This Story Was Written For William
Roy
Buchanan's Memory
Medallion.
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Roy & Sara:
How It All Began
Written by Candice
Buchanan, as
told by Sara (Livingood)
Buchanan
| Roy "Papap" and Sara
"Grama" met at Center Township Vocational High School where they were classmates
for two years. Papap lived only two doors away from the school building
where his parents were custodians. Grama, her sister, Rachel, and her brother
William were sent to this special school by their father John Livingood
so that they could learn the skills their mother did not live to teach
them. Frances (Cook) Livingood died of pneumonia in 1926, leaving her husband,
John, to raise their four young children.
According to Grama,
she and Papap admired each other from a distance, but never mentioned their
crushes. She says that Papap preferred for girls to ask him out because
he did not want to risk rejection. Besides this Grama was only sixteen
when she graduated high school so she said she was too young to date during
those years.
The relationship finally
got started at the end of a school field trip. The class had sold subscriptions
to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette earning themselves a trip to Pittsburgh.
The day was very eventful, a tour of Heinz factory that included lunch,
a visit to a music conservatory, a flower show, sightseeing at the recently
constructed Cathedral of Learning at Pittsburgh University, and finally
a movie called "Mystery of the Wax Museum" which featured wax figures coming
to life. Despite the action packed afternoon, Grama says that the excitement
really began on the ride home. |
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The small country
school had managed to provide two buses to transport the students between
Rogersville and Pittsburgh, about an hour trip in present-day vehicles.
On the return trip the bus Papap was on broke down and the displaced students
squeezed onto Grama's bus. Grama consequently rode home sitting on Papap's
lap. Grama recalls that they both enjoyed it and so the relationship began!
Most of their dating
took place after they graduated high school in 1934. Grama moved to Waynesburg
with her family that year because her father wanted to make it easier for
his three oldest children to commute to Waynesburg College. After this
move it became much easier for Papap and Grama to visit.
They were married on
Grama's 21st birthday, June 27, 1938, after Grama's college graduation.
Rev. Harvey Funk performed the ceremony at the First Baptist Church in
Waynesburg, Greene County, PA. After the ceremony, Kenny Guthrie, one of
their ushers, drove the newlyweds to Buckeye Lake, Columbus, Ohio to spend
a week honeymooning. |
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