By Mark Beardsley
She was just 16 and about to begin her senior year at Commerce High School, and he was 20, working in the cafeteria at Harmony Grove Mills.
They got married Aug. 29, 1956, and she began her senior year of high school Aug. 30. She told the Banks County ordinary, who officiated the then-secret wedding at the courthouse in Homer, that she was 17.
Billy and Darthy Hix have experienced 53 Valentine's Days since the sneaked off to Homer and got married on Aug. 29, 1956.
A marriage fit for a Valentine's Day wish
“She’s a liar,” her husband joked.
It wasn’t the ideal scenario for starting a marriage but 53 Valentine’s Days later, Billy and Darthy Hix say they never looked back, never had any regrets.
“I haven’t thrown anything at him and broke it,” Darthy joked.
“I wouldn’t do anything different as far as I can think of,” Billy offered.
America celebrates Valentine’s Day Saturday, a holiday that romanticizes (and oversimplifies) love and relationships, but for many couples meeting the expectations of the day is intimidating.
Billy and Darthy (known as Dot by most of their friends) live the ideals expressed in countless Valentine’s cards, their love having survived — prospered — through the years, children, grandchildren and other experiences of more than a half century together. If it didn’t begin in textbook fashion, their marriage certainly defied the odds.
They’d planned to get married — Dot was wearing an engagement ring — when the urge struck.
“We had two couples that had gotten married a couple of months before we did. That sort of gave us the courage,” Dot remembered.
They were Anne and Willard Epps and Bobbie and Fred Turpin. Anne was Billy’s sister. In addition, his other sister, Jean, had married Dan Ford a few months earlier.
Billy and Darthy had dated about a year and a half. Dot was the only girl Billy ever dated.
“When you find what you’re looking for, why look any further?” Billy explained.
“We weren’t going to get married until I got out of school,” Dot remembered. “Anne and Williard and Bobbie and Fred gave us the guts to do it, and we did it.”
The plan to keep the marriage secret didn’t last long.
“Billy called me at Belk’s and said ‘you’d better tell your folks, Momma knows it,’” Dot recalled. “Word had gotten out that Anne and Willard had gotten married. When Anne got home from school that day, her mother lit into her.”
“And she says, ‘Billy’s married too,’” Billy added.
“To get Mrs. Hix off her back she said, ‘Well, Billy and Darthy got married too,’” Dot continued.
Their parents’ reaction?
“My father cried,” said Dot.
Billy’s mother and brother predicted that the marriage would last a year. His father’s reaction, which included the reaction to his sister Anne’s marriage, was: “Well, you’ve played hell now.”
They — and Jean and Dan — moved in with Billy’s grandmother for a few months. Borrowing $3,000 from Commerce Building & Loan and $3,000 from Billy’s father, they built a house on Scott Street in 1957. They still live there, though they’ve built two additions over the years.
Dot finished school. Like Anne, she was a CHS cheerleader (It was through Anne that she and Billy met). Their first child, Keith, was born in 1958 (Dot was pregnant at the time of her high school senior trip). Scott followed two years later and Lisa (now Lisa Maddox) was born in 1964.
They had little money, but with the help of family members who’d drop off a dozen eggs or some homemade sausage, they got by. They had a number of young couples with whom they socialized. They may have been poor, but they had fun.
“We had a lot of good times,” Dot recalls.
One memory is of a week-long vacation that first year with Jean and Dan Ford to Florida. The Hixes had but $50, ate oatmeal for breakfasts, grilled cheese sandwiches for other meals and feasted on hot dogs on the beach.
“We went to the drive-in once a week, whether we could afford it or not,” Billy remembers. “We’d put the kids in the car, get a mattress out of the baby bed, put it in the back seat and they’d sleep through it. If we didn’t have enough to eat the next day, we were still going to the drive-in.”
“We fried a lot of baloney and made a lot of gravy,” Dot added.
Both got jobs with General Time in Athens. Billy spent 10 years there, one at Reliance and then 30 with the U.S. Postal Service, from which he is retired.
Dot learned to cook and iron. They loved, laughed and watched their family grow. Keith died in 2001, but they’ve got seven grandchildren, two in Virginia and the rest close by.
Their secrets?
“We’re just such nice people,” Darthy jokes, then adds seriously, “love and respect.”
To which Billy adds: “We love each other. That was the main ingredient.”
Put that on a Valentine’s Day card.
It wasn’t the ideal scenario for starting a marriage but 53 Valentine’s Days later, Billy and Darthy Hix say they never looked back, never had any regrets.
“I haven’t thrown anything at him and broke it,” Darthy joked.
“I wouldn’t do anything different as far as I can think of,” Billy offered.
America celebrates Valentine’s Day Saturday, a holiday that romanticizes (and oversimplifies) love and relationships, but for many couples meeting the expectations of the day is intimidating.
Billy and Darthy (known as Dot by most of their friends) live the ideals expressed in countless Valentine’s cards, their love having survived — prospered — through the years, children, grandchildren and other experiences of more than a half century together. If it didn’t begin in textbook fashion, their marriage certainly defied the odds.
They’d planned to get married — Dot was wearing an engagement ring — when the urge struck.
“We had two couples that had gotten married a couple of months before we did. That sort of gave us the courage,” Dot remembered.
They were Anne and Willard Epps and Bobbie and Fred Turpin. Anne was Billy’s sister. In addition, his other sister, Jean, had married Dan Ford a few months earlier.
Billy and Darthy had dated about a year and a half. Dot was the only girl Billy ever dated.
“When you find what you’re looking for, why look any further?” Billy explained.
“We weren’t going to get married until I got out of school,” Dot remembered. “Anne and Williard and Bobbie and Fred gave us the guts to do it, and we did it.”
The plan to keep the marriage secret didn’t last long.
“Billy called me at Belk’s and said ‘you’d better tell your folks, Momma knows it,’” Dot recalled. “Word had gotten out that Anne and Willard had gotten married. When Anne got home from school that day, her mother lit into her.”
“And she says, ‘Billy’s married too,’” Billy added.
“To get Mrs. Hix off her back she said, ‘Well, Billy and Darthy got married too,’” Dot continued.
Their parents’ reaction?
“My father cried,” said Dot.
Billy’s mother and brother predicted that the marriage would last a year. His father’s reaction, which included the reaction to his sister Anne’s marriage, was: “Well, you’ve played hell now.”
They — and Jean and Dan — moved in with Billy’s grandmother for a few months. Borrowing $3,000 from Commerce Building & Loan and $3,000 from Billy’s father, they built a house on Scott Street in 1957. They still live there, though they’ve built two additions over the years.
Dot finished school. Like Anne, she was a CHS cheerleader (It was through Anne that she and Billy met). Their first child, Keith, was born in 1958 (Dot was pregnant at the time of her high school senior trip). Scott followed two years later and Lisa (now Lisa Maddox) was born in 1964.
They had little money, but with the help of family members who’d drop off a dozen eggs or some homemade sausage, they got by. They had a number of young couples with whom they socialized. They may have been poor, but they had fun.
“We had a lot of good times,” Dot recalls.
One memory is of a week-long vacation that first year with Jean and Dan Ford to Florida. The Hixes had but $50, ate oatmeal for breakfasts, grilled cheese sandwiches for other meals and feasted on hot dogs on the beach.
“We went to the drive-in once a week, whether we could afford it or not,” Billy remembers. “We’d put the kids in the car, get a mattress out of the baby bed, put it in the back seat and they’d sleep through it. If we didn’t have enough to eat the next day, we were still going to the drive-in.”
“We fried a lot of baloney and made a lot of gravy,” Dot added.
Both got jobs with General Time in Athens. Billy spent 10 years there, one at Reliance and then 30 with the U.S. Postal Service, from which he is retired.
Dot learned to cook and iron. They loved, laughed and watched their family grow. Keith died in 2001, but they’ve got seven grandchildren, two in Virginia and the rest close by.
Their secrets?
“We’re just such nice people,” Darthy jokes, then adds seriously, “love and respect.”
To which Billy adds: “We love each other. That was the main ingredient.”
Put that on a Valentine’s Day card.
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