Her marriage turned abusive, and she divorced the man. Eventually some friends helped her find a new job in Houston. So she moved back to Houston and Gulf Oil.

When the former sailor heard she was in Houston, he was working in Washington DC. He immediately boarded a train for Texas. When they met again, it was just like 1942 and they married in a small ceremony.

As a newlywed, she told him, "I love you but I won't live like this forever." So he straightened up, started graduate school and obtained his PhD from Rice University in Houston in 1959.

Eventually he landed a position at the school where he started his college career, North Texas State University (formerly North Texas Teachers College, and now called The University of North Texas). There they raised their two sons and looked forward to their grandchildren.

Unfortunately, she would never hold one of her grandchildren. After 33 years of marriage, she passed away as a result of lung cancer in 1985. He never remarried. With the love of his life now gone, the house (now empty of children) became a shrine to his departed wife. The last Christmas tree (an artificial one, to be sure) never came down in his lifetime. However, he did see his granddaughters before cancer of the pancreas took his life in 1993, his first granddaughter being named after his wife. In 1995, two years after his death, his first grandson was also named after him.

Part 1, 2, 3, Epilogue