Cricks Celebrate 50th Anniversary

By Shannon Hicks

When Joan Glover and Jim Crick were married in April 1953, it was big news. The Newtown Bee ran their wedding announcement on the front page of its April 13 issue. This was, after all, a marriage between two longtime Newtown families.

Fifty years later the Cricks are still going strong — happily married, living in the center of town, and have children, grandchildren, and countless friends. Joan and Jim’s family and many of their close friends gathered at The Dana-Holcombe House on Sunday, April 23, to celebrate the couple’s golden anniversary.

No other location would have been suitable for the party. It was at the Yankee Drover Inn, after all — the longstanding Newtown business that was located at 29 Main Street until it burned in January 1981 — that the young couple’s wedding reception was held so many years ago. Now that John and Jane Vouros have built and opened The Dana-Holcombe House, the Cricks decided that when it was time to host a 50th anniversary celebration no other location would fit the bill.

Nearly 60 people were invited to last weekend’s event. In addition to the Cricks’ children and grandchildren — daughter Maureen Crick Owen and husband Cramer; son and daughter-in-law James and Leslie Crick III, and their children James IV and Emily; and son and daughter-in-law Michael and Lisa, and their children Matthew, Will, Ben, Mitchell, and Adam — friends from all stages of the Cricks’ life attended the event. Mrs Crick’s maid of honor, Betty Seman Seeley, and her bridesmaid, Rita Guernsey Qubick, were both at the party.

The 1956 wedding announcement in The Bee described Mrs Crick’s dress, saying. “The bride wore a taffeta gown with square neckline and long sleeves, pointed bodice and full skirt of unpressed pleats which swept into a train. Her fingertip veil of illusion was attached to a headdress of net, pearls and rhinestones, and she carried a bouquet of white carnations and stephanotis.”

That dress was displayed at The Dana-Holcombe House last weekend. It had been placed on a form in the building’s foyer, complete with a bouquet of flowers. On a dresser also located in the foyer was Mrs Crick’s formal wedding photo showing her in the dress.

Also included in the 1956 wedding announcement were descriptions of what the attendants wore, their bouquets, and what Joan and Jim’s mothers each wore. It described their reception, gave a brief background of the bride and groom, and also described Mrs Crick’s traveling ensemble, “a light blue dress with white polka dots and navy blue coat, white hat and other accessories of navy, and red and white carnation corsage.”

Wedding guests, the article continued, “were present from Worcester and Boston, Mass.; White Plains, N.Y.; New York City; Haddonfield, N.J.; Bridgeport, Greenwich, Norwalk and Ridgefield; and Scotia, N.Y.”

Joan and Jim Crick knew each other as early as high school, although they were in classes that were two years apart. Both of them grew up in Newtown. Jim’s parents, Agnes and James Crick Sr, lived on South Main Street “just this side of where Sand Hill Plaza is today,” Mr Crick said recently. Joan’s parents, Dorothy and Walter L. Glover, lived with their children within the Borough in a house built by Joan’s grandfather.

Jim and Joan’s older brother, Jim Glover, were friends. It was through that friendship of her brother’s that Joan got to know Jim; the two of them had a number of mutual friends, said Mrs Crick, so “we spent about three years together socially. We would all be together, eating pizza, drinking beer. Just friends.”

Finally Joan and Jim began dating and it wasn’t long before Jim approached Joan’s father to ask for Joan’s hand.

“I didn’t know he had already talked to my parents,” Joan said. “When I got the ring I was very surprised.”

The Cricks were married at St Rose Rectory by the Reverend Thomas Lyons, SJ, a friend of Jim’s family from Fairfield University. The reception at Yankee Drover was “a good size one,” said the Cricks, with between 150 and 200 guests. At the end of the event the couple left from Newtown to spend a night in New York City, and then drove to Florida for three weeks.

Mrs Crick is a tenth generation Glover, a direct descendant of John Glover, who was one of Newtown’s first settlers. Arriving in 1708, Glover came up the Housatonic River from Milford “with his second wife and rapidly growing family,” The Bee reported in September 2005 when a tercentennial event was being organized to celebrate some of Newtown’s long-term families. Mr Glover was active in petitioning the General Court of Connecticut (now the General Assembly) to secure the rights and privileges of all other towns, i.e., the ability to elect officers and lay taxes. For most of his life he was the major landholder in town and settled in the Hanover District. He was one of three people who immediately volunteered to built a meeting house/church and he and his son Captain John Glover laid out the main roads in Newtown.

Subsequent Glovers served in just about every elected office in Newtown, including John as the first town clerk and other Glovers who organized Newtown Savings Bank.

Mrs Crick, of course, has served as Newtown Borough Warden for the last 16 years. She has more than 25 years of public service to the borough.

Jim is a retired assistant postmaster for Newtown, and has also remained active well into retirement. He was an associate member of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps until just a few years ago, and is a Trustee of Newtown Savings Bank.