Texas educator heads to Las Vegas after odd marriage

A small-town Texas love story is leading one teacher to Las Vegas.

Eulogio Izaguirre, 56, grew up in the same neighborhood as Isa Urrea in Pharr, Texas -- citrus country about 10 miles north of the Rio Grande. The two became high school sweethearts.

But when Isa's mother divorced, a stigma settled on her family in the tiny Texas town still gripped by the traditions of the old country.

Eulogio's aunt told the girl she was no longer good enough for her nephew. Shattered, Isa ended their relationship at the movies one night, with no explanation.

"It was a very traumatic time in my life," Isa, now a middle school nurse, said.

Eulogio never knew why she broke his heart.

The two lost track of each other for 30 years. In that time both married and divorced. Then they met again in 1993, at a funeral for a childhood chum.

"I saw him standing on the dirt mound with his arms crossed," Isa recalls. "I remembered that's how he always stood."

Eulogio remembers, "I was hugging a friend and there was this chick in dark sunglasses who said, 'Can I get a hug, too?' Right away, I knew it was her."

He wasted no time. "The funeral was on Friday," Eulogio, whose name means eulogy, said. "The next night we went to dinner. On Sunday we went to the beach. On Monday I asked her to marry me."

She agreed, with some reluctance.

"I thought, 'He's crazy,' " Isa recalls. "I thought, 'We just met. It's impossible.' I didn't know what he was like as an adult. Never in my life did I dream we'd get together again."

They married 10 weeks later and settled in Edinburg, just a few miles from Pharr.

Now Isa, who has traveled the West and once lived in Las Vegas for five years, wants to return to Nevada. She wants to show Eulogio the bright city lights outside the southern tip of Texas, where he has lived all his life.

Eulogio plans to apply to the Clark County School District as soon as their 5-acre ranchette sells. After 25 years of teaching just a few miles from the Mexican border, he wants to help Spanish-speaking elementary schoolchildren in Las Vegas.

"These kids nowadays, they need someone they can count on," Eulogio said. "They need someone who can give them some good advice."

Isa wants to get credentials to work as a school nurse here.

The two plan to retire in Las Vegas.

"They used to tell us it was just puppy love," Isa said. "But here we are."

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