UMW Alumns Tie the Knot

For decades successful couples have walked the halls at the University of Mary Washington, and several notable pairs have gone on to be happily married alumni.
The first time men took classes at Mary Washington was after WWII, when the GI bill gave men who had served in the armed forces the chance to go to college for a degree.
One of these men approached Marceline (Marcy) Weatherly in the campus store Feb. 6, 1947. Elmer (Juney) Morris, a Navy veteran, walked up to Marcy and asked her to the upcoming Valentine’s dance.
“I don’t know how I had the guts!” Juney remembered. “She didn’t tell me her answer right away. She said she had to go home and think about it.”
Due to the strict rules on dating, that were common at the time, Marcy needed permission from her parents in order to go to the dance with Juney.
“I called my parents and told them this guy had asked me out!” Marcy stated.
The pair went on their first official date to the Valentine’s dance in 1947.
“He gave me a gardenia and that’s still my favorite flower,” Marcy said. “We had a lovely time.”
The two went on to attempt the difficult feat of a courtship at Mary Washington in the 1940s. The dating rules were so strict that the two could not go to restaurants or leave campus unless they were part of a group; they had to walk everywhere.
“We spent a lot of time walking around campus, sitting on the benches around Ball Circle and going to events on campus,” Marcy said. “If you could survive a three and a half year courtship at Mary Washington in the 1950s, marriage would be a piece of cake!”
Marcy realized how rare the boys at Mary Washington were.
“25 guys and 1500 girls and I got one.” she said.
Juney proposed on New Year’s Eve of 1948.
“I didn’t have to think about that until the next day, I said yes right away,” Marcy said. “It was a special day but every day we’ve had is special.”
A little bit modern for his time, Juney did not ask Marcy’s parents for permission. When Marcy told her parents that she and Juney were officially engaged, her father said “Well that’s fine, we like Juney, but we want to see Weatherly (Marcy’s maiden name) on that diploma!”
“The engagement lasted too long,” Juney said. “It went on forever and ever and ever.”
Juney and Marcy graduated from Mary Washington in June 1950, and got married Aug. 5, 1950. The two celebrated their honeymoon by taking a road trip to Niagara Falls.
The pair moved to King George, had two children, and eventually grandchildren and great grandchildren. They still live in the house they moved into in 1956.
“It’s been 58 years and you wouldn’t think people could still be so in love and so happy and so thankful for all the things in our life,” Marcy said. fondly. “If you’re looking for a reason for longevity it’s mutual respect and love.”
“Marcy was a very lovely young lady and she still is. She’s an amazing person,” Juney said.
Though the WWII veterans were the first gentlemen to attend classes at Mary Washington, the campus officially went co-ed in 1972. Ron Napier was part of this class of young men.
Ron went to governor’s school a summer during high school, and it took place at Mary Washington. He had such an incredible experience he decided to go to Mary Washington for his undergraduate degree.
Ron did not realize the gender ratio was going to be what it was. He remembered feeling “incredibly intimidated.”
One Sunday morning Ron was eating breakfast in Seacobeck with a girl he was dating, when Kathy Pritchard walked up and started chatting with them. The girl Ron was seeing introduced Ron and Kathy, and the two began a friendship.
“The first time he asked me out he wanted me to help him get a birthday present for my friend he was dating,” Kathy said.
The two went shopping downtown for a present, got dinner at a Greek sandwich shop and began to peak each other’s interests.
“He was funny. He was really nice and funny,” Kathy recalled.
The two continued to spend time together at Mary Washington, and Ron was the more forceful of the two.
“I knew her whole schedule,” Ron confessed. “So I would know how to position myself [on campus] so that she would have to run into me.”
Ron and Kathy did not have as hard a time dating as Juney and Marcy Morris did.
“We had keg parties. I guess that’s a big no no now,” Kathy said with a chuckle.
The pair also enjoyed going on walks in the nearby golf course and cemeteries, and fishing or canoeing on the Rappahanock River.
One Rappahanock adventure ended badly. Ron, Kathy and two friends went canoeing, and the friends ended up destroying their canoe going through the rapids, and the group had to pay $250 for the broken canoe.
“It was a fun time to be in Fredericksburg,” Ron recalled. “It was really a college town.”
“We were really good friends. And we just enjoyed each other and I think we fell in love.” Kathy remembered. But, she also admits, “he was definitely a challenge.”
Ron proposed the night before Kathy’s graduation in 1978 (Ron graduated the year before).
She had one stipulation.
“I told him he had to ask my dad for my hand, for his permission,” she said.
This was harder than Ron expected, and Ron had to ask Kathy’s father several times before the two even spoke.
Eventually, after a bit of the third degree, Ron received Kathy’s father’s blessing.
“He handed me the engagement ring right before graduation,” Kathy said.
Kathy’s family played an interesting role in the service.
She said both of her grandfathers were ministers, each contributed to the single wedding ceremony, arguing over whether to conduct a Methodist or Presbyterian service.
“Each year, each phase, is something different and exciting,” Kathy shared.
The couple have had three children, two of whom chose Mary Washington to attend.
Steen was in a political science class in 1981, when a girl walked up to him and began talking about the upcoming SGA election.
“Hi, have you met Anne Thompson,” she asked. “She’s running against you.”
Dan Steen and Anne Thompson were both running for SGA offices (Anne changed her mind after her first meeting with Dan and they ended up running for different positions) when they met. It was not love at first sight for this couple.
In the early ‘80s, Mary Washington had a lot of couples events on campus, and anytime one of Anne’s friends couldn’t find a date, she would set him up with her good friend Dan.
“I thought it was wrong that we should date when we were both in student government,” Dan ethically admitted.
Almost a year and a half passed before Anne found out that Dan’s feelings towards her were more than friendly.
“A couple of my friends knew I was interested in her, but I didn’t say anything,” Dan shared. “Finally one of my friends said ‘Dan is interested in you.’“
Anne confessed that she was very surprised by the news.
The two had their first date in Spring 1983 when they saw the movie My Favorite Year starring Peter O’Toole.
“She hated it, I liked it,” Dan remembered.
Dan went to law school at UVA and Anne also attended for graduate school after leaving Mary Wash.
The night before Thanksgiving in 1986, Dan got down on one knee at the Ivy Inn in Charlottesville and asked Anne to marry him.
“I was on a law student’s budget, so it was a pretty small ring,” Dan admitted. Dan said watching Anne walk down the aisle of their wedding is still one of his fondest memories.
Cupid’s arrow struck the SGA again a few years later when Liam Cleaver and Ann-Clayton Everett (known as Ace) met on move-in day freshmen year.
Both Liam and Ace lived in Randolph hall their first year at Mary Washington, and Ace had gone to high school with Liam’s roommate. The two started dating a month later, in Sep. 1988.
“I think it was an added benefit that I met Mr. Right on the first day of school,” Ace shared.
Their first date was a movie that was shown in Dodd auditorium for $1 (similar to Cheap Seats now), the animated movie The Aristocats.
The two also enjoyed going to Sammy T’s, or the occasional special evening at the Kenmore Inn.
“I think Fredericksburg has changed tremendously since we’ve been there,” Liam shares.
The pair moved to northern Virginia together after graduation. One night, Liam played the movie they watched on their first date in Dodd auditorium and proposed. The ring had five diamonds, one for each year they dated.
Liam and Ace had a small wedding in Virginia Beach, and now live in Old Town Alexandria.
Obviously, married life changed the relationship a bit.
“The biggest change is since we’ve had children,” Liam shared. “They fundamentally change your life and now we know why.”
Some UMW couples found a less traditional way to meet one another.
“I trapped Steph on a treadmill so that she would talk to me,” Ben confessed.
Their Mary Washington romance is not quite as traditional as the others, Ben shares.
“We knew of each other at school. But we didn’t officially meet until after we had graduated.”
On their first date they went up to Manassas to see a band play. While remembering the night, Ben turned to Stephanie and asked:
“Did we grab dinner before?”
“No,” Stephanie replied, “You weren’t that classy.”
“A friend was hitting on Steph the whole night,” Ben remembered. “He didn’t know we were on a date.”
Stephanie was in her fifth-year at Mary Washington, completing her master’s in elementary education when the pair started dating.
“My girlfriends would joke around after I got an F in biology that I was really here to get my MRS,” Stephanie joked. “I knew I wanted a husband out of Mary Washington.”
Ben popped the question to Stephanie at her class room while she was student teaching in February.
“He organized a whole thing with my coordinating teacher and my second grade class,” Stephanie remembered. “He got three of my favorite boys to go out in the hall. The boys came in with the ring box and said ‘We found this in the hallway.’”
After that, Stephanie froze.
The couple had one unforeseen problem in wedding planning. Stephanie’s mother had some specific requests.
“We had to spent two-hundred dollars to get personalized water bottle labels that said ‘Ben and Stephanie’s Wedding.’” Ben recalled.
The pair married in Summer 2008, at the UMW Alumni Center, and live in Fredericksburg.
But happy couples at UMW are not simply stories from the past. On Oct. 24 at the homecoming dance, Gray Halliburton got down on one knee in front of the entire crowd and asked girlfriend Amanda Heathcock to be his wife. The two are likely to become the newest members of a very special group of couples who met and married their Mary Washington sweethearts.
For decades successful couples have walked the halls at the University of Mary Washington, and several notable pairs have gone on to be happily married alumni.
The first time men took classes at Mary Washington was after WWII, when the GI bill gave men who had served in the armed forces the chance to go to college for a degree.
One of these men approached Marceline (Marcy) Weatherly in the campus store Feb. 6, 1947. Elmer (Juney) Morris, a Navy veteran, walked up to Marcy and asked her to the upcoming Valentine’s dance.
“I don’t know how I had the guts!” Juney remembered. “She didn’t tell me her answer right away. She said she had to go home and think about it.”
Due to the strict rules on dating, that were common at the time, Marcy needed permission from her parents in order to go to the dance with Juney.
“I called my parents and told them this guy had asked me out!” Marcy stated.
The pair went on their first official date to the Valentine’s dance in 1947.
“He gave me a gardenia and that’s still my favorite flower,” Marcy said. “We had a lovely time.”
The two went on to attempt the difficult feat of a courtship at Mary Washington in the 1940s. The dating rules were so strict that the two could not go to restaurants or leave campus unless they were part of a group; they had to walk everywhere.
“We spent a lot of time walking around campus, sitting on the benches around Ball Circle and going to events on campus,” Marcy said. “If you could survive a three and a half year courtship at Mary Washington in the 1950s, marriage would be a piece of cake!”
Marcy realized how rare the boys at Mary Washington were.
“25 guys and 1500 girls and I got one.” she said.
Juney proposed on New Year’s Eve of 1948.
“I didn’t have to think about that until the next day, I said yes right away,” Marcy said. “It was a special day but every day we’ve had is special.”
A little bit modern for his time, Juney did not ask Marcy’s parents for permission. When Marcy told her parents that she and Juney were officially engaged, her father said “Well that’s fine, we like Juney, but we want to see Weatherly (Marcy’s maiden name) on that diploma!”
“The engagement lasted too long,” Juney said. “It went on forever and ever and ever.”
Juney and Marcy graduated from Mary Washington in June 1950, and got married Aug. 5, 1950. The two celebrated their honeymoon by taking a road trip to Niagara Falls.
The pair moved to King George, had two children, and eventually grandchildren and great grandchildren. They still live in the house they moved into in 1956.
“It’s been 58 years and you wouldn’t think people could still be so in love and so happy and so thankful for all the things in our life,” Marcy said. fondly. “If you’re looking for a reason for longevity it’s mutual respect and love.”
“Marcy was a very lovely young lady and she still is. She’s an amazing person,” Juney said.
Though the WWII veterans were the first gentlemen to attend classes at Mary Washington, the campus officially went co-ed in 1972. Ron Napier was part of this class of young men.
Ron went to governor’s school a summer during high school, and it took place at Mary Washington. He had such an incredible experience he decided to go to Mary Washington for his undergraduate degree.
Ron did not realize the gender ratio was going to be what it was. He remembered feeling “incredibly intimidated.”
One Sunday morning Ron was eating breakfast in Seacobeck with a girl he was dating, when Kathy Pritchard walked up and started chatting with them. The girl Ron was seeing introduced Ron and Kathy, and the two began a friendship.
“The first time he asked me out he wanted me to help him get a birthday present for my friend he was dating,” Kathy said.
The two went shopping downtown for a present, got dinner at a Greek sandwich shop and began to peak each other’s interests.
“He was funny. He was really nice and funny,” Kathy recalled.
The two continued to spend time together at Mary Washington, and Ron was the more forceful of the two.
“I knew her whole schedule,” Ron confessed. “So I would know how to position myself [on campus] so that she would have to run into me.”
Ron and Kathy did not have as hard a time dating as Juney and Marcy Morris did.
“We had keg parties. I guess that’s a big no no now,” Kathy said with a chuckle.
The pair also enjoyed going on walks in the nearby golf course and cemeteries, and fishing or canoeing on the Rappahanock River.
One Rappahanock adventure ended badly. Ron, Kathy and two friends went canoeing, and the friends ended up destroying their canoe going through the rapids, and the group had to pay $250 for the broken canoe.
“It was a fun time to be in Fredericksburg,” Ron recalled. “It was really a college town.”
“We were really good friends. And we just enjoyed each other and I think we fell in love.” Kathy remembered. But, she also admits, “he was definitely a challenge.”
Ron proposed the night before Kathy’s graduation in 1978 (Ron graduated the year before).
She had one stipulation.
“I told him he had to ask my dad for my hand, for his permission,” she said.
This was harder than Ron expected, and Ron had to ask Kathy’s father several times before the two even spoke.
Eventually, after a bit of the third degree, Ron received Kathy’s father’s blessing.
“He handed me the engagement ring right before graduation,” Kathy said.
Kathy’s family played an interesting role in the service.
She said both of her grandfathers were ministers, each contributed to the single wedding ceremony, arguing over whether to conduct a Methodist or Presbyterian service.
“Each year, each phase, is something different and exciting,” Kathy shared.
The couple have had three children, two of whom chose Mary Washington to attend.
Steen was in a political science class in 1981, when a girl walked up to him and began talking about the upcoming SGA election.
“Hi, have you met Anne Thompson,” she asked. “She’s running against you.”
Dan Steen and Anne Thompson were both running for SGA offices (Anne changed her mind after her first meeting with Dan and they ended up running for different positions) when they met. It was not love at first sight for this couple.
In the early ‘80s, Mary Washington had a lot of couples events on campus, and anytime one of Anne’s friends couldn’t find a date, she would set him up with her good friend Dan.
“I thought it was wrong that we should date when we were both in student government,” Dan ethically admitted.
Almost a year and a half passed before Anne found out that Dan’s feelings towards her were more than friendly.
“A couple of my friends knew I was interested in her, but I didn’t say anything,” Dan shared. “Finally one of my friends said ‘Dan is interested in you.’“
Anne confessed that she was very surprised by the news.
The two had their first date in Spring 1983 when they saw the movie My Favorite Year starring Peter O’Toole.
“She hated it, I liked it,” Dan remembered.
Dan went to law school at UVA and Anne also attended for graduate school after leaving Mary Wash.
The night before Thanksgiving in 1986, Dan got down on one knee at the Ivy Inn in Charlottesville and asked Anne to marry him.
“I was on a law student’s budget, so it was a pretty small ring,” Dan admitted. Dan said watching Anne walk down the aisle of their wedding is still one of his fondest memories.
Cupid’s arrow struck the SGA again a few years later when Liam Cleaver and Ann-Clayton Everett (known as Ace) met on move-in day freshmen year.
Both Liam and Ace lived in Randolph hall their first year at Mary Washington, and Ace had gone to high school with Liam’s roommate. The two started dating a month later, in Sep. 1988.
“I think it was an added benefit that I met Mr. Right on the first day of school,” Ace shared.
Their first date was a movie that was shown in Dodd auditorium for $1 (similar to Cheap Seats now), the animated movie The Aristocats.
The two also enjoyed going to Sammy T’s, or the occasional special evening at the Kenmore Inn.
“I think Fredericksburg has changed tremendously since we’ve been there,” Liam shares.
The pair moved to northern Virginia together after graduation. One night, Liam played the movie they watched on their first date in Dodd auditorium and proposed. The ring had five diamonds, one for each year they dated.
Liam and Ace had a small wedding in Virginia Beach, and now live in Old Town Alexandria.
Obviously, married life changed the relationship a bit.
“The biggest change is since we’ve had children,” Liam shared. “They fundamentally change your life and now we know why.”
Some UMW couples found a less traditional way to meet one another.
“I trapped Steph on a treadmill so that she would talk to me,” Ben confessed.
Their Mary Washington romance is not quite as traditional as the others, Ben shares.
“We knew of each other at school. But we didn’t officially meet until after we had graduated.”
On their first date they went up to Manassas to see a band play. While remembering the night, Ben turned to Stephanie and asked:
“Did we grab dinner before?”
“No,” Stephanie replied, “You weren’t that classy.”
“A friend was hitting on Steph the whole night,” Ben remembered. “He didn’t know we were on a date.”
Stephanie was in her fifth-year at Mary Washington, completing her master’s in elementary education when the pair started dating.
“My girlfriends would joke around after I got an F in biology that I was really here to get my MRS,” Stephanie joked. “I knew I wanted a husband out of Mary Washington.”
Ben popped the question to Stephanie at her class room while she was student teaching in February.
“He organized a whole thing with my coordinating teacher and my second grade class,” Stephanie remembered. “He got three of my favorite boys to go out in the hall. The boys came in with the ring box and said ‘We found this in the hallway.’”
After that, Stephanie froze.
The couple had one unforeseen problem in wedding planning. Stephanie’s mother had some specific requests.
“We had to spent two-hundred dollars to get personalized water bottle labels that said ‘Ben and Stephanie’s Wedding.’” Ben recalled.
The pair married in Summer 2008, at the UMW Alumni Center, and live in Fredericksburg.
But happy couples at UMW are not simply stories from the past. On Oct. 24 at the homecoming dance, Gray Halliburton got down on one knee in front of the entire crowd and asked girlfriend Amanda Heathcock to be his wife. The two are likely to become the newest members of a very special group of couples who met and married their Mary Washington sweethearts.