LITTLE ROCK — When all other attempts to meet the girl of his dreams failed, James Pennington did something bold. He showed up on her front porch, sat down with her and her parents and asked to take her to a movie.
He f irst saw Bernice Thompson in 1947, just after he returned home to Warren from serving in the U.S. Army. Bernice, who he later learned was just 14, was singing with a quartet as James walked into a church, and he thought she was beautiful and talented.
“I remarked to my friend that she would be my wife,” says James, almost seven years Bernice’s senior. “My friend laughed and said, ‘She’s just a baby.’ But I told him, ‘She’ll grow up.’”
James went on working at the sawmill and he dated lots of other girls, but the memory of that girl - whose name he didn’t yet know - stuck with him. A friend asked Jameswhy he didn’t settle down with one girl.
“I told him that I was looking for a wife with brown eyes and dark hair to have beautiful brown-eyed children with. I asked if he knew anyone like that. He said as a matter of fact he did: Bernice Thompson,” says James.
As James’ friend described Bernice, his relative, James realized she was the girl he had seen in church.
“He also said her father would not let her date because she was too young,” says James.
Bernice’s father worked inthe sawmill, too, and he knew James, though James did not know him. James’ friend put in a good word for James with Bernice’s father, who also heard good things from a woman who had taught James in Sunday School.
James started classes at Arkansas A&M College (now the University of Arkansas at Monticello) in 1949. He took a date to a cafe after a basketball game in New Edinburg that year and was surprised to see the girl he had thought so much about there with a date of her own.
“I asked her to move her coat so I could sit by her,” James says. “She moved her coat, but she did not talk to me. I was glad to find out that she could date.”
Bernice was oblivious to James’ interest.
“I was kind of shy and I was kind of young and he had a date and I was with someone else,” says Bernice. “I hadseen him with this same girl at high school plays and ball games but I didn’t really notice him that much because I didn’t think he was interested in me.”
After that chance encounter, James joined some informal baseball games on Sunday afternoons in Bernice’s community, hoping she would be among the girls who turned out to watch. She wasn’t.
“I was living on campus at college,” says James. “One afternoon while going over a lesson in my room for class the next day, I realized it was time for me to claim my girl.”
James drove 30 miles and stopped at a country store and asked where he might find the Thompsons who had a daughter named Bernice. It was dusk when he arrived at their house, and Bernice - the only child in the family - turned on the porch light.
“He didn’t know [if] I hada lot of sisters, and he said, ‘Is that you, Bernice?’ and I said, ‘Well, who do you think it is?’ I was kind of being a smart aleck, I guess.”
He met her parents and they all chatted a while, and though James’ original intention in visiting was just to get acquainted with the family, he decided to ask if Bernice might go with him to see a movie.
Her mother said no, but her father, who had heard about James, overruled his wife.
Shortly after their first date, James was called back into service, but he knew Bernice was special, so he gave her a ring and told her it would be OK if she dated other guys while he was gone.
“I wanted her to have a good junior and senior year in school,” he says. “But when I got back, I was going to marry that girl.”
Bernice had finished high school by the time he got back a year and a half later.
She had planned to go to business school after graduating, but James talked her out of it and not long after that he surprised her with a marriage proposal while they were on a date.
Bernice was 17 and James was 24 when they were wed on Nov. 17, 1951, at his family’s home in Warren.
They have three browneyed children - Larry Pennington of Star City, Jim Pennington of Rosston and Margaret Peek of New Edinburg. They also have four grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren.
“We are so blessed to have all of the things that I prayed for during the war,” says James. “I am the only one of us without brown eyes or a good singing voice. I have loved all of this for 58 years. Bernice still has the beautiful voice and pretty eyes that I loved the first time I saw her.”
The first time I saw my future spouse, I thought:
She says: “I was surprised to see him. I thought he was a nice-looking guy and I hadn’t ever heard anything bad about him so I thought he must be really nice.” He says: “She was about the cutest, prettiest girl I’d ever seen, and she had the voice of an angel.”
My advice for a long, happy marriage is:
She says: “Give and take. We’ve always gotten along really well. Always love and trust each other and have faith in each other.” He says: “Well, I’m not an expert … but I tried not to ever raise my voice at her for anything. She promised not to nag and we promised not to fuss at each other but to always talk things out and then after we’ve talked it out we won’t ever bring it up again.”If you have an interesting how-wemet story or know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or e-mail:
High Profile, Pages 43 on 06/27/2010