9 year old Eunice Winstead with her 22 year old husband, Charlie Johns, in Tennessee, 1937.
Before the marriage the Reverend quickly looked over their marriage license and everything seemed to be in order. Issued six days earlier, that legal document allowed him to marry 18 year old Eunice Blanche Winstead to 22 year old Charlie Jess Johns. Of course it turned out the couple had lied on their marriage application.
On the morning of their marriage, Eunice told her dad that she was headed up the road to her married sister’s house to get a doll that Charlie had given to her the previous Christmas. Instead, she met up with her fiancé and the two walked several miles to ask Reverend Lamb to marry them. After the ceremony was completed, Eunice stopped at her sister’s to pick up the doll and then went home.
When questioned by the press, Eunice’s dad, Lewis Winstead, stated, “All right with me – there’s nothing you can do about it now.” Mrs. Winstead commented, “Eunice loves Charlie and Charlie loves Eunice, and’ taint nobody’s business but theirs. Never in all my borned days did I see such a commotion and flusteration about two people getting’ hitched. Maybe Eunice is a mite young, but what of it?”.
