For ‘Pawn Stars’ celebrity and wife it’s books instead of flowers

When Colleen and Mark Hall-Patton married, she was aware that he came with a lot of baggage — literally.

"I knew when I married Mark, I was marrying his collections," Colleen said. "I just didn't know how much it was going to be."

Colleen is a UNLV professor, an anthropologist and a sociologist. Mark is a historian and administrator for Clark County Museums. Just the books in their — well, mostly his — collection number around 20,000, and that's only the ones at their Henderson home, not counting the scores of boxes in storage at several locations and in Mark's office.

"I live in the world of books," he said, "and Colleen does as well."

The other thing Colleen didn't know she was also marrying was the sudden celebrity that came with Mark's frequent appearances on the History Channel's "Pawn Stars." Mark is stopped by fans of the show wherever he goes. He thought he might have had some anonymity on a trip last year to Ireland, but he was greeted as he walked up to customs by name and posed for a picture with the customs officer.

"It's not just a matter of changing the color of his shirt or getting a different hat," Colleen said. "We've had people in stores run over to us from three aisles away because they recognized his voice. The best thing about his celebrity is that I can step 4 feet away and be anonymous."

For the most part, Colleen has adjusted to the fame, even studying it and publishing a paper on the phenomenon in an Australian sociology journal called "Celebrity Studies."

"I consciously did about six months of ethnographic work, documenting daily life and encounters and interviewing him after dinner," Colleen said. "I published it in a paper called "The Celebrification of a Pawn Star."

For most of their 38 years together, they lived a fairly quiet life. The pair met in high school but didn't become an item until a fourth- and fifth-year high school reunion. Both Colleen and Mark pulled a friend aside trying to recall the name of the other. Mark got past the shyness that had kept him from pursuing her in high school and approached Colleen.

"He came over and asked me to dance, and 13 months later, we were married," Colleen said.

It wasn't exactly love at first sight. They enjoyed each other's company, and the longer they spent together, the more they found they liked it.

"She was interesting, she was good to talk to, she was intelligent, and she was quite pretty," Mark said. "That worked, too."

When Mark asked if she'd marry him, he did it obliquely, asking, "What would you say if I asked you to marry me?" After confirming that he was serious, she told him she needed to think about it. It took her three weeks to come to a decision. Mark noticed she looked nervous and asked if anything was wrong. She posed the oblique query back to him, saying. "What would you say if I said 'Yes?' " Mark admitted that would please him.

"As you can tell, the question of romance is kind of a loose idea for us," Mark said. "Our marriage has been based more on conversation and communication rather than romance. There's no question about the love, but I've never given Colleen flowers. I give her other things, like lots of books."

Colleen found a quote once, and it's colored the couple's views on romance.

"You don't find a soulmate, you forge a soulmate," Colleen said. "I think it may be a quote by Gail Sheehy, who wrote 'Passages,' but it works for us."

Conversation is a major part of the couple's philosophy of marriage.

"We call it the three C's that make a successful marriage: commitment, communication and compromise," Mark said. "It's not that we always agree. We have canceled each other's vote in presidential elections for more years than I'd care to count. We make it work. Successful marriage doesn't just happen; it takes some effort, but it's worth it."

As an example of the compromises they've made, Colleen cited their marriage, or rather, marriages.

"We were both raised Roman Catholic, and at the time we were married, Mark was still practicing," she said. "The priest of our parish refused to marry us because I had fallen out of the church, but we found another pastor who would, but he had some questions for me."

The priest asked her if the children would be raised Catholic. Colleen replied that they would, but that they would also be getting a second opinion. The priest, an old Navy chaplain who had seen a lot of the world, replied, "I don't need to know that," and the wedding was set, with one more tiny hitch. Colleen wanted an outdoor wedding, and that particular parrish did not do that, so they compromised by having two — a small, intimate ceremony at the church and a more elaborate service with a wider guest list outdoors.

"We do understand each other very well and accept each other for who we are," Mark said. "Most of the time, we know what the other is going to say. Colleen says that often she can hear me in her head, whether she wants to or not."

The pair has had a happy life, and outwardly, they present a calm exterior that belies the challenges they have faced. Both have lost their fathers to Alzheimer's and their mothers to other things. Mark went through two years of unemployment, and there have been other difficulties through the years. They say that they aren't happy because those events are in the past as much as they are happy because they got through the challenges together.

"We've lived our vows," Colleen said. "For richer, for poorer. For better, for worse. In sickness and in health. We've done that."

— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.