Bowlers, bingo players get lucky in love and find lifetime partners

Breathe deeply, it's Valentines Day.

Love is in the air in Centennial Hills.

Love and Bowling

Around the clock, Jerry and Joy Francomano love each other and bowling.

Around their places of work, the Centennial Hills couple are not-so-fierce rivals.

Jerry is manager of the Texas Station bowling center, 2101 Texas Star Lane. Joy is manager of the Santa Fe Station bowling center, 4949 N. Rancho Drive.

Their s is a tale of shared passions and competition.

But Jerry and Joy's meeting involved some bad customer service and a grudge.

"It's a story that Joy loves to tell," Jerry said of their 1987 first encounter.

Jerry was manning his bowling pro shop in the couple's native Virginia when Joy, a competitive bowler, visited. She was put off by his demeanor that day.

She told friends that she met "this rude, obnoxious New Yorker in the pro shop" who lost her business, Jerry said.

But friends and industry leaders told Joy that the "rude, obnoxious New Yorker in the pro shop" was the guy to help improve her game.

"Everyone said that I should go see Jerry because he would take me to the next level," Joy said.

It took time before Joy loosened her grudge and became friends with Jerry. He took a liking to her quickly and made a point to be at bowling competitions that she was to attend.

"I tell people I was a bowler until Joy (came along) because she became better than me," Jerry said.

Four years later, they were an item. Seven years later, they were married.

"It took a long time to wear her down," Jerry said.

Jerry jokes that he proposed monthly until Joy finally said yes one December. Her answer came with a condition and a deadline.

"I said, 'If you can find someone to marry us on Christmas Eve, I'll marry you,' " Joy said.

Jerry found a minister, and the pair were married the morning of Christmas Eve. By the end of the day, they were at work at Jerry's pro shop.

The couple and Joy's teenage son moved to Las Vegas in 2000. Jerry became manager of the Texas Station bowling center and Joy helped with daily operations. About six months later, Joy was vetted for a position at the rival lanes of Santa Fe Station.

"That's when we became competition," Jerry said.

The couple said they stay mum to each other about special promotions or deals but are supportive. They said either spouse can sympathize with the trials and tribulations of the work.

"It takes someone in the business to understand what I put up with in a day," Jerry said.

They keep Sunday as family day, with no talk or play of bowling, Joy said.

The Francomanos said the key to their marriage is respect, understanding and patience.

"She knows me better than I know myself," Jerry said. "I don't have to be anybody but myself around her."

Love wins

Love was in the bingo cards for Helmut Landau, 72, and Jenny Rosser , 77.

The Centennial Hills couple's jackpot is owed to a little luck and Santa Fe Station , where they met in 2003 and were married five years later.

The bingo buffs were regulars in the bingo hall long before meeting. Landau, a retired mechanic, played with his late wife of 41 years, and Rosser, a retired fitness instructor, poured over cards with her late husband of 51 years. The pair were widowed within six months of each other.

Despite the devastating losses, the couple said, they kept their hobby.

Landau noticed his future wife and mustered up the courage to approach her Jan. 12, 2003 , he recalls. He had saved a seat for Rosser. "She looked like a nice lady," Landau said.

Rosser said she noticed Landau, too.

"He used to stand by the wall and watch me," she said with a laugh.

A coffee date turned dinner date turned relationship.

"I invited her to go out and have dinner, and from that moment on, we were together," Landau said.

The couple made a mutual decision to wed. Although they married in a Santa Fe Station ballroom in 2008, they opted against stopping downstairs for a game of bingo. The couple took a belated honeymoon cruise last winter.

But the couple visit the bingo parlor five to seven times a week and turn the event into date night. They eat dinner at the casino, play slot machines and move to their usual seats in the bingo hall.

At home, "He spoils me," Rosser said.

She doesn't know much of his native language, but she learned "I love you" in German quickly, she said.

The couple enjoy going to movies and senior dances. The key to their relationship is "love and respect," they said.

For them, love is magical.

"It must be," Rosser said. "It must be (magical) at this age to start again."

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.