February 2017

February 2017
THE VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL
www.TheValleyBusinessJournal.com
31
A
Love Story
for the Ages
by Tom Plant
S
Sitting at a table with Rosie and Gerry Wilson at Creekside
Grille at Wilson Creek Winery, I asked how long they had
been married. 63 years, replied Rosie. The three of us
sat together for nearly an hour and they shared their love story
with me.
Rosie had just graduated from Iowa State and was setting
up an Easter Seals cerebral palsy center for children in
Boise, Idaho. Gerry had graduated from the University of
Minnesota and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Air
Force ROTC and was stationed in Mountain Home, Idaho.
On a train ride home to Iowa for Christmas, Rosie “saw
a handsome Air Force lieutenant sitting across from me.”
They got to talking and she learned he was on his
way to cut down Christmas trees for an officers’ party.
Bells went off, she said, and she asked “where did you
say you’re from?” “I didn’t” he answered, “but I’m from
Minneapolis.” “Are you by any chance Gerry Wilson?”
Rosie asked.
A few days earlier on a Saturday, a buddy of hers
who also served in the Air Force had told her about Gerry
and said she should meet him. “He’s tall and blonde like
you. You’d make a good couple.” The following Tuesday
she saw a picture in the paper of two lieutenants and two
nurses in uniform dancing. She couldn’t see the faces, but
one was named Gerry Wilson. The two of them and one
of Gerry’s friends kept each other company on the train
until he got off in Omaha to head home to Minneapolis.
17 days later, Rosie boarded a train in Ames, Iowa “and
guess who got on the train in Omaha?” Gerry was shaving
when a porter came in and said there was a lovely lady
waiting for him in the dining car. She’d ordered French
toast, “the best I’d ever tasted” said Gerry. She wound up
getting the recipe from Union Pacific.
They started talking and Rosie asked if he knew how
to ski. He had only skied down a golf course before, but
assured her he did know how. When they eventually
wound up on the slopes in slopes in Idaho, he thought
to himself while on the ski lift “how do I get down?” He
zigged and fell, zagged and fell and finally went straight
down the hill before swallowing his pride and heading
to the bunny slope. Rosie was in the ski chalet watching
the whole thing and said to her roommate, “see that little
dot up there? That’s Gerry.”
They spent time in Boise with a few other friends,
played games at the Boise Hotel, danced on the roof and
partied every weekend. “Those were really memorable
times”, Rosie told me. They never discussed whether
they were going to get married as it was a matter of
when. Gerry’s wing was scheduled to go to England and
Rosie said “we’ll do it before. I’m not going to let you
run around England.”
At this point I asked Rosie when she knew she was
going to marry him. She held five fingers in the air. “Five
days?” I asked. “No” Rosie answered. “Five minutes. We
were chasing each other until he caught me” Gerry said
“I wasn’t going to get married until I owned a car, had a
job and had $10,000 in the bank. I married the car, got a
job and I still don’t have $10,000 in the bank.”
They shared a few of their secrets to a long marriage.
Number one, said Gerry, “stay alive. The number two rule
we have is to spoil each other” “Marriage isn’t 50/50”
Rosie added, “it’s about 80/80 and that’s what I tell the
brides. The neat thing about this story is that we all still
like each other”
Gerry wound up being stationed in Korea for a year
and they wrote each other every day. It enabled them to
really communicate and plan their future. He sent every
paycheck home which gave them enough for a down
payment on a home in Minneapolis. Rosie got a job as a
home economist at Northern State Power and Gerry was
in management training at a bank.
You’ll find the lovebirds at Wilson Creek nearly every
day, having lunch at the Creekside Grille and thanking
customers for coming. Three of their four children work at
the winery, and “we try to have a Wilson on the property
at all times.” “As far as Rosie and I are concerned, we
can come down here now when we want to, if we want to
and do what we want to. My commute to work is about
two minutes by golf cart. If I’m late to a meeting I say
‘traffic was a nightmare.’ ”