Nearly 7 decades later, bowling still joins this pair

STRUTHERS

Gil Frank has long been a self-proclaimed “bowling nut.”

In fact, on the very day he got out of the Navy, Gil was able to visit with his family back home in Struthers for only so long before the siren song of rumbling bowling balls and clattering pins lured him in.

There, at a bowling alley in downtown Struthers, he met Doris, who grew up in Brownlee Woods and hadn’t been to an alley before. She wasn’t doing so well, Gil remembers, so he offered up some instruction.

“She bowled three strikes in a row,” said Gil, 90, adding that he not long afterward discovered that Doris and his sister worked together at General Fireproofing Co. in Youngstown.

He took Doris home to visit his family that night.

That was March 17, 1946. Neither Gil nor Doris Frank can remember their second date, but the two were married about a year and a half later, on Nov. 21, 1947.

Doris insists there’s no real secret to their long and happy marriage.

“We just got along good together,” said Doris, 87. “He was a good worker and a good father, and he’s still a good husband.”

Their marital bliss might have something to do, however, with their still doing the thing that brought them together almost

70 years ago: bowling.

Read more about these bowler and the life they've created over nearly seven decades in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.