Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

He kicked her in the seat. It’d been going on for 10 years.

- KIMBERLY DISHONGH If you have an interestin­g howwe-met story or know someone who does, please call (501) 3783496 or email: cjenkins@arkansason­line.com

Wanda Jackson played piano at a church service one typical morning and as soon as she finished and sat down, a guy behind her began kicking her seat.

“He was shaking the bench,” she says.

She had seen the culprit, Gerald Ward, before, a few times at least over the 10 years before that. He was from Pike County and she was from Clark County, but their families attended Baptist church meetings all over the region and their fathers both served as deacons.

“If the church doors were open, her and her mother and daddy were there. That’s kind of the way it was for me and my brothers and sisters and my mother and daddy, too,” says Gerald.

Most recently, Gerald had walked by as Wanda talked to his brother on the steps of a little Baptist church in Delight after a fifth Sunday meeting and youth rally.

“I had seen her, but honestly I thought she was too young for me because she was small,” he says. “When I walked out the door I stopped and said something to both of them and I looked at her and we spoke and I kind of went on.”

He mentioned her to his brother later.

“He said, ‘Oh, she’s too old for me,’” says Gerald. “I said, ‘What do you mean she’s too old for you?’ and he said, ‘She’s a lot older than me, probably four or five years older than I am.’ And I thought to myself, well, that’s getting close to my age.”

On the day he was kicking her seat, he had escorted his pastor’s daughter to church.

“When we came in and sat down they had already started and were singing. I saw her mother and daddy sitting there and I acknowledg­ed it and let it go at that, but the piano playing got my attention. I looked at the piano to see who was playing and I saw that it was Wanda. She came back and sat down with her mother and daddy when she was done. I guess it was just the teenager in me, but I kindly picked at her with her sitting there, even with my girlfriend with me,” says Gerald, readily admitting he shook her bench with his foot. “She would turn around and look at me whenever I would do that.”

He let his girlfriend know she should get a ride home with her parents that day, and he got in his vehicle and followed the Jacksons’ truck, driven by Wanda, as he desperatel­y tried to think of a way to strike up a conversati­on before they made it home to Amity.

“I had never actually talked to them. I would see them in church and I knew who they were but I’d never really carried on a conversati­on with them,” he says.

That’s when he noticed their broken taillight and knew he had an in.

“They pulled up to the Freeze King and were going to get some Cokes and I pulled up beside them,” he says.

Mr. Jackson, as it turns out, was a “talker.” The taillight was enough to kick-start a conversati­on. As it ran its course, Gerald asked where they lived and Wanda told him.

“So the next day, I went and found her,” he says.

“He invited himself,” she says.

He asked her for a date then, and they have been dating ever since.

“I guess it was love at first sight,” he says.

Three months later he hid an engagement ring for her to find in his shirt pocket.

They exchanged their vows on Nov. 20, 1964, in her family’s house. They were 19.

“After we were married we had no place to go, no place to live,” he says. “That hadn’t even crossed our minds, I guess. We stayed with her mother and daddy for a while before we found a place to rent south of Amity.”

They were both raised on farms and rented one with plans to buy when they could.

Wanda’s father, who did not want them to move out of state to find land, made them a deal. They paid $300 down and the remaining $100 in installmen­ts for 8.5 acres, which they have increased over the years to 70 acres. They have raised sheep, goats and cattle throughout their marriage.

Gerald has also been a pastor for most of that time. He founded Grace Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Amity 15 years ago. He says their marriage is different from most.

“We work on this farm together as a team. We do everything together. When we get up in the morning and get out of bed, I make up my side while she’s fixing her side. We go into the kitchen and I set the table and help her put whatever she’s cooking out on the table,” he says. “I can be preaching and my wife can ‘talk’ to me without saying a word. It’s almost like we read each other’s minds. That’s how close we are.”

 ??  ?? “We work on this farm together as a team. We do everything together. When we get up in the morning and get out of bed, I make up my side while she’s fixing her side. We go into the kitchen and I set the table and help her put whatever she’s cooking out...
“We work on this farm together as a team. We do everything together. When we get up in the morning and get out of bed, I make up my side while she’s fixing her side. We go into the kitchen and I set the table and help her put whatever she’s cooking out...
 ??  ?? Gerald and Wanda Ward on their wedding day, Nov. 20, 1964
Gerald and Wanda Ward on their wedding day, Nov. 20, 1964

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