HOW IT ALL STARTED

It all started in 1943 at Cheyenne Mt. High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Bill had been a student there from kindergarten on and was in his senior year of 1943-44.

Kith's family moved to Colorado Springs in 1943:  her father, Edward Ogden, was in the Air Force and had been transferred here and the family had settled in at 320 W. Cheyenne Road from which the four younger entered Cheyenne School (the oldest daughter, Betty, ???). 

At some point, Kith became the girl friend of Bill's best friend, Horton Johnson, and they of course got well acquainted with each other.

Following graduation in 1944, Bill joined the U. S. Navy and was sent to boot-camp at the Naval Station in Chicago, and Kith started college at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.  After boot-camp -- during which Bill had corresponded a bit with Kith, he had a short leave during which he went home for a bit and on his return to Chicago to attend a three month Navy Radio School, he made a short stop at Greencastle to see Kith and things warmed up a bit...

After Radio School, Bill attended a three-month electronics school in Gulf Port, Mississippi, and then a nine-month school on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay where he learned all about radar and sonar equipment.  While there, WWII ended on August 14, 1945.  At the moment when the word of this came down, his company was in the sonar building, and instead of marching back to the barracks as usual, everyone kicked up their heels and ran.  For this disciplinary failure the company was not allowed the customary liberty that evening and consequently missed out on the rowdy celebration which took place in San Francisco... 

After finishing school, Bill was assigned to duty on the USS Cadmus, AR-14, a repair ship stationed in Tampa, Florida, During his tour on the Cadmus he had his appendix removed, helped repair a sonar system on a small Cuban boat and battled seasickness during a voyage to Norfolk, Virginia, and back.

                                On July 8, 1946, he was discharged from the navy in Jacksonville, Florida. 

On his trip back to Colorado from Jacksonville, Bill hitchhiked north thru Washington, D.C., and on up to Rochester, New York, to pay a visit to Kith, it being summertime so she was on vacation from college.  During that visit, they went out to the Ogden summer paradise, the Lake.  They had a very good time (almost too much of a good time at one point), went back to Rochester where Bill resumed his trip westward to his grandparents house at 1810 Willow Circle in Colorado Springs.

In September of 1946, Bill continued to live with his grandparents, enrolled as a freshman at Colorado College, and Kith -- deciding not to return to DePauw -- moved to Colorado Springs, where she  got a job working in a laundry, found a room in Mrs. Breeden's house on the east side of the downtown area across the street from Randy's Malt Shop and hoped to resume friendship with Horton Johnson.

However, as the following weeks went by, Kith and Bill became even better friends, and in November they -- and Bill's grandparents -- decided the time had come for them to get married, which they did!