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Rexer-Politte Wedding, Barr Mansion
Theirs has been a romance scored “appassionato.” Performed with an extended caesura.
Saturday, Jennie Leigh Ramona Rexer and Glen Gordon Politte tied the knot at the Barr Mansion while a sapphire dusk hung overhead.
Jennie Rexer and Glen Politte
They reciprocated euphonious vows overseen by humorous Austin writer Spike Gillespie. Toward the end of the outdoor ceremony, they exchanged rings — nearly 30 years after their courtship began.
You see, Rexer and Politte met in their teens. They attended the same competitive, culturally homogeneous high school in suburban Houston.
Using the terminology of the day, they were freaks, not geeks, although behind the punk piercings and black garb were two smart, sweet, slightly awkward kids.
Kelsey Covington, Spike Gillespie and Kirsten Covington
He was stringy, bespectacled; she fleshier, outspoken. They seemed to subsist on confrontational artists like Patti Smith, Siouxsie & the Banshees and other advocates of anarchy.
Their friends adored them, apart and as a couple.
Yet Rexer and Politte, who now live in north-central Houston, exhibited boisterously independent behavior back then, something that neither friends nor family could superintend. So, rather operatically, they split.
Both continued to rock out at night, but their days mellowed. After managing a movie theater, Rexer chased a post-graduate degree in neuropsychology. Politte held down jobs as a dispatcher while he raised two boys with his first wife.
Helen and Tom Politte
For almost 20 years, the two trod separate, sometimes outlandish paths. Then, after Politte’s marriage broke up, Rexer looked him up. The embers had not cooled. For either lover.
The fateful intimacy of youth returned. So, with lives now settled — Politte a grandfather in his mid-forties! — the rebels yielded to convention. They married.
I’ve known Rexer and Politte all those years. I served as a groomsman in Politte’s first wedding, which charitably would be called disaster. (I swear some of the scenes from “Four Weddings and a Funeral” were stolen from that surreal event.)
Mike and Karen Blizzard
I’d seen the once-and-future couple spottily, however, since they reunited. Somehow, their second chance seemed even less concrete than Politte’s first marriage. It computed on a certain emotional level, evaporated on an intellectual one. Flouting expectations, it lasted and lasted.
Thanks to Facebook, we re-orbited just as Rexer and Politte planned their long-delayed rite. They made attendance easy by choosing the Barr Mansion, the elegant Eastlake-style farmhouse at Sprinkle and Springdale roads, on what Rexer described as “a breathtakingly beautiful day to get married.”
Shocking how quickly Austin fades into rural glory less than two miles north of U.S. 290, recalling the cotton country that William Braxton Barr and his wife Matilda Birdwell viewed more than 100 years ago when they raised the mansion. In the Age of Punk, back when Rexer and Politte were first courting, Mark and Melanie McAfee transformed the compound for special events, later adding the fairy-tale Artisan Ballroom, decorated about as far from a punk aesthetic as one could imagine.
Jane and Jason Lewis
During the reception, I cemented a few old ties, secured some new ones. Facebook friend and Texas Parks and Wildlife writer/editor Karen Blizzard turns out to be married to Mike Blizzard a basketball player back at that Houston high school. He’s also an avid reader of my columns on New Austin.
We noshed with Jane and Jason Lewis; Jane told us about the neuropsychological work she shares with Rexer; Jason regaled us with tales of surfing Indonesia. The two were married on fantastic Bali, while Kip and I got hitched under a staircase in an improvised wedding space at Toronto City Hall.
I cry at every wedding. I cried at this one. How could I help it, given the durable Rexer-Politte romance?
Who played the reception? No, not a punk band. The Eggmen, Austin’s Beatles cover act. Four generations of guests danced into the night. Hey, even for a nonconformist couple like Rexer and Politte, Sex Pistols impersonators would have spoiled the vibe.
Comments
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By conveidt
October 19, 2009 11:40 PM | Link to this
For those of us who grew up in Houston, it would have been nice if you had named the high school they went to. And you describe the area where they now live as north central Houston. That may be an acceptable neighborhood description for Austin (as it is for my old neighborhood Allandale or Rosedale or Crestview) but it makes no sense to anyone who knows Houston. Are you trying to say they live in the Heights or Spring Branch or ?
By Ramona
October 19, 2009 6:39 PM | Link to this
The wedding was a blast! I can't thank Rick Rabon, the wedding coordinator, and Abby Daigle, the florist, of Barr Mansion enough. What gracious hosts! The food was also simply amazing. Also want to thank Jen Brown for an outstanding job as photographer. And of course The Eggmen were incredible! A truly memorable night...
By Michael Barnes
October 19, 2009 4:53 PM | Link to this
A good news day, my friend, a good news day.
By Phil Cedar Creek
October 19, 2009 3:20 PM | Link to this
Must be a slow "news" day...huh?