My Mother Joyce

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

My parents Joyce and Charles met and married in 1957. She was 20 and he was 24. I'm not exactly sure how they met, but I know they were both living in Birmingham at the time. Joyce graduated from Cullman High School in 1956. In her senior year book, her plans were to work as a telephone operator. She moved to Birmingham after graduation and went to work for Ma Bell.

Charles grew up in Jasper, Walker County, Alabama. He got into a wee bit o' trouble with the law when he was 17. As sometimes happened at that time, he was given the choice of the military or jail. He served in the Korean War. When he was discharged, he returned to Alabama. He was working as a mechanic for Hayes Aircraft when I was born and for several years afterwards.

They eloped to Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi (I'm seeing a pattern here). My aunt Francis went along as the matron of honor and witness. The picture at the top of this blog is the two of them  in front of the church where they were married. Not being familiar with Tupelo, they drove around looking for a church where they might be able to persuade the minister to conduct the ceremony. They got lucky. The church custodian acted as the second witness.