By David A. Wilson
Just days before Valentine's Day, on Feb. 6, Tom and Joanne Winters, California, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with an evening out. This is actually a second celebration, since the two went to Branson last fall for several days. Branson had something for both - he wanted to go to the Orphan Car Show put on by the Ozark Trails Chapter of the Studebaker Driver's Club and she wanted to go to the Rockbridge trout ranch to fish.
According to Joanne it works out well, since she likes to fish and Tom likes to eat fish. He explained that any fish caught are paid for by the pound, then the private business filets the fish, packages them and fast cools them for the trip home.
They are planning another trip later this year. This time, they plan to travel to the west and north.
The 50 years of marriage have provided them plenty of time to work these things out. For example, Joanne said she likes chocolate and flowers, with a slight preference to chocolate. As far as flowers, red roses are are favorite, but she noted there were white roses at their wedding.
The 50 years of marriage are not the whole story. They actually met years before.
When St. Louis native Joanne Koby was 10, and visiting her grandmother in Jonesburg for the summer, she went to a Donkey Softball game. A friend introduced her to Colorado native Tom Winters, whose family had moved to Jonesburg a year or so before.
Over the years, they saw each other from time to time over the next few years. She went on to graduate from Lindbergh High School. He graduated from Montgomery County R-II and went to work in St. Louis.
"One day I was driving home from work," she said, "and the car behind honked. I recognized the car so I pulled into a Steak n Shake."
As can be guessed, it was Tom. They became reacquainted and dated. Not long afterwards, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Then later, home on leave after Basic Training, he proposed.
Home on leave again in 1965, they were married and left for Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, NM. Over the next four years, they were stationed in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. When Tom left the Air Force, he went to school in Tulsa, Okla., to the Spartan School of Aeronautics Then, they lived in Pittsburg, Kan., where he was airport manager and ran the repair shop. In 1990, they moved to Jefferson City, where he was employed by the Missouri Department of Conservation until 2007. They moved to California in 2008.
The extended family of Tom and Joanne are: two children, Tracy Echols and husband Kenny of Diana, Texas, and Tom Winters Jr. and wife Karen, Colorado Springs, Colo.; granddaughter Heather Berry and husband Jason, Blue Springs, step granddaughters Jackie Starr and husband Perry, Ashley Epperson, Colorado Springs, and McKenna Echols, Diana, Texas; great granddaughter Kierstyn Berry, Blue Springs, step great grandson Wyatt Starr, Texas. Another great grandchildren is expected later this year.