50 years in the making -- Part 3, the family

Vivian and Rene 1963

Robert Vivian and Rene May 1963

     We had been married a year and a little over a month when Rene Lynne was born, March 27, 1963, twenty days after Robert's 24th birthday.  I was 19.


     We lived on Oklahoma Avenue in Oklahoma City when first married, then moved to Hooker, Oklahoma then Guymon for a few months. When Robert had a chance to return to school at Oklahoma State Tech, we decided he should, and we moved to Okmulgee, Oklahoma, where Rene Lynne was born about a month before he graduated.


     After graduation, we moved to Pampa, Texas, where Robert ran a diesel fuel injection lab. We lived there for a little over a year before returning to Oklahoma.


     We lived a few months in Midwest City before heading to the Oklahoma Panhandle and then to the Liberal, Kansas area. Robert worked in a diesel shop south of Liberal when Robert Lee, Jr. "Bobby" was born in the Liberal hospital, April 27, 1965.

     Fifteen months later, September 15, 1966, Randy (Randel Louis) joined the Zabel family.

The Zabel family in 1970

     December 19, 1968, Regina Louise entered this world and family, but she left us the next day. 

     Years later, the grandchildren began to arrive.

To be continued ....

50 years in the making -- Part 2, the wedding

A snapshot taken after the reception

     Robert and I set our wedding date for May 15, 1962, on my parents 20th anniversary, but Robert's best friend, Frank McCubbin, was being sent to Germany by the Army. Therefore, for Frank to be the best man, we moved the date to February 18. Yes, from November 7 until February 18 wasn't a long time, and we were told our marriage wouldn't last six months. Whew, what a long six months.

     My cousin Barbara Gilbert (later to become Barbara Harris) acted as maid of honor. Robert's sister Pat was a bride's maid and his other sisters, Peggy and Edna, were candle lighters. My sister Diana Gilbert was junior bride's maid. Nannette Harrin and her twin brother Nathan were flower girl and ring bearer.

     The only picture showing Robert's attendants is a splotchy snapshot.

Far right, Diana Gilbert, Pat Zabel (now Powers), Nannette Herrin in front, Barbara Gilbert, bride and groom, Frank McCubbin, Daivd Powers, and Nathan Herrin

     Robert's attendants included Frank as best man and David Powers as groomsman. Richard Hill and Howard Gilbert were ushers.

My parents, Raymond and Dolly Gilbert, us, and Robert's parents, Ed and Lucy Zabel

     We married in the First Church of the Nazarene, Midwest City, Oklahoma. The church no longer exists. The minister who performed the ceremony, Glen Golden, ended up divorced, but we've survived.

     We didn't have many pictures during the wedding because the photographer's cameras didn't work, all three didn't work.  In fact, Robert and I had to go to the photographer's studio to get some photographs of us together -- over seven months after the wedding.

     The organist had a flat on the way to the church, but rather than call for help, she waited until her parents picked her up on their way to the church, thirty minutes after music was needed for ushers to seat guests.

     The candle holders didn't get decorated. A sister-in-law to be and her boyfriend played on the organ after people began to enter the church, her in her bare feet. My mother had been ill for about two weeks and wasn't doing well. Robert left the marriage license in the glove compartment of his car, locked in my parent's garage. Frank rushed him out to pick it up.

     All that mini-disasters are funny now, but I was ready to cry before the wedding began.

Photograph taken in studio nearly eight months after the wedding

To be continued ...

50 years in the making -- Part 1, the beginning

    The second child of Ed and Lucy Zabel was born in a farm house south of Hooker, Oklahoma, March 7, 1939.

     In 1958, Robert Lee Zabel graduated from Adams High School in the Oklahoma Panhandle. He attended Oklahoma State Tech, majoring in farm machinery mechanics. When he tore up his right hand in a racing accident, he dropped out until after he married Vivian Gilbert. Then he returned to Oklahoma State Tech and graduated as a diesel injection specialist.










     Sgt. Raymond and his wife Dolly (Lyles) Gilbert gave birth to Vivian Ellouise July 28, 1943, Randolph AFB, Texas.

     Vivian graduated from Limestone High School, Limestone Maine. Afterwards she began college at Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University), where she met a classmates brother, Robert Zabel.





     When Vivian rode with Robert's sister and her boyfriend to the Oklahoma City Symphony (class assignment), the couple met for the first time since Robert had stopped by to visit his sister on his way to Oregon. The date? November 7, 1961.


To be continued ...

Full video of newscast October 28 -- van fire

Here is the video from the full news cast:   Thank you, Lance West and KFOR-TV.