In November 1966, shortly before Thanksgiving, a knock resounded through my house. Opening the door, I met my husband-to-be.

There stood a short, blond headed man wearing glasses. My first thought was "He's short!"

Glancing over my shoulder, he asked for Eileen. I then introduced myself. He had a look of disbelief on his face. I thought he was surprised because, although I was eighteen years old, I was so petite I appeared to be a thirteen-year-old.

I invited him in and we started to get aquatinted. Little did I know that this was to be a very short and eventful courtship. But, our love story started long before that.

Since I was a little girl, I had always been aware of God. My greatest ambition was to be a nurse.

Many times during my teenage years, I would "talk" to God, and many times as most girls do, I wondered about the man who would be my husband. I believed, even then, that God had already chosen him and I would pray for him.

When I was in the twelfth grade, I began to inquire about nursing school. I was told that due to a severe hearing loss, no nursing school would accept me. (I had lost most of my hearing at the age of three and wore a hearing aide.) This news so devastated me that I went home crying.

I asked God, "God, I don't know what I want to do now. I can't be a nurse, I don't want to be a secretary, I can't be an airline stewardess, all I can think of is to get married. If it's time for me to get married, please send my husband here." This was in September, I meet William Whatley just before Thanksgiving.

I was surprised to learn that he was a minister.

I would read stories about nursing, and for some reason, I had been drawn to books about ministers' wives. When I learned that Bill was a minister I recalled reading the books. I thought that was odd.

We began dating and talking on the phone. We drew close very quickly and in two weeks Bill asked me to marry me. Not only did he ask me once, (I suppose he didn't believe me the first time!) but he asked me to be his wife three times. Once over the phone. When I accepted, he got on a bus and came to my house, and then, he asked me again behind the church that I attended. When we arrived in Mississippi where we visited his relatives, he once again got on his knees and asked me to be his bride, in front of a room full of people. Of course they thought it was wonderful.

Because my mother had not liked him because he was a "country boy" and a minister of the wrong denomination, she was opposed to my seeing him. She found out that we were planning to be married through a friend of hers. When she confronted me with it, I admitted it. She then said that if I would finish school, we could be married in the spring. We accepted her wishes.

But, a church wedding was not to be. She started using every thing she could to prevent me from seeing him, and breaking us up. The stress on us was incredible.

After one particularly bad night, Bill quit his job and left town. I found out about this and was broken hearted. Since I was not allowed to answer or talk on the phone anymore, I wrote and mailed a letter to him at his hometown asking him if he still wanted to marry me. If he did, he was to send me the money and I would come.

The day before my nineteenth birthday, I received a phone call from Bill. Since mother was not at home, I was able to talk to him. I left Memphis on my nineteenth birthday.

From the time I reached Mississippi, we had trouble getting married. It had nothing to do with his family. They liked me from the beginning and I quickly grew to love them. At the time, the law said that marriage before the age of twenty-one was illegal without parental consent. We were trying to find a way to get around that, when mother showed up. There was no fuss, Mother did not want others to see the dark side of her. After a few minutes of conversation and both sides getting nowhere, Bill walked out. A few minutes later, I did the same.

As soon as I walked out of the house, Bill and his uncle roared up in a truck. I climbed in and we took off. I can't tell you to this day where we were taken. All I remember is that it was dark and there was a fire in the fireplace. How long we were there, I don't know.

Later, we were picked up and taken to another house deep in the woods. A man guarded every window there with a gun in his hand. I learned there that Mother was trying to get the sheriff to set up roadblocks to get me. One of the men said, that if we wanted to get married, they would not let anything stop us.

After it was dark, Bill's brother and uncle again picked us up. We were headed for Alabama where the legal ages to get married without parents consent was nineteen.

We drove all night, staying on the back roads. Each time we had to cross a highway, we checked carefully before crossing. We arrived sometime after daylight.

Bill's brother and uncle got out before reaching the state line to avoid being charged with kidnapping. It was February 1, 1967. We were married that day after 1 P.M. It was not the church wedding I had dreamed of. The bride and groom were worn out. Our clothes dirty and rumpled up from driving all night. Judge Boone married us. We were finally married after a long and emotional struggle. Happily ever after? Not quite. Four days later I was kidnapped.

As we left the courthouse in Mobile, Alabama, I asked if we should get a copy of our marriage certificate. Bill said "They will mail it to us. We won't need it anyway." (Famous last words!)

We then went to Bill's aunt's house, got a days' rest and began to try to find a way home. His brother and uncle had taken the truck and gone on back home.

After three days we got a ride and went back to Raleigh, Mississippi, getting back on day four. We never suspected what my mother and an aunt were up to.

When we got back home, we settled in at his mom's house and I went visiting.

While I was visiting with an aunt, admiring their new daughter, a brother-in-law came to the door stating that Bill wanted me. He was at his mom's store, which I could see from the house I was at. I thought about cutting through the field to the store, but it was full of weeds and briars, so I decided to walk down the road.

I knew something was wrong because I could see a number of cars there. All at once, a truck roared up to us and an uncle of mine said "Hello Eileen!" Another uncle jumped out of the truck and said, "You're going back to Memphis with us." I said, "No, I'm not." The uncle pushed my brother-in-law aside and dragged me to the truck and threw me in. He then jumped in and they took off as fast as they could.

(I will let Bill tell what was happening on his end.)

I tried to scream and grab the steering wheel, but my uncle grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth.

They took me to a house in Raleigh, where my mother was waiting, threw me into her car and took off. All they way to Memphis, they tried to get me to eat, drink and talk. I was so angry, I would take nothing or say anything. They finally got angry with me and left me alone.

When we got to Memphis, they took me to one of the uncles house and my Dad was waiting there. When I told them I was married and that it was legal, they got very upset. I told them that they would never get permission from me to annul the marriage. I planned on leaving that night, hitchhiking if I had too. But, they gave me some food and they drugged the coffee they gave me as I slept all night.

The next day, I was taken to my grandmother's in Arkansas. I was there about a week. During that time, I went to a pay phone, trying to get in touch with my relatives in Mississippi with no success. After a week, my mother returned and they tried to tell me that my husband was in jail for writing hot checks. I refused to believe them.

I was taken back to Memphis and put in the mental ward in the Baptist Hospital. I was there about a week. They day before I was discharged Mother and I were having an argument and she had an accident in my room. Since I had been a candy striper volunteer, I knew what to do. I jumped out of bed, pushing my call button at the same time. The nurse came and I explained what had happened. We urged Mother to check into the emergency room.

The next day, I was discharged from the hospital. I got a look at my report during the discharge. I was reported as being mentally stable.

As Mother and I were going through Memphis, I told her where I wanted to go. She took me there, where I found some comfort at last.

That evening, the uncle I was staying with came to me and apologized. He was the one driving the truck when I was kidnapped. He said he had not realized what was going on. He also told me there was going to be a court hearing the next day and it would be decided whom I would go with. He said, "Eileen, If you love him, go with him." I burst into tears and told him it was O.K., that I understood that he had not been told everything and that I did love Bill.

That evening, I told Mother the clothes and other things that I wanted. She brought them to me. I got ready to go back to my husband. I knew then that he had come to get me. As I found out later, he had an attorney in Memphis who subpoenaed Mother to court. She had to either produce me in court, or go to jail. She produced me as ordered.

I did not see Bill until he walked into the courtroom. When I did, I almost rose up to go to him, I was so happy to see him. But, Mother put her hand on me and I was unable to get up. A few minutes later, court began.

Mother's attorney stood up and began to explain how concerned they were that I finish my education. The judge said, "Shut up. Sit down. All I want to hear is the girl herself."

I went up to the stand, was sworn in, and sat down. The judge himself questioned me. He asked me whom I wanted to go with. I replied, "I would like very much to leave with my husband today." The judge then started talking. (I was still on the stand, and I stayed there until court was over.)

He stated that the marriage was legal. Whether it was right or wrong, was not his job to question, that was up to us. He understood the concern of my parents about my education, but, since the marriage was legal, I could go with whomever I wanted. I went with my husband.

Here I, the husband will tell what happened at the other end. The Sheriff of Smith Country, Mississippi, James Gathel Ainsworth, who was a third cousin of mine and favor first cousin of my Grandpa, Samuel Patterson Bowen, came with his Deputy, Slather Robinson, to arrest me for writing hot checks, which was not true, but just a way to get Eileen and I separated so they could kidnap her. She had gone to visit my Uncle, Rayford Bowen and his wife whom she was a good friend with. I sent my brother, W.C. Whatley up to get her. It was only a few hundreds feet to where Uncle Rayford lived. Of course you know what happened while she was on her way to me. When this happened, my brother came running to tell what had happened and I tried to get the Sheriff to get after them but he would not. They put me in their car and drove ten miles per hour all the way to Raleigh which was about five or six miles, giving Eileen's family plenty time to get away. All the time I kept begging the Sheriff to go after them but he kept saying that he didn't know if we were married or not. I told him that he could call Mobile, Alabama and he would know that we were married.

Soon my Dad, William Walter Whatley came in and he tried to get the Sheriff to call Mobile, which he wouldn't do. This went on for a good four hours, which gave her family time to get to Memphis, which was four hours away. Then, just like a great light struck him, he said, "I know what I can do, I can call Mobile and find out if they are married", which he did.

As soon as he made the call, he jumped up and began shouting, I've got to get an ABP out on those people and get that woman back. Dad finally got sick of his acting and told him to act like he had a little sense even if he didn't. Dad told him that those people were already out of State, as he well knew. Dad also took me and we left, as there was no warrant against me for hot checks or anything else.

I began raging and telling Dad that I was going to Memphis and get my wife back. Dad had quite a time getting me to settle down telling me that there is a right way to go about this and that if I did as I had said that I would do nothing but get in trouble.

Dad then said, "Now, let get to work and get "My Daughter", this is what he always called her, "My Daughter and 'her' husband". We went and talked to a Lawyer in Magee who got us in touch with Mr. John Blaylock of Memphis, Tennessee, which took my case. I went to Memphis and it was night when I got there. Hoping the Police would help me get my wife back I went to them. The gentleman I talked to called her mother and, of course, was told that Eileen was a mental case so the Policeman told me that there was nothing he could do. So I had to wait till I could get with my Lawyer and the rest of the story, you know.

The Preacher will show you around the church.