Teen Sweethearts Reunite, Marry After 50 Years Apart
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Kathy Cone-
The two met in fourth grade and their young romance blossomed as they moved into eighth grade. Jane Earl, whose family had moved to Indiana from Tennessee about five years earlier, and Thurl Kester, whose father operated Kester Electric Motor Service, were in the same class at McKinley School and would soon find themselves a couple.
Thurl said, “I used to live on Bronson Street, and she lived down the street on Wood. I’d get on my bike and ride down there to see her.” He remembers how she would sometimes go to lunch at Liberty Cafe on Center Street. “I’d go meet her,” he said with a smile.
Back in class, students played a game where they pulled out questions from a hat. Thurl was asked, “Who’s your girlfriend,” and without missing a beat, he pointed to Jane.
Jane’s mother was very strict, they agree. Because Jane was not allowed to date until she was 16, they hung out at each other’s homes, and sometimes went to the fair or to the movies, always accompanied by a parent.
By eighth grade, they got more serious. She was a counter girl at Puckett’s cafeteria, and Thurl was helping out at his father’s shop. Thurl and Jane said that they were secretely engaged at that point – until a rumor caused the split.
“I don’t know if someone was joking, but Thurl heard I stepped out on him,” Jane recalled. “Maybe it was miscommunication.”
Thurl admits he didn’t consider any other explanation, so he immediately broke off with Jane. He showed up at Puckett’s, as Jane relates the story, “Out of the blue, he dropped off my stuff outside the door – my records, my ring and things he had,” beginning the decades-long silence.
“I was a hothead at that age,” he confessed.
Thurl dropped out of school. Not long after, both were married to others.
Asked if they ran into each other around town, both responded, “Warsaw’s small, so yes, sometimes.”
Years passed, children arrived and marriages ended. Jane’s father, Jack, continued to stop by Thurl’s workplace for coffee and a chat. The two men continued their friendship for many years.
After his school years, Thurl began racing cars, an activity that he would love and continue doing into the present. Racing figured into their story years ago, and does now with their upcoming nuptuals.
One of his most vivid memories of seeing Jane from a distance takes him to the Warsaw Speedway of the early 1970s. A driver in an early ’70s GTO would wave as he sped by, she said, and she thought it was just a friendly racer. Thurl still enjoys telling people that he was that driver.
After 48 years of marriage, Thurl’s wife died of heart disease in June 2012. Not long after, his son stopped by the house to take him to the Bremen Fair. No one remembers why, but the plans changed and the Kesters ended up at the Kosciusko County Fair.
That Saturday night, somewhere else in Warsaw, Jane, her daughter and granddaughter started out for the fair in Warsaw, too.
Thurl said he was walking along by himself, hands in his pockets, head down, when seeing a pair of feet in front of him stopped him in his tracks. When he looked up, he knew immediately who was standing before him. Jane. After all those years.
She said they talked, exchanged phone numbers, and promised to get together. The next night, she received his call asking to go out for some coffee and pie. Sitting there next to him at the table, she repeatedly touched his arm. She said, “I couldn’t believe he was really there.”
The next night she received a bouquet of flowers from him.
Now their time is spent at the motor shop or the race track. Today he races mini sprints, and Jane can be found down in the pits with him.
Thurl said that when he climbs into his car to buckle up he sees four hands, and “I know I have only two!” Jane is right next to him, checking on his safety items.
He said he knows they have probably changed through the years, so he wanted to make sure Jane loved him, and that their new relationship was not something based only on the past one, before they made the big commitment. That was proven, he claims, by the way she greets him after a race.
“She’s right there, hugging me, congratulating me and relieved I’m OK,” he said.
Saturday they will get married, 50 years after their secret engagement. The couple will be standing in front of Thurl’s #13 mini sprint.[[In-content Ad]]
The two met in fourth grade and their young romance blossomed as they moved into eighth grade. Jane Earl, whose family had moved to Indiana from Tennessee about five years earlier, and Thurl Kester, whose father operated Kester Electric Motor Service, were in the same class at McKinley School and would soon find themselves a couple.
Thurl said, “I used to live on Bronson Street, and she lived down the street on Wood. I’d get on my bike and ride down there to see her.” He remembers how she would sometimes go to lunch at Liberty Cafe on Center Street. “I’d go meet her,” he said with a smile.
Back in class, students played a game where they pulled out questions from a hat. Thurl was asked, “Who’s your girlfriend,” and without missing a beat, he pointed to Jane.
Jane’s mother was very strict, they agree. Because Jane was not allowed to date until she was 16, they hung out at each other’s homes, and sometimes went to the fair or to the movies, always accompanied by a parent.
By eighth grade, they got more serious. She was a counter girl at Puckett’s cafeteria, and Thurl was helping out at his father’s shop. Thurl and Jane said that they were secretely engaged at that point – until a rumor caused the split.
“I don’t know if someone was joking, but Thurl heard I stepped out on him,” Jane recalled. “Maybe it was miscommunication.”
Thurl admits he didn’t consider any other explanation, so he immediately broke off with Jane. He showed up at Puckett’s, as Jane relates the story, “Out of the blue, he dropped off my stuff outside the door – my records, my ring and things he had,” beginning the decades-long silence.
“I was a hothead at that age,” he confessed.
Thurl dropped out of school. Not long after, both were married to others.
Asked if they ran into each other around town, both responded, “Warsaw’s small, so yes, sometimes.”
Years passed, children arrived and marriages ended. Jane’s father, Jack, continued to stop by Thurl’s workplace for coffee and a chat. The two men continued their friendship for many years.
After his school years, Thurl began racing cars, an activity that he would love and continue doing into the present. Racing figured into their story years ago, and does now with their upcoming nuptuals.
One of his most vivid memories of seeing Jane from a distance takes him to the Warsaw Speedway of the early 1970s. A driver in an early ’70s GTO would wave as he sped by, she said, and she thought it was just a friendly racer. Thurl still enjoys telling people that he was that driver.
After 48 years of marriage, Thurl’s wife died of heart disease in June 2012. Not long after, his son stopped by the house to take him to the Bremen Fair. No one remembers why, but the plans changed and the Kesters ended up at the Kosciusko County Fair.
That Saturday night, somewhere else in Warsaw, Jane, her daughter and granddaughter started out for the fair in Warsaw, too.
Thurl said he was walking along by himself, hands in his pockets, head down, when seeing a pair of feet in front of him stopped him in his tracks. When he looked up, he knew immediately who was standing before him. Jane. After all those years.
She said they talked, exchanged phone numbers, and promised to get together. The next night, she received his call asking to go out for some coffee and pie. Sitting there next to him at the table, she repeatedly touched his arm. She said, “I couldn’t believe he was really there.”
The next night she received a bouquet of flowers from him.
Now their time is spent at the motor shop or the race track. Today he races mini sprints, and Jane can be found down in the pits with him.
Thurl said that when he climbs into his car to buckle up he sees four hands, and “I know I have only two!” Jane is right next to him, checking on his safety items.
He said he knows they have probably changed through the years, so he wanted to make sure Jane loved him, and that their new relationship was not something based only on the past one, before they made the big commitment. That was proven, he claims, by the way she greets him after a race.
“She’s right there, hugging me, congratulating me and relieved I’m OK,” he said.
Saturday they will get married, 50 years after their secret engagement. The couple will be standing in front of Thurl’s #13 mini sprint.[[In-content Ad]]
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