June Wedding

Story ID:	2412
Written by:	Betty (BJ) Roan
Story type:	Family Memories
Writers Conference:	$500 2007 Family Memories Writing Project
Location:	Toledo IL USA
Year:	1947
Person:	My Parents

Joseph Cather lived with his brothers and sisters on a farm just off the Montrose Road in Cumberland County. When Joe passed the mid-twenties mark, he decided it was time to find a wife. Fortunately for Joe, the Burton family lived just down the road. Joe had his eye on one of those Burton girls. He was a shy man, but finally worked up the nerve to pay them a visit. The matriarch, Nellie Burton, answered his tentative knock on the door. Nellie was a no-nonsense kind of woman. She had to be. She was a mother with fourteen children to care for.

No one knows exactly what Mrs. Burton and Joe said to each other that day, but most believe Joe’s side of the conversation included a lot of stuttering, looking at the ground, and shuffling of nervous feet. Through his shyness, he managed to explain the reason for his visit and ask permission to court one of her daughters, specifically Joann. Mrs. Burton nipped that idea in the bud, she already had someone picked out for that daughter, but she did offer up her second eldest daughter, Maxine. Maxine was born in April and Joe the following June of that same year. On the surface, Joe and Maxine didn’t seem like a good fit. He was strong willed, she meek. Nevertheless, they began a courtship that led to Joe and Maxine discussing marriage.

The more time he spent with Maxine, the more teasing Joe endured. His brothers and sisters constantly kidded him about rumors of marriage. Although Joe adamantly denied any plans for marriage, his brothers began planning high jinks for the shivaree shower. To avoid being thrown into the horse trough, pond, or even worse, Muddy Creek, Joe didn’t tell anyone when he decided it was time to marry Maxine.

Joe finally confided his plans to Ruth, his sister. Ruth would be Maxine’s Matron of Honor and her husband Clint the Best Man. Ruth and Clint were sworn to secrecy. Joe and Maxine filled out the paperwork for a marriage license in Coles County. Unfortunately, the only available Justice of the Peace was in Cumberland County. In order for their marriage license to be valid, they must be married in the same county where their license was issued. The wedding party piled into Joe’s 1945 Ford: Ruth, Clint, Joe, Maxine, and the Justice of the Peace. Joe turned the car north on State Route 121. When Route 121 ended at Route 45, Joe made a right turn and continued a few miles farther north. After they passed the Trilla Road, he stopped the car along the highway. Maxine Burton became Maxine Cather beside a public road.

The newlyweds kept their marriage secret several more days before the word spread. Joe was eventually tossed into Muddy Creek, but not without giving his brothers a good fight. They moved into a log cabin down the road from their families, and began a long life together.

On June 21, 1997, Joe and Maxine celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Their two children hosted an open house in their honor. Maxine was suffering from the effects of diabetes, while Parkinson’s disease caused Joe’s hands to shake, yet they enjoyed every minute of that special day.

Joe and Maxine didn’t need a fancy wedding with hundreds of guests to cement their union. They exchanged vows between the highway and a cornfield. The only guests were curious travelers. Their wedding was almost comical in its simplicity, yet they took their vows seriously, and kept them. Maxine passed away in 1999, Joe in 2002. Had they lived, this year would have marked their sixtieth anniversary.