Anne and her close friend, Palma Lee, were both very into horses. Anne and her brother both had horses stabled out behind their mother’s house, and Anne loved to ride – especially with the young men from the nearby military camp. So when Anne and Palma both had some vacation days at the same time, they decided they wanted to take a “horsey” vacation and booked a cabin at a dude ranch in Ellensburg, Washington.

The first night they were there, they unpacked all their things in the cabin and headed up for dinner. At a ranch like this, everyone came to eat in the main hall for all their meals. When Anne and Palma walked in the big front doors, they came into the lounge, which had a huge fireplace with a stone hearth encircling it. And there were several young men sitting on the hearth, chatting. As Anne and Palma walked by, one of the young men looked directly at Anne and said, “Hello, my name is Tom Clement.” She thought he was very forward and ignored him, while thinking “Gee whiz, he’s ugly!”

But Tom wasn’t going to give up that quickly. As the young women went into the mess hall, they sat down at one of the long tables where guests ate family style. Tom came in and sat down right next to her. She was embarrassed to be so publicly pursued.

And Tom still didn’t give up – he kept showing up wherever Anne went; whether it was to meals, or on trail rides (even though he was a Pennsylvania boy and didn’t know much about horses). He was bound and determined to get her attention.