We sometimes hear about love at first sight but we don’t often see it work out as well as some relationships that have the time to age properly. That may be true, but you couldn’t tell that to James Garner or his wife, Lois Clark.
When James Garner met Lois Clark, he admitted that it was love at first sight. He saw her at a friend’s barbecue and right away he knew that she was the one for him.
James asked her out to dinner and they went out immediately. He brought this out in his 2012 memoir, where he said: “I fell in love for the first and last time on August 1, 1956, at an Adlai Stevenson for President barbeque. That’s where I met Lois Clarke. It was love at first sight. The thunderbolt. She was as beautiful as she was sweet… It was a barbeque and I ended up in the pool with the children.”
When they started dating, they continued to date for an entire two weeks and then they got married. The ceremony took place on August 17, 1956, in Beverly Hills at the courthouse.
Most of his family and friends were completely against the marriage and many people were opposing him. They didn’t have much in common and it was thought that they would break up quickly because of it.
For example, Lois was Jewish but James was a Methodist. She was from Los Angeles and he was from Oklahoma. It was also the second time that he was married. She liked being indoors and he loved being outdoors. She was a dreamer, he was a realist.
Even though there were many differences, it didn’t seem to matter to them. He said: “None of the naysayers had stopped to consider that Lois and I complemented each other. What they saw as weaknesses, we saw as strengths.”
They ended up getting married and had a little girl, Gigi. James would also go on to eventually adopt her first child, Kim and they settled into their family life.
Of course, there were ups and downs and they did have their share of arguments over the years. They were even separated for about three months in 1970.
One of the issues was rumors that he was involved with a guest star on the Rockford Files show. He even admits that that show was a problem with their marriage.
He said: “Lois and I were never in serious trouble. Ninety-nine percent of the problem was the pressures of Rockford. It wasn’t us, it was me needing to get away to get my head together.”
Even though it started with people saying they would never last, they were married for about 60 years until James died at the age of 86.
You can learn more about their love story in the following video: