Pat and John Pettinger
The proposals, engagements and love stories of a few local couples.
By Rich Wicks | Guthrie Center Times, January 2026
When it comes to marriage proposals and engagements, there does not seem to be a right or wrong way. In romantic relationships, it is often said that birds of a feather flock together. But, it is also said that opposites attract. Some people believe in love at first sight, while others say love must grow gradually through shared experiences. Some prefer a private proposal, while others pop the question while being televised on a Jumbotron screen at a public event.
So, what is the best approach? That depends. Falling in love, proposing marriage and building a life together are all unique experiences that each couple navigates in their own way. Below are the proposal, engagement and love stories of a few local couples.
John and Pat Pettinger
Wedding day photo of the Pettingers.
A phrase to describe the love story of John and Pat Pettinger could be, “When you know, you just know.” The Pettingers shared the story of their meeting and engagement.
“I’m from Mason City and graduated from Iowa State, then got a job here in Adair to teach,” Pat said. “I came here to look for a place to live, and it was late June of 1976, so there wasn’t much available. The principal told me about a guy in town who had a mobile home to rent out, and that was John. He lived in the A-frame across the street.”
Pat agreed to rent the mobile home and moved in just prior to the school year.
“I came down for beginning teachers’ workshop, and moved in on Aug. 21,” Pat said. “It was a Sunday, and he came over and asked if I wanted to go to the park. He said there was a slow pitch softball tournament, and I could meet some people. So that was our first date, kind of.”
John said he was a very attentive landlord.
“I went over there a lot,” John said. “I thought she was kind of cute, and I started thinking of all sorts of things I needed to fix at the trailer.”
Pat recalled that the couple spent time together every day, including going to play tennis in Atlantic. Both Pat and John felt their bond growing.
“We were so compatible. We would finish each other’s sentences. We liked the same things and had the same values,” John said. “Everything was just clicking so much.”
On Aug. 31, after only 10 days together, their relationship grew suddenly more serious.
“I said something like, ‘Gee, we’re so compatible, we should get married,’ ’’ John said. “And then she said, ‘Is that a proposal?’ So, I asked, ‘What would you say if I did?’ And she said, ‘Why don’t you find out?’ ”
With that encouragement, John popped the question, and Pat said yes. But, the couple wisely chose to delay announcing the news to their families.
“We ended up telling them in October, like after six weeks. We figured after some time had gone by it wouldn’t be so shocking,” Pat said. “And, I don’t think it was that shocking because they had heard me talking about him.”
John and Pat each said they do not recall friends or family trying to “talk sense into them” about being engaged so quickly. The one exception Pat recalled was at her job as a teacher.
Pat recalled that upon hearing of the engagement, her principal suggested Pat not announce the news to her students “in case things don’t work out.” That advice ended up being unnecessary. The Pettingers married June 4, 1977. They have two grown children and two grandkids. And now, the Pettingers are looking forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary next year. Sometimes, you just know.
Kylie Doran and Kael Iles
A Florida beach made a scenic spot for a proposal.
Kylie Doran and Kael Iles are a local couple that met in high school and have been together ever since. She graduated from Panorama High School in 2023, while he graduated from Perry.
“I lived in Yale growing up, but now I’m living north of Fansler. Kael and I started dating in December of 2022, our senior year of high school. Kael was going to Perry, and I was going to Panorama. We dated for a little over two years, and this last March, my job required me to go and live in Florida for about a month and a half with the family I was working for as an assistant,” Doran said.
Unknown to Doran, her boyfriend, friends and family were hatching a scheme.
“I had flown down there, and my friends were scheduled to fly down the weekend of March 10,” Doran said. “Kael and I had kind of been joking around about getting engaged, but I didn’t know it was coming. I thought maybe in the fall.”
Cell phone technology played a factor in Kael’s surprise but also nearly let the secret out.
Kael Iles and Kylie Doran are all smiles.
“I worked that week while my friends were there, and on my day off, we got up and went into Tampa to go shopping, and it was on Thursday, March 13. Kael works for an HVAC company, and he had texted me that he was at work a little bit early and his location feature wasn’t working that day, and I thought nothing of it, because that happens sometimes,” Doran said. “Around lunchtime, I noticed that my calls and texts to Kael weren’t going through anymore. Sometimes, he works down in a basement, so I talked to his mom just to make sure things were OK. She said he was getting off work early and was going to go shopping with her.”
About this time, Doran began to notice something felt odd.
“I started picking up hints. He sent me a picture, and he was in his work uniform, but I noticed in the glass reflection that he wasn’t actually wearing his work pants and work boots,” she said. “He was wearing shorts, so I started getting a little nervous, because he never lies to me. I could tell something was off.”
Doran recalled that her friends came up with an idea to distract and cheer her up.
“Around 4 p.m., we went home, and us girls decided we’d go take some sunset pictures on the beach. They picked out a white dress for me to wear and they wore dresses, too. We drove down to the beach about 7 p.m.,” Doran said. “At one point, we stopped, and my friend turned me around, and there was Kael just standing there in the distance. He had some white roses sticking out of the sand and a blanket, and letters that spelled out ‘Marry me.’ I had always figured that when the time came, I would know it, but I had no idea.”
As the surprise wore off, the actual proposal occurred.
“I gave him the biggest hug, and then he asked if I would marry him, and I said yes,” Doran said. “And he had a photographer set up, in a hole in the sand that some kids had dug up. So he was actually hiding in that hole.”
Following their engagement, the couple enjoyed a long weekend on the beach.
“It ended up being really cool. Kael took the rest of the week and weekend off, and he got to stay down there with me and celebrate with our friends,” Doran said.
The couple plans a May 2026 wedding. With that date only a few months away, they are busy planning the details of their big day, but they are also striving to remain calm and balanced.
“We had about 13 or 14 months to plan, and I never realized how much went into a wedding until I’m in the position of planning one,” Doran said. “I’ve got all the vendors booked. It’s starting to get a little stressful, but I’m also just trying to enjoy the process. It’s been fun to hear stories from grandparents and aunts and uncles of things that didn’t go according to plan at the wedding, but it’s things they can look back and laugh about.”
The young couple looks forward to the next step in their relationship.
“It’s definitely been different than dating,” Doran said. “Getting ready for marriage has been really fun. We’ve been doing pre-marriage counseling at our church, which is one of the best decisions we’ve made for our relationship. It’s been really exciting, and we’re getting anxious.”
Karen Kelly
Darrin and Karen Kelly
Karen Kelly is a familiar face at Mary J. Barnett Library in Guthrie Center. She has spent most of her life working with youth, first in the schools and now in the library. Karen grew up in Guthrie Center and taught locally for 30 years. She has been married twice and told the tale of how each engagement came to be.
“My first husband was George. With George, it was completely unexpected because we had only dated for about a month when he proposed,” Karen recalled. “One of my good friends married his best friend, and they’d been trying to set us up, and they kind of tricked me into going out with him. They invited me to a birthday party, and I didn’t know that George was going to be there. I’d had a bad breakup and didn’t think I was interested in a relationship. But, he kept asking me out. Finally, my friend called me and said, ‘Please, would you just go out with the man. Just go on one date and call it good.’ ”
That first date turned out to be unintentionally memorable.
“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. He had car trouble on the way, and this was back before cell phones, so he stopped at Casey’s and called me,” Karen said. “We were supposed to go out for dinner. So, he called my friend’s husband, and they happened to be in Panora at her mom’s house, so they went and got George and then me, and we went to my friend’s mom’s house for dinner. George then borrowed their car to drive me home. Then, it was embarrassing because I lived right on State Street, and we were sitting in the car talking, and there was a carload of my students that kept circling the block and driving past my house, honking. When he walked me up to my door, they drove past again, and one of them yelled, ‘Just kiss her!’ ”
Karen Kelly’s ring in a flower.
Although the first date did not go according to plan, things were quickly smoothed out.
“On that Monday, I got a huge arrangement of flowers with a little note saying, ‘I’m sorry that things went so badly, but let’s try this again,’ ” Karen said. “And it was all of my favorite flowers.”
From then on, the couple dated. Karen recalled that one day, after spending time with teacher friends, she came home to find that George was awaiting her. Karen was scheduled to chaperone a student dance that evening, so she told George of her plans. Although George tried to say that he just stopped by, Karen knew there was something more going on. He then said he had an item to add to Karen’s growing collection of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.
“He said, ‘I stopped by because I know that you collect Happy Meal toys, and I don’t think you have this one,’ ” Karen said. “I was kind of irritated that he just showed up unannounced. He acted kind of nervous and weird, so I opened it up, and there was this engagement ring. So, I felt kind of stupid for being so cranky with him, but I wanted boundaries. I didn’t want him to think he could just show up and change my plans.”
Eventually, George realized he had not gotten a clear answer to his proposal. Karen could not resist the chance to tease him a bit.
“Later, he said, ‘You never gave me an answer,’ ” Karen said. “So, I said, ‘Well, I guess so because I need new towels.’ I was joking when I said that, but everybody thought that was why I married the guy, so when we got married, we got scads of towels.”
Unfortunately, George later passed away, leaving Karen a widow. Initially, she had no plans to marry again, but she eventually began dating Darrin Kelly. She recalled the day their relationship took a meaningful turn.
“When Darrin and I got engaged, we were just hanging out watching a movie. It had been one of those weeks. I was cranky and my feet hurt, and he started rubbing my feet, and I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s really nice. I’d marry you on the spot if you would do this every day.’ He said, ‘Hold that thought,’ and I thought he’d gone to the bathroom or something,” Karen said. “When he came back, he held out his hand, and it was a box with an engagement ring in it. He’d had it for a couple of months, but he wasn’t quite sure how and when to bring it out.”
Karen said she is glad Darrin proposed, but she still enjoys teasing him about it.
“Occasionally, I point out to him that I did keep my end of the deal, and my feet are pretty tired sometimes,” she said.
