A black-and-white picture of a young couple, faces close together in the frame, flashed on the screen. A second photo appeared a few seconds later of the same couple, this time aged about 70 years, holding hands and in color.
The Family Council, a Little Rock-based conservative group that lobbies for "family values found and reflected in the Bible," began a search in November for Arkansas' longest-married couple.
The group got about 40 submissions for couples who have been married more than 70 years, says Ken Yang, director of governmental affairs for the council. Council members sent alerts about the contest to their mailing lists, broadcast it on social media and told churches across the state.
The 10 longest-married couples -- who collectively represented 772 years of marriage -- were presented with flowers, chocolates, a blanket embroidered with their names and a framed letter of congratulations from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Hutchinson and his wife, Susan Hutchinson, attended the late February ceremony and told the story of how they met during college, broke up at the end and got back together when she moved to Memphis. He talked about hitchhiking to see her as often as he could and eventually doing the same thing when he went to ask her father if he could marry her.
She said the way they've moved forward for the last 44 years is with "Eyes on the Lord, feet on the ground, arms around each other."
He told the crowd that his key to happy marriage is having two cars.
As the official ceremony drew to a close, the Hutchinsons served a three-tiered cake with white icing to a couple who have been married for 80 years, thought to be the longest in the state.
Ida Jewel & I.B. Williams
The Biscoe couple met when Ida was a teenager at an Assembly of God church, but her father wouldn't let her date anyone, much less a man six years older.
He would sit behind her in the pew and pull her hair to get her attention, and because he was not allowed to take her out, he would walk her home after church, even though it was several miles out of his way.
She was 14 when they started dating, and he was about 20. He turned 100 last month, and she is almost 95.
They dated for about seven months before they got engaged. The two of them were at a friend's house when I.B. turned to her and said "Do you want to do this for real?" their daughter Anita Avants says.
"I would," she replied. They got married Sept. 4, 1937.
They started a cotton farm in Biscoe in 1941, and had four children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, many of whom attended the ceremony at the Governor's Mansion.
"We just had a good marriage," says Ida Jewel Williams. "The Lord was with us."
The couple now lives at a nursing home together, she says, reaching out to touch her husband's arm. Staff at their nursing home had nestled a silver tiara in her white hair for the event.
I.B. has Alzheimer's disease and struggles to remember details about his life, but says he still recalls his wife's cooking. But as they got older, it got harder for her to get around and he started cooking for her.
"He was always good to me," she says, adding that her favorite thing about him has always been that he is willing to go to church with her.
He says there wasn't time to list all his favorite things about her.
"It'd take me all day to tell you," I.B. says.
Marlin & Elsie Scott
The first time Marlin Scott saw Elsie, she was wearing a little red hat and standing outside her playhouse. Elsie was 4, and he was 14.
"Someday you'll make some man a good wife, a pretty wife," he said to her.
Their first date, 11 years later, was a church revival in 1937, and much of their relationship was based on church events. He drove her home from a service in his 1938 Chevrolet pickup, and after he had parked, he proposed.
"He took me by the hand and said 'I love you very much, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. What do you say?'" Elsie says, a small quiver in her voice.
They got married June 25, 1938, at his house. They would go on to have three sons, six grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.
They lived in Mountain View for most of their lives; he worked first at a sawmill, then as a farmer and finally as a janitor at the local school. She worked in the cafeteria at the same school.
They sent two sons abroad to fight in wars -- the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Jerry got sick after he came back, and now lives in a nursing home a few miles away from his mother's apartment.
Marlin and Elsie lived together until about five years ago when he had to go to a nursing home five miles away after his dementia got too severe for her to care for him. He is 105 years old, and she will turn 96 next week.
She visits him regularly.
"And we still smooch on each other every time we leave," she says.
One of their favorite things to do now is to sit outside on the porch of the nursing home when the weather is nice and talk, she says. A photo taken of them in the last year shows him in his wheelchair, and her in a rocking chair stretching out an arm to hold his hand.
Betty & Cletus Hall
Cletus Hall asked his sister to pick up his date for a music party back when he was a teenager in the 1930s in Berryville. He met Betty, who would become Betty Hall, when she and her father were trying to drive down a mountain in the rain.
Their truck got stuck, and he helped pull them out. Most of their dates were music parties during which they would go to friends' houses, play music and square dance.
He proposed when she was 17, and she laughs when she says the proposal wasn't "a big affair."
"Of course I said yes," she says. They got married July 25, 1939, right at the end of the Great Depression.
They couldn't find a preacher to marry them, so they had a courthouse wedding; her sister was the witness.
The young couple moved to California so Cletus could find work. He was a mechanic who worked mostly on school buses, and Betty says their time in California was her favorite time during their marriage because of the warm, sunny weather.
"You had to move to find work," Betty says.
She stayed at home with their four children most of the time but also worked at the high school cafeteria when she got the chance. They have 14 grandchildren, 24 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandson.
She is 95, and he is 98; they have been married for 78 years.
"He's always been faithful, and we really care for one another," she says. "You just have to love them to begin with, and I did. It was love at first sight."
The other seven couples recognized at the ceremony have each been married for at least 75 years.
Cleovis and Arwilda Whiteside of White Hall have been married for 78 years. Their wedding was July 24, 1939.
Cecil and Lois Robertson of Heber Springs have been married for 78 years. Their wedding was Sept. 8, 1939.
Gussie and James Stephenson of North Little Rock have been married for 78 years. Their wedding was Dec. 25, 1939.
Thell and Margie Ellison of Natural Dam have been married for 76 years. Their wedding was June 24, 1941.
Grady and Wilma Adcock of Hot Springs have been married for 75 years. Their wedding was July 3, 1942.
JC and Avanelle Merritt of Greenbrier have been married for 75 years. Their wedding was July 9, 1942.
ND and Anna Mae Edwards of Alma have been married for 75 years. Their wedding was Oct. 24, 1942.
Style on 03/20/2018