Couples who waltzed to big band music may recall a tune called “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”
“Moonlight beams on the girl of my dreams, she’s the sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”
Movies were made, with the same title, in
1933 and 1946. The song is said to be the most beloved and popular of all college fraternity tunes. In Lake Stevens, Bill and Pat Huested not only epitomize the meaning of the lyrics, their romance blossomed around the Sigma Chi tradition at Oregon State College.
They met during the fall selection process. According to the Eta Lambda Chapter of the fraternity, the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi is a young lady who embodies the high values, standards and ideals in which all brothers pride themselves.
“Elected at the end of each fall semester, a Sigma Chi Sweetheart represents the brotherhood on campus, in the community, in their sorority, and in their everyday activities.”
In 1949, Bill Huested used his G.I. Bill and a tennis scholarship to attend college. The sailor was a turret gunner on a torpedo bomber airplane.
Huested showed me his page in “War and Sacrifice: Personal Stories of World War II from in and around Snohomish County.”
He asked if I was familiar with the impressive book. Huested is featured on page 45. My Dad, Bill Brayton, shared his war story beginning on page 16.
At the time of the sweetheart selection, Huested, 23, was chairman of the annual sweetheart dance. How the young woman is picked is a time-honored process. Each sorority and dorm selected their prettiest members who met and chatted with a selection committee of three men from the fraternity.
“It was a move well planned to meet the prettiest girls on campus,” Bill Huested said.
His future wife was studying English and art at the college. She was presented by her sorority. Before the annual dance, contestants’ names were put in a hat.
“Names were drawn to see who would escort each contestant,” Bill Huested said. “As dance chairman, I drew first, and this girl was a Pi Beta Phi by the name of Pat.”
He picked her up for the party.
“When I saw her my heart did a flip flop,” Bill Huested said. “She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen.”
Pat Huested was not unhappy with her escort.
“He had a devilish look,” she said. “I was fascinated by him.”
Fraternity men were not allowed to date the contestants. Each week, young women were eliminated in the ongoing contest. The woman Huested escorted reached the semi-finals, but was not the overall sweetheart.
No matter.
Bill Huested gave her his fraternity pin and they married the next year in Portland, Ore.
He worked in the insurance business. They lived in Arizona, Missouri, Wyoming and Spokane. They retired to these parts because Bill Huested loved to fish. He also builds and flies model airplanes and ties fishing flies. They have two sons and three grandchildren.
They are very active. Pat Huested is producing a play at the Snohomish Senior Center.
Bill Huested, former director of the center, enjoys activities at the Everett and Snohomish centers.
When he shared the story of how he met his wife, who he said had gorgeous strawberry blond hair, he added memories that are still vivid.
“She walked toward me,” he said of the day they met. “She was wearing a green knit dress.”
He shared a secret this Valentine season about staying married to your sweetheart.
“You say four words,” he said. ” ‘Yes dear,’ and ‘No dear’.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com
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