To wed again
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 12, 2016 10:11 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Annie Ruth Herring smiles and accepts a rose from her groom, Harold Herring, in the couple's backyard in Walnut Creek. The Herrings will wed -- again -- Oct. 15 to commemorate their 70th anniversary and to fulfill a wish to have a full wedding ceremony that could not be conducted when they first married in 1946.
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Annie Ruth and Harold Herring hold hands and share a loving moment in the couple's backyard. She is wearing a ring that had been lost for 35 years in the back of a Western Auto safe.
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Harold Herring Sr., left, and his wife, Annie Ruth, soon after the birth of their only son, Harold Jr., in 1948. Mrs. Herring is wearing the dress she wore when they wed in 1946.
Annie Ruth Herring is getting married.
The beaming bride-to-be extended her left hand to show off her diamond ring, a broad smile breaking out across her face.
Her longtime beau popped the question a few weeks ago, she said.
"One morning we were having breakfast, I went out and got a flower -- she always keeps fresh roses," said Harold Herring Sr. "I got on one knee, took her by the hand and asked her to marry me."
"I said, 'Lord, yes!'" Annie Ruth said with a laugh.
The couple's only son, Harold Jr. and daughter-in-law, Bev Herring, arrived at the house soon afterward.
"We were fixing to set the table and I stopped them and said, 'Wait just a moment' and I held my hand out and said, 'We're engaged!'" Annie Ruth said.
To alleviate any confusion, this is not the first wedding for Annie Ruth and Harold, who are 88 and 89, respectively.
They were originally wed on Oct. 18, 1946.
But times were different then.
The couple had actually met several years before, when she was 141/2 and he was 151/2.
On a double-date with another couple, Harold recalled seeing Annie Ruth Sutton for the first time when he was headed to a Halloween party.
"We drove up, and I saw this little girl out in the yard in a brown plaid skirt and brown leather jacket," he said. "She was a pretty little girl, got my attention. That's where it all started.
"I knew from day one that she was the one."
"But you didn't date then like you do now," Mrs. Herring said. "My parents were real strict, so we 'living-room dated' for about a year.
"We were together three years, 11 months and two weeks" before marrying -- at White Oak Grove Church in LaGrange, "at the edge of Bucklesberry."
The ceremony was a simple one, attended mostly by family.
And she did not wear a traditional wedding gown.
"My aunt came from Virginia, and she bought me a dress and it cost $5," Mrs. Herring recalled, describing the light tan dress with three bows and two stripes down the front.
"The morning we got married, Daddy and I were sitting on the doorstep, and he looked at me and said, 'Wouldn't you like to have a long white dress?' and I knew he couldn't have afforded it. I said, 'No, the one I have I like very much. I think it's real pretty.'"
The accouterments did not matter to the couple, who married for love.
"It was a happy day, a day we'd been looking forward to," Herring said. "I remember her mother fixed us a wonderful meal that night.
"We spent our wedding night, my brother-in-law and sister let us use their house, a little house out in the country. Then we stayed with my parents for a few months. We had to wait for a farm house to become available."
Her betrothed only had $70 in his pocket when they wed, Mrs. Herring said.
"I had saved $210 in the bank," she said. "He had $70, because their crops were bad (that year)."
Through lean times and plenty, the Herrings have carved out nearly seven decades of memories. They have worked together throughout, including 54 years operating the Western Auto store and grill in LaGrange.
"We were a team at work, and we tried to be a team at home," said Herring, who continues to work, doing repairs on mobile homes.
Rather than being retired, his wife says, "We got refired."
For 60 years, they have been active in ministries that have included leading a weekly Bible study at Free Gospel Church in Shine. Mrs. Herring still alternates between teaching the high school and college-age Sunday school classes at their church, First Free Will Baptist in LaGrange.
They are also a popular draw at the Christian Soldier bookstore in Goldsboro, owned by Harold Jr. and Bev. Any time there is an event or anniversary celebration, the couple shows up in support and are regularly sought out by patrons familiar with them over the years.
The idea to get "married" again came about a few years ago.
"We were at Abby's wedding, our oldest granddaughter," said the grandmother of four, who also has three great-grandchildren. "I loved her dress."
A believer in the Proverbs 18:21 verse about the "power of the tongue," she inadvertently spoke aloud her wish.
"I told my family, I said, 'I'm giving you three years and a half, so on our 70th anniversary I want Harold to have a tuxedo, and I want to wear Abby's dress,'" she said. "I never dreamed it would come to pass.
"It seems like a dream almost, but it started to really come together at Christmas because the kids had to make plans ahead of time."
The idea took root, and along with it the aforementioned proposal.
"For a wedding, you have to have a proposal," Harold Sr. said.
With a ring that had been lost for 35 years, he pointed out. Somehow misplaced in the back of the Western Auto safe, the couple discovered it one day when cleaning out the store after the business was sold.
A sentimental romantic, he may not be able to find parts for the record player he once used, but Herring still manages to play the song for her every day, "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" by Charlie Pride.
"We went to the state fair 44 years ago and Charlie Pride was there, and that was one of the songs he sang," Mrs. Herring said.
"I feel like I was married to an angel," her husband said, softly.
His advice to a long and happy marriage is simple.
"Marriage is a daily process. You have to do it every day. It's something you have to work on every day, and you have to learn to listen and keep your mouth shut," he said, adding, "Appreciate what you've got, do your part and try to help each other."
Commemorating 70 years together is quite a milestone. It is also a chance to have the wedding they could not back in 1946.
The celebration, planned for Oct. 15, will not be a big wedding, but it will be a big day.
Harold Jr. will perform the ceremony and the couple will renew their vows.
"When all this came up, it was like the Lord brought it to my mind what daddy said," Annie Ruth said. "And I thought, this is going to be an anniversary party, but it's going to be a memorial to my father because I will have a long white dress."