Whenever Calvin Gooding went to the barbershop, he would stare wistfully at the photo of the Broadway and television actress LaChanze ("Ragtime," "Once on This Island") hanging on the wall. He pleaded for an introduction, but the barber always refused.

Then one night, Mr. Gooding spied the actress in a Manhattan nightclub. He managed to introduce himself, and was instantly smitten.

Two years later, they were married. At the wedding in August 1998, the barber took credit for the match. But it was Mr. Gooding, 38, a financial trader, who did all the work.

"I was hoping maybe this would be the one," said his mother-in-law, Rose Sapp-Hines, about the first time her daughter brought her beau home. "They were a perfect match. They just seemed right for each other."

On September 10, their last night together, their daughter Celia was fussing, so Calvin went off to sleep in her room, to keep the child quiet so LaChanze could get some rest. "I remember getting up at 3 a.m. and going to Celia's room," she says. "He was just laying there, sound asleep on the floor with her on his chest." She kissed her husband good-bye as he headed off to work, then fell back to sleep in a recliner.