Bad boy straightens out for preacher’s daughter.
Gene Calvert left Mabelvale High School in the 10th grade to find his way in the big wide world — “I had gotten crossways with my dad,” he says. He went to work for a construction company, following jobs around the state.
After a year of hard labor he decided to return to Little Rock, to all the chapters he was too quick to close, and finish his education, joining the class previously behind his. You might say that on the trip of his life, that educational delay provided him a partner.
His return also put a wrinkle in Rosetta Mowery’s plans. The daughter of the Rev. H.L. and Ethel Mowery was already engaged.
Gene was something of a renegade bad boy. Not only had he dropped out of school after a battle of wills, he also rode a motorcycle and took on a couple of hairstyles that were considered more avant garde than vogue, at least in the Bible Belt.
“I was just crazy enough that if anyone dared me to do something I would probably do it,” he says. “Most of the time in high school I ran with some of the roughest crowd around Little Rock. By the grace of God I never got in [serious] trouble, but I came very, very close.”
He played ball, too. But Rosetta wasn’t allowed to go to school ballgames, even when she wasn’t in church. Her family had one car, she says, and her father needed it for church business. And, to be clear, Calvert sat near her in class sometimes but that was the extent of it. They certainly didn’t run in the same circles.
“We really didn’t have anything in common, looking back on it,” he says.
Rosetta was in the dark about Gene’s bad boy ways. What she knew about him was that he was good-looking, with his coal-black hair and winning smile, and he had a charming personality, she says.
Her circle of existence was small, and she enjoyed encountering him in it. Chatting in the hallway and in class and running into him on rare outings was more memorable than similar instances with other boys.
Once Rosetta realized her feelings for Gene, she sent the other young man she was involved with a Dear John letter. For his part, Gene kept well clear of Rosetta until he got word that she was unattached.
Falling in love with Rosetta changed his life — and his ways, Gene says.
“That was probably most of it. She’s like that song, ‘Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes, I’ll never love blue eyes again,’” he crooned. “And after I got saved in 1955, I changed even more. I had had my name on the church roll and I was raised in the church, I knew about church, but that didn’t mean much, I guess.”
Gene was drafted into the Army after graduation and went to Alabama for basic training. He pitched for a fast-pitch softball team on base that won a championship game. His commanding officer gave him an extra week of leave for the win, and Gene used that time to hitchhike home and propose.
He had sold his motorcycle in 12th grade and was without a car at the time. Rosetta had one, though, bought with her earnings from a job at Southwestern Bell. It was in that vehicle that Gene asked her to marry him, while a movie neither of them can remember played on the big screen of the Asher Drive-In Theater.
Gene was 20 and Rosetta was 19 when they were married on Sept. 19, 1953, in Rosetta’s parents’ home, with her father officiating.
Gene is a retired woodworker. He and Rosetta live just a few houses down from the house where she was born, on the same rural stretch of road she has called home her entire life.
The Calverts have three children — Jamie Calvert of Little Rock, Cynthia Trosclair of Rockwall, Texas, and Bob Calvert, who is a missionary in Uganda. They have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild, with another on the way.
“Every grandkid we have has lived out of the country. We’ve gone to Africa twice and we’ve been to Costa Rica; [Rosetta] has gone to Mexico when Jamie lived down there,” Gene says.
The Calverts are having an anniversary party from 2 to 4 p.m. Sept. 14 at Crystal Hill Baptist Church in Little Rock, the church founded by Rosetta’s father. Friends are welcome to drop by.
“If I hadn’t dropped out of school, this more than likely wouldn’t have happened,” says Gene of his 60 year romance with Rosetta. “Things happen for a reason.” If you have an interesting howwe-met story or know someone who does, please call (501) 3783496 or email:
cjenkins@arkansasonline.com