Montgomery Herald

Gwen’s roommate, Margaret, didn’t have a license, so when the girls had a day off for an outing, Paul loaned them his car and Gwen drove. “I didn’t hear him say it, but I’m told that one time when we brought the car back Paul told the man he was working for that he was dating the wrong girl,” she says.

Eventually, Paul and Margaret broke up and he started dating the right girl. “I thought she was pretty and she was already driving my car,” Paul says with a twinkle in his eye.

In early October 1948, the pair made two quick trips to Rock Hill, S.C., the first to get their marriage license and then back the next day to get married in the judge’s living room with his wife as witness.

“We didn’t tell anyone except our parents,” Gwen recalls of the days when nurses in training were forbidden to marry. She didn’t dare tell even her best friends for fear someone might slip up and say something and get her tossed out of nursing school.

Until she finished school the following September, they saw each other mostly on weekends. As that time approached, Paul worked painting and fixing up the three-room apartment on the second floor of the rock house on Wood Street in Troy.

“Minnie Wilhoit’s mother, Lulu Anderson, lived downstairs and we had a bathroom but no tub,” Gwen recalls. “Paul came home one day to find Minnie’s young grandson in our apartment, listening to the radio and making himself at home.”

They knew it was time to start looking for their own house. Gwen was working for Dr. Charles Eckerson. Paul worked for CP&L. “Between the two of us we were making about $4,000 a year and thought we were in high cotton,” Gwen says of those days.

The bathroom situation in their first house was even worse than the apartment, with a privy in the backyard. One night Gwen got called out to help the doctor deliver a baby and Paul got up around 2 a.m. to use the privy. “She had both sets of house keys and we had these bolt locks you couldn’t open without the keys,” he recalls. “I couldn’t get out of the house and had to grab a paint can.”

“He pretty soon had the back porch enclosed and a bathroom put in, but it didn’t help him that night,” she says laughing at the memory.

Daughter Carol was born in 1951, son Eddie came along two years later and their third child, LuEllen was born in 1957. Gwen continued working with Dr. Eckerson through the first two children, and the family moved to Asheboro to another CP&L office for a short while, but soon moved back to Troy. “We weren’t happy away from friends and our church. Paul had a chance to come back to Troy and work with Mack Buie at Metropolitan Insurance,” she recalls.

Over the years since then, Paul served a while on Troy Town Board, owned the Western Auto dealership, and after retiring from there worked and retired again as a courier with First Bank, back in the days when the only branches were in Montgomery and Moore County. Gwen, too, continued to work and is well-known as the long-time director of Wescare Daycare Center. Toward the end of her career she went back to nursing with the N.C. Division of Prisons.

Service to others, through Paul’s long years and deep involvement with Lion’s, including time as district governor, was something they’ve always done together, starting in 1950. After the kids were grown, Paul and Gwen took one week of their vacation to volunteer at the Lion’s Camp Dogwood for 15 summers, taking great joy in the pleasure of the adults, who despite blindness were able to enjoy water skiing and other camp activities.

Before they ever started their own family, the young couple worked with church youth, first at Trinity United Methodist and later with the Wesleyan Church.

“Our faith is a big part of our marriage,” Gwen says. “We still do daily devotionals. I don’t know how people get along without the Lord.”

Traveling to conventions for Lions and Western Auto or reunions of Paul’s 83rd Infantry unit was usually a family affair. Paul coached Little League in the community for years and Gwen worked with Junior Music Club.

Asked about the partnership of child rearing, Gwen says, “I was the heavy and Paul would just say ‘didn’t you hear what your mama said.’”

They both smile at the memory of the only spanking Paul administered when little Eddie threw a tantrum. And they laugh about Lion’s Club pony raffle.

“Before we got there we told the children ‘you do not want a pony and if your name’s drawn don’t say anything,’” Gwen recalls. Sure enough, Carol’s name was drawn and before they could stop her, she was running down front waving the winning ticket. Instead of going on vacation that next week, the spent the time fixing up a barn and the backyard for Carol’s pony.

They are rightfully proud of the family they raised. Carol is a teacher, now working in Mt. Gilead. Eddie went to N.C. State on a football scholarship, playing in four bowl games under Coach Lou Holtz, and today works as a canine officer with the N.C. Division of Prisons. LuEllen is executive director of accounting for Charlotte/Mecklenburg school system.

“Our life was centered on family and still is; we’re very proud of all of them” Gwen says, including the five grandchildren and seven great-grands.

Over the years, Gwen and Paul built a partnership that works for them. Recalling a trip to the Peach Bowl to watch Eddie play one year, Paul recounts a story of walking back to the hotel in a cold sleet. “She left her pocketbook back at the stadium and we had to walk back to get it. It was there right under the seat where she’d left it,” he explains. “She still forgets everything.”

“I’ve got you to look after me, so that’s all right,” she counters.

“Paul has the financial brains and looks after the check book for me,” she says.

“She just writes the checks,” he says.

“I’m sure there are times when he’s aggravated with me, but we don’t blow up at the same time; I’m the one who blows,” she says.

“I just keep my mouth shut and listen,” he returns.

Although they don’t dwell on it, there have been some tough times as well. Gwen has made sure that Paul eats right and keeps his diabetes under control since he was diagnosed some 30 years ago.

She’s had a fall that curtailed their daily five-mile pre-breakfast walks, but they still get out to walk shorter distances when they feel up to it.

In November, Paul was diagnosed with cancer, and along with the children Gwen has seen him through the 14 radiation treatments he recently completed, and she will be there with him through whatever comes next.

She continues to drive him to the twice monthly Lion’s Club meetings downtown.

The love is still strong, although differently expressed. “He’s such a gentle person, very considerate, always truthful and a wonderful dad,” she says. “We enjoy doing things together.”

“We’ve been around each other so long, you can’t help yourself but to love each other,” he concludes.