U.S. consul general ties the knot under biathlon tent

FORT KENT – The U.S. consul general in Quebec City was married Thursday with a tent full of Biathlon World Cup spectators as witnesses.

Susan Keogh, 60, of Quebec City was married to Robert J. Delaney, 50, a Canadian also from Quebec City, by Maine state Sen. John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake, at about 2:30 p.m. in a large tent erected for visitors to Fort Kent for the biathlon competitions. Martin is a notary public.

Frances Labrie, a Biathlon World Cup volunteer from Fort Kent, who had not met the couple before the wedding, and Richard Cost, president of the University of Maine at Fort Kent, who also didn’t know the couple, were the official witnesses to the wedding.

Included in the ceremony was a song performed by Samantha Boutot, the Community High School senior from Fort Kent who also sang the national anthem Wednesday morning at the biathlon opening ceremony.

The couple will have a church wedding at Quebec in June. The June wedding would not have allowed time to get their papers in order for Delaney to join the move to Peru, Keogh’s next station of call.

“This is all secret, and I know you being a reporter will not tell anyone,” Keogh said, laughing about the incident on a sidewalk near where the ceremony took place. “Even our children don’t know.

“Remember, don’t tell anyone,” she said, as Delaney arrived with a coat to wrap over her shoulders.

The marriage was Keogh’s third and Delaney’s second.

Keogh sat across a table from Martin three weeks ago when a delegation from Maine attended the Winter Carnaval at Quebec City.

“I invited her to come to Fort Kent for the World Cup,” Martin said. “She called a few days ago saying she was coming.

“‘By the way, would it be a big problem to find someone to marry us?'” Martin said she asked. “I left Augusta this morning to be here to perform the ceremony.”

Martin said the tent was completely full of people.

“Everything we needed was right there,” she said. “The tent was great, packed with people, and they all cheered.”

“It’s an instant wedding,” she said.

Martin said everything was included, even champagne, and people participated in a wedding line to wish the new couple well. Music was provided by entertainers playing at the midtown festival venue.