STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 When Patrick Benson popped the question to Barbara Olsen two weeks before Valentine\u2019s Day in 1976, she didn\u2019t want to accept his marriage proposal in the typical ordinary way. <\/p>\n
So she turned to the Staten Island Advance. <\/p>\n
That year, the paper had kicked off a playful new Valentine\u2019s Day tradition \u2014 Love Lines \u2014 a popular addition which continued for decades. Love Lines were special, short advertisements aimed at those in love, those falling in and out of it and those looking for commitment.<\/p>\n
There, Olsen gave Benson the good news. It would be a marriage made in newsprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cPat, I\u2019d be happy to marry you,\u2019’ Barbara Benson, 72, recalls the ad saying. And their \u201chappily ever after\u201d continues today. The couple will celebrate 50 years of marriage in October \u2014 three children and a lifetime of memories later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all thought I was crazy that I didn\u2019t answer him right away,\u2019’ said Barbara Benson, who grew up in Richmond, but now lives with her husband in New Jersey. With a laugh, she admits that some of the details are now a bit fuzzy in both of their memories.<\/p>\n
A marriage made in newsprint<\/p>\n
She surmises that she\u2019d known about the upcoming Love Lines opportunity and planned her joyful response. <\/p>\n
\u201dI thought it was unique that the Advance was doing that and it was kind of fun\u201a\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
After The Love Lines were published, Barbara\u2019s response was mentioned in an Advance roundup story about the launch of the new concept and the entertaining posts it had generated.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarbara finally took Patrick off the hook by consenting to nuptials,\u2019’ the story read, under the headline \u201cHey, lover \u2014 you\u2019re good news.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two were married in Our Savior Lutheran Church, West Brighton. A reception in LiGreci\u2019s Staaten followed in the same community.<\/p>\n
![\"50](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FTPZWMGVHZHF3GLCNYKQBJ7XC4.jpg\")
Barbara and Patrick Benson are shown in a photo snapped for the Advance on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. She answered his marriage proposal through a Love Lines ad in the Staten Island Advance in 1976. (Courtesy of Barbara Benson)(Courtesy of Barbara Benson)<\/p>\n
And though the couple\u2019s marriage started with that engagement acceptance, their love had blossomed eight months earlier, when the two were introduced by a mutual friend.<\/p>\n
Patrick Benson, now 74, a St. George resident at the time, tagged along to an after-work event at a wine-themed New Dorp restaurant with his friend, who worked at Macy\u2019s along with Olsen. On that June night, he met his future wife. <\/p>\n
\u201cI arrived late\u201a\u2019\u2019 she recalled. \u201dI had the end seat and Pat sat next to me. He ordered the wine and he liked the way I said Jarlsberg,\u2019 with a \u2018y\u2019 sound instead of a \u2018j.\u2019 He picked the wine and I picked the cheese, and we began dating.\u201c <\/p>\n
Her husband popped the question in a restaurant in the Empire State Building in Manhattan in early February 1976. He waited two weeks for his answer to appear in print.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got such a reaction from friends and neighbors,\u201d she says with a chuckle: \u201cAre you crazy to do it in the paper?,\u2019’ they asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody nowadays does all these crazy things with proposals,\u2019’ she said. \u201dI was ahead of the game. I did it differently before anyone else did.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 When Patrick Benson popped the question to Barbara Olsen two weeks before Valentine\u2019s Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-135981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}