A Golden Anniversary

For Margot & Robert Hall

Margot (Sachs) and Robert “Bob” Hall will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on September 2, 2011.

The two met in 1959. Bob was a lifeguard at Dickenson Park pool, and Margot Sachs was taking care of a young boy, Ken Wahl of Wallingford.

“She would bring Ken to the park. Dad became very smitten,” shared Elinor Hall, one of the couple’s children. “Two years later, after he graduated Yale, they were married.”

The couple was married at Zion Lutheran Church in Wallingford on September 2, 1961. Reverend Kuehn officiated. The best man was a college friend, Nick McNoyes. The maid of honor was Emily Trowbidge. Rosalie Silver of Wallingford was the flower girl.

Ken Wahl, the young boy Margot had been watching over, served as a ring bearer.

Margot is the daughter of Elli and Karl Sachs. Bob is the son of Margaret and Raymond Hall.

“Mom recalls that it had to be one of the hottest days that year,” said Elinor. “The men were very hot in their white tuxedo jackets; the back of the jackets turned ‘pink’ from perspiration.”

The Halls celebrated their wedding with a honeymoon road trip, first traveling to Clingsman Dome in Kentucky, and then to Virginia Beach. The couple made their first home in Cambridge, Mass., while Mr Hall was attending Harvard Law.

Elinor was the couple’s first child. After Bob Hall graduated law school, the family moved to Manchester, N.H., where he had his first job practicing law. Marianne Hall was born while the family lived in New Hampshire. Shortly thereafter the Halls moved to Hartford. By 1965 the family moved back to Newtown, where Bob and Margot have now lived for 45 years.

Stuart Hall, the couple’s son, was born in Waterbury and has lived in Newtown all of his life (so far…).

Robert Hall has been operating his law practice in the office space adjacent to Newtown General Store, at 43 Main Street, since January 1977. Prior to that he was a partner with the law firm of Carmody and Torrance in Waterbury.

He is also a longtime member of Newtown Rotary Club and active in local and state Republican politics, where he is a member of the State Central Committee. The Halls are members of Newtown Congregational Church.

Margot Hall spent many years working in the town’s probate system as clerk and then judge, next door to her husband, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. She retired in September 2009 after nearly two decades as Newtown’s Judge of Probate.

“I used to tease them because their windows were practically facing each other,” said Elinor Hall. “They could keep tabs on each other during the day.”

Elinor Hall and her husband Robert Hudson live in Jacksonville, Fla.; Marianne (Hall) and Steve Westmoreland live in Winchester, Va., with their children, Elli and Tanner; and Stuart Hall and his wife Cherie live in Newtown with their children, Nicholas, Brendan, and Emma.

“My parents have been very influential on all of us,” said Elinor Hall. “We love them dearly and wish them a very Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary.”