Westmont Magazine The Second Time Around

LaVelle Franklin Johnston ’82 never thought she would play matchmaker for her own mother. But when her father died in 1992, she watched her mother’s social life begin to dwindle. When she asked her mom, Carolyn Bergen Franklin ’59, about dating again, Carolyn replied, “Oh, there’s no one out there for me.” But then LaVelle asked her if there were anyone from the past she would like to see again, and Carolyn immediately answered, “Yes, Daniel Lewis.”

Carolyn and Dan ’59 had dated during her junior year at Westmont, when Dan took a semester off to work at Fairway Market in Santa Barbara. Part of his duties included delivering produce to the Westmont kitchen, and Carolyn started waiting at the back of Kerrwood Hall on his delivery days. Soon after, they began a steady relationship that lasted until Dan decided to join the Army instead of returning to school. They corresponded through his basic training, but lost touch once he left for Ft. Lewis in Washington.

A lifetime later, they were both single, and LaVelle went to work. She contacted Westmont and found a phone number for Dan’s brother, David Lewis ’54, who then called Dan in Atlanta, Ga. Imagine Carolyn’s surprise when she answered the phone one day and heard from her old college sweetheart! That began a seven-year phone relationship, which eventually developed into frequent e-mails between the two and an exchange of flowers and letters. Dan finally decided to make a trip to California to visit Carolyn. She recounts, “When I saw him get off that plane, it was just like old times. We had a wonderful week.”

Two months later, while on the phone planning a trip to visit one another, Dan couldn’t wait another minute and asked Carolyn to marry him. Close to 100 family and friends attended their wedding on July 27, 2000. They now live in Georgia, where Dan is retired from the Army, but works at Ft. McPherson in Forscom, Ga., as chief development officer. Carolyn substitute teaches at Heritage High School and works in part-time sales with AmeriPlan USA. They enjoy gardening and being with one another after all these years.