A Fair-y tale love story

In the fall of 1979 at the top of the Ferris wheel, Kevin Jones worked up his courage and kissed his date, Deidre for the first time.

Down below, the lights of the fairway glittered and the scent of funnel cakes and candy apples floated for miles, mingling with the scent of fresh sawdust on the ground while David Bowie's "Fame" played.

Forty-four years, four children and many memories later, and the Jones returned from Montana for their second date at the Cleveland County Fair.

The couple wanted to re-enact that first date when they were just a couple of teenagers, stealing a kiss on the top of the Ferris wheel.

“I finally got the courage up to ask you to the fair, which was quite a leap for me,” Kevin said. “It was like a regular normal date. We weren't even close to each other until we got on the Ferris wheel. It was a double Ferris wheel then. The Ferris wheel operator stopped it at the top. I mustered up all the courage I could, and I kissed her.”

Last year, when they saw a post on Facebook about the Cleveland County Fair, Deidre said Kevin told her, “We’re going next year, and we’re going to make it work.”

Kevin Jones said this is his first time back in Cleveland County in 23 years.

“This is the trip,” he said. “We chose it specifically to go to the fair.”

Saturday night they returned to do all the favorite fair things - eat vinegar fries and candy apples, try win a prize at one of the games, walk the fairway - and of course - ride the Ferris wheel.

In 1979, back when they were still kids, they remember there was a chill in the air. Kevin tried to win a toy for Deidre, and she remembers David Bowie’s Fame was playing.

Many years later, the details are fuzzy, but Kevin still remembers those first date butterflies.

“All I remember, honestly other than the Ferris wheel, I remember being incredibly nervous,” he said.

Deidre said it was tradition to go to the fair every year and when she was younger, her mother worked for the local hospital and they would get free tickets.

“They used to do fireworks toward the end,” she said.

Kevin said back then, the choices for a date were limited, with one of the options being “driving the lap.”

“Highway 74 driving the lap,” he said. “You would take your car and just drive round and round and pull into all the fast food places and hang out and talk.”

One of the other options was going to see a movie or hanging out at Hardees or somewhere similar.

“The fair seemed good,” he said. “I figured that would be how she was most likely to say yes.”

Before that first date, Kevin would drive Deidre to her job working at Hardees.

“I worked the drive thru,” she said. “He got lots of free food.”

Kevin Jones grew up in Lattimore on New House Road and Deidre in Shelby until her family moved ,and she transferred to Crest High School where they first got to know each other.

One day, when Deidre’s ride home didn’t show up, she saw Kevin walking down the hall and asked him to drive her home.

Kevin said he agreed.

"Plus she was pretty cute," he said.

The two fell in love young, got married in 1980 when they were still teenagers, had their first child shortly after Deidre turned 17 and when Kevin turned 18, he joined the Navy and they were off seeing the country.

They lived in many places including Connecticut and Virginia Beach and Georgia, where Kevin was a police officer in Atlanta. In 1997, they moved to Montana.

“We love it there,” Deidre said.

After their four kids were through with college, Kevin decided it was his turn and went back to school and earned a degree in Biology.

He was in grad school when COVID-19 hit and interfered with his program. He now works for the post office in Anaconda, where they live.

Deidre said she is a pharmacy system specialist for Bozeman Health, where she has worked for 15 years.

Their four kids are now grown and they have seven grandchildren.

“We pretty much grew up together and now we're growing old together,” Kevin said.

Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Couple return to Cleveland County Fair after 44 years for second date