Couples tell how they met . . .

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  THE ANDERSONS tied the knot in 1971.

  Forgotten typewriter unites pair

Carl and Betsy Anderson were both students at Stanford University in 1969. Betsy Neville was from Windsor Square, and Carl had grown up in Ohio. Carl remembers the exact time he first met Betsy on campus.

“It was late September in 1969 at 2 p.m. I had an interview for the Overseas Campuses Board, and Betsy was the chair at the time. I walked in and there she was!”

It wasn’t until Betsy heard his name that she realized who he was. “Carl’s brother had dated one of the girls in my dorm, so I had heard of him before, but never met him. ‘So you’re Carl Anderson,’ I thought!” recalls Betsy. “I knew he’d be a great addition to the committee, so he got the job.”

“We spent a lot of time at The Dutch Goose bar,” where the committee meetings were held, and they were dating by the spring. Betsy was a year ahead of Carl and graduated in 1970.

“She moved to Washington D.C. to work in one of Stanford’s summer programs,” recalls Carl. “I watched her go and thought that would be the last time I ever saw her.” Later that summer, Carl also got a job in D.C. He packed his bags, jumped on a plane and asked a friend to pick him up in D.C.

“When I arrived at the airport, who was there to meet me, but Betsy!” laughs Carl.

“The Stanford community was small in D.C. so I knew the friend who was picking him up, and decided I would go instead,” smiles Betsy.

They spent the summer together in D.C. attending lectures and exploring the city. When their summer programs ended they would have to part ways again. Betsy moved home to Windsor Square and Carl headed back to Stanford to finish his degree.

“Before I left, she called me from California and said she had forgotten her typewriter in D.C. She asked if I could bring it to her on my way back to Stanford,” recalls Carl, “I drove across country with her typewriter and delivered it straight to her parents’ door on Irving Blvd.”

They were engaged in 1971 and were married a year later on June 17 in the garden of Betsy’s family home.

After a year in Germany, and law school for Carl in Michigan, Carl and Betsy moved to California and started a family, eventually buying a house in 1981 a block from her parents in Windsor Square. They have two children, Neville and Mark. Neville, a physician, founded Larchmont Pediatrics and lives close by. Mark works at Cushman & Wakefield in San Francisco. He and his wife have twins.

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  FLAHERTYS have 20 grandchildren.

  Finding love at a college mixer

Bill and Bonnie Flaherty came close to never meeting at all. Bill was attending Loyola University in Westchester, an all-male college at the time, while Bonnie Camero was studying at Marymount University, an all-female college in Palos Verdes.

“One evening, my friends and I put on our finest suits and headed to a mixer that was being held at Marymount College,” recalls Bill. They parked their cars outside the college, walked up the school steps, and paused as they reached the doors. The mixer was filled with young Air Force Student Aides dressed in casual attire.

“We stood there in our smart pressed suits and couldn’t help but feel out of place.”

“I had gone home early from the party,” explains Bonnie. “I’d helped organize the mixer and was tired from the day’s activities. However, a friend convinced me to come back to the party and enjoy the evening.”

Feeling slightly overdressed, Bill and his friends decided to leave. All of a sudden “a little gal came running down the hallway, asking us to stay,” laughs Bill.

Bonnie had just returned to the party and spotted the men hovering at the door in their fine suits and asked them to dance with some of the single girls who needed partners.

“And there she was, my wife, standing right in front of me,” smiles Bill. Later that night, he asked for Bonnie’s phone number and the rest is history. They dated for a few years and were married in 1963 at St. Brendan Church in Windsor Square.

Bonnie grew up in the Hancock Park area and has always loved the neighborhood. It wasn’t long before she and Bill bought a home of their own on Irving Blvd. and started a family.

Bill and Bonnie have six children and 20 grandchildren. “We love getting the whole family together for Thanksgiving, and we still see some of our friends from that night at the Marymount College mixer.”

Bill and Bonnie have been in the area more than 50 years and own a financial planning company downtown.

By Georgia Dolenz

Tags: Bill and Bonnie Flaherty, Carl and Betsy Anderson

Category: People