13. FINDING MY WONDERFUL WIFE

My first assignment as supervisor was to ride with and supervise the route of Turner Pickeral or as we called him, “Pick.” His route ran all the way from the outer limits of Danville through Chatham, Gretna, and Hurt, Virginia. It also included Callands to the west and Mt Airy to the south of Route 29. On this first Monday, however, it ran right through Chatham and Gretna. Pick was a great guy and became an especially close friend. The moment we got started, he started telling me about this beautiful girl that worked in the Gretna Dry Cleaning Plant named Doris Midkiff, and how he just knew she would be the girl for me to live out my life with as my wife. Since I was single and very interested, I couldn’t wait to get there to see what she really looked like. Prior to that we had to go through Chatham and while servicing Mitchell’s Five and Ten cents store, I met the love of my life, Barbara Wilkinson, and fell in love with her on sight. Unknown to me at the time was the fact that she was engaged to Charlie Farthing, a former Army paratrooper and an aspiring guitar player/song writer. Lucky for me, Barbara must have sensed the same thing I did, and that is that we were meant for each other. As I discovered later, she slipped her engagement ring off her finger and handed it to her co-worker, Stella Atkins. I did not know of this until much later.

I invited her to lunch at Giles restaurant, which was just up the street from her work. We met there and both laughed as some strange lady looked at us in the booth and said to Barbara, “I bet you have a hard time washing and ironing those white uniforms.” We had just met and already, there were people thinking we were married. This was the first of many lunches together in Chatham.



Figure 24 - Barbara around the time we met.
After several meetings in Chatham, I finally talked her into a real date. After convincing my Mom that I had met the most beautiful girl in the world and intended to marry her, Mom consented to letting me drive her brand new Chevrolet Fleetline on our first date.

Figure 25 - Mom and her New 1948 Fleetline Chevrolet

I had to promise her that I was sure Barbara lived on a hard surface road and I would, under no circumstances go on any muddy roads. Of course, I had no idea, but found out soon enough. It happened to be pouring rain when I got off the hard surface road and proceeded for approximately a mile in mud ruts towards the “Old Whitehead” farm house that Barbara and her family lived in as ‘share croppers’. Just prior to getting there, I spotted a young man coming down the road who was soaking wet from the falling rain. I stopped and asked if he knew where Barbara Wilkinson lived and he replied, “You are on the right road.” I thought that was a strange response until I later talked to Barbara. That was when she told me about the engagement and the fact that she had just given Charlie Farthing his ring back. I certainly understood his grief and better understood the terseness of his response to my question. I really felt sorry for him, but not sorry enough to give up Barbara and destroy my plans for marriage and the building of a family together.

When I arrived at the house, Jean, Barbara’s sister, greeted me. She too was very easy on the eyes and I remember remarking to some of my friends later that it was like recess in Heaven. I met her parents who incidentally didn’t appear they thought that much of me. I convinced myself that I could change their attitude towards me and set out to do just that. I finally succeeded although it was a long time coming. After that first date, I was even more inclined to do everything possible to marry that girl. She was and remains to this day a real beauty.

My first problem after our first date was to get the mud off Mom’s car. I took it to a service station at 11:00 p.m. and washed it until it looked brand new. Mom seemed quite happy about everything, especially my sincere desire to marry Barbara even though at that time she had not met her. Several days later, after meeting her, she seemed to think more of Barbara that she did me, her youngest child.

When I arrived at Barbara’s for my second date, her 6-year-old brother, Scotty, met me in the yard. He was barefoot and had on overalls. He said to me, “My sister Barbara said to tell you that she could not go with you tonight because she had to go with my sister Jean to Danville to sing.” I was very suspicious since he acted like he had been rehearsed in what he was to say. I said, “Is that what your sister Barbara told you to tell me?” He responded in the affirmative and after several other questions, I finally got him to admit that she was home but could not go with me, so I left heartbroken. When I saw her in Chatham the next week, she told me her Dad would not let her date me that night because he didn’t know me and had no idea the kind of person I might be. It took some doing but I finally got his approval to date his wonderful daughter.

On one occasion, while visiting Barbara, I was wearing a beige suit and was dressed up to impress the entire family when her nephew, Billy sat in my lap and proceeded to wet all over my new suit. It was terribly embarrassing and something I would never forget. Ralph (Barbara’s brother) was Billy’s father; he was my age and we became great friends over the coming years.
Figure 26 - Henry & Barbara dating, pictured with Mr. Wilkinson's '38 Packard.

Barbara was working at Mitchell’s Five and Dime store and attending Hargrave Military Academy during most of our ‘courting’ days. This came about because of an appendectomy operation that held her back a year in school, but she was happy because this gave her the opportunity of graduating with Jean. When she re-entered Spring Garden High School in the fall of 1948, I would often chase down her school bus with the Coca-Cola truck, get her off the bus and take her to school myself. Those were some wonderful days that I would never forget.

Prior to my coming home from the Navy, Edith had married Randy Yarbrough. Randy won out over Junior Clifton who was really devoted to Edith. It turned out quite well for Edith since she and Randy seemed to have a very happy life, winding up with two lovely girls, Janet and Rhonda.

Figure 27 - Pictured is Edith and the house she shared with Randy for most of their married life. Edith still lives there as of this writing, and is quite happy and is blessed with having caring neighbors.

Janet is married to Rocky Lumpkin and they have no children; Rhonda is married to John Covington and they have a son, Zack, who is a student at James Madison University. He is a brilliant young man, loves baseball and is getting excellent grades as of this writing. Randy passed away a few years ago and Edith has lived alone ever since. She really misses Randy and was very devoted to him, as he was to her.

My half-brother, Robert, married Maisie Ayers during this time and was married to her for approximately 10 years before their divorce. He later married Rachel Kidd and they built a home on North Main Street where they lived until he passed away of a heart attack in the mid-eighties. Rachel later married C. B. Buckner, but he, too, passed away after a few short years of marriage. I feel she will never get over Robert since to this day, her telephone is still in his name and she still lives at their home place on North Main Street. Robert truly loved that house and, as a matter of fact, was working in the yard when he passed away. He was well thought of in the community as well as throughout Danville and the entire area.