
DATE: Thursday, June 12, 1997               TAG: 9706120038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  105 lines

DESTINY REUNITES HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS

MARY DeBUSK smoothed the skirt of her mint green two-piece dress, looked at her two daughters on either side and nodded before stepping onto the red carpet.

At the altar stood her groom, handsome in a gray suit with his slicked-back white hair and expectant smile, a yellow rose corsage pinned to his breast pocket.

It took 57 years, but Norman Elvin Mitchell finally got his high school sweetheart back. Friends and parishioners packed Lynnhaven United Methodist Church last Sunday to witness the 75-year-old couple exchange their vows.

``I'm not going to let her get away from me this time!'' Mitchell said with a laugh before the ceremony. ``I feel like this is right. There was something there before and it had something to do with this.''

They say that love is sweeter the second time around. In Mitchell's and DeBusk's case, their love only re-awakened after a long dormancy.

DeBusk was Mitchell's first love, a vivacious farm girl with blue eyes and light brown hair. They met in 1939 and dated for eight months. DeBusk wanted to leave her family's North Carolina farm for the city, but at 17 and unemployed, Mitchell couldn't offer her an alternative.

She met her future husband, Dan, a few months later in Norfolk and married him Oct. 5, 1940. It broke Mitchell's heart.

Sitting together in DeBusk's Kings Grant home in Virginia Beach, DeBusk explained how she broke the news to Mitchell. As she related the story, Mitchell kept his head bent and his eyes averted.

``I came back to North Carolina to tell my family and ran into Elvin,'' she said. ``I told him I had fallen in love with a boy in Norfolk and was going to marry him. We cried in each other's arms.''

Mitchell, his eyes welling up with tears at the memory, shrugged.

``There was nothing I could do about that,'' he said. ``I couldn't take care of a wife. I had to accept it.''

Eventually, Mitchell fell in love with another woman, Myrtle, and married her Oct. 8, 1945. Both couples stayed happily married for more than 50 years until death parted Dan from Mary in 1994 and Myrtle from Elvin in 1996.

``We both had very good marriages,'' DeBusk said. ``We don't regret the years apart. We believe it was predestined for us to see each other then and now.''

They hadn't spoken to each other in 56 years when DeBusk called Mitchell in April 1996 to offer her condolences after reading his wife's obituary in the newspaper. He was overcome with grief, she recalled, and despondent. They talked occasionally that year, but the romance didn't blossom until Mitchell visited his old flame Feb. 10.

He may have been out of the dating scene for decades, but Mitchell knew how to woo a lady. On Valentine's Day, DeBusk received a dozen red roses and began calling her twice a day. Every other week he traveled several hours from his home in Colerain, N.C., to be with her. On March 23, they announced their engagement.

DeBusk, the blush of love causing her to look 20 years younger, is still overwhelmed by what happened.

``I had no idea this would bring us together when I called him,'' she said. ``But when we got together, it was instant.''

They had gone to a restaurant with others and came back to DeBusk's house to talk privately. She showed Mitchell her 50th wedding anniversary photo album and they shared marriage memories for hours. When DeBusk rose to get him a piece of cake, he ``wheeled me around and kissed me,'' she said with a shy smile.

``I knew right then that we still loved each other,'' said DeBusk, whose baby blue eyes are a soft contrast to her snowy white hair. ``I asked my doctor if he thought it was possible to love two people at the same time, and he said, `Uh-huh.' ''

Because both had been married by a justice of the peace in their first marriages, the couple decided to go all out for this one. They enlisted relatives to serve as matron of honor and best man, bridesmaids, groomsmen and flower girls. DeBusk's daughters, Faye Huntemann and Barbara Mensching, walked the beaming bride down the aisle.

The reception was held at the spacious home of Bill and Annette Meadows overlooking Lynnhaven Bay. More than 100 guests squeezed into rooms with tables laden with catered food and drink. A two-tiered, three-layer cake sat on a lace tablecloth, a bottle of apple cider chilling next to it.

``This is very different from my first wedding,'' Debusk said as she waited to cut the cake. ``I am a little overwhelmed. I hope we don't get bored after this.''

She cut the piece of cake as guests sang ``the bride feeds the groom, the bride feeds the groom'' to the tune of ``Farmer in the Dell'' and placed a piece in her husband's mouth. He did the same and they exchanged a tender kiss as everyone cheered. DeBusk's granddaughter, Heather Kostecki, toasted the happy couple.

``As you stand here with your new daughters and grandchildren, we welcome you into the family, Elvin,'' she said. ``You're now a part of our lives and we welcome you.''

The couple will not be going on a honeymoon but instead are focusing on combining their two households into DeBusk's house. Mitchell agreed to move to Virginia Beach because his new wife is so active in the church and with volunteer groups. It doesn't bother the retired Army base plant superintendent one bit to move into her house.

``I feel comfortable about this,'' he said. ``I got a ready-made family. . ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Elvin Mitchell and Mary Mitchell cut the cake at their wedding

reception.

Photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

The Rev. Bruce Tuttle joins Mary DeBusk and Elvin Mitchell in

laughter after he married them at Lynnhaven United Methodist Church.