COWBOY MAKES WIFE'S BIG DAYS SPECIAL

SIKESTON -- To a stranger,MDSU Buzz Ferrell doesn't seem like a hopeless romantic.

He's a cowboy who specializes in calf-roping, runs a western wear shop and spends most of his free time in a saddle. He's rarely without a 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots, grinning widely and telling jokes in his thick southern accent.

Ferrell's wife, Shori, knows him as a different man. Since they married eight years ago, Ferrell has outdone himself every year either for Valentine's Day or their July wedding anniversary.

Take Valentine's Day 1990.

Shori was working as a receptionist at Delta Counties Bank, and it was business as usual until the entire bank fell quiet. She looked up and saw three young men holding long-stemmed red roses standing in front of her desk.

They cleared their throats and broke out into Randy Travis' song, "Forever and Ever, Amen." Its chorus: "I'm gonna love you, forever and ever, forever and ever, amen." The rest compares the longevity of the singer's love to other longstanding events.

"I just wanted to do something different," Ferrell said shyly.

His wife was a little more vocal.

"I thought it was wonderful, but I was embarrassed as all-get-out," she said. "Everyone in the bank, from the president on down, knew what would happen. Buzz told them so I wouldn't get in trouble. A bunch of people brought their cameras."

Three years later, Ferrell's creativity struck again. Shori had to work late on Valentine's Day 1993. Ferrell spent the day preparing a special dinner, but prepared a little something extra to go with it.

He dressed in a three-piece suit, put a video camera on a tripod, and taped himself acting like a waiter describing an evening's fine dining.

When his wife came through the door, tired from her long day, he hid around the corner with the VCR's remote control and pressed play.

"She stood there and watched the tape, and then she came looking for me," Ferrell said. "I didn't want to watch it because I figured I'd start laughing.

"I came up with the idea when I was daydreaming one day. Guess it takes me about three years to come up with something really good."

Shori disagrees.

"We're both hopeless romantics," she said. "That's what keeps things going. But he's much better at this kind of thing than I am -- I guess it's that left-side-of-the-brain thing."

This year the Ferrells don't expect any big display. They want to spend a quiet Valentine's Day dinner at home with their 4-year-old daughter, Jordi.

It's no surprise to Shori's mother, Joyce Hagy, that her daughter and son-in-law act like newlyweds after eight years of marriage.

"Sometimes a romantic person marries someone who isn't, but they both are," Hagy said. "Besides, Shori comes from two very romantic parents."