A Surprise Wedding!

December 21 was my maternal grandparents anniversary date.  If they were both still living, this year they would be celebrating their 72nd anniversary.  They did have 51 years together, which was a blessing. Actually, all of our children's great-grandparents were married around 50 years.  Only death kept them from reaching more years.

Grandpa Gene and Grandma Sibyl had an interested wedding, that I thought you might enjoy hearing about.  They were engaged to be married on January 14, 1940,  but the town of Hollis, Oklahoma, was hosting a special event to pick a surprise couple to be married on December 21, 1939.  My grandparents were selected as the winning couple! 

Here's part of the newspaper article about my grandparents' special day: (Notice how many people were at their wedding!)

Nearly 6,000 residents of the Hollis trade territory jammed city streets Thursday night for the climaxing even of a Christmas season packed "to the brim" - a secret wedding, which became a secret no more when Eugene Francis and Sibyl Nell were revealed as the bridegroom and bride.

The couple first appeared before the crowd in masks.  Exclamations of surprise burst from the audience, indicating the "secret" had been well kept by the few persons handling arrangements for the event.  Vows were read publicly by A.D. Tweedy, minister of the church of Christ at Hollis.

The couple "set sail" on their marital cruise with the blessing of the entire throng, and with $200 worth of household supplies, provided by twenty-nine city merchants, tucked away among their presents.

My grandpa wrote a letter to his oldest sister about the wedding on December 17, 1939.  Here's part of it:

Dear Myrl:

     I thought I would write & tell you that me & Sibyl are going to get married on the street Thursday nite at 9 o'clock thought maybe you & Sam would like to see it.  It will take a lot of nerve but I can stand anything for $200.00 worth of stuff.  I don't have to pay for nothing, not even a ring.  It is supposed to be kept secret but I thought I would tell you all.

     Well, I will close, so if you want to see me faint Thursday nite be sure & come.

                                                                                                           Love, Eugene

***** (I can hear my grandpa's voice as I read that letter!!)

I love weddings and everything about them.....the decorations, the colors, the photographs....everything.  Wouldn't it be neat to have a surprise wedding in your town???!!  Maybe I should plan one for someone :).

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6