Every Sunday morning, Gene and Carolyn Quarles of Morristown walk into church holding hands. And when they do, the greeter at the door says, "Here comes the First Baptist lovebirds."
They agree they are lovebirds and have been for all the 61 years they’ve been married.
Gene, a native of Jefferson County, and Carolyn, from Newport, met at what was then called East Tennessee State College. He was one of the male student athletes who would stand and watch the girls go into physical education classes in their PE outfits.
"They would whistle and carry on," Carolyn recalls. That didn’t do him any good in meeting the co-ed, however.
"She wouldn’t stop," Gene said. "She just walked faster."
May Day celebrations were a big deal back then and they finally officially met when both were selected to the May Day court, she as a freshman and he as a junior. Gene was a big man on campus, playing football, basketball and baseball for the college. Carolyn said she was secretly pleased when he asked for a date, but she wasn’t expecting to have to hike for it.
It was about a mile and half from the campus into town, and they walked on their first date.
"He didn’t have a car and he was too cheap to buy a bus ticket," Carolyn said. "He had money. He was older than me and he’d been in the Navy."
The couple kept dating, but after her sophomore year of college Carolyn dropped out to take a job teaching in a one-room school in Cocke County, a common practice of the time. Gene was coaching and teaching at Elizabethton. They kept in touch by mail and Gene pestered her in his letters to get back to college and complete a degree. She finally agreed. She also agreed to marry him after three years of dating.
They were wed on Friday, Jan. 19, 1951 at the home of her parents. For a honeymoon, they went to Asheville, N.C., but not for long. Gene had to be back at work Monday morning. Once they were married, he also bought a car—a brand new 1951 Chevrolet.
"He paid cash for it. He was too cheap to buy a bus ticket but paid cash for the car," Carolyn said.
Gene said the Navy was responsible for his cash for a car. He served in the South Pacific for about two and half years. One time, he was at sea for 11 straight months with no place to spend his pay. When he got paid, $764 he recalls, he saved it. He also saved money from the $75 monthly stipend he got under the GI bill in college.
"That’s how I was able to buy the car," he said.
Eventually, both of them earned masters degrees, he at ETSU and Carolyn at the University of Tennessee. They moved to Morristown in 1957. He coached, mostly basketball, at Morristown High School (there was only one then) until West High was opened in 1967. He started coaching there and kept it up until 1977, when he went to being a classroom teacher only, teaching math and physics. When he finally retired from public schools, he taught one more year at All Saints’ Episcopal School before final retirement in 2006.
Carolyn taught English at the old Morristown Junior High School and later at Lincoln Heights. After 31 years, she retired in 1995.
Besides their shared interest in teaching, the couple said the secret to a long marriage is doing things together.
"I tell her I love her every morning. I tell her she’s pretty," Gene said.
"Trust in the Lord," Carolyn said. "Things are not always smooth but we’ve never had a big argument."
"Respect each other," Gene added. "We can laugh together, we can laugh at each other, and we can laugh at ourselves."
They have two daughters and five grandchildren. When not doing family things, Carolyn likes to read "real books." Gene didn’t discover computers until he retired, but he now reads on one, checks the news and even does Facebook.
"I stay on the computer," he said.
Once a week, on Tuesdays, they visit the Senior Citizens Center on Lincoln Avenue in Morristown to play a few hours of Rook. When the Rook games are finished, they walk out to their vehicle to return home—holding hands, of course.
