Took A While

Kimball County High School Class of 1967 graduated 99 seniors. Fifty years later, at their class reunion, two of those classmates reconnected and have since married and made their home in Kimball.

As they approach their one-year wedding anniversary on July 16, Stephen and Karen Gilliland laughed when Stephen said, "We are still talking to each other." They admit they have "been very happy." Stephen said, "The wonders of class reunions."

Although the COVID-19 situation has put a damper on their various travel plans, they acknowledge that the whole situation hasn't been bad at all. Although, they are looking forward to a possible vaccine and resuming their plans of travel, which have been put on hold for now.

Stephen said, "If we could go to an art museum, a national park and a Shakespeare play, we're having a good time."

In so many ways, Stephen and Karen Gilliland's paths had crossed in Kimball many times. They attended kindergarten through senior year together. Karen Kiker's father worked for Stephen's father, Bruce Gilliland, in the oilfield.

Karen recalls, "The first time I saw Stephen, he and his parents were living on Washington Street, and his mother invited me to his birthday party, a 6-year-old's birthday party. Stephen let me know that he was annoyed that there was a girl at his birthday party."

Ironically, they even went to a junior high dance together. Wilma, Stephen's mother drove.

Karen, as a teenager, even cleaned house for Wilma Gilliland, but then that was as far as it went until the 2017 class reunion. In high school, the teens ran in different circles, Stephen in the band circle and the canon firing company at high school football games.

Karen, on the other hand, worked at the hospital beginning in 8th grade and as an 18 year-olds said, "I wanted to just get out of Kimball."

Not knowing what the future held, Stephen said, "For some reason, we didn't socialize, we didn't date, we didn't really see each other, we were running in different circles, but I always had a soft spot for Karen, from that 6 year-old birthday party she attended. I always remembered that."

Stephen graduated high school and enrolled at the University of Miami, while Karen attended school in Colorado Springs, earning a nursing degree and then married an Air Force Academy cadet.

Karen, the RN, practiced nursing on and off for 40 years and raised three children, traveling all over the world while her husband was in the Air Force, and finally settling in 1985 in Montgomery, Ala.

"We lived in England two different times, and I really fell in love with all the culture, but I just couldn't crack this thing with Shakespeare," Karen said. "But I was very curious about Shakespeare and someone told me that I needed to talk to Stephen Gilliland.

"I tried in the mid-90s to call," she said, and then she tried getting a hold of him a few more times but was unsuccessful.

Stephen's career path was different. After the University of Miami, he returned to this area.

"I never lost my love for Nebraska," he said.

After teaching English in Dix for two years, he completed 30 years of teaching at Kimball, retiring in 2004. Mention the name Gilliland and everyone automatically thinks of the Shakespeare Festival at the high school.

Finally, after attending the funeral of a dear friend and classmate, Stephen did call Karen, and they talked over an hour about "everything" including Shakespeare. At that moment, Karen decided she would come for the 50-year class reunion.

At the September 2017 high school class reunion,"Karen showed up and we just hit it off," Stephen said. "The thing that really works well for us, and continues to, is that we have so many common interests, we never lack for anything to talk about."

After the reunion, Karen returned to Montgomery.

Stephen said, "We started talking on the phone, frequently and consistently. Learning more things about each other. There was definitely a chemistry. So in January, we began making trips back and forth, the time lapses between our trips were getting shorter and shorter."

Finally, last summer, they just decided to get married, so they tied the knot at Grand Lake, Colo.

Stephen said, "We had a small group of friends come in, on the banks of the Grand Lake. We are definitely at an age where we're not much for pomp and circumstance. Get the license, read the vows and wish each other luck and off we go."

So now together at home, they read "Hamlet" and study other Shakespeare plays and talk to each other.