RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE

He asked her out on a date in the principal’s office

Don Sugg and Norma Peacock were married on June 7, 1947. Don saw Norma doing some filing in their high school principal’s office and he strode in and asked her for a date. “I just saw a pretty lady and I went on in,” Don says. “It was a little before Valentine’s Day.”
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Don Sugg and Norma Peacock were married on June 7, 1947. Don saw Norma doing some filing in their high school principal’s office and he strode in and asked her for a date. “I just saw a pretty lady and I went on in,” Don says. “It was a little before Valentine’s Day.” (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)


Many high school students look for ways to avoid the principal's office, but when Don Sugg saw Norma Peacock he started looking for a reason to go in.

Norma was behind the counter in the principal's office at Mabelvale High School in 1945, helping with filing and other office tasks.

She was relatively new to the school. Her family was from the area but had moved to Bauxite for a while before returning.

Don had spotted Norma around school before and considered asking her out, but Valentine's Day was approaching and that gave him extra motivation.

"I went in and I said, 'Would you like to go to the Valentine's celebration with me?' And she said, 'Yeah, I think so,'" says Don, who made no pretenses about why he was there.

They were both seniors the year they went to the Valentine's banquet at school; dinner was served in the school's cafeteria.

"I guess I was scared," Norma says. "I was just worried I would do something wrong, but I didn't."

Don didn't notice her trepidation.

"I was probably more nervous than she was," he says.

After the banquet, they went with two or three other couples to a drive-in.

"We had sody-pops or something and then I took her home," he says.

They started going out regularly after that.

"A cousin of his went with us sometimes," Norma says. "We went to movies sometimes but our main place to go, anything that the school had was at Petit Jean Mountain."

There were field trips for picnics, hiking and swimming, and there was one overnight trip to the mountain for students at Mabelvale as well.

"We stayed in the dorms that they had up there, the boys in one and the girls in one," she says.

They dated exclusively for about a year.

"I don't know whether we ever actually got engaged, really," Norma says. "We just decided we were going together and just all of a sudden it was just, 'Well, when are we going to get married?'"

They asked the preacher at the church they went to if he would do the ceremony.

"He said, 'OK, well, just come by the house and we'll take care of it,'" says Don, who wore slacks with a white shirt and tie for their big event.

Norma wore a blue two-piece suit when they exchanged their vows on June 7, 1947, at the preacher's house with their best friends looking on.

"This was not an elaborate, sophisticated wedding at all," Don says. "We had gone together for about a year, going to movies and all sorts of activities -- I mean, even roller skating some, I think -- and we had finally just said, 'We're going together so much, it's probably best we just go ahead and get married.'"

They took a brief honeymoon trip to Hot Springs.

"I had a 1935 Ford that I was paying off way back then. It was all beat up and all," Don says. "On our wedding day we simply drove to the preacher's house and got married, and then we got in the car and drove in the old '35 Ford to Hot Springs and stayed in a motel down there."

Both Norma and Don had to be back at work within a couple of days. Don worked in the hardware and sporting goods departments at Sears, and Norma was a switchboard operator at Arkansas Foundry. He later got a job with a wholesale plumbing supply company, and Norma stopped working to stay home with their first child, though her mother babysat occasionally over the next few years while she filled in for her former co-workers when they went on vacation.

"The preacher was a nice guy but later on, after we got married, we applied for something, I don't know what it was, and they asked me about my marriage. I told him and he said, 'Well, you don't have a record of marriage.'"

Don was confused, and maybe a bit alarmed, so he called the preacher, who apologized for forgetting to send in the appropriate paperwork after the ceremony.

"I said, 'Well, I guess we were living in sin all that time,'" Don says. "That was almost comical in a way."

The newlyweds rented a small apartment off Asher Avenue for a while.

"He took me out in Oak Forest there, and it was a blank street. There wasn't even much of a street there at the time. He said, 'You're going to have to use your imagination but this is where we're going to build our house,'" Norma says.

Norma and Don have two children -- Keith Sugg and Rita Speas, both of whom live in Little Rock. They have three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

The couple volunteered together for more than 20 years, through their Good Sam RV Club as well as through the Arkansas chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Diabetes Association.

Norma and Don have had ups and downs, just like everyone else, but the years haven't changed the way he looks at her.

"I was interested in her because she was pretty," Don says. "She still is."

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The first time I saw my future spouse:

She says: “He was one of the boys I had spotted and picked out.”

He says: “She was really pretty and she had a nice shape — still does.”

On our wedding day:

She says: “Our friends met us at the preacher’s house. I don’t remember being nervous at all.”

He says: “We had been around each other enough at that point in time. We had kind of a mutual agreement on things.”

My advice for a long happy marriage:

She says: “Watch what you say. Things can be said and words can hurt and once they’re said they can’t be forgotten.”

He says: “Have love and respect for one another. That goes a long way.”

 



  photo  Don and Norma Sugg have been married for 75 years. They have volunteered together throughout their marriage, helping their Good Sam RV Club with camping site assignments and also helping raise money for the state chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “For nine years we helped plan their bicycle rides and the kids would raise money to ride in it,” Norma says. “And then we helped with the Diabetes Association for five years.” (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
 
 


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