Though Harold and Jacquie Petersen came from very different beginnings, all it took was a soda pop, a few persistent phone calls and a gardenia corsage for the two to realize they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Since the day their eyes first locked, they’ve built a fulfilling marriage of 67 years, a big beautiful family, a successful insurance company and a legacy of community service. What’s their secret? For Harold and Jacquie, the best answer is often the simplest one.
“People say you have to work at a marriage, but gosh, we don’t work at it,” Jacquie said with a laugh, placing her hand on Harold’s arm. “We just enjoy each other and have fun every day.”
Before the Petersens found happiness in each other, they walked two very different roads. When Harold was a boy, his father became afflicted with a chronic condition, resulting in total disablement and the loss of the family’s dairy farm. For years, they struggled financially, witnessing the horrors of disability first-hand. Meanwhile, Jacquie was raised by a dentist and a teacher.
“I married a farm boy who came from a family that didn’t have a lot,” Jacquie said fondly, “but I grew up with everything I ever wanted. It was quite an interesting combination.”
Though Harold and Jacquie attended the same high school in Council Bluffs, Iowa, it wasn’t until Harold left for UCLA and returned home for summer vacation that the two noticed each other. One summer afternoon, at a soda fountain inside a Walgreens drugstore, Jacquie and her brother were enjoying two cherry Cokes and some laughs.
“That’s when you two handsome men walked in,” Jacquie recalled of first noticing Harold and his friend Bud. “You claimed I was batting my eyes at you, but I was just wishing you would ask me out.”
Without knowing, Harold and Jacquie had captured each other’s hearts in just one glance. After a number of phone calls, Harold asked Jacquie on a date. He picked her up with a gardenia corsage in hand and took her to Peony Park, a classic amusement park in Omaha, Nebraska. Hand-in-hand, they danced to Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra with only the stars above them.
“We had a wonderful evening together,” Jacquie recalled, “and we dated all summer-long. But September was very sad.”
When Harold went back to school, the time apart only made them stronger in their love for each other. By the time they were 20 and 21 years old, Harold and Jacquie were married in a church wedding. She wore a white linen suit and kept the ceremony simple.
“We didn’t want a big to-do,” Jacquie said.
The happily married couple started their family in Omaha, Nebraska, though work eventually took them to Indianapolis, Indiana and later Brentwood, California. Over the years, the Petersens raised four children – one daughter and three sons – while Harold built a highly successful insurance company, Petersen International Underwriters, which he has owned for more than 40 years. He is the youngest man in the industry to be named in “Who’s Who In The Insurance Industry.”
About 15 years ago, business brought the Petersens to Santa Clarita, where they have made significant contributions to local schools, non-profits and other organizations. They were nominated for Man and Woman of the Year in 2015 and received the Silver Spur Award for Community Service from College of the Canyons Foundation in 2009.
Today, Harold and Jacquie have been married for 67 years. Though they started as two, they now have a family of 39, including 12 great grandchildren. And after all these years, the qualities that first made them fall in love still bring them together each and every day.
“Those things I admired in others, I found them all in her,” Harold said, as Jacquie smiled and placed a hand on her heart. “She’s a very attractive lady – always impeccably dressed and always lots of fun. I don’t know what it was that she found attractive in me.”
“Oh, Pete,” she said quickly, waving her hand at such a statement. “Only beautiful words have ever come out of this man’s mouth – beautiful words about everybody and everything. He has provided us with a beautiful life because he became a successful businessman – and worked very hard to do that.
“This is my sweetheart,” Jacquie whispered, placing her palm on his cheek and laying her head on his shoulder, “and every day we have more fun than the day before.”