Roland Hansen knew he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Lorraine, at a romantic spot somewhere along the Southern California coast.
Hansen, who served in the Navy Air Corps from 1943 to 1945, had returned to Compton, where he had grown up. The two met at Compton College after a friend who rode to school with Hansen told Lorraine he was “interested” in her. They dated for a year and then, Hansen, who was finishing two credits before going to dental school at USC, decided it was time to pop the question. She had earned a scholarship at UC Santa Barbara, prompting him to speed things up.
So, Hansen considered all likely options.
“Sunset Beach had too much junk on it,” he said. “There were lots of cans and debris. Long Beach had too many oil rigs. I could have driven further north toward the peninsula, but there weren’t any restaurants or hotels along the coast. Where would I have proposed? In the car? No other places had any allure like Laguna Beach did.”
That was September 1947 and two months later, on Nov. 26, the couple was married in the First Christian Church in Compton. They honeymooned at the Mission Inn in Riverside. The $8 reservation was given to them as a wedding gift.
On Friday, Nov. 26, the couple, along with their five children, Craig Hansen, 70, Ann Sebek, 69, Cary Hansen, 65, Karen Smith, 62, and Kristen Lenders, 56, returned to the Hotel Laguna to celebrate the 74-year-marriage with a view of the beach where Hansen proposed.
Inside a private room at Larsen, the Hotel Laguna’s recently renovated restaurant, Lorraine, now 94, and Roland, now 96, reminisced with their children as they looked over photos of their many years together. The pictures and other mementos, including a notebook of newspaper clipping and a model of a Stearman bi-plane – the plane Roland Hansen learned to fly in the service – lay on the long white linen-lined table.
There were pictures of their longtime home in Rolling Hills, a gated community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The one-story white ranch home was simple. It had a two-acre yard and a barn and was surrounded by a white, three-rail fence. The couple prided themselves at keeping the yard native to California plants and did their own landscaping.
“My father wanted the land to be kept as the original land,” said Sebek, of Irvine. “For 35 years, they never had a gardener. My father went to classes at UCLA to learn about California indigenous plants. He and my mom planted all the plants. They did everything to save money.
“The California poppy was his favorite, and it is mine,” Sebek said. “We grew up with them all over the property. He taught us to listen to the pop of the poppy when the seeds come out.”
And there were other memories, like when the entire family went to Europe to celebrate the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary. It was a six-week camping trip, which the couple’s children said instilled in them a lifetime passion of camping and travel. The family rented a camper and stopped at spots in Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I
n Denmark, they found the church where their ancestors were married and buried. That trip also inspired Hansen to research his Danish family lineage.
There were also photos of outdoor achievements, like when Hansen turned 60 and set a goal of hiking Mt. Whitney. Lorraine Hansen and four of his children were there for the conquest. And, then when Lorriane Hansen turned 65, the entire family hiked to the top of Half Dome, the famed rock formation in Yosemite National Park.
Sebek said she still remembers the experience and became emotional talking about what it was for her mother to make it to the top.
“My mother, all her life, has been a very strong woman,” Sebek said. “She never cried. But, when we got to the top of Half Dome, she cried about how we did it together. She gathered all of us together to tell us how meaningful it was to her.”
Roland Hansen completed his schooling in dentistry from USC in 1950 thanks to the GI Bill and specialized in pediatric dentistry. He later served as president of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Society of Dentistry for Children. Lorraine Hansen was a stay-at-home mother.
“My mom and dad were Depression-era babies, they didn’t grow up with a lot,” Sebek said, adding that the outdoors was a way to have fun that didn’t cost much.
Their passion for camping, hiking, fishing and skiing took them on trips to the High Sierras and to Mammoth Lakes. They moved there after living on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for 35 years. Roland Hansen continued in dentistry and treated patients at the Toiyabe Indian Health Project in Bishop for seven years. Lorraine Hansen volunteered at the Mammoth Hospital and the couple donated to the local college.
After 10 years and lots of snowy winters, they relocated to Palm Desert, where they spent another decade. More recently, they moved to Orange County and presently live in Laguna Niguel.
As their children gathered with them Friday, they reflected on lessons learned and what their parents’ togetherness taught them.
Craig Hansen, who still lives in the Mammoth Lakes area, said his parent’s passion made lifelong exploring important.
“On many of these family excursions, we would stop at ‘points of interest,’ monuments, along roadside turnouts,” he said of early family trips. “This was their way of teaching us about the history of the area.
“As an adult, I’ve realized the importance of exploring,” Craig Hansen said. “It could be an alternate road to your destination or return back home, reading a different author or book, or taking on an extensive home repair project on your own.”
Kristen Lenders, the couple’s youngest child, listed off values she learned from each parent. From her father, there were many, including that “the outdoors is unrecognized exercise,” “take care of your corner of the world and plant things,” and that “photography helps document it all.”
From her mother, she learned about all aspects of the home, including that coupons and sales are important and so is growing and preserving food.
“She did it all,” Lenders said. “Our home was spotless, and she was always put together and beautiful. She welcomed Dad after work daily and home-cooked meals were always eaten together as a family.”
As she looked around the table, Friday, her eyes filled with tears as she watched her parents and siblings exchange memories.
“This is the epitome of what family looks like,” she said. “For them, it’s full-circle. This is where it all started. It’s not only an anniversary, but a completion of life.”
And, for Lorraine Hansen, the spot her husband picked to propose was still pretty special.
“Oh my goodness, this is magnificent,” she said as she looked around. “Then it was just an old hotel.”
Was she surprised when he asked her?
“We were in love and I knew it was coming,” she said, smiling. “I thought, well, why not?”