Jack and Floy Thorington, this year’s Grand Marshals of the Toppenish Fourth of July parade, like to joke that they met when they both turned out for a college play, “Abe Lincoln of Illinois,” and got acquainted during the third act.
“I was quite taken with her,” said Jack.
He’d started college after a stint in the military during WWII, a 1941 graduate of Toppenish High School.
He’d been turned down for the U.S. Naval air Corps because of a childhood bout with appendicitis, and had opted for Naval Air technical training.
Jack paid part of his tuition with money he’d earned by raising and selling a horse named Barney.
Floy was a hometown girl from Pullman when they found themselves auditioning for the same play.
At the time, the school was Washington State College, which has since become Washington State University, and whether or not they actually waited until the third act to get acquainted, within a year they were married.
“We got married on a pin and a dime,” said Jack.
They relocated to the rural area near Toppenish, and began farming in 1947.
Jack said he raised “about everything Del Monte canned” during his farming days, and Floy also was associated for a time with the company.
“Everybody I ever knew in this town, including myself, worked for Del Monte,” she said 
But the most significant crop, in terms of return, raised by the Thoringtons was sugar beets, which they grew for the U&I processing plant in Toppenish.
Jack said he and his family prospered particularly during those sugar-beet-growing years, as did many other farming families in the Yakima Valley.
When the owners of the company decided to close the plant and pursue other business interests, the economic ripples were felt from one end of the valley to the other.
“The U&I closure left so many of us high and dry,” said Jack. “Sugar beets was a tough thing for Toppenish to lose. That changed a lot of people’s lives.”  
Despite the demands and ups and downs of farming, the couple found time to be involved in other aspects of community life.
Jack served on the Toppenish School Board when the current Toppenish High School was built, and during his 13th year of service, daughter Chris was among the members of the first class to graduate from the new school.
He was also a long-time member of Rotary and the Masons, as well as being involved in the association of sugar beet producers and of the asparagus growers. 
Floy, too was very active in the Toppenish community and was named Woman of the Year in 1973.
In 1982, Jack was named Farmer of the Year.
They were members of the Alfalfa and McKinley granges, and members of the Methodist church all their lives. 
Their friends and relatives are familiar names to anyone who’s been around the Toppenish area for any length of time.
Jack’s mother was the sister of Lou Shattuck, a pioneer who has been memorialized in one of the Toppenish murals.
The couple speaks of Ruth Parton as “a great friend.”
The couple raised four children, all of whom still live in the state.
Gary, the oldest, and Chris, the second child, are both teachers.
Robin, the third child and second daughter, decided to pursue a career in the U.S. Army.
Blaine serves on the Toppenish City Council, has served a term as the city’s mayor, and works for the school district.
In addition, Jack and Floy have four grandsons, one granddaughter, four great-grandsons and four great-granddaughters.