By Peggy Sturdivant

I have not thought of the short-lived early 1970s sitcom “Love American Style” since before it went off the air. Yet today its theme song came into my head prompted by a Texas accent and an unusual love story.

The seed was planted earlier in the week by an email sent to the paper’s publisher. “Dear Ken,” wrote Lori Harris from Lindale, Texas, “We have a sweet little cousin who turns 100 next week. John Shrewsbury lives in the Norse home, is a WW II vet and has lived a wonderful, colorful life. I would hope you would think he would make as great a human interest story as we do.”

By the time I was part of John Shrewsbury’s birthday celebration at Norse Home along with VFW Post 3063 members, I knew more about his life. However he wasn’t turning 100 and he wasn’t actually related to Lori Harris. Technicalities.

The in-between was punctuated by phone calls from Harris in Texas and then local driving updates after the missionary couple arrived in advance of the actual birthday on December 10. I received scanned photos and a message from Shrewsbury’s daughter, Susan Howard, who lives in Ballard. She shared, “He will be 99 on Dec 10th, he was born on that day in 1916 and was a meteorologist during WWII. Beyond that I really don't know much more except for a love story with his first wife.  They married shortly before the war and went their separate ways, divorced, married others then reunited after being apart for 54 years and spent the rest of her life together very happily.”

John Shrewsbury and Helen Borton were high school sweethearts who both grew up in East Ballard and married after graduation. Helen’s mother Frances Harris Borton lived to the age of 103, having been born on the Tulalip Indian Reservation where her father had agent duties in 1896. At her death in 2001 Frances Harris Borton was the oldest living graduate of Lincoln High School. She had relatives in Texas.

During World War II both John and Helen Shrewsbury enlisted; Helen in the WACs, and John in the Air Force. They divorced and both later remarried others. Yet some 54 years later they reconnected, reclaiming each other as the love of their life.

Doug and Lori Harris live in Texas, but thanks to a son who works as a flight attendant they come out to see John Shrewsbury several times a year and call him every few days. For the last year “Cousin” John has been anticipating what he said would be his 100th birthday. Learning that at The Norse Home this would only prompt a balloon on his chair in the dining room, Lori Harris went to work.

Arriving on December 9th the Harrises picked up John and did one of their driving tours in which Shrewsbury points out places of personal interest, especially a house near the Aurora Bridge with a turret. He’d stand below Helen’s window when he was ‘a courting.’ The tour always includes the drive to Golden Gardens and then to either Anthony’s or Ray’s, where he and Helen alternated their dinners and lunches back in the day.

John Shrewsbury now lives a fairly quiet life at Norse Home where he moved after Helen’s death. His preferred meal, no matter the time of day, is tomato soup, ice cream and a small carton of milk. That’s what he was enjoying with his daughter Susan Howard and the Harrises when Gail Engler and Elizabeth Servey of the VFW Post 3063 arrived to present him with a flag, wish him Happy Birthday and thank him for his service.

Then we all settled at the corner table and heard more about the “wonderful, colorful life” that Lori Harris had mentioned. Shrewsbury recalled serving in England, France and Germany after training at Fort Lewis. He remembered details such as someone who made beer in the bathtub and the slow, slow boat stateside. He played in clubs all over Seattle in a band before the war called the Johnny Star Band. His instruments were clarinet and saxophone; a Margaret Anderson from 39th Street was the piano player.

“We just love him so much,” Lori Harris said many times over the week, with a Texas delivery and voice that gets her recognized sight unseen at drive-through restaurants. Perhaps it was that accent that called to mind that sitcom from my childhood: “Love American Style.” Yet this isn’t really about a Ballard couple reunited after 54 years apart, the love story is the almost improbable connection between a family in Texas and an undeniably old man who loved their distant cousin Helen.