How did you two first meet? What were your first impressions?

“I was teaching at Kennedale at the Jr. High, the next year he came to teach and coach at the High School. Some of the coaches introduced us, and we started dating.” Mrs. Webb said.

“I thought she was pretty cute. I thought she was very funny and very sweet and very pretty and she made me laugh. We went dancing and she didn’t laugh too bad at my dancing, so I thought she was very special.” Mr. Webb said.

“He was very cute also, but I could tell he was very intelligent, and he’s a coach so he’s into sports, but he also said he had every Disney movie ever made. So I knew he wasn’t just a jock. He was somebody who likes a lot of different things, and a lot of things we like to read, watch or do are similar.” Mrs. Webb said

What was your first date like?

“Our first date was terrible. Not because of either one of us, but we both really liked Oliver Stone, and he had made a movie called “Natural Born Killers” and we loved everything he’d made. We went out to eat which was great, but then we went to the movie, and we both wanted to walk out in the first 10 minutes, but we were so embarrassed because it was our first date, so we stayed.” Mrs. Webb said.

What is your engagement story?

“The first Christmas, I invited him to go to the Nutcracker, a ballet in Fort Worth.” Mrs. Webb said.

“It was at the time the Bass Hall wasn’t there so it was just the convention center.” Mr. Webb said.

“So we dressed up really nice, I loved to wear cocktail dresses, so we dressed up really nice and we went out to eat and went to the Nutcracker. The following Christmas he walked me to the Christmas tree.” Mrs. Webb said.

“The big Christmas tree is right outside of the convention center, still is.” Mr. Webb said.

“That second year, we went to the Nutcracker, then he walked me to the Christmas tree, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.” Mrs. Webb said.

What was your wedding like?

“We wanted to pay for it ourselves. We had mostly family and a few friends in a wedding chapel in Fort Worth and had the reception at my sister’s house. We didn’t wanna go into debt for a wedding. We were more excited about getting married.” Mrs. Webb said.

“We got engaged at Christmas and we were married on February 17th.” Mr. Webb said.

“I wanted to marry him before he changed his mind.” Mrs. Webb said.

What was your favorite Valentine’s gift?

“When I was pregnant with our first daughter, Samantha, Tommy started doing ‘Shawnalee Appreciation Week,’ so the whole week of our anniversary, he does a theme every day.” Mrs. Webb said.

“It’s like homecoming week or red ribbon week.” Mr. Webb said.

“He does a different theme every day, I always get balloons, I always get flowers, we always have date night, but then the other ones he’s changed up. This is the 23rd year that he’s done that, it’s our 26th anniversary. He started doing that in 1999. It makes me feel very very special, and it’s really wonderful. It’s pretty amazing, he’s very creative with all of it. One of the best things he did was he came up with ‘hug coupons.’ He gave hug coupons to all of my students, and all through the day they came in and cashed in the hug coupons and I got a hug all day long from all my students. Pre-COVID.” Mrs. Webb said.

How did you two stick together so long?

“I married her because she was the best friend I had at the time, and she still is. I think people get married for a lot of different reasons, or stay together for a lot of different reasons, and a lot of it isn’t because they really like each other. I feel like I can honestly say, about to be married 26 years, that we like each other and we like seeing each other, and being around each other, doing things together. I think that’s important. There’s a lot of things we don’t like, but we try to make it work so that we’re not in conflict with each other. I just think you have to like each other. Everybody talks about how much of a challenge it is, and it is, I mean you have to be able to put up with each other’s little things that drive you crazy, that’s just part of being together, whether you’re married or in a family or anything else.” Mr. Webb said.

“To support each other, be each other’s support system, be there to listen.” Mrs. Webb said.

“If they need to complain, you just have to let them complain, be that sounding board.” Mr. Webb said.