Retired BJ reporter and sub radio guy Jim Carney and BJ reporter Katie Byard celebrated their 30^th wedding anniversary today.

Katie got the best nice guy in this world. Jim got a woman who is worth being his bride, and then some.

John "J.H." Tidyman, who lives in Lakewood, Ohio, claims he introduced them to each other.

J.H. is publisher of DD 214 Chronicle, a bimonthly newspaper created in 2010 for Northeast Ohio veterans that delivers 11,000 papers free to veterans' organizations and healthcare facilities.

J.H.'s claim:

“So glad I introduced them. Had to tell Katy, ‘No, he can’t dance, but he can cook, read aloud, touch type, wash dishes, make a bed, clean garages and provide you with wonderful massages, tickle you with his beard, correct your grammar and make you laugh.”

He said Katie's response was: “I’ll take ‘em!”
Katie says J.H.'s claim is "fake news."

Anyway, she did. Jim did.

30 years later, still going stronger than a Mountaineer’s moonshine breath.

Katie recalls that wedding day in 1987:

 

“It was a beautiful fall day in Richfield. Jim and I decided it would be fun to dress up like a couple from the 50s (we were ahead of the curve when it came to themed events!), make Patrick, Will and Michael dress up like little maitre d’s, enjoy the evening with a bunch of friends in the upper room of the Richfield Tavern, share too many cocktail weenies with the group, cut a cake from the fab Budd's Bakery in Akron (decorated with Mickey and Minnie Mouse) and say ‘I do.’ Other stuff from Common Book of Prayer, thank u very much.

"Miss those who were there and are no longer with us. Blessed for those still supporting us and new friends we have made along the way. Blessed to share my life with Jimmy.”

Then they zipped off to their New Orleans honeymoon.

The first time that Katie and Jim looked goo-goo eyes on each other it was like the day in 2014 that the oak tree leveled a power line in their neighborhood. Wham! Only in the eyeballs spurting love signs at each other case, it was a brilliant light instead of instant darkness that came over them.

The only place better than New Orleans for romance – and it’s a close call for me – is Paris, where Paula and I spent one of our anniversaries. Oh la la, Cherie, it was magnificante!

Tim Smith and Keith McKnight, as Katie has relayed before, were responsible for hiring both of them in 1983. The BJ struck gold … twice!

Former BJ super investigative reporter Bill Hershey put their rental car on his credit card so that Jim and Katie could even get to their BJ interview. Classy people all around, huh?

But that’s normal at the BJ.

Patrick Carney, Will Carney and Michael Carney are Jim’s sons by former Cleveland Scene and BJ reporter Denise Grollmus. 

Patrick has a ton of Grammy Awards as part of the Black Keys band and lives in New York City with second wife Emily Ward;  Michael, Columbus College of Art and Design grad with a Grammy for his Black Keys album art, lives in Brooklyn with Joanna Grant; and Will supervises engineers for Amtrak out of St. Louis. 

Will moved from Peninsula where he was Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway superintendent. Railroading has been his passion and life since he was a teenager. 

The Carney boys are all Firestone High graduates, as is Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach.

The Carney boys' paternal grandparents are Wheeling, West Virginia native William "Bill" James Carney, who died in 2010, and Madge Slate Carney, a former Army nurse who passed away in 1995.

When I type “West Virginia native,” I think of only one thing: Good people. Since I grew up in Monongah, a town of 900+ 20 miles south of Morgantown, I’m an expert on that evaluation. West Virginians are proof that you don’t have to be rich to be quality people.

Jim and Katie deserve the good people appellation that the wonder from Wheeling passed on to his son.

May their love be a non-stop tripping through the daffodils of life. Jim knows what I mean.

Kudos, kids!