Nettie & Leo Honeycutt
MARRIED: March 8, 1953 - 73 Years
West Monroe, Louisiana
L. B. & Marie Honeycutt met at church in 1952 in rural West Carroll Parish near Oak Grove. L.B. was inducted into the US Army in 1952 and deployed to Fairbanks, Alaska, to Ladd Air Force Base as part of the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning) during the Korean Conflict. He monitored North Pole radar systems and manned anti-aircraft cannons, watching for any signs of Soviet missiles crossing the North Pole.
Corporal Honeycutt took leave to fly back to Louisiana and married his sweetheart, Nettie Marie Smith, on March 8, 1953. She moved to Fairbanks with him for two years and enjoyed 12-foot snows and below zero temperatures for months at a time. They drove home in 1955, he worked as a cost accountant at Olinkraft in West Monroe. She worked at Central Bank. They opened a grain elevator in 1962, became involved in promoting Louisiana agriculture through the LSU Extension Service and Mid-South Soybean Shippers Association.
L.B. was appointed Mayor of Goodwill, LA, by Governor John McKeithen. Marie and L.B. raised two kids 20 years apart, a son Leo III and a daughter Amanda. Amanda, a nurse, is in the medical industry. Leo III was a television reporter in Louisiana and for Good Morning America, wrote the biography of late Governor Edwin Edwards, and won the Louisiana Literary Award. Marie and L.B. have been married 73 years and still reside at home in West Monroe.