Reunited Lovers Marry 66 Years After First Date

GRIFFIN, Ga. —  On their first date, Earl Griffin took Mary Emily Wallace riding around in his car.

It was a Model T Ford. The year was 1931.

Sixty-six years and a few spouses later, the two were married Nov. 14 on Griffin’s 85th birthday.

The bride, 82, and groom met when they were teenagers. He was marching in a Memorial Day parade as a member of the Georgia National Guard when he spotted her in the crowd.

“I just went over and told her I’d pick her up after school, and that was our first date,” Griffin recalled.

They soon drifted apart. Two years later, Griffin joined the Army. He eventually came back to Spalding County, married and went to work at the post office. His first wife died in 1977. His second wife died in 1995.

Wallace moved to Miami, where she became Mary Emily Barnes. She returned to Georgia in the late 1950s after the deaths of her husband and son.

The couple met again in Griffin in February 1995. Wallace/Barnes was having lunch with high school classmates at a hotel where Griffin was attending a senior citizens event. Griffin recognized his cousin in the group of classmates and came over to ask if any of them knew the whereabouts of Mary Emily Wallace.

“I told him I did, because I happen to be her, and we’ve been going together ever since,” she said.

In October, he popped the question.

“We’ve been apart these cold winter nights, and we thought we might like it better living together,” Griffin said. “I just decided to ask her to marry me and she said yes.”

The bride admitted to being nervous before the ceremony.