ESCONDIDO – Sometimes the good people need to be recognized. And sometimes the happy stories need to be written.
Mary and Earl “Kris” Christofferson, she 83 and he 85, are one of those stories.
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Earl "Kris" Christofferson sat in the cockpit of his 1946 Ercoupe, in which he and his wife, Mary, have logged countless hours. Though Kris still flies regularly, knee-replacement surgery has prevented Mary from taking wing for five years.
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Both lost their longtime loves in the early 1980s, and found each other about a year later. He is a former minister, she a former schoolteacher. Together they have lived life strong, whether that means flying in Kris' restored 1946 Ercoupe, or driving 300,000 miles in a motor home, or giving thousands of handmade gifts to people – just about anybody as long as they're nice – they come into contact with.
For years Mary, along with her late husband and her daughter, attended East San Diego Christian Church Church, where Kris was the pastor from 1955 to 1975.
“He had baptized my daughter, married her and buried my mother,” Mary said. In the late '70s and early '80s, Mary's husband, a career Navy man, lived with Alzheimer's disease, and for his last six years didn't recognize his wife. When he died in 1983, she said she gave no thought to remarriage.
It had been a good, loving life, and that was enough.
Meanwhile, Kris, who had since moved to Sunnyvale where he ministered a church from 1975 to 1985, had lost his wife to cancer just a few months earlier.
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Mary Christofferson was a San Diego County teacher of the year recipient in 1984.
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In 1984, Kris was in San Diego for the christening of one of his grandsons when Don Christofferson, his son, suggested he call Mary. Kris hadn't done much thinking about dating and refused. Don kept insisting, however.
Kris and Mary met at a restaurant in Grossmont Center the next day.
“We cried for three hours while we talked about our spouses,” Mary said.
“It just felt so good,” Kris said.
In the parking lot Kris noticed a broken taillight on Mary's car. They walked over to Ward's and bought a new one, and Kris fixed it on the spot.
“I'm a wiz at mechanics,” Kris said.
“He is,” Mary agreed.
That same year, Mary, who was teaching kindergarten in Encanto, was honored as teacher of the year for the county.
“I'd been teaching kindergarten for about 900 years,” she said. Her first job was at a one-room rural schoolhouse in Missouri, for which she was paid $35 a week. Mary rode a horse six miles each way to get to and from work.
The next day, Mary and Kris met at a Marie Callender's for dinner. Kris had to go back to Sunnyvale, but the two kept in contact through letters and phone calls.
“It just kept getting nicer and nicer,” Mary said.
The next year the two were married and both soon retired. “We thought we would never find another,” Mary said.
“So many times the second marriage is more for convenience. We thought we'd never be happy again. This is a shocker to us.”
For most of her life, Mary said, she had an interest in flying. One day, years ago, she saw an advertisement for flying lessons at Gillespie Field but her husband wouldn't allow it.
“He told me, 'Sweetheart, that's the one thing I can't let you do,' ” Mary recalled.
After Kris and Mary were married she learned Kris was a pilot. Kris has flown 33 types of aircraft and has owned his own plane for decades. He's logged more than 3,300 hours in the air and landed a plane 2,900 times.
It wasn't long before the two were flying together. Although Mary never got her license, she said she felt comfortable enough in the air to take over for Kris if something had happened to him. She also liked playing a little trick. She learned that by putting her hand out the window, and cupping it just so, she could make the plane turn gently to the right.
Mary hasn't been in the air for about five years because of a knee problem that makes it impossible for her to climb into the cockpit of the plane Kris bought from a multimillionaire 20 years ago.
The plane had been restored, at a cost of $40,000, but Kris got the plane for $9,000 after promising the millionaire he would never sell it for a profit.
Kris still goes up two to four times every week, flying out of the Fallbrook Air Park where his classic plane is kept. They live in Escondido.
From 1985 until a few years ago, when Mary had knee-replacement surgery, the couple spent six months each year in a 34-foot motor home. They've been to Alaska five times and traveled through every state except Hawaii and North Dakota. Kris built an airstrip at Quartzsite, Ariz., by himself. For years he used a rake to smooth the 2,400-foot strip, and then flew out of it for 14 years.
When he's not flying, Kris makes chairs – little chairs about 7½ inches tall.
He's made almost 4,000 of them. Each takes more than an hour to create in his shop. He and Mary give them to nice people, they say. “It is our prayer that this chair will be in your family for many years, and bring kind thoughts for those who strive to make our world a bit kinder, and better,” a note attached to each gift says.
“While we're both in our 80s, we are still young,” Kris said. “It's been a good life for the both of us. We can walk out of this land anytime and feel good about it.
“Life is good, but only if you make it that way.”
J. Harry Jones: (760) 737-7579; jharry.jones@uniontrib.com
