Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994 TAG: 9403190112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BASSETT FORKS LENGTH: Medium
Gallimore, 45, and Simpkins, 17, made their unofficial 16-month marriage legal Friday night.
"I'm glad it's finally legal, and we'll have a life together," Sabrina said after the wedding. "And no one can bother us."
The ceremony at the tiny wooden church where Gallimore preaches polygamy took less than 15 minutes. It concluded with a short kiss, during which Simpkins' hat tilted off the back of her head.
"I knocked her hat off," Gallimore boasted outside the church. "That's pretty good, isn't it?"
Bobby Crotts, pastor at a church in Ridgeway, conducted the service. He telephoned Gallimore after seeing a report on TV that Gallimore's controversial preachings were making it difficult to find someone to marry the couple.
"I just had compassion for him when no one else did," Crotts said.
The state-sanctioned marriage clears the way for the two to continue their relationship. They had to put at least the physical part of their relationship on hold last July when the General Assembly made it a misdemeanor for an adult to have intercourse with a person between ages 15 and 17.
Gallimore and Simpkins wasted little time in tying the knot. Elwood and Janice Gallimore, his wife of 27 years, were divorced Wednesday in Pulaski County.
Gallimore's polygamy-espousing sermons came to light early last year when investigators questioned then 16-year-old Simpkins about the goings-on at the Evangelistic Tabernacle, Gallimore's church.
Simpkins, then a junior at Floyd County High School, admitted to authorities that Gallimore "advised the congregation that he is taking a second wife who is 16 years old."
That wife, of course, turned out to be Simpkins, who agreed to marry Gallimore "in the eyes of God" as the two were driving home from church one night.
In the ensuing months, Gallimore was charged under a felony seduction law that had been on Virginia's books since 1887. That law was ruled unconstitutional a week before Gallimore's trial last June, but he was still tried for two felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor.
"It's come a long way after all this, when you think back," Gallimore said before the ceremony. "I guess I didn't think it'd come down to this, after everything that happened with Janice."
Gallimore said he wasn't nervous before the wedding. "I feel like I'm 21 years old. I don't look 21, but I feel 21."
Simpkins wore a traditional wedding dress, with white bows down the back, and a hat, but no veil. She carried a peach-colored bouquet.
Gallimore wore a charcoal-grey suit, with a peach-colored shirt and tie. Gallimore's daughter, Penny Ann Dodson, was Simpkins' maid of honor, and Simpkins' brother, Anthony, was the best man. Clark Simpkins gave his daughter away.
Though the charismatic Gallimore was the center of attention during the trial last year, Clark and Brenda Simpkins - Sabrina's parents - were the only people convicted of a crime. The Simpkinses were found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allowing their daughter and Gallimore to have intercourse in the Simpkinses' house.
Clark Simpkins stood behind Gallimore again Friday night.
"I'm glad that they are making it legal, since it worked out this way," he said, "but it didn't bother me the other way, either."
Simpkins would have graduated from Floyd County High School this year, but dropped out. She and Gallimore hope to buy a house in Collinsville, where Gallimore - who has three grown children with Janice - said he wants to start on a second family.
Gallimore was asked if he would be happy with one wife the rest of his life.
"Can't even tell from one day to the next," he said, standing next to his smiling bride, "but right now, it looks that way."
But Gallimore continued to hold out the possibility of a reconciliation with Janice.
"If we ever fix things up, it'd turn out even better," he said. "They always said both of them couldn't bear the Gallimore name, but this would be a way."
by CNB