Frank and Martha Dansby of Fayetteville
Three couples — from Griffin, Williamson and Fayetteville — were honored with a celebration of their 50th wedding anniversaries after a recent worship service at St. John Lutheran Church in Griffin.
The couples were all married within a 24-hour period in 1967, in three different states, and did not know each other until they all became members of St. John. Now they are all close friends.
The church pastor, the Rev. Katherine Pasch, commented, “This had to be another of God’s ‘mysterious ways’ of bringing not only the brides and grooms together, but also bringing them together as friends.”
The couples are Pete and Marilyn Droegmiller of Griffin, married at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11 in Mason City, Iowa; Bill and Cherie Tidwell of Williamson, married at 7 p.m. on Feb. 10 in Atlanta; and Frank and Martha Dansby of Fayetteville, married at 7 p.m. on Feb. 11 in Birmingham, Ala.
Marilyn and Pete Droegmiller met at a teen dance at the Cobblestone Inn in Storm Lake, Iowa, where live bands regularly performed.
“We’ve seen the original Beach Boys and a lot of others,” said Pete. The two sing in the church choir; all four children and 10 grandchildren have musical talents. Marilyn is the St. John organist and has played organ in churches since she was 14.
Bill and Cherie Tidwell met at a Valentine party at Collins Memorial Methodist Church in Atlanta. They later married in the same church, but moved south of Atlanta and became charter members of St. John in 1977. They had met when they visited a mutual friend in the hospital “ … on the day before the birth date we shared, Aug. 25,” Cherie said. Bill suggested they go out together to celebrate their birthdays.
Cherie said she didn’t know until much later that Bill’s family gave him a birthday party on the 25th, but “he cut out of the party just to take me out.”
Frank and Martha Dansby were fellow Alabamans living in Birmingham when they met at a church function at the 67th Street Baptist Church, where they later were married.
“But I sort of knew her,” Frank said, “because she went to school with my sister.”
Their wedding was traditional, even if Martha’s dad had his first-time-ever-worn tuxedo buttons backwards, but the aftermath revealed terrible treatment of Frank’s Mustang. Various friends and relatives (led by Frank’s father) filled the interior of the sports car with collected “keypunch holes” topped with paint and newspapers.
There was also a large, heavy metal “garbage burner” in the car, Frank said:
“It took three guys to get it in the car, but I was so mad I yanked it out of there and threw it across the street.”
They never had children, but relatives’ children stayed with them for a time, and more than a few St. John children have benefited from their love.
Two couples took brief honeymoon trips, but Pete said the Droegmillers “finally had a 40th anniversary cruise … It’s just been a honeymoon for 50 years.”
