In answer to my survey, a friend asked about our courtship. Enjoy.
It all began in New Orleans where Bill and I belonged to the same church. Bill never liked me to tell this story, for he thought it made him look like he robbed the cradle. Bill was the song leader for youth church, and he led the songs for Sunday evening service. He also played a stringed washtub in a jut band that often performed for youth group. Everyone loved Billy (how he was known then), especially my parents, the reason they allowed me to date him. He rode the bus and then walked a mile to my home before we went to the local movie theater.
Billy often came over on Saturdays to hung out. Once he hid my dad’s false teeth and replaced them in his soaking dish with a tiny toy set. (Dad did find his set in the morning.) Mother adored Billy and she prayed we would one day marry. At the time I was a high school freshman and Billy was a freshman at Tulane University.
We broke up before my family moved back to Mobile, Alabama. Billy’s reason didn’t make sense, but his mother believed he shouldn’t date anyone he didn’t intend to marry.
I chose Latin for my language credit in high school. That led to writing Billy with questions, for he studied Latin in college. During my senior year Billy came to Mobile with the Tulane band. From the hotel downtown, Billy phoned my house. At first I thought it was the boy I wanted to date. With that settled, my dad drove to the hotel and brought him to our house.
We had a fun evening, and I was intent on getting Billy’s attention, proving something, I guess. For my English lit class, I had to give Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy. So I rehearsed it to impress Billy.
The next day at school we had an assembly with the Tulane band performing. I sat in the balcony and bragged to my girlfriends that I knew the sousaphone player. Afterward, I went to the stage, for my mother had told me to kiss Billy goodbye––on the cheek.
Our correspondence became more regular and enjoyable. When time for my graduation, I invited Billy to attend and bring my girlfriend from New Orleans. Billy and Nancy arrived and stayed at our house. After my graduation, we went to the prom and then swimming in the bay. At home Billy and I stayed up to talk.
About mid-summer, Billy came with an engagement ring. I held it up to the window, and he said, “The diamond is real.” We went to tell my mother, and later after supper, Billy asked my dad if he could marry me. Dad asked, “What about her scholarship to college?” I remember Billy’s answer: “I’m not marrying a college degree, I’m marrying Ann.” We set a date for August 24th, and my mother’s disappointment was not having enough time for engraved invitations. Billy visited me several times before our wedding at my church in Mobile. His Uncle Bud, a United Methodist pastor, officiated, and the Coker family came from New Orleans.
Bill had started pastoring a small church in North Biloxi, Mississippi, so he had income and a parsonage. That’s where we spent our honeymoon, and I’ve never regretted it. That first Sunday morning I heard Bill preach and that night we had quarterly conference at church with the district superintendent presiding. We started off our marriage serving the church and each other.
Celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary: family picnic in Indianapolis.
Ann Coker 