For many growing up in rural areas, 4-H means a lot of different things. For Ron Leonhardt, according to the emcee at his wedding, Paul Calon, it means Holding Hands with Helen Howard.”
Indeed 4-H did play a bit of a role in Helen and Ron making a love connection, but it took a trip to Toronto to stoke the fire.
Ron grew up on the family farm and went to a country school down the road. He attended high school in Drumheller and stayed in the dormitories.
Helen attended school in Munson and also went to high school in Drumheller, staying in the dormitories. Their paths nary crossed, however, as Helen was three and a half years younger than Ron, and he had already graduated by the time she moved to the dormitories.
Ron tells the Mail, girls and relationships weren't at the forefront of his mind as he pursued farming. He was in the Drumheller 4-H Grain Club. Helen was in a Munson 4-H sewing club called the Merry Makers, and they would bump into each other from time to time.
At the age of 20, Ron attended the Toronto Royal Winter Fair, where he was declared Wheat King of Canada for the second straight year. Helen also participated as part of the Merry Makers with her sister Vi Adie, as they were clothing club members.
Despite growing up a dozen miles apart, it took travelling to Toronto to get to know each other.
“Down at the Royal Winter Fair is when I first thought about him,” said Helen. “It was after that, and he didn’t realize, I stalked him. I was in Grade 12, and the whole next winter I stalked him. I went to hockey games, or anywhere that I would see Ron Leonhardt. I had chased him so long he finally decided he noticed me.”
Well, Ron began to come around to thinking it would be good to have a partner and summoned his courage to give her a call.
“It took a lot of courage to phone a girl in those days. We were all on party lines. There were eight or nine people on a line, so any time the phone rang, anybody could pick up the receiver,” he recalls.
He put his fears aside and asked Helen out to a movie at the Napier Theatre.
He remembers it was Doris Day in “Secret Love.”
“Went to pick her up on Saturday night, and I thought ‘Good heavens, I’m going to pick up a girl, and there are only going to be two of us in the car. What do I talk to her about?’” he said. “I picked her up, and she started talking. That was over 65 years ago, and she hasn’t quit yet.”
More dates followed, and Ron escorted Helen to her graduation.
While their relationship blossomed, they knew it was going to change. Helen was heading for university, and they would be long distance. They had an idea they would be married when she was finished her schooling, and they continued the relationship through letters and the odd telephone call.
Ron would also make his way to Edmonton for social events.
“I stayed in the Pembina residence, and there was only one phone for all of the 100 girls there, so you didn’t do a lot of phoning,” said Helen. “The dances they would put on were formal dances, and they were hosted by different classes like the home economics, the aggies or the engineers. Like when the Home Ec Club would plan a dance, the woman invited the guy, and we had dance programs too. Ron did start to come to Edmonton. And I was home for the summer, so we had a lot of good times.”
Helen finished her education and started working for the Department of Agriculture in Olds. When she was there they were able to see each other more. They were working on their five-year plan to be married in 1959, but Helen became very sick with encephalitis and was in a coma for six weeks.
“They didn't really know if I was going to survive,” said Helen. “The doctor in Calgary said it was a miracle I survived.”
It took almost a year of recovery.
“It was a tough year for family and friends and Ron. Here he was engaged to be married, and I took ill,” she said.
They did manage to tie the knot in 1960 in the United Church in Munson and have been going strong ever since. They had four children, and still live on the farm. They were active in their family life and did a lot of camping. When the children were older, they did a lot of travelling.
When asked what the secret is to being sweethearts for 68 years, Helen says a bit of luck played a role. She feels lucky to have connected with Ron in Toronto, and lucky she survived her illness. On top of that, they have been lucky to have been healthy and have enjoyed a long life.
“I think you have to be interested and support what the other person is interested in,” said Ron.
Throughout the years, he was a part of many agricultural industry organizations, and Helen was involved with many organizations within the church and community.
“I supported the things she was in, and she supported the things I was in,” Ron says.
“After that first date, I walked her up to the door and said, ‘I enjoyed the evening, thank you, we will have to do it again sometime,’ and she said, ‘I would really like that.’ I got in the car and thought, ‘That was pretty good, she’s pretty, and she’s smart, and she is easy to talk to, and I thought she was a pretty special girl.’ I guess I still think that way today.”
