Three decades later, high school sweethearts finally marry

In October 1976, Jeannie Smith was a 15 year old who was new to the area. In order to meet new people, she said, she joined band and drama at school. During a cast party, she met a "dreamy, but shy" guy who she hit it off with. He began to look for her at school and came to sit with her in the band section during football games.

"It took him three months to ask me out, but we were both new to this, neither having dated before," she said.

From that first date, the couple was inseparable. For her 16th birthday, Stephen gave Jeannie a promise ring to "go steady," and she began dreaming of their future. But, after 2-1/2 years of dating, the couple ended their relationship just before Jeannie's high school graduation.

Ultimately, the boy who'd run the lights for that drama production moved to Nashville to continue in the entertainment industry. Jeannie graduated from Gardner-Webb and married a local man. Ironically, both lived in Nashville for a brief time, but didn't encounter one another.

In 2006, though, Jeannie and Stephen's mothers were in a water aerobics class and began sharing what their children were up to now. Stephen hadn't married, and Jeannie was going through a divorce.

"That piqued my interest enough to track Stephen down through the Internet. I had no intention other than to catch up with an old friend," Jeannie said.

The couple began corresponding and then meeting for coffee when he was in town visiting his parents. As their friendship was renewed, Jeannie continued, their feelings each other were renewed, too.

"Within a year we came to the realization that we wanted to marry, but still lived in two different states," she said. "I couldn't move to Nashville since I had two children who needed to be near their father. Stephen had just been offered a promotion at work and was faced with a grim job prospect in rural North Carolina."

But, love won out - Stephen told Jeannie he'd spent the first half of his life in his career, and that he wanted to spend the last half of his life in love, even if it meant giving up his career. ("Luckily, he didn't have to since he was hired to manage a brand-new auditorium in Spartanburg shortly after his decision was made," Jeannie explained.)

In June 2008, 31 years after she started scribbling Mrs. Jeannie Smith in notebooks, the couple was married.

And the promise ring?

"I still have it," Jeannie said.