Wedding bells ring
A kiss between Joe and Rachel Slate follows a reaffirmation of their marriage vows on their 61st wedding anniversary. | Clif Knight
Couple renews vows to celebrate their 61-year marriage
A reading from Psalms 15, an exchange of kind and passionate words for one another and a tender kiss were used to reconfirm a 61-year marriage between Hartselle’s Joe and Rachel Slate on Friday at noon.
The brief but impressive ceremony took place in the E.A.R.T.H. Park pavilion with Bro. Don Ricks officiating and about 25 family members and friends standing by as witnesses.
Joe turned to his wife and said, “My Rachel, I have told you a thousand times I love you. I’m serious about that. My love for you has grown stronger over time.”
“I love you with all my heart,” Rachel replied.
The couple walked to the altar from their businesses on Main and Sparkman Streets as did most of the other 25 family members and friends in attendance. After the ceremony they retraced their steps to the Weekday Deli where a complimentary luncheon, including cake and punch, were served.
They were married at noon on July 1, 1950, while attending summer classes together at Florence State Teachers College (now UNA).
“We fell madly in love after getting to know each other as freshmen at Morgan County High School,” Joe recalled. “After we graduated in 1948. I attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and she went to Florence State, but distance couldn’t keep us apart. We decided to get married and I enrolled for summer classes at Florence State to be with her.
“We made plans to get married on a Saturday at noon at the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Before our 10 a.m. American Literature class started we told the professor of our plans to get married at the courthouse before it closed at noon. Well, he forgot about us and his lecture went on and on. Finally, he remembered and dismissed the class. We grabbed a taxicab and ran from the street to the judge’s chamber. As he pronounced us as man and wife, the grandfather clock on the wall began striking noon.”
That was not the only wedding day hurdle they had to clear.
The Trailways bus they boarded for their honeymoon trip to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis broke down in Mississippi and they had to wait for a couple of hours for a backup bus to arrive.
“It was awfully hot,” Joe remembered. “It was during that stop that Rachel reminded me that we were married at the middle of the century, in the middle of the month and in the middle of the day.”
It was back to class two days later and a pop quiz that caught Rachel by surprise.
“I failed the test,” she recalled. “When the professor asked me what happened, I told him I got married.”
Marriage has been good for the couple. They raised three sons and have had active and successful careers in education and business.
Joe retired as head of the psychology program at Athens State University after 30 years and has written over 20 books in his field of expertise. He is also a clinical psychologist who maintains a practice in Hartselle.
Rachel operates Holladay’s Antiques, Hartselle’s longest-standing antiques business at 32 years. She is also an accomplished musician.
Their family consists of sons, Darryl and wife Shonna and children Hugheston and Madison, Mark and Marsha and son Marc Jr. and David and Traci and late son, Dustin, and grandchildren John Silas and Laney Marie.
