As of last Halloween, Fallon’s Gregg and Joanne Tanner have been married for 50 years. They celebrated the golden milestone with dinner, drinks, speeches, live music, and dancing at the Eagles Hall just west of town.
According to a journalistically helpful speech made by their daughter Erin as Eagles volunteers cleared tables, the couple first met in the Wildlife Club while they were both UNR undergrads. In 1975, they were married at the Nashville Social Club in Carson City.
For most of the time between then and now, Joanne taught school, Gregg worked for the Department of Wildlife, they raised two children, Erin and Nathan, and help out with two grandsons named Beau (11) and Graham (9).
Gregg is an avid hunter and an encyclopedic expert on the Nevada outback—fitting for a man who got married on Nevada Day. He and Joanne never miss the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. Joanne spent over ten years as an indispensable leader of the Churchill Arts Council, making sure that artists and bands who performed at Fallon’s Barkley Theater played to a full house and never left hungry.
Daughter Erin concluded, “What always stands out to me about my parents is their loyalty and generosity—to each other and to all of us…they are each other’s best friend.” And, “according to my mom, back then my dad’s butt filled out a pair of Wranglers a little more than it does today. But, in reference to that old slogan, it’s still driving her nuts.”
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