Magical wedding happened at MIU

To the editor:

DID YOU GO TO THE WEDDING??

The date: Dec. 3, l981, Sunday, Thirty years ago.

Scheduled time: 1:30 p.m., actually happened 1.5 hours late.

The place: New $750,000 dome where laborers worked furiously on MIU campus to complete the 24,000 square foot women?s golden dome in time for the wedding.

The groom: Douglas James Henning age 34, born in Winnipeg Canada in l974 started practice of TM and becomes the family magician with his own TV specials and spends a lot of time in Fairfield.

The bride: Deborah Ann Douillard age 26 born in New York, started practicing TM in l975 and moved to Guadalajara Mexico where she designed shirts and employed peasant seamstresses. She visited MIU and they met in early l98l, it was love at first sight and she becomes the magician?s assistant.

The day: Bride arrived at 2:50 p.m. in horse drawn surrey owned and driven by 58?year-old Chet Bagby of Stockport. He wore white tails and top hat. Bride wore a ?snow queen? silk wedding dress with 12 foot beaded train. Greeting them were 1,600 people including meditators, Hollywood producers, local residents and the press. There were five bridesmaids on the platform decked with daffodils, mums, red and white poinsettias for the 70-minute ceremony. Tears appeared to come from Henning?s eyes as he and his bride read from a handwritten book they wrote themselves (sources of data ?The Ledger? and Chuck Offenberger?s column in the ?Des Moines Register?).

In conclusion they had planned on building a home here, but it never materialized. Doug died on Feb 7, 2000, at Los Angeles of liver cancer.

Enjoy this bit of reminiscing. 

? Verda Baird, Fairfield