Bio: Jensen, Mr./Mrs. Ted (Clark Co. Fair Wedding – 1931)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Jensen, Finnila, Longenecker

---------Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 03 Aug 1972

Show business eccentric Tiny Tim and his ex-bride, Miss Vicki, don have a thing on Mr. and Mrs. Ted Jensen, Route 1, Owen (Clark Co., Wis.) residents, starts of the 1931 Clark County Fair.

In fact, the Clark County couple who made history 41 years ago are at least two-up on the strange little character from Brooklyn and his former child bride, who had the whole nation as their witnesses, when they married on Johnny Carson's TV show.

Besides the fact that the Jensen's are still married to each other (and after 41 years, too) they sort of set a precedent for public wedding in the area; for it was 41 years ago this month that the 25-year-old Jensen and his 23-year-old girlfriend (then Martha Finnila) stunned a Clark County fair crowd of 2,500 persons, when they were married in the Clark County Fair grandstand, closing the 59th annual fair.

Needless to say, it was the only time in the 100 years of the fair that grandstand crowds witnessed an event like this one.

The Jensen's remember it alright, but they don't attach a great deal of significance to it.

"I can't even remember what church the minister (the Rev. George Longenecker) was from," Mrs. Jensen said.

Judging from the way they now recall the incident, the whole idea was probably Jensen's.

"They (fair officials) asked each of the three couples that applied for a marriage license for that day (Aug. 29, 1931) if they would be willing to get married at the fair, and I said 'sure,' Jensen declared.

"What's the difference if you get married in some church or in front of the grandstand. And we had 2,500 witnesses, too."

A host of small gifts from local Clark County businessmen were to be given to the couple that agreed to close the fair on this rather unusual note, but as Jensen recalls it, "I would have lost more in wages driving around picking up those small gifts, so we just forgot about it.

Jensen's boss wouldn't give him time off, and after spending their wedding night in a Greenwood hotel, Jensen returned to work the next morning. At the time he was marking $60 a month for working six 10-hour days a week.

They drove to Greenwood, 20 miles north of the fair grandstand, in Jensen's sport Buick roadster, complete with red upholstery.

The fair associated picked up the wedding bill and preacher's fee. And it's a good thing, because Mrs. Jensen's folks didn't show; they didn't want their daughter to get married yet.

Looking back, Jensen admits to more explicit memories of the big grandstand event than his wife admits to.