I wanted to share my own family's NTSU love story. My parents met at North Texas State in the fall of 1954 when my late father, Dr. Francis (Jim) Thompson ('52), was a grad student there. He had spied my mother, Julia Troeger ('55), "a tall beautiful brunette," around campus and was most surprised when she walked into his girlfriend's apartment to drop off her class notes while he was lounging on the sofa. He later called Julia for a date, but she would not go out with him while he was still dating their mutual acquaintance. So Jim broke the date he and his girlfriend had made for Homecoming that fall and took Julia instead. They married May 29, 1955, just after Julia graduated with a bachelor's in home economics.

After Jim earned his master's in 1956, they lived in Plano where both taught in the public schools. My father finished a Ph.D. at Texas Tech in 1970 after they moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, so he could join the history faculty at Western Kentucky University. He continued to teach there until his death in 2003. Julia, age 89, now lives in Lexington, Kentucky, near two of their three daughters. She still loves to peruse the North Texan and stays in touch with many of her beloved college friends and Chi O sorority sisters.

Amy Thompson
Columbus, Ohio