By McKenna Graham
Dr. Leonard Riley, 89, and wife Terry Riley, 87, love a good time and recently sat down with me over their nightly happy hour drinks at The Forum at Brookside to tell me about their 68-year romance and how they keep fun and adventure alive.
M: How did you meet each other?
Dr. L: “We met because she was dating my very best friend, and they kind of broke up, and I said do you mind if I take her out, and he said ‘no,’ and so it all started right then and there from that point on.”
M: What was your first date?
Dr. L: We went dancing to a big band at a pavilion outside the Detroit area and that was our first big date.
T: “He asked if he could take me out, and the deal was, I wasn’t going to go with him unless he knew how to dance. So, he went down to Arthur Murray [Dance Studio] and took some lessons and then asked me out.”
M: Do you all still like to dance?
Dr. L: “That’s one of our favorite things at The Forum. New Year’s Eve, they have a big deal here. They bring in the live music, a band, put up a dance floor and we have a fabulous meal and dance.”
T: “We had lobster and filet mignon and we had the band and decorations and it was great… of course our New Year’s ends at 8:00!”
M: Do you have a favorite Valentine’s Day memory?
Dr. L: “We have one that sticks out in our mind. We were on vacation, we used to winter down in Hilton head South Carolina and a bunch of our friends down there surprised us with a big Valentines party, and we had the champagne and the party.”
T: “And that went to midnight! And we have a Valentine’s Day party every year here. They make a big deal out of Valentines here. They have drinks, thank God, and live music… and Jerry’s making his mother’s lasagna this year. Our chef [Jerry] has been here for 17 years.”
M: What were your early years of marriage like?
T: “When we were first married we were in college and we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and I started having babies — one, two, three — and so [Leonard] dropped out and the only way to stay in school and find a part-time job was to work at Arthur Murray teaching dancing, so we ended up owning two Arthur Murray studios… And we moved from Albuquerque to California, and we owned two studios there. It was fun. We didn’t finish our education until he graduated from dental school.”
L: “We decided after ten years that we better do something a little bit more productive so I went back to school, with a family now, and finished my education in California, at Cal State, and was accepted to dental school at Louisville. That’s what brought us to Louisville.”
T: “At the age of 36.”
L: “Oldest guy in my dental class! They called me ‘Pops!’ And I finished school, and we loved Louisville so much that when I had a chance to go back and practice in California I turned it down and stayed here, opened an office and practiced here for 25 years…and then turned the office over to one of my sons, who then became a dentist.”
T: “I’m really proud of [Leonard]. He had a tough road to hoe. When he graduated from dental school, we were really broke. I was working three jobs, and the kids were in high school, and my oldest son was graduating from high school when [Leonard] was graduating from dental school. So I went up to the high school and I asked them if they could bring their band down… Leonard would come home and then he’d go to back to work where he bartended part time. So this day, which was also Mother’s Day, the band kids came down and formed the letters “DMD” (Doctor of Dental Medicine), and someone called WHAS11, and we got 11 minutes on the nightly news. We’ve had a charmed life. We still have a lot of fun.”
M: Final question! What’s your happy hour beverage of choice?
Dr. L: “I’m a bourbon and water man.”
T:” I like chardonnay, but I drink anything! Except beer; I don’t like beer or bourbon.
M: "Cheers to you both and congratulations on nearly seven decades of life together! Here’s to many more years of dancing through life.”