The Story: Chapter 5 - Courting Julia (1924-1927)
For more information on Judy's family, see the Travis
Family Foundation Web site.
As a student at Graceland, Gene was quite the lady's man. This was all
about to change. In the fall of 1924, when he returned to Graceland as a
college student, he began dating Julia Travis.
Gene and his friend, Glenn Briggs, decided to borrow Glenn’s Uncle
Blair’s Ford to take dates for a Sunday drive.
Glenn had a date with Julia “Judy” Travis. Gene had met her only once before at a party the previous
year. He recalled that she had
spilled some ink on her middy blouse (“those white blouses they used to
wear”) and he advised her how to get the ink stain out without spoiling the
blouse. Gene had a date with Hattie
Schreur, a girl from Michigan. When
Gene and Glenn went by to pick up the girls, they decided to play a trick on the
girls by switching dates and see how they would react.
“And so the girls came to the door and we started back down to the car.
Well, I took Judy’s arm and he took Grace’s arm and he put Grace in
the front seat and I put Judy in the back seat and rode on around and we just
pretended like that was the way it was arranged.”
Gene recalled that they drove past one house in Lamoni and he said to
Judy, “Now when we’re married, that’s where we will live.”
Well, they did end up getting married, and lived in Lamoni, but never
lived in that particular house.
After that first date, they began dating. After
dating for a while, Gene began thinking about how he would propose to Judy.
He was concerned that their age difference might be a problem, since he
was about 30 and Judy was only 20. He
spent several weeks preparing and writing down little statements to use in his
proposal. Then, on a beautiful
Sunday afternoon, Gene and Judy were walking outside and came to the south steps
of Briggs Hall, Judy’s dorm. Gene
began his little speech discussing the attributes of matrimony and the like.
About half way through his speech, Judy got tickled and began laughing.
Gene’s feelings were hurt and he was embarrassed at this. Upset, he left and didn’t speak to Judy for several weeks.
“But they say that love has a way of breaking down
barriers and about two weeks later I decided that rather than a rehearsed speech
on a Sunday afternoon in the bright sunshine, I’d try a little more daring
approach at night on an evening date”, Gene remarked about this episode.
And so Gene and Judy walked one evening up to the railroad tracks between
the college and the highway. There
on the tracks Gene said, “Judy, I’ve got something to tell you.”
And when she asked him what it was, he told her that she was to be his
wife. She consented. It was the spring of 1926.
After attending and graduating from the University of Iowa together, they were
married on August 3, 1927 in Champion, Nebraska at Judy’s parents’
homestead.
Throughout Gene's life, Judy always supported him in all of his activities.
She was the underlying strength and stability of Gene and his family.
The unending hours she spent as his nurse and the years of loyalty and
devotion to him are to be commended. The
open and compatible relationship that Gene and Judy had with each other has
certainly been a fine and challenging example for their entire family.
Judy never would take any honor or recognition upon herself, of course,
but Gene’s greatness is in large part due to her support, her possessiveness,
her generosity and her whole life, dedicated to Gene and the whole family.
Copyright © 2003 - Revised:
04 September 2006
