Marianne and Jim Houston
What a wonderful thing was the Loving Decision by the Supreme Court in 1967! When we married in 1968 we rejoiced with much of the nation: interracial marriage was finally legal in the U.S. When we celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2018 we called our party “Celebrate Loving” with a nod to that Decision and to our years of love and growth as a couple.
We met in a Coffee House on campus in Madison, Wisconsin, and spent a happy half-hour over bad coffee and a scarred old table. We fell in like and then in love, and were married the next year on-campus surrounded by family and friends. It seems to us that the many differences between us have always been the source of greater growth!
Marianne joined the Loretto Community at 18 and has maintained a lifelong commitment to the charisms of this order of religious sisters; with bachelor’s and master’s degrees she has been a teacher at all levels for 60+ years and has been a leader in the fields of personal and professional development. Jim’s degrees in business and finance and a Ph.D. in political science have led to teaching and leadership in these fields, and the co-founding of a very successful community development credit union.
Since leaving Mc Chord Air Force Base in Washington in 1970 we have lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where we raised our two sons.