By Harriet Dawson
Before Dean Loudy was “The Voice of the Northern Neck,” he was the dream in the eye of a young lady who didn’t even know she had such a dream. But she did!
She would later say, it was God who had sent Dean to her.
Born 2,000 miles apart, he near Chicago, Illinois and she in a small town in Virginia, they “discovered” one another in South Boston, Virginia.
Both were employed there…Mildred as a secretary/bookkeeper for the local Ford dealership and Dean had a job as the night announcer/engineer at the local radio station.
At age 19, Mildred heard, while living in South Boston, the voice that would change her life forever. She was listening to the evening “call in a request radio show” and decided to request a song. She and the “voice” struck up a conversation.
And they chatted and chatted and chatted and after multiple chats, they decided to meet each other. Not only did Mildred like his voice, she liked HIM…and he liked her.
They dated for a while and Dean proposed and Mildred started making wedding plans.
Something called THE KOREAN WAR changed the beautiful music Dean and Mildred were making in South Boston. Following in his brother’s footsteps, Dean joined the Navy and left for boot camp, promising to return on boot camp leave when the two would become married…just as Mildred had planned.
Mildred eagerly awaited the end of boot camp and her wedding day but changes in the war’s intensity eliminated boot camp leave and all wedding plans were put on hold.
Ever the optimist and a planner, Mildred quickly made plans to travel to Great Lakes to marry the man with the voice she loved. She traveled on her first airplane and flew a thousand miles all by herself to be married.
Once there and reunited with her Dean, all that was left to do was to get a license. Mildred was ready with notarized letters of permission as they entered the County Courthouse to get the license.
BUT there was another problem. Mildred only had to be 18 in Illinois, but Dean (the man) had to be 21 and he was only 20 and would need parental consent.
Next problem. Dean was an orphan…both of his parents had died years before and a guardian had never been appointed for him. After a week of trying to find someone to become Dean’s guardian, Mildred returned to the office of The Clerk of the Court in tears.
Her marriage would remain a dream…at least for a few more years.
The Clerk was moved by Mildred’s tears and offered a solution. “He would get the judge to name him guardian and he would give Dean permission to marry Mildred.” And J. B. Morse did just that!
Dean and Mildred got the license, went to The Chapel By The Lake to continue pursuing their dreams. The Chaplain had assembled a wedding party, all strangers to Dean and Mildred, but all wonderfully legal. They were married.
If you ask Dean and Mildred today, they will tell you their memories are all wonderful. They remain grateful to Chaplain Calvin Elluott, who not only married them but helped Mildred find her first job in Great Lakes as a “nanny” which also included living quarters. This was another miracle solution to the problem of not having any place to live.
The newly married couple lived on Admiral’s Row, in the home of a Navy Captain and his family, caring for their five-year-old daughter.
For the next nine months, the couple became part of this family and the Captain’s wife became like a surrogate mother to Mildred, teaching her many things Mildred’s own mother had never had a chance to teach her.”
This was just the beginning as over the next 75 years there would be more moves and adventures and many more memories.
Seventy-five years of marriage have forged a partnership that has survived multiple moves and new jobs, the building of a radio station and their own home, the birth of two children, two floods, and a commitment to each other that cannot be disputed.
They credit a strong relationship with their God, their faith and belief in one another, their willingness to laugh and cry and talk with one another, for the successes they have experienced and the challenges they have survived.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DEAN AND MILDRED. WHAT AN INSPIRATION! WHAT A TEAM! WHAT A LOVE!
Reprinted with permission of “Our Neighborhoods,” Winter 2025-26 edition.