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 h...