COLUMBIA, TENN. — It’s a love story marked by humor, shared challenges and dedication.
There’s additionally a honky-tonk within the story.
At an assisted-living residence about 45 miles south of Nashville, greater than 50 members of the family, mates and fellow Christians gathered round “Nannie” and “Gran” Huckaby — Ruby Irene, 97, and Joe Marshall Jr., 101 — because the couple celebrated 80 years of marriage.
“Nannie” and “Gran” Huckaby have a good time their Eightieth marriage ceremony anniversary in Columbia, Tenn.
Cupcakes with white icing stacked beneath a bride-and-groom cake topper adorned a desk close to the eating room the place the couple and their company sat. Images on one other desk supplied a visible stroll by means of Joe and Irene’s a few years collectively.
The Huckabys worshiped with Columbia’s Graymere Church of Christ for greater than 35 years, their attendance punctuated by transient intervals at different congregations. Later, they tuned in to Graymere on-line earlier than transferring to the assisted-living facility, the place Joe now goes down each Sunday to a service led by Columbia’s West seventh Avenue Church of Christ.
“I feel whenever you each have the identical religion … it makes a distinction,” Irene stated. Her husband underscored the significance of elevating youngsters in a Christian neighborhood, explaining that he and Irene made it some extent to take their youngsters to church.
Longtime Graymere minister John Vaughn remembered the Huckaby’s dedication to one another and the church. Vaughn preached at Graymere for 37 years, arriving in his late 20s when the congregation was solely 11 years previous. Vaughn met Joe and Irene in 1967.
“They weren’t showy,” Vaughn stated. “They form of led by their instance. They simply lived the Christian life.”
An indication exterior an assisted-living facility in Columbia, Tenn., celebrates the Huckabys’ Eightieth anniversary.
Steven McAdams, Joe and Irene’s 13 year-old great-grandson, echoed Vaughn’s admiration. McAdams traveled to Columbia from Amarillo, Texas, to honor his great-grandparents on the eve of their Eightieth anniversary.
“It’s superb. … It’s form of uncommon,” McAdams stated about their lengthy marriage. He described their relationship as “very sturdy” however tempered with humor. “They bicker with one another just a little bit, and so they love to speak loads.
“I really feel fortunate and blessed that I get to nonetheless see them to today.”
Guys, gals and NuGrape
“No. 1, he was sensible. And … handsome,” Nannie stated about Gran. “And what else? Reliable.”
That was eight a long time again, and the attraction lasted.
Joe and Irene Huckaby in a photograph from the mid-Nineteen Forties, shortly after they married. The photograph was one in every of a number of on show on the celebration of their 80 years of matrimony.
Irene recalled changing into a Christian at age 14 at a “baptizing gap” close to Columbia. Joe was baptized on the metropolis’s Highland Church of Christ, responding to a message by Joe Sanders, a widely known preacher and David Lipscomb Faculty Bible professor.
It’s the primary half of the Nineteen Forties. After spending the morning in worship, “Sunday night you’d get out and journey round … that’s all there was to do in a small city,” Joe stated.
He and his mates stopped at what he referred to as a “honky-tonk,” an institution into which ladies not often ventured. The fellows would purchase the women exterior a delicate drink — a NuGrape, Irene specified — and take it to them.
Joe’s brother, Clifton, knew Irene’s sister Ann. One Sunday evening, Joe and his mates stopped by Irene’s home, however she’d already left. Once they noticed her in a automobile exterior the honky-tonk speaking to Joe’s cousin, they requested her to hitch them. She declined, asking the cousin to take her residence.
Irene had an agenda, hoping Joe would “get the message,” she stated — the message that she “was ,” defined Connie Bedwell, the youngest of the couple’s three youngsters. Irene needed to see Joe with out the cousin or another guys alongside for the journey.
Joe acquired the message, however earlier than their relationship acquired off the bottom, Irene left for Detroit together with her brother for work. She wrote him a “Pricey Joe” letter, Bedwell stated.
The sojourn up north was brief. The brother purchased her a bus ticket again in lower than every week. Earlier than lengthy, the longer term Nannie and Gran had been engaged.
A cloud of tobacco-spitting witnesses
The journey to matrimony was bumpy — and about 60 miles lengthy.
Raised on 100 acres, Joe had 4 brothers and 4 sisters, his household incomes a dwelling elevating cattle, promoting milk and rising tobacco. His mother depended closely on him.
“You don’t know what you’re taking away from me,” Joe’s mom advised Irene.
“Properly, I assume your loss is my achieve,” Irene fired again.
“She acquired off to a nasty begin,” Joe quipped.
Irene and Joe Huckaby acquired dressed “Up!” for a current Halloween, portraying Ellie and Carl Fredricksen from the bittersweet Disney/Pixar animated movie.
The couple determined to tie the knot on Saturday, Dec. 23, 1944, in Columbia. When the massive day got here, they stored their plans quiet.
“If she acquired him again, I wouldn’t get him once more,” Irene stated of her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
The plot threatened to unravel once they couldn’t get the blood check outcomes for his or her marriage license. Plan B was to go south to a state that didn’t require blood checks. That meant a 60-mile drive south to Athens, Ala., or a 100-mile drive southwest to Iuka, Miss.
Joe borrowed his brother Clifton’s automobile, and the couple took off for Alabama.
They arrived in Athens mid-afternoon. Although no blood check was required, Joe needed to get a fast bodily.
The ceremony happened on the Limestone County courthouse, the place a number of Athens residents sat round a potbelly range warming themselves and spitting tobacco.
“I form of lied about her age,” Joe confessed. He stated Irene was 18. She was 17 1/2, and he was 21.
The lads across the range fortunately served as witnesses. “Give ’em 5 {dollars} and so they’d signal for something,” Irene recalled.
The couple drove again to Columbia, stopped for groceries on the A&P and went residence for the primary evening of their 80 years collectively.
Working properly collectively … until it’s wallpaper
World Battle II quickly intervened. Joe was drafted however deemed unable to serve due to a kidney concern. He left farming and went to work at a neighborhood chemical plant. Irene gave beginning to their youngsters, Judith, Stan and Connie.
Judith Everett and Connie Bedwell be part of their dad and mom Joe and Irene Huckaby, throughout the {couples}’ Eightieth-anniversary social gathering on the Huckaby’s assisted-living facility in Columbia, Tenn.
Meticulous lists of actual property and vehicle purchases stored by the couple doc their development because the nation recovered from the battle and proceeded towards a brand new millennium. A 1930 Ford seems early on the record. Their first Cadillac arrives in 1987. They purchased their ultimate automobile, a Lexus, new in 2014.
Joe and Irene paid $3,500 for his or her first residence in 1947, promoting it two years later for a $2,000 revenue. Their data present about 10 extra actual property purchases by means of the a long time, together with a farm in 1968 and Florida condos within the Eighties.
“If I purchased a lemon, I’ll make lemonade.”
After retiring in 1981, Joe bought his farm and moved to town. However golf left him stressed. To deal with retirement, he purchased a home to revive. It turned out to be overpriced, and assembly the calls for of tenants grew to become a burden.
“If I purchased a lemon, I’ll make lemonade,” Connie Bedwell remembered her dad saying.
“We drank an entire lot of lemonade,” Irene added.
“We drank an entire lot of lemonade.”
When Joe requested Irene what she needed for his or her fiftieth anniversary, the reply was simple. Quickly, there have been no extra tenants.
Whereas Joe and Irene solved issues collectively, they knew their limits.
“There was one factor we couldn’t do collectively, and that was dangle wallpaper,” Joe stated. “Appeared like all the pieces we … did, we went at it the arduous method.”
Earlier than transferring to Panama Metropolis, Fla., after Joe retired, the couple purchased mattresses for his or her new Florida residence and strapped it to their pickup truck. On the way in which down, the blue tarp over the pickup mattress flew off, scattering the load.
A nondescript pocket book condenses into one web page a lifetime of auto and truck possession by the Huckabys, mirroring an analogous record of the houses the couple purchased collectively.
“Oh Lord, what are we going to do?” Irene requested Joe. “He checked out me and … he stated, ‘The very first thing I’m going to do is get off of this interstate.’ … He taped all the pieces again collectively to maintain it from blowing away.’”
They later discovered it was cheaper — and far simpler — to purchase a brand new mattress in Florida.
‘What the Lord says about marriage … they put into apply’
Retirement gave the couple time to journey. Within the late Nineteen Nineties, a church good friend who organized bus excursions invited Joe and Irene. A 21-day journey took them to California. Later the couple made 11 cruises, their locations together with the Panama Canal, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
The Huckabys hyperlink their lengthy life along with a shared religion. John Vaughn, their longtime preacher, agrees.
“What the Lord says about marriage, … they put into apply, and it made their lives very profitable. I’d enterprise to say that separation … by no means entered their thoughts.”
“What the Lord says about marriage, … they put into apply, and it made their lives very profitable,” Vaughn stated, describing the couple as enjoyable to be round and completely satisfied. “I’d enterprise to say that separation … by no means entered their thoughts. That was simply not the form of individuals they had been.”
Requested to outline love, Joe and Irene gave totally different solutions.
Irene “Nannie” Huckaby asks her husband of 80 years, Joe “Gran” Huckaby, for a kiss, and he obliges.
“I feel it’s respecting your partner” fairly than feeling “like you’ve gotten the entire say-so,” Irene stated. “It’s worthwhile to seek the advice of him.”
Joe’s response: “You’ve set to work collectively” and “have emotions for one another.”
Irene added, “When he tells you to leap, you say, ‘How excessive?’”
That made Joe chuckle — and her household wince. “Nannie!” they exclaimed.
Wished a contented Eightieth anniversary, Irene responded, “I hope we’ve got 80 extra.”
TED PARKS is a Nashville-based correspondent for The Christian Chronicle. A contributor to the Chronicle for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, he teaches Spanish at Lipscomb College. To supply suggestions on this story, contact [email protected].
