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'Lovebirds' tying knot 57 years after dating
each other
By Bill Whitaker
True romance is terrific, but after a half-century or so, it
only goes so far.
At least, that's the impression I got upon meeting Phillip
Woodard Ellison and Ellen Irene Shults this week. You might think
their life was pulsating with romance because, 57 years after
dating in Abilene, they're at last tying the knot.
But when I asked if they were to be married in a local church,
Phillip replied: "Nah, we're gonna take the quick route.
I need her to do some housework."
Happily, this good-humored, not-so-blushing couple doesn't
mind appearing before the justice of the peace and doing it simple.
After all, they have both been before the marriage altar before.
Irene has been widowed twice, while Phillip lost his wife only
recently. But through their many years, they have never lost touch
with each other. The couple didn't know exactly what day they
would actually be wed but hoped the deed could be done by today.
They were baffled to discover, when they applied for a marriage
license at the Taylor County Courthouse, that they would have
to proceed with great caution.
"We have to wait 72 hours," Phillip told me. "We
were going to get married Tuesday, but they put a stop to that."
Phillip, who's 79 and 6-foot-2, and Irene, who admits to being
77, got to know each other back when they were young and foolish
and living in Abilene in 1940.
The lovebirds can't remember just how they met, except, to
hear Phillip, "I started dating her cousin, went for her
twice, and then I decided to go after Irene here. She was short
and us tall guys go for them short women."
However, after a year or two of dating, the two drifted apart.
Each found other mates. Irene, working as a waitress at the Wooten
Hotel ' now the Towers Apartments ' fell for the chef there, a
pleasant fellow by the name of Louie Cooper.
Phillip fell for a blonde named Maye, eventually left his job
working at Henderson Tire Company and moved to Dallas, where he
continued working in the tire business, then got a job as a mechanic.
He moved to Dublin in 1983 because his wife had kinfolks in nearby
De Leon.
Even then, Irene and Phillip occasionally saw each other.
On occasion, when Louie Cooper was working as a cook at Wyatt's
Cafeteria at the old Westgate Mall and Irene joined him as a food
handler, Phillip would stop by during visits to Abilene.
"I'd see her every once in a while and talk to her ' except
for the time my wife was with me!" Phillip said.
Obviously, the times they dated in Abilene must have been good
for them to maintain a bond, even through loving marriages to
other people. Phillip said as much.
"We can't forget the good times we had then," he
said of Irene.
When I asked him what those good times entailed, he said: "Well,
I don't exactly remember."
Eventually, they did recall nocturnal jackrabbit hunts: "Irene
here would drive at night and I'd shoot jackrabbits when they'd
jump out. People didn't like jackrabbits back then because they
were eating up farmers' crops. Anyway, it was a good excuse to
shoot jackrabbits!"
I asked Irene and Phillip if they had noticed any differences
in each other now.
"Well, we're older and uglier," he said.
"Yeah," Irene said, "and he goes to church now."
"That was something my last wife wanted."
Irene, who has lived back in Abilene since her second husband's
death several years ago, says she doesn't imagine she'll have
much trouble learning to live in Dublin, where Phillip continues
to live.
"Well, she's just gonna slow down and get to the pace
of all us old retirees."
So by week's end, they should be riding off into the sunrise.
Bill Whitaker, who thinks the 72-hour "cooling off period"
should have been waived for this particular couple, can be reached
at 676-6732. E-mail Bill at WTWARN@aol.com.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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