Back in the late 1960s, when they were students at UT, Trenna and Nick Briscoe shared their first kiss on the old Cumberland Foot Bridge, which crosses Cumberland Avenue.
On Thursday, after Hurricane Florence forced the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, couple to cut short a vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, they detoured through Knoxville to visit family, reminisce, and enjoy another kiss on that same bridge.
Trenna Briscoe was raised in Nashville and transferred to UT from Memphis State University, the forerunner of the University of Memphis.
“It was my first calculus class. I was sitting next to a friend who had also transferred from Memphis State, and this nice-looking young man came and sat next to me. He claimed he was tired of blind dates,” she said.
The couple began dating and eventually shared their first kiss on the bridge.
Trenna Briscoe graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education in May 1969. The next month, she and Nick married. They stayed in the Knoxville area for about a year then moved to Ohio. Trenna was an elementary school teacher for 30 years.
Nick Briscoe, who was raised in Columbus, Ohio, was majoring in electrical engineering but left UT in 1969, just short of graduating. He worked as a sales representative for several companies over the years.
The couple have three sons and four grandchildren. They come back to visit UT every five or six years.
