Seeking Susie

This is the telegram that maternal grandfather, Bill Parks sent to his father, J.T. Parks after he and my grandmother Mary Ball eloped.

One of the few stories that my grandmother Mary told me about was her elopement. I asked her one day how she met my grandfather, and she told me. I don’t remember how or where she met him, because I was so excited about the rest of the story, that I forgot the part of where or how they met.

She told me that Bill told her the very first time they met that he was going to marry her, and two weeks later they eloped.

They went to Marshall, Texas and got married.

Bill and Mary Ball Parks' Marriage License

On the way back, she got scared because she told me her father was very strict, so she went back home to her parents and tried to pretend that nothing had happened for two whole days.

My grandfather Bill had enough of this, he wanted his wife! He came and got her, and they lived happily ever after.

According to her, anyway. I do believe her. They always seemed happy when I was around them.

This is my grandparents, and my mother just a couple of years after they were married.  They were on vacation at the Grand Canyon.

Mary, Mary Helen and Bill Parks

By the way, this is the grandmother that was going to throw all her photos and memorabilia away when she went into the nursing home, but instead gave them all to me. I’m so glad she did, because now I have this telegram to go along with the story she told!