who was a judge. "We met him at the courthouse in Van Buren, Ark., before supper," Bill says. The judge made out the marriage license, then offered to perform the ceremony on the spot. "So we got married right there," Bill says. Then they drove back to his brother's house, where they had supper and spent their wedding night. When they told Bill's mother the next day, she insisted on seeing the license. "She was happy," says Bill, "she just loved (Virginia)." Virginia's mother was not quite as ecstatic, having missed her chance to attend the wedding, Bill says. Still, "she was the sweetest mother-in-law a man could have." When Virginia's mother later fell ill, they moved to Rockland, Maine, to care for her. "We lived in Maine 17 years, and boy, it's cold there," says Bill, who worked in various positions because "after the war, there weren't many jobs." Virginia went to business school and got a job in customer service. In 1963, after being snowed in for three days, they reached their limit with the weather and asked for a transfer "anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line." They didn't know a soul in Dallas when they moved here. "We kind of like spur of the moment," she says. They eventually settled in Richardson, Texas. Of their 65 years of marriage, Bill says: "You have to learn to say yes _ even when you don't necessarily want to." "We have some little spats, but they don't amount to much," Virginia says. "I think not having children made us closer. You dote on each other." Along with a sense of humor, they have shared volunteer work for children in need. "Scottish Rite _ that's our children," Virginia says. "We made a pact when we got married that if we had no children, we'd travel when we retired," says Bill, 87. "We have been with the Shriners from Canada to Hawaii and the lower 48 states," he says. They have been back to Hawaii eight times. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, they cruised the Hawaiian Islands and renewed their vows aboard ship; they marked their 65th on April 1. The spirit of adventure that first brought them together remains strong, "but I don't move like I used to," says Virginia, now 87. ___ (c) 2011, The Dallas Morning News. Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. _____ TO SUBSCRIBE TO LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS Items in the Love & Relationships package are not included in your MCT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the Love & Relationships package or purchase the items a la carte on MCT Direct at www.mctdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or [email protected]. 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