Persistence pays off for Spokane Valley couple

Lloyd Headley knows a good thing when he sees it. More than 70 years ago, at a Sunday School picnic, he glimpsed a pretty girl wearing white slacks. “I saw her across the crick,” he said. “In those days a girl wearing slacks was something!”

Though only a freshman at Mead High School, Headley made up his mind. Wyla was the one for him. “I knew she had everything I wanted.” Then he grinned and added, “And I knew she’d wear the pants in the family.”

As winter sunlight seeped through the windows of their Spokane Valley apartment, Wyla Headley said, “He never went with anybody else.”

“See how I’ve suffered?” her husband replied, shaking his head.

A shared sense of humor is just one of the things that has made this couple’s marriage enduring. In December, the Headleys celebrated their 70th anniversary.

But the road to true love wasn’t without a bump or two. “He wanted to get serious right away,” Wyla said. “But I was having fun. We never really went steady.”

Lloyd sighed. “I went steady – she didn’t. She was dating everyone who asked!”

But he understood the value of persistence, and he also knew how to make a memorable impression. He drove by Wyla’s house on the way to school each day. One day, he saw her brother waiting for the school bus and decided to stop and give him a ride. He slammed on the brakes, and the car skidded on the loose gravel. “I flipped my dad’s car,” he recalled. “Right in front of her house.”

As the car settled on its side, the first face he saw through the window was Wyla’s mother’s. “I said, ‘Oh no! They’ll never let me go out with Wyla again.’ ”

Fortunately, they allowed him to continue to see her. From then on, however, Wyla’s brother refused to ride with him.

After relentlessly pursuing his prize, on Dec. 30, 1939, Lloyd and Wyla married. Or as Wyla said, “We came to a mutual agreement.”

“I finally wore her down,” said Lloyd.

Lloyd, 24, worked at Inland Chevrolet, and Wyla, 21, was a beautician. The two had settled happily into married life when World War II interrupted their bliss.

Wanting to do his part, Lloyd enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942, hoping to become a pilot. However, he said, “I washed out of pilot school and ended up being an airplane mechanic.”

But his initial disappointment waned when he discovered his assignments were all stateside, so Wyla could join him. Even so, he wasn’t unhappy when his enlistment ended. “I served three years and three months and couldn’t get out soon enough,” he said.

Once back in Spokane, they set about raising their three children. And like most couples they had their share of disagreements, and one in particular stands out. The issue that sparked the argument?

Plants.

According to Lloyd, his wife’s green thumb had gotten out of control. “I love plants,” Wyla admitted. One day he teased her about the plants hanging in the kitchen. His ribbing didn’t go over well with his wife. Headley recalled, “She grabbed plants and started throwing them out in the yard. She threw them everywhere!”

Later, she went out and salvaged what she could.

Perhaps that’s one reason Headley said the secret to a happy marriage is “never hold a grudge. If you get mad, get over it as soon as possible,” he said.

Wyla laughed and agreed. “Sometimes I wanted to kill him, but never divorce him.”

While they may not share a love of plants, the couple found mutual pleasure in the family cabin on Lake Coeur d’Alene, which they purchased in 1965. The cabin became a focal point for fun and memories. Scrapbooks and albums filled with pictures document summer barbecues and family gatherings.

“We have a big grill down on the beach and fixed the most delicious pancakes,” Lloyd said.

Each year the couple hosts an open house on the Fourth of July. Part of the fun is watching new generations create their own memories. “We thoroughly enjoyed it as parents,” Wyla said. “Our kids enjoyed it when they came along and now our grandkids and great-grandkids are enjoying it.”

In addition to time at the lake, the couple loves dancing, playing cards and bowling. “I didn’t start bowling until I was 85,” Lloyd said. Wyla is legally blind, so she has to trust her husband’s direction when it’s time to pick up a spare. “If I don’t do well, it’s all his fault,” she said.

Headley’s dogged pursuit of the girl he first saw at a picnic long ago has paid off in a lifetime of happiness. “It’s been wonderful,” Wyla said. “I would do it over again.”