Newlyweds Ed and Jeannik Littlefield cut their wedding cake as Ed's mother, Marguerite Wattis Hanke, looks on. Courtesy of the Edmund W. and Jeannik Littlefield Foundation Over the holidays, at the end of 1944, Ed Littlefield took a trip to New York City and attended a friend's party on Christmas Day. There, he met Jeannik Mequet, who served in the Women's French Air Force. Although they met in New York, "It turned out we lived in the same apartment building," Ed related. "I had never seen her in the apartment building. I lived on the ground floor, and she lived on the sixth floor. But I had seen her shopping in the neighborhood." Ed had never lacked for girls' attention, he admitted later. "I came from the 'kiss but never tell' school. I think that through all this I had not too many serious romances." He suspected that his parents' divorce underwrote his reluctance to nurture a meaningful relationship. "Part of the problem was that every time a romance got serious, I tended to take off in full flight." Wary still, Ed became the only passenger on a barge trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, affording him plenty of time to reflect. By the journey's end, Ed had decided to propose marriage to Jeannik. She accepted. "We were married in Washington, D.C., in June 1945," Littlefield related. "We had a reception after the ceremony at someplace called the International Club. It was just sweltering hot! I was having a good time but everybody was dripping wet. My mother finally came over to me and said, 'Will you and Jeannik please leave so everybody can go home!'" As 1945 ended, Ed and Jeannik Littlefield extricated themselves from their militaries' bureaucratic tangles and headed west. Ed decided not to return to Standard Oil and instead accepted a vice-presidency at Golden State Dairy. In California, the Littlefields raised their three children, Edmund (Eddie), Jacques, and Denise.