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Our Story 2 |
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Curtis & Carolyn: The
Wedding Rehearsal & Cake Cutting |
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Carolyn and I had originally hoped to be married at Greenway
Baptist Church in Boone, NC - the church we attended during our
senior year at Appalachian State University (1974 - 1975) - but
they had a policy that only church members could use the church
for weddings, so we decided to get married at
Mathis Chapel
Baptist Church in Catawba, NC - my family church - and the
church we attended after we were first married. |
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Carolyn and I ask
Bobby Taylor, a close family friend, to
officiate at our wedding. Carolyn's mother and brother
didn't come to the wedding, so Carolyn asked John Wessell to give her away and
Bettie Wessell to sit in the place
of her mother. The Wessell family had been our "adopted
family" for the last two years we were at
ASU. Betty took
Carolyn under her wing while she was still at ASU and provided
the mothering she needed while she was there. She took Carolyn shopping and
bought her three nightgowns for the honeymoon, as well as a
Betty Crocker Cookbook (which we still have). |
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The wedding rehearsal was on Friday, June 6th, at
Mathis Chapel
with a prayer meeting at
Bobby & Grace Taylor's home afterward. |
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John Wessell and Carolyn walk down the aisle during the
rehearsal |
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Steve and Janie Harwell hosted the cake cutting at their home.
Steve & Janie attended Mathis Chapel, also, and had been close friends
of Curtis' for years. The girls in the wedding party actually stayed
at Steve & Janie's house the night before the wedding, while the
guys stayed at Curtis' house (actually the empty building that
had once housed Loftin's Tire Service, Loftin's Clothing Outlet,
and The Lighthouse Youth Ministry) - and eventually
became their home. |
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Mrs. Flora Edwards Stewart made the wedding cake for Curtis &
Carolyn. Mrs. Stewart had kept Curtis as a baby and he had
always considered her a second "Mama" - especially
when he was a young boy growing up. Curtis'
sister-in-law, Diane Self Loftin, helped serve food at the
reception. |
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The Wedding Cake |
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Diane Loftin & Mrs. Flora Edwards Stewart |
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I have created a "Tribute" page for Mrs.
Stewart on the website and there are some additional photos
CLICK HERE to check them
out |
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Curtis & Carolyn pose for a few photos |
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Getting ready to cut the cake |
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We
froze the top layer and saved it for our one-year anniversary |
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Sam had been sick for several years prior to the wedding.
When we couldn't get Greenway Baptist as the church for our
wedding, we chose Mathis Chapel because
Sam wasn't able to travel. The wedding was in 1975.
Sam died in 1979 at the age of 61. |
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Sam & Willie Loftin - Curtis' Parents |
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Carolyn asked Anita Wheeler Tyner, her best friend from high
school, to be her matron of honor. |
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Tony & Anita Wheeler Tyner |
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Curtis & Carolyn: The
Wedding |
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Carolyn & I got married on Saturday, 07 Jun 1975, 3:00 p.m., at
Mathis Chapel Baptist Church. The
Rev. Bobby Lee Taylor
officiated. |
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There was very little money to help with the wedding - none from
Carolyn's family, and very little from mine. Carolyn
purchased the satin fabric that was to become her wedding dress
and actually made it herself. In an effort to not ruin the
fabric, she first made the dress using an old sheet. One
side was had long-sleeved and the other was short - so she could
see which side she liked best. She settled
on the short sleeve and began to cut the fabric and sew the
dress. |
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The "practice' dress |
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The day of the wedding,
Tony Sanford teased me unmercifully.
He'd tell me, "You have three hours till you get married".
"Two hours and thirty minutes". "Two hours". "One hour and
thirty minutes". "One hour and 15 minutes". "One hour".
... and so on until it was "Thirty minutes", "Fifteen minutes",
and "Ten minutes". Tony was really enjoying himself
- but he was driving a "nervous" groom CRAZY! |
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There was no money for flowers to decorate the church, so the
morning of the wedding, Tony and I went out into the field beside
of our house and picked wild flowers: Queen Anne's Lace, Daisies,
and so on. The only flowers purchased were the three
long-stemmed yellow roses that Carolyn carried. |
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College friends Cathy King sang and Charlie Ross played the
piano. |
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There was no money for a photographer. The only wedding
photos were those taken by friends during and after the wedding.
Carolyn forgot to get the guest register out of the car, and
since we were both nervous, we have no ideal who actually came to
the wedding. |
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Curtis & Carolynn kneeling before
Rev. Bobby Taylor |
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Carolyn presented a yellow rose to my mother, Willie,
and one to Bettie Wessell, who was sitting in place of her
mother |
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Mr. & Mrs. Curtis Loftin |
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Curtis & Carolyn with Paula Schronce, flower girl (daughter
of Curtis'
1st cousin Brenda Isenhour Schronce),
and Nathan Harwell (Steve & Janie Harwell's son), ring bearer |
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BRIDESMAIDS
Ann Hamilton, Beverly
Loftin, Carolyn, Paula Schronce, Anita Wheeler Tyner and Angela
Taylor
Anita Wheeler Tyner was Matron of Honor (The little girl in
the left side of this photo is Mary Wessell - John & Bettie's
daughter) |
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Anita was Carolyn's best friend from high
school, Angela was Curtis' "adopted" little sister from
Mathis Chapel, Beverly was Curtis' niece (daughter of his brother Billy
Ray), Ann was Curtis & Carolyn's closest female friend from ASU,
and Paula was the daughter of Curtis' first cousin Brenda Isenhour Schronce. |
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GROOMSMEN |
Bill Mitchell, Dan Wessell, Curtis, Nathan Harwell, Billy Ray
Loftin and Bill Shearin
Billy Ray Loftin was Curtis' Best Man |
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Bill Shearin & Bill Mitchell were college
friends of Curtis & Carolyn, Dan had originally been a student
of Carolyn's from Wataugh High School but them we "adopted" him
and his entire family, Nathan Harwell was the son of Steve and
Janie Richardson Harwell, and Billy Ray (William Ray) Loftin was
Curtis' older brother. |
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Billy Ray, Curtis & Carolyn greet guest as they exit the church |
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Bill Mitchell, Dan Wessell and Bill Shearin (David Shearin &
John Wessell in the background) |
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RECEPTION |
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Following the wedding, everyone went back over
to Curtis' parents house for a small reception. |
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Ann sits on Sam's lap; Carolyn with former college roommate Carol
Perkins |
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(Left) Kathy King and Charlie Ross, (Right) Diane & Billy Loftin |
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Kathy sang at the wedding
and Charlie Ross played the piano.
Charlie actually played the piano for the contemporary gospel singing group
the Imperials for a while. |
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Tony & Anita Wheeler Tyner |
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(Left) Dale Shearin and Beverly Loftin, (Right) John Wessell -
Carolyn and Willie Loftin in the background |
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Tony Sanford and Ann Hamilton with Eric & Crystal Loftin
(Curtis' niece and nephew) |
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The Observer-News-Enterprise Newspaper |
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Curtis & Carolyn:
Our Honeymoon |
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On our honeymoon, where did we go? We went to Blowing Rock
and even stopped off in Boone. We
spent the weekend at one of the mountain-overlook hotels.
The room only had a bedroom, bathroom and a nice overlook. The place would eventually be converted to condominiums years
down the road, called "The Village Gate". |
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The hotel became the The Village Gate condominiums |
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We drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and spent Sunday afternoon
sitting by the lake and enjoying the scenery. |
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Sitting in the Price Lake dam overflow on a warm sunny day |
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We even drove by Boone later that afternoon and stopped by the
Wessell's house for a short visit. |
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Curtis & Carolyn:
Our New Home |
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Our "New Home" actually wasn't so new.
After our weekend honeymoon, we drove back to Catawba and moved
in with my parents. We lived with them for 18 months until
Beth was born. |
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Mom & Dad's house as photographed in 2004 |
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Even though I was teaching at the time, Carolyn was only
teaching part time at Fred T. Foard High School in Catawba
County, NC, and we had a new
born daughter. We looked at a beautiful new house in the
Catawba area but it was $35,000 and we thought that was too much
for us to be able to afford. Looking back on that years later,
we realized just how inexpensive new houses were back then. |
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We decided to remodel the inside of the building that had been Loftin's Tire Service and make it into our home. We added
walls, paneling, carpet, linoleum, kitchen cabinets, and a
pantry to the inside but made no changes on the outside.
Dad was sick, but he would sit on a chair and using his
carpentry background told me what to do. We had purchased
a new bedroom suit while we were still living with Mom and Dad
so we already had that. Mom & Dad bought us a kitchen
table and chairs. I cashed in a small childhood insurance
policy and bought a deep-freezer. We took any old
furniture that we could get from relatives. Our first credit card was from Sears, so we
purchased our kitchen stove and refrigerator from there - paying
off the "charge" as quickly as possible. The second bedroom
(Beth's room) in the house didn't have carpet - only painted
cement floor. Midway carpet gave us several old carpet
sample books, so Carolyn and I took those and sewed them
together with yarn - making a patchwork carpet that was used for
years until we were able to purchase new carpet. |
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My college friend Bill Mitchell was renting a one-bedroom
apartment in Hickory and was paying $350 a month. We
originally planned to live in the simple block-building until we
saved some money and then hoped to rent it for some additional
income, and then buy a new house. |
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This is the building as it appeared in 1967 when it was still
Loftin's Tire Service - I had just started high school
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The building as it appeared in 1973 when it was being used as
The Lighthouse Youth Ministry
High School friend Joyce Killian That's my red Pylmoth
Belvedere and Dad & Mom's truck The blue and white car
belonged to Bobby & Grace Taylor |
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As the years passed, we added additional improvements to the
house. We also enjoyed the fact that we didn't have a
30-year-mortgage. We decided to stay in the house next door
to Mom & Dad. Dad asked cousins and uncles, who were
carpenters and brick masons, to help with the house - including
my Uncle Floyd Sigmon & Cousin T.A. Potter (who worked
exclusively on the gable roof) and Bubber Loftin (who added the
new brick veneer). We replace the original garage door in the
building with sliding glass doors when we first moved in, but
eventually upgraded those to nicer atrium doors. |
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This is the same building in 2004 after multiple upgrades
including a gable roof, atrium doors, new windows, adding 2
bedrooms and another bath and lots of landscaping |
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Curtis & Carolyn: Work
After College and Before Teaching |
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Carolyn and I, both, found jobs the summer after our
wedding while we looked for teaching jobs for the new school year
(1975 - 1976). Carolyn worked at the Harris Teeter Gas
Station in Newton (that no longer exists) and I was re-hired by
Reeves Curron in Conover to work in the receiving department.
Reeves cut foam-rubber into cushions that were used by local
furniture factories for chairs and sofas. My job was to
unload the foam from the trucks when they came in, and to move it
to the storage area. During my down time, I moved foam to
the different cutting stations. This was my third summer
to work there. They must have liked me because they were
interested in me moving into a leadership position - but I had
my heart set on teaching. |
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I applied for teaching positions in Catawba County, Iredell
County, Statesville City, Newton-Conover City and Lenoir City
Schools. After several interviews, my first choice was
Statesville City Schools, 2nd choice was Lenoir City Schools (we
loved the NC mountains) and 3rd choice was Catawba County
Schools. I signed my contract with Catawba County School
and got job offers from both Statesville City Schools and Lenoir
City Schools the next week. |
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1977: Curtis & Beth |
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Be Sure to Check out All of
these Pages |
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Curtis Dean Loftin |
Carolyn Janet Weeks Loftin |
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Go to the HIGH SCHOOL YEARS (1967 - 1971) |
Go to the COLLEGE YEARS (1971 - 1975) |
Go
to the WEDDING (1975) |
Go to the TEACHING YEARS (1975 - 2005) |
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If you have additional photos or information
contact me at |
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