Love through the ages

FROM THE ARCHIVES: LEGENDARY LOVES IN CHARLOTTE FROM THE PAST 100 YEARS

by Sharon Smith

Times may change, but the sentiment behind true love is timeless. This month, with help from librarians at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, we sifted through the archives to find love stories about prominent Queen City couples of their time. Their love bloomed and endured through wartime and Jim Crow, through distance and daily challenges. The politely expressed passion in their love letters, humor in their anniversary traditions and deep affection may just rekindle (or ignite!) that warm, funny feeling you have toward your own chosen person.

THE STROUDS: ENDLESS LOVE

The love between Gerson Stroud and Daisy Mae Spears is the stuff of legends in Charlotte — so compelling, in fact, that Oprah Winfrey invited the Strouds to be on her show to share their secret to a long-lasting marriage. To the audience’s delight, the couple revealed that on every anniversary, they recreated a wedding photo with Gerson in his Army uniform and Daisy in her white dress. It was a wedding the couple pulled together quickly. “Gerson had graduated from college and had training to go overseas. We decided that we would get married when he would have his first furlough. So this wedding was gotten together in one week,” Daisy said in an interview many years later.

Their story began at Second Ward High School in the 1930s. The couple married during the height of World War II at Seventh Street Presbyterian Church in 1944. Due to Jim Crow laws in the South that legalized segregation, the Strouds were forced to sit on their luggage next to the train engine as they traveled to Virginia for their honeymoon that night.

“Well on a Southern train, first thing they put all the black people next to the engine, where all the smoke and the soot and everything could blow on you. So, if you can imagine sitting in one position, sitting on the suitcase: we rode on the suitcase. And that’s what happened on the night of the wedding,” Daisy described in an interview which is cataloged in the Carolina Room’s archival collection. Five days later, Gerson left for the War and did not return home to his new bride until December 1945.

Both worked in the school system, with Gerson spending more than 30 years with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools before retiring in 1981. Daisy Mae retired one year later as an elementary-school teacher. Throughout their lives, the Strouds received many awards and honors for their community leadership. In 2010, Daisy received a lifetime achievement award at the annual UNCF-Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon. Daisy passed away at the age of 92 in 2014; Gerson died in 2006.

THE HALLS: A LOVE THROUGH SERVICE

World War II love letters between Ruth Kilgo and Ray Hall give us a glimpse into their daily life, military service and great love. By the time they were discharged, Kilgo rose in rank to lieutenant junior grade, and Hall rose to second lieutenant. In one letter from Ray to Ruth, he laments not being back in Charlotte to help her with his mother’s move. He writes about the antics of his fellow soldiers, catches up on the gossip back home and, as you’ll see below, drops several lines about his romantic intentions with Ruth.

1800 Office

19 Jan 1944

Sweetheart,

… Number 298 came on the late afternoon delivery. It was so sweet and “wife-y” in tone. … Dearest, dearest loveable darling, you are the most precious girl in all the world to me. Helping mom move is one of the nicest things that you have ever done for me. I know how she is, she trys to do everything in one day. Sweetheart, I know what hard work moving is. … I only wish I could have been there, if only for the end of the day in order that I might have “given you a good, hot bath, rubbed you down with alcohol, powdered you and fed you a big bowl of hot soup, then tucked you into bed. I’d have knelt by your bedside and kissed you tenderly and tenderly until you fell asleep.” Oh, my only lover, I thrill at the faint footsteps of millions of happy little thoughts of our tomorrows together. Living with you will be pure and supreme happiness. I welcome the overcast days that future years will confront us with if only they will be shared with you … Thank you again and again, Ruth, for being just damned wonderful. …

I’ll just stuff you with love like a turkey and have you without “dressing” for my every repast.

Love, and lots of it,

Ray