By MARIA KACIK Staff Writer

SPENCER — Justin Jackson and Corrine Sutton stood outside the same restaurant where they met three years ago and watched waving politicians, veterans and beauty queens pass by during the village’s Fourth of July parade Friday.

But as the Spencer fire trucks approached, Sutton received a surprise.

One of the fire trucks carried a white banner that was unfurled before the 21-year-old. The blue lettering on the banner read, “Will you marry me, Corrine?”

Corrine Sutton, who just accepted a marriage proposal from Justin Jackson, admires her engagement ring. The Spencer residents met three years ago at the Farmer Boy restaurant, where she’s a waitress. (Shirley Ware | Photo Editor)

Sutton looked at Jackson and said, “yes.” He then placed a diamond ring on her finger.

“I didn’t know at all what he was doing,” Sutton said. “He just told me the other day he didn’t have the money to buy the ring.”

Jackson, 29, explained the two have been talking about marriage, and he wanted to propose on the Fourth of July.

“I thought it would be a special day — that I would always remember the date,” he joked.

“I was going to (propose) at the fireworks tonight, but she started getting suspicious,” he said. So he told her he couldn’t get the ring.

But all the while, plenty of people in town knew otherwise.

Jackson had asked Sutton’s parents for permission to propose and he had asked his own parents for help picking out the ring. In fact, he took his parents to jewelers all around the area looking for the perfect ring.

“I was getting hungry,” joked Jackson’s father, Jerry, who didn’t expect the ring shopping to take so long.

And Jackson clued a few of his friends in on the surprise proposal as well.

“I’m friends with almost all the guys on the Spencer Fire Department,” he said. He made the banner and the firefighters took care of it from there.

Throughout the parade, Jackson stood beside Sutton, ring in hand, outside Farmer Boy restaurant at state Routes 301 and 162. It was at this restaurant, where Sutton works as a waitress, that the two met. Three years ago, though, it was called Spencer Corner Café.

“I just kept pestering her for a phone number. She said she wouldn’t go out with me because I was too old,” Jackson remembered.

Eventually, they went out on a date and the two have been together ever since.

After the parade, several community members stopped to say “congratulations” and to get a look at Sutton’s ring.

“Everybody knows us here,” she said.

Jackson, who comes from a farming family, said he and Sutton were going to take the day to relax and then go to the fireworks at night. “But I’ve got to unload some hay first. That’s what I’m going to do right now,” he said.

The couple plans to marry in two years after Sutton receives her nursing degree from Lorain County Community College.

Kacik may be reached at 330-721-4049 or mkacik@ohio.net.