
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 25, 1994                   TAG: 9411250012
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BELLS WILL BE RINGING ...

When Charles Negus took his place at the head of the line at 5:15 a.m. on the first day tickets went on sale for Garrison Keillor's ``A Prairie Home Companion,'' which was last weekend at the Roanoke Civic Center, he had more on his mind than getting a close look at Keillor's red socks. Negus was a man with a mission.

Two weeks earlier, the 22-year-old Virginia Tech graduate student had faxed a letter to WVTF Station Manager Steve Mills, asking for his help in getting a special message read during last Saturday's live national broadcast.

Mills contacted ``Prairie Home's'' producer, who gave her OK to the request.

As Negus settled into his seat - front row, dead center, almost close enough to touch the red socks - he was nervous. It wasn't that this was his first date with Tracy Foiles, a Tech grad student in entomology. In fact, they had been seeing each other since they met in freshman English.

After intermission, Keillor read from the several slips of paper he clutched. Negus braced himself as Keillor read the last message:

``You have been a blessing in my life for four years. Please marry me and make it a life-long commitment. There's dinner in it for you after the show if you say `yes.'''

Negus had to ``gently remind'' Foiles to say ``yes'' as she, hugging him tightly, repeated, ``I don't believe this.''

Wedding bells will ring on July 15, 1995. It won't be a quiet day in Culpeper, Va.

by CNB