Dick and Doree Get Married

...and they stayed married for 59 years, until my dad passed away in 2010.

By Dave

Jul 17, 2018

Dick and Doree Votaw (my parents) got married on May 29, 1951, at Plymouth Congregational Church in Pomona. This was the church that Mom’s parents, Herb and Mary Martin, belonged to, and that Doree had attended while growing up.

The wedding took place at 8 pm on a Tuesday night in Pomona, followed by a reception at the church. It must have made for a late night getaway to Lake Arrowhead, their destination. The best man and his fiancée (Don and Shirley) drove Dick and Doree out to where their car had

These were the actual vows used in the wedding. Doree copied them from texts found by her family members after the ceremony, and put them in her scrapbook.

been hidden, chased by the other groomsmen. Everything was fun and exciting until one of Don’s tires blew! Everyone pitched in to change it, and the chase was over.

All photos and collages on this page can be clicked on for closer viewing.

Photo captions, left column: The bridal party – Eleanor Votaw was the maid of honor. The second girl from the left is (I believe) Jean Perrin, Doree’s friend from school. Their friendship was renewed late in life. Don Votaw was the best man, and next to him is Dick Secord. The man on the far right is Doree’s brother Bert Martin, and Norm Anderson is next to Bert. The parents – wedding fashions have changed! Both Mary and Mildred (Dad’s mother) are wearing formal gowns with matching gloves and hats; pink for the bride’s mother and blue for the groom’s. Both of them have large corsages. The bridesmaids – every time she saw this picture my mother would point to one of the girls (I don’t know which one) and say “My mother made me invite her to be a bridesmaid – I didn’t like her.” Herb looks proud to have Doree on his arm. The best man – Dick and his cousin Don remained close friends for life.

Photo captions, right column: The bridal couple – this is the only color photo we have of them. Color photos were not very common in those days, and not always clear. The guest book – Marilyn Votaw, Dick’s cousin, shows Aunt Tirzah where to sign. The mother of the bride – Mary Martin certainly looks proud of her daughter in this photo. The garter – satisfied at least one of the standard requirements for wedding garb: “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

The only photo in this collage that needs a note is in the second row on the right. The couple standing on the left side of the photo are Bert and Frankie Martin, Doree’s brother and his wife. I don’t know the name of the woman on the right.

The Learning Years, by Dick Votaw (part 7) (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6)

We were married on May 29, 1951 in Pomona at the Pilgrim Congregational Church with Rev. David Pratt officiating. We chose that particular date as Memorial Day was always May 30 and we thought during the years it would be nice to have a national holiday at our anniversary time. This worked fine for a few years until the government changed Memorial Day to always fall on a Monday. Robert Cope, the pastor at that time at First Friends in Whittier, also helped with the ceremony.

Our wedding night was spent at the place we first met, Vernon and Lucile’s cabin at Lake Arrowhead. Don Votaw was my Best Man and we used his car for the get-a-way. During the chase we had a flat tire that was really a blow out and it got a little scary for a while.  After changing the tire the chase stopped, and he took us to our car that we had hidden out. There were no further problems except I had forgotten a warm jacket and we had to go back to my dorm the next day on the way to Carmel.

We had a beautiful time in Carmel having found a nice place to stay in a cottage type motel. After a few days there we headed for Sequoia as I wanted to show Doree where I had worked the last two summers and I wanted to show off my new bride to some of the friends I had made there. I had been accepted to work at Giant Forest for the third summer as Assistant Manager of the coffee shop, but they had no accommodations for married couples so I was not able to take the job. While at Sequoia I came down with a bad case of the flu and it was miserable. We didn’t get to do many of the things there that I had planned. I did recover however, and was able to drive back to Claremont for my graduation.

This was truly a wonderful ending and a magnificent beginning to different periods in my life. As a proper story book finish should read, ours read: “And they lived happily ever after.”

Both the Pomona newspaper and the Whittier newspaper gave a lot of space to covering this wedding. It’s interesting to note that both articles state that the couple will make their home in Balboa. Their first home was actually in San Dimas (near Pomona and Claremont), which I’m sure was much more practical and affordable.

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