Long-lost love found again

Dennis Vinar and Karen Lehmann on their Jan. 22 wedding day. The high school sweethearts rediscovered each other and connected after about 25 years of being out of touch.

Dennis “Denny” Vinar of Eden Prairie was sitting at a Republican party meeting one Saturday in October when a person at his table raised this question: “If you knew you only had 60 days to live, who would be the one person you would want to talk to?”
Vinar’s mind immediately flashed back to his teenage years in Brownton in the late 1950s, and his “first true love,” Karen Lehmann.
Vinar didn’t officially date in high school — he was two years older and she was 13 or 14 at the time, but Vinar was smitten. So much so, that he would carry her clarinet as he walked her home from school.
Which made him late for football practice, somewhat to the ire of then Brownton coach Warren “Max” West.
West would get a little mad, Vinar said, “but I just wanted to be with my lady.”
While he was still in high school, his parents moved away from Brownton, taking Denny with them.
Before they moved, he proposed to Karen.
At her young age, Lehmann declined.
“I knew my parents wouldn’t like it, nor his,” Lehmann said.
They somewhat kept in touch, but also drifted apart. Vinar went into the U.S. Army, and was stationed in Germany. After graduating from Brownton High School in 1960, Lehmann went on to college to pursue a degree in interior design.
After he was discharged, Vinar got in touch with Lehmann again. They dated; he proposed. Again, she turned him down.
“I was 20-something years old and I guess I was just more interested in getting my career launched,” said Lehmann.
Again, they drifted apart, although Vinar would occasionally call, or they would meet for lunch. Eventually, they lost all touch.
Vinar moved on, got married, and had three children, although he never forgot Karen, he said.
“I even told my wife, ‘you’ll never have 100 percent of my heart,’” Vinar said. “I’ll always have a special spot in my heart for Karen.”
Lehmann also eventually married, had a son, and took up her life in the state of Washington.
Now flash forward again to the Republican party meeting, the question posed, and Vinar’s first thought: Karen Lehmann.
The problem was, he had not seen nor spoken to her for over 25 years.
The day after the Republican party meeting, a Sunday, Vinar received a request from a friend to join LinkedIn, a social media site for business people.
Bored while watching another Minnesota Vikings’ loss, Vinar joined the site.
“I noticed the search bar at the top, and put in Karen’s name,” said Vinar. “I didn’t even know her married name, but to my surprise, she showed up.”

For more, see the March 4 print edition of The Chronicle.