Kevin and Lisa Leising continue to hold hands through forty years of marriage
By HOLLY GASKILL
Kevin Leising proposed to Lisa Lannan sitting together in the stands of a basketball gymnasium — they’ve spent 40 years of marriage since cheering each other on.
The couple has been a fixture in Bluffton for many years, as both taught at Bluffton-Harrison schools, and Kevin led the boys’ basketball team for 16 years. Even after the couple’s retirement in 2019, the two have remained involved at the schools, with Kevin teaching elementary math remediation and Lisa substitute teaching.
But every couple has their story, and just like much of their lives, Kevin and Lisa’s began with basketball.
The couple met early in their freshman year at the University of Indianapolis where they were both studying to become teachers.
“The first time she saw me I was dribbling a basketball across campus, and she thought I was kind of bizarre guy,” Kevin teased.
“I tried to distance myself from him because I really did think he was kind of weird,” Lisa laughed.
Also living in the same residence hall, the two fell into the same group of friends. They were the only two not dating someone else in the group, but that wasn’t for lack of a spark.
Kevin had gone on dates throughout high school but never felt anything serious. With Lisa, it was like everything just made sense.
Well, except for one thing. Lisa had a boyfriend. He went to a different college.
“I tried to shut that (attraction) off because I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Kevin said. “I wanted to respect that.”
That first semester came and went, and nothing happened. On Christmas break, however, Kevin got a call — Lisa wanted to visit. Kevin’s ears perked up. Lisa wanted to drive 50 miles from her hometown of Speedway, Indiana, to see him in his small town of Rushville, Indiana.
When she did, she broke the news — she had ended things with her boyfriend.
“I don’t know how else to say it — it felt right in every way,” Kevin smiled. “I didn’t have some master plan.”
Lisa interjected, “But the reality is, that at Christmas time, he brought his cousin to a theater in Speedway where I used to work, and he told his cousin, ‘I’m going to marry her.’” Kevin smiled and confirmed. “So, yeah, he had thought about it,” Lisa laughed.
The two had their first official date the following January, attending a volleyball game of Lisa’s sister. Beyond that, it’s hard for them to distinguish what was a “date” and what was simply spending every moment they could together.
Three months later, the couple sat in the gymnasium stands during a basketball game. Kevin had spoken with Lisa’s parents just a few weeks after they had started dating. Lisa’s mom gave Kevin a family diamond, and he got it mounted in a band.
“We were sitting at the top of the gym — because he was always in the gym — and that’s when he said to me, ‘I think we just need to get married. Why don’t you — let’s just — will you marry me?’” Lisa laughed.
The question had come after a long conversation. “It wasn’t a, ‘Will you marry me? You’ve got to give me a yes or no,’” Lisa clarified. “It was, ‘We need to get married. Let’s begin to think about getting married.’ I said, ‘OK, I think that’s the direction we need to go too.’”
Kevin wanted to wait until after college to get married — which he said helped the shock to both their families — but he saw no point in waiting to pop the question. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Lisa Lennan. It was that simple.
“To me, it says a lot about our relationship,” Kevin said. “It was very matter-of-fact, and (we felt) that’s what was supposed to happen, and we felt good about it.”
Three-and-a-half years later, on Aug. 6, 1983, Kevin woke up bright and early, showered, and put on a suit. The ceremony wasn’t until 3 p.m., but he sat in his parents’ house ready to go by 9 a.m.
When the time came, friends and family gathered under the un-air-conditioned roof of a sweltering Catholic church. By and large, they recalled the day with all the expected standard fanfare of the time, but Lisa remembers one thing in particular.
“When we took our vows, he looked at me the whole time,” Lisa reminisced. Kevin, who joked about having a short attention span, admitted it was unexpected. “Even 40 years later, it’s stuck with me,” Lisa smiled.
The time was also keenly marked by post-graduate panic. While having accepted a position and moved into an apartment in preparation for the upcoming school year, Kevin ended up interviewing for a basketball head coach position in Hebron, Indiana, the day before his wedding. During the couple’s honeymoon, the school offered the position.
Basketball would ultimately take the couple from Hebron to Decatur, and later Covington, before they landed in Bluffton. Along the ride, they had three children — Bill, Ashley and Jordan — who they both jokingly and seriously said were raised in the gymnasium. Lisa often set up a pack-and-play in the concession stands while she popped popcorn, and officials would take turns with the little ones between games.
Lisa jokingly noted that the first game she ever missed made the top headline of the next day’s newspaper. “The nerve of a baby to be born on a game day,” she laughed. Lisa recalled lying in the hospital bed, listening to the radio announcer talk directly to her, knowing she was tuning in.
With both Kevin and Lisa teaching full-time, raising young children, coaching and community commitments, it was a full schedule, to say the least. And there was no shortage of curveballs — when Lisa was just 29-years-old, with two small children at the time, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
They won’t sugarcoat things about those days — it was grueling, overwhelming, and exhausting. But through tears and treatments, Kevin and Lisa worked together to get through every day. Lisa was adamant she wanted life to be as normal as possible, even to the point of taking only one day off work.
“The word ‘cured’ is what we focused on,” Kevin explained. “The doctor said, ‘I can cure your wife.’ We had to focus on the positive. That was the most important thing.”
It’s been 30 years since Lisa has needed to see an oncologist, Kevin said.
In the best and worst times, Kevin and Lisa have always tried to work together as a team. Without judgment or competition, they’ve lived in service and support of each other.
“He has supported me through so many things that I couldn’t have done without his support — and with unflinching support,” Lisa shared. Kevin added, “I think that’s the only thing you do when you care about someone.”
And while now retired, it seems the adventure has just begun.
Both still teach part-time, and Kevin officiates basketball, among a slew of other commitments and hobbies. They plan to travel to Europe with Bluffton High School this summer and hope to have more trips in their future.
They’ve cherished becoming grandparents, and they currently boast five grandchildren. “It’s been wonderful to watch our family grow,” Lisa said. “The best part of retirement has been we can kind of pick and choose our schedules to be there and be available, both when they need and just when we want to be with them.”
But most importantly to Kevin and Lisa, they love doing it all side by side.
Kevin beamed, “I just think the end product has been so good that I don’t think I’d change a thing … We’ve held hands since we first started dating, and we’ve never stopped.”
holly@news-banner.com
