The former Gerry Beasley grew up on a farm outside the tiny town of Anson, Texas, about 150 miles west of Fort Worth. Bill Farnsworth was a “city boy” whose father owned a grocery store in town.

The small country school Gerry attended had only two teachers, one of whom was Bill’s oldest sister, Ada.

Yet Bill and Gerry didn’t meet until high school. They went on a couple of dates, but Bill was a year older, and after graduation he went into the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific through most of World War II.

Gerry attended Hardin-Simmons University in nearby Abilene, Texas, where in April 1946, their paths crossed ...