[I can't post the 8 pictures here, but if you write me a comment with your e-mail address or send me an e-mail, I'll send a .pdf attachment with the pictures.]
Courtship and Marriage
Our courtship was only seven weeks long. We met August 5, 1955 and were married
on September 26, 1955. This was the most important event in our lives after knowing Christ
as Savior and we were both well aware of it and joyful and thankful to the Lord for giving us to
each other: “What God hath joined together.” In fact, we took as our “life verse for our
marriage:” Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Many times in our
marriage we would tell each other that the Lord had done “exceeding abundantly” more than
we had even thought or asked for. Looking back after 54 years of marriage, I feel that more
strongly than ever. What an amazing privilege to be married to Minnie all those years. How
good and kind she was to me and such an excellent wife and mother. The heart of her
husband trusts in her. . . . She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.”
Proverbs 31:11-12 ESV That was so true of Minnie all her life. As beautiful as she was
physically, her inner beauty of character surpassed even her physical beauty. She knew that
scripture, “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of
a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” 1 Peter 3:4 ESV
How did God in His providence bring the two of us together on August 5
finished my tour of duty in the United States Army on 31 January 1955 and returned to college at Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Texas. My brother was living in San Antonio and was the lay pastor of Alum Creek Baptist Church, a mission church of Richmond Avenue Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas. Alum Creek was a small country church just a few miles north of Stockdale
on the road to Seguin. Minnie usually went to church in town at First Baptist but she had
relatives and friends who attended Alum Creek and they all decided to go to some special
meetings at Alum Creek. When those meetings ended, Minnie was still attending there temporarily and joined other young people from San Antonio for a church ice cream social the night she met me because I was one of those “young people from San Antonio.” I was staying with Bob and his wife Bernice and little 4-year old boy Kenny during the summer of 1955, intending to return to Howard Payne in the fall. I was working for my dad who was an accountant in San Antonio. Listen to how Minnie described our meeting:
"In August 1955 I went to a
church party with a group of girls.
It was a 'tacky' party--meaning
you wore jeans or something that
was not 'dress up.' We were all in
a backyard enjoying a cook out
and home-made ice cream."
"Suddenly I noticed a very
handsome young man standing
over in a part of the yard with no
one near him, so I went over and
introduced myself. He said his
name was Billy Burnside. Little
did I know that I had just
introduced myself to the love of my life!"
"The following Sunday morning the pastor introduced him and said that Bill would be teaching the young people on Sunday evenings! All the girls were excited--
"After church I asked him what we would be studying. He told me and I went home to study and prepare some questions to ask Bill! I wanted to get his attention! [Note from "Bill": she already had my attention!--riveted on her!] It worked. He asked me to ride back to San Antonio with him and his brother so we could continue the discussion. . . ." [That discussioncontinued for 54 years!] J-88-89
Minnie had dated other boys, of course, and had one steady boy friend as well as others she liked, but the kids in Stockdale did many things together and she was very sociable. She loved getting together with the other kids but she worked so many hours that those social occasions were all the more special to her. She wrote, “When you grow up in a small town of 1,000, life is pretty simple. We lived near a river so we would sometimes take a picnic and swim in the river. We also liked to go to the movies. Our little town had a movie theater. We also went to all the activities at the local Baptist church.”
“We also liked to go to Seguin, a town about 23 miles away.Seguin had a big park with a swimming pool, minature gold and lovely walking trails. There was a drive-in restaurant called The
White House where we loved to go to eat. And we loved to go to rodeos and football games.” J-36
Speaking of dating and boy-girl relationships, Minnie wrote, “I never felt that I was looking for love. God gave me lots of friends– both girls and guys. I was very young and very busy. We often did things as a group. You didn’t need to have a date to be part of things.” J-87 She said, “I dated one guy off and on for several years. From the beginning my mother didn’t like him. She tried to explain why she thought he was bad for me, but I didn’t want to hear her objections. She allowed me to go out with him but she was strict about where we went and what time I had to be home."
(Later I was very glad that Minnie’s mother approved of me. She proved to be a very good mother-in-law!)
th and 6th 1955? IBob's son Kenny, age 4,
with Uncle Bill & Aunt
Minnie in 1956
One interesting dating incidenttells something about Minnie’s theological knowledge even as a teenager: “A friend once arranged a blind date with a friend of his. I don’t remember the guy’s name but I remember a conversation. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said, “No.” Then he proceeded to tell me that God was just an idea in my head so it didn’t matter whether we agreed
about it or not. I remember telling him that God was real and that Jesus showed us what God is like. I agreed that if God was only an idea in my head, it wouldn’t matter, but I knew that was false as I know the Lord.” J-87
When I realized that I had already quickly “fallen in love” with Minnie, I also realized “how can two walk together except they be agreed” [as to where they’re going] Amos 3:3 so I knew I needed to find out what Minnie believed about life and God and the Bible and her purposes in life and what she thought about children and work and a whole host of beliefs. So one night after we began going out together, I stopped at a roadside park and began asking her a lot of questions about her beliefs. I hadn’t intended it as an oral exam, but several years later she asked me one night if I remembered that particular night and of course I did. She told me then, “Do you know what I almost asked you when we drove away from that roadside park? I wanted to ask you, “Did I pass?!” Obviously she did! And I’ve always been thankful, too, that I “passed” in her evaluation and decision to marry me.
Many years later Minnie mentioned our courtship in a talk on Worship that she gave to
the women’s group “Heart and Hand” at Sequim Bible Church, Sequim, Washington on Oct.
9, 2003. These are her verbatim comments: “And then I had various boyfriends of course as
all girls do and then I met one boy friend that was very different because on every date he
wanted to read the Bible together. And I thought, “Oh, this guy is really neat!” And we did. I
don’t think we ever went out that we didn’t read the Bible and pray together. And we’re still
doing that. [She said that with a sweet smile and approving laughter from the audience.] So
the pattern from the time I met Bill of our relationship together was very much centered
around the Lord.”
Indeed it was because we both knew the words of Jesus, “Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37 Obviously the same would apply to husband or wife so
our love for Jesus had to be greater than for each other. In some ways that is difficult to
comprehend because of the intense love we had for each other. But we knew what God
required of us and we sought to be obedient and we taught those same truths to our children.
Minnie posing on car for picture about age 17
“We both loved the Lord Jesus,” Minnie wrote in her journal, and wanted to serve Him. Our mutual love of the Lord and our desire to serve Him drew us very close to each other.” “From the beginning we had very long discussions about our views of the world, what we wanted in life and how our lives could bring glory to God.”
“We became engaged in early September and were married on September 26–same summer we met! [1955] My roommate [Janet Chappel] had moved out and so we decided to change our wedding date from December to September. God has richly blessed our lives together.” J-88 Minnie was 18 and I was 22.
In her journal Minnie went into more detail:
“Bill and I were engaged with plans to get married during the Christmas vacation of
1955 but my roommate decided she needed to move back with her parents, so I was left with
an apartment and no transportation. This was on a Friday evening. I told Bill the problem
and we tried to figure something out. Finally he said, ‘Well, I could cut class on Monday night
and we could get married on Monday.’ Sounded like a good idea, but I told him we would
need to talk to Mother. We drove to Stockdale and she agreed to help us get a one-day
license on Monday. We planned to have just our families, but my Aunt put an invitation on the
restaurant bulletin board and the little church [Alum Creek Baptist Church] was full. Bill’s
brother, Bob, married us–his first wedding! We did not have a honeymoon at that time, but I
spent a night in a motel for the first time!” J-90
Illustration1955 September 26 Wedding Picture--taken
a few days later 1955 September 26 Wedding Picture--taken a few days later
The church was full and it was a simple, but sweet wedding–although I missed the cue to
come in on the wedding march and Janet had to start playing it a second time. An old couple
who were friends of Minnie’s let us hide our car in their garage so that the boys wouldn’t be
able to tie cans on it. And after all the ceremony my brother Bob followed us in a procession
enroute to San Antonio and then when we got to a narrow section of the highway he began
going very, very slowly, blocking the highway from the other cars behind him. Minnie and I
took off quite fast towards San Antonio and none of them ever saw us again that night. We
stayed in a motel in Alamo Heights and then rented our own apartment the next day. And we
both had to go back to work the next day. My dad arranged for a friend to take this wedding
picture the Friday following our Monday wedding. I took Minnie on what amounted to a
delayed honeymoon to Colorado the next summer. [She was such a cute bride! She has on
her wedding dress while we were wading in that cold Colorado river.]
Minnie 1956 in Colorado wading in the river
wearing her wedding dress
Minnie 1956 Continental Divide in Colorado
Minnie in the Colorado Rockies on our
"Honeymoon" Summer 1956
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