Nancy Hagman's grandparents

My grandmother Helen Graham met Franklin John Van Buren in Iowa on the steps of the Quaker Church on her first day home from college. It was 14 June 1925 and they went on a blind in his new car, a Chevrolet coupe. Helen's mother asked why she was going with that old (23), bald man. Helen was 18. She also questioned his ability to support her. She told her mother she wasn't marrying him for his money. On 12 Sep 1925 (his birthday) she got her diamond when he proposed while they were sitting in his car. They were married Thanksgiving day sitting in the car with the preacher, Howard Cope, standing by the open door. From that time on Van always gave her a rose for each year they had been married and they celebrated their anniversary on Thanksgiving. In April there was a heavy snow storm and Van said, “I don't have a job and I hate the cold, let's go to Texas", where Helen's folks had just moved to earlier in the month. He traded his coupe for an old Maxwell. They had a sale of all their furniture and put the rest of their belongings in the back of the car, leaving a little "cave" for the baby, Doug who had been born in August 1926. They were in the Ozarks and they had to stop at the top of each hill to put water in the radiator. The first Sunday out they had 7 flat tires. They had to take the tire off, take the tube out, patch the tube, blow the tube up, put it back in the tire, and put the tire back on the car. In Oklahoma the engine stopped. Strangers invited them to stay at their home for two days while waiting for parts to come in from Oklahoma City. After they started again they lost a wheel. Van was in the ditch on the right side of the car (it was a right wheel that had come off) looking for the tire when a farmer drove up. Van told him what he was looking for and the farmer told him that it would be on the opposite side of the road and sure enough that is where he found it. They had to wire Helen's folks for $35. They arrived in San Antonio, TX 19 Jul 1927.