Happened in Elkton

He had been working in Lyon County, part of a road construction crew. Now he found himself headed into the army during the Korean Conflict.

She wanted to move away from Lyon County. 

Together they planned a life after the army that would take them to different towns, going to wherever he would be able to find work.  She was excited at the prospect. Since he was always valued for his "hard work", I imagine he was proud to be able to provide for her. The first step in their plan is to get married.

They obtained their marriage license in Lyon County, and I don't know what their actual plans for a wedding were.  What I do know is that........

.....there was a bridal shower, which suggests that they had a plan for a wedding.

I also know that he had returned to Coopersville, KY, probably to say good-bye to his parents before leaving for the army.  She was in Lyon County, waiting his return.

On the way back to Lyon County, April 1951, he had a car wreck.  You remember all those twisting roads between Lyon County and Monticello, don't you? (Aunt Vena said he was "late because of the slick roads". I can only assume "late" meant "late for the getting married.)

So Aunt Katherine and Uncle Kenneth, married just a few months themselves, took Mama to Elkton, KY to meet Daddy.

They knocked on the front door of the parsonage, asking the pastor of First Baptist Church of Elkton, Rev. Dickerson, if he would marry them.  

He agreed and with Katherine and Kenneth as witnesses, they were married in the living room of the parsonage.

Their first night together was spent at the Jefferson David Hotel, on Elkton's town square.
























When I visited Elkton in August of this year and talked with life time Elkton residents, I learned that marriages between soldiers going to war and their young brides were rather commonplace. Before this visit to Elkton, I had not considered its' proximity to Ft. Campbell.  And even though Daddy's basic training was at Ft. Benning, GA, the town of Elkton was very familiar with young couples, not knowing the outcome of serving our country during wartime, rushing to become husband and wife. 


We don't have many (any?) pictures of Mama and Daddy together at this stage of their lives. They married, Daddy went to basic training, then to Germany while Mama stayed home. Married in April 1951, she was in her parents' home throughout his military service.

This picture is Aunt Katherine's.  The little girl is Karen, who was born in September, 1951.  This picture would be  from early 1952.  

He returned from Germany in 1953, and instead of making a new life together someplace outside of Lyon County as they had planned, Grandmother offered him a job in the funeral home. So they stayed. And although we know how this marriage turned out 28 years later, I can't help but imagine the hopes and dreams of a young couple in 1951. A young couple who just happened to get married in Elkton.