Family - All Because Two People Fell in Love

Where were you on June 1, 1939? I think most of you were, as my Daddy would say, sitting on a stump in Arkansas. Alvie Thomas Hunter, Jr. and Nancy Bertha Daughtry were getting married. Why do I care? I wouldn't be here if they hadn't. They are my grandparents. Part of my recent trip to Texas was a 70th anniversary celebration and family reunion. So, how are they leaving there mark on the world? Let me show you:

Here is the famous couple. Well, famous if you live in Jones County, Texas. The wedding cake topper shown in this picture was on their wedding cake 70 years ago. It has also topped the wedding cake of almost every one of us who have married since then. What a wonderfully blessed legacy!

Ab and Bertha, as they are known to their friends, had five children. Two girls, a boy, another girl (my mother) and one more boy. No parent should outlive their children. Sadly, that is the case with their eldest son, Tommy. Shown below are Margaret (my mother), Jimmy, Dolores and Nancy.

Those five children gave Ab and Bertha sixteen grandchildren and changed their identity to Grandaddy and Grandmommie. At the reunion we wore shirts that represented the family unit we were a part of. It really helped to identify which family everyone belonged to. All sixteen grandchildren were present:

We married:

Put it all together, and whatta ya got? Five children, sixteen grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren. (I could be wrong, that is a quick count). Of the entire family, we were missing five of the great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild, plus the spouses of two great-grandchildren. Only eight people.