Hamms celebrate 68 years of marriage

RED BAY — Telford and Alice Hamm can still remember the moments that changed the course of their lives. One happened in a high school hallway in Zion, Illinois.

“She was standing up at her locker,” Telford recalled. “All her hair down her back was beautiful.”

A friend later told her Telford had made a bold prediction.

“He said, ‘I’m gonna marry her someday,’” Alice said.

She did not immediately return his interest. “He had to pull my hair,” she said with a laugh.

They met when she was not quite 16 and he was 17.

Alice Olling Hamm, daughter of Ted and Alice Olling, and Telford Hamm, son of Vera Amelia Russell and Joseph Clettie Hamm, dated for about three years before marrying on June 6, 1958, at Christian Fellowship Center in Zion.

For Alice, the moment she knew he was the one came during a date with someone else.

She had promised another young man she would attend a banquet with him. The evening quickly convinced her she had made a mistake. When she got home, she shared a realization with her mother.

“I said, ‘Do you know what it feels like to know you’re out with the wrong person?’” From that day forward, she said, there was no doubt.

The proposal itself was simple. One day, Telford stopped in front of a jewelry store and took her inside. Several rings had already been selected and laid out by the jeweler.

“He says, ‘Pick the one you want,’” she recalled.

The couple married and began building a life together in Illinois. She worked on an assembly line at Abbott Laboratories in nearby Waukegan. He worked at several businesses, including Warwick Electronics and Johnson Motors, before eventually spending more than 30 years as a truck driver.

Their honeymoon took them to Red Bay, where his family had deep roots.

“I said then that I would never, and I meant never, live in Red Bay,” she said.

After discussing the possibility several times over the years, she finally told her husband that if he truly wanted to move south, she would go.

She thought they would continue talking about it. Instead, he came home from a trip with everything already arranged.

“I thought he was kidding,” she said. “I found out Sunday night when he came back, he wasn’t kidding. He already had a house to rent.”

The family moved to Red Bay in 1968.

The adjustment took time. She missed relatives who remained in Illinois, and the move represented a major change. Gradually, though, Red Bay became home.

She said that happened after the couple bought their first house on Pinedale. By then, she had settled into the community and discovered what she now describes as “some pretty nice people.”

After moving to Red Bay, she worked at Blue Bell, Lance, Horton’s Apparel, and Showroom Fashions. She also babysat from home.

Over the decades, the couple raised four children — David, Ellen, Charles “Chuck” and Susan.

Those years were not always easy. Her husband spent much of his career on the road, sometimes away for two weeks at a time.

Staying connected involved conversations that came in the form of phone calls, which were brief, because of the cost.

Meanwhile, she managed a busy household. At one point, the couple had four children younger than 5.

She said the years were hard but noted they made it work.

The children helped care for one another, and decades later they remember those years with affection and humor.

There were trips to the bowling alley, camping adventures, and evenings at the racetrack.

Daughter Ellen recalled falling asleep in her mother’s lap on the stadium seats during races.

One camping trip ended early when mosquitoes became unbearable. Family members still laugh about abandoning a pop-up camper for the night and staying in an attic that happened to contain bats.

Today, the couple’s descendants include nine grandchildren, 18 greatgrandchildren, 11 greatgreat- grandchildren and another on the way.

Members of the growing family recently filled the couple’s yard, porch and shaded outdoor spaces with conversation, laughter and the kind of easy familiarity that comes from decades of gathering in the same place.

According to daughter- in-law Regina, family reunions often bring together more than 50 relatives. Some travel from Madison, Florence, Columbus and other communities.

Coordinating schedules can be difficult because family members work in healthcare and other demanding professions, but they continue making the effort.

The gatherings include food, games of washers and checkers, a giant Saran Wrap ball filled with prizes, Dirty Santa exchanges and a yearly “trash-to-treasure” table where one person’s castoff often becomes someone else’s favorite find.

The women receive decorative dish towels, and music usually fills the background.

“It’s all about the laughs and the giggles,” family member Jeff Monroe said.

Several relatives shared memories that reflected the home the couple created over the years. Great-granddaughter Mallory Monroe remembered turning a simple cardboard box into a lighthouse.

“We colored in it,” she said.

She also remembered sitting beside her greatgrandmother’s Christmas tree covered with Santa ornaments and talking about which ones were their favorites.

Grandson Michael Monroe recalled a towering two-story playhouse behind the family’s former home.

“It was enormous,” he said.

Filled with child-sized furniture, it became a favorite gathering place for cousins.

The couple’s devotion to one another remains visible in everyday moments. After undergoing brain surgery to help control tremors, she relies on a medical device that her husband helps manage each day.

“At night he turns the machine off for me,” she said.

Each morning, he sits beside her and helps turn it back on.

“And I become back to my old self,” she said.

Asked what they admire most about one another, both answered with the same word — faith.

He also praised her love and the way she cared for their children. She spoke of his love for her.

Asked what has sustained their marriage for nearly seven decades, their advice was to “try hard” and “give in a lot.”

Faith has remained central throughout their marriage. The couple attends Eastside Church of Christ in Red Bay, and both pointed to faith as an anchor during difficult times.

When asked whether they had ever felt lucky to be married to one another, neither hesitated.

“Always,” she said. “Every time I think about it,” he replied.

Asked what they hope future generations remember, their answer centered not on accomplishments but on the values they tried to leave behind.

“Our love for each other and our kids,” she said.

Asked what it means to still have children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-greatgrandchildren gathering around them after all these years, her answer was simple.

“Everything,” she said. Then she smiled. “I love it.”