Celebrating Our 55th Wedding Anniversary

My, it was a hot summer evening (without AC) on Friday, August 19, 1955 in the church building in Wildwood, Florida when Virginia and I made our vows to “love and cherish one another” and to live together “until death us do part”. ‘They say’ that a group of singers sang some beautiful songs but I don’t think I heard them. I barely remember brother Orvel Boyd saying something about marriage and asking us to repeat the vows that he read. But he must have really ‘tied the knot’ because by God’s grace and Providence we are still living together as husband and wife. And that says a great deal for Virginia. Bless her heart. We were both twenty years old and we had completed our sophomore year at Alabama Christian College and now I was marrying her without any financial security. I was as poor ‘as Job’s turkey’ (and I understand that is really poor). I even had to borrow a car from a friend to make the trip to Wildwood because the old 1948 Plymouth was not mechanically able to make such a long trip from Montgomery. It had to be love for such a lovely lady like Virginia to marry a poor boy like me because it could not have been for money since I had very little and without a promise of additional funds. But the Lord God has blessed us and provided for us over the past fifty-five years. He has given us three sons and a daughter, along with nine grandchildren. And we are still working regularly with a congregation of Jesus Christ. Perhaps our example will be a source of encouragement to young couples and the unmarried men and women who plan to marry and that is, you can have a successful marriage in this modern age when marital infidelity and divorce are rampant by being guided by the true manual for marriage and that is God’s Word.

My lovely bride~

Happiness is loving and feeling loved.

Our Wedding Party

I chased her for over a year,

before she caught me.

We were given a wonderful reception

and a beautiful cake.

Our first home ~

The 1947 trailer was only 28 feet long and 8 feet wide. You talk about close communion! It was so small that I had to go outside to change my mind. One night it was raining and the roof was leaking right over my bed and a rain drop hit me on my knee. I started to write a song with the title: “Rain Drops Falling on My Bed” but I never did. I probably would have made plenty of money if I had written it that night. The ‘front door’ could not be locked which concerned my new bride. The water to the kitchen came through a water hose from the adjacent house and we had to use the bathroom in the Home EC building which was next to our ‘new home’. But God has been good to us and He has blessed us abundantly. We are now rich materially and spiritually. We praise Him and thank Him every day!!