Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303200021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BASSETT FORKS LENGTH: Medium
THE 2ND MRS. GALLIMORE ALMOST TALKS LIKE A NEWLYWED
TO THOSE who think Sabrina Simpkins, Elwood Gallimore's "second wife," is a naive country girl, Simpkins has a few comments: she's not stupid, she's not blindly following her beliefs, and "if this is what brainwashed is, I'm glad to be a part of it."\ Sabrina Hope Simpkins had a coming-out of sorts on March 7 at a shopping mall in Martinsville.
It was the first time since she appeared in court Feb. 24 - and was featured in many of the state's newscasts and newspapers - that she had been in such a public place.
"If looks could kill," she said, "I got some today."
Simpkins, a junior at Floyd County High School, is clearly uncomfortable with being at the center of the Elwood Gallimore controversy. She became the unordained preacher's second "wife" last November.
Nonetheless, she appears to be handling it. At the mall with Gallimore, his legal wife of 26 years, Janice, and other members of the church, she stood politely and smiled as one person after the next walked by, recognized her, and gawked.
She showed an inquisitive visitor the engraved wedding band and diamond ring she and Gallimore had chosen.
"That was one of our better days," she said.
Simpkins agreed to marry Gallimore Nov. 24, as he was driving her home from church. To those who wonder if Simpkins' parents and Gallimore persuaded her to do something she wasn't ready for, she has a ready response:
"I love him; it's not like I married him because it was our belief.
"I didn't just marry him because he asked me to. I said `yes' because I love him."
Gallimore preaches that once a man asks a woman to marry him, and she says "yes," the couple is married in the eyes of God.
Hasn't the informal arrangement deprived Simpkins of a more traditional wedding? Wouldn't she like to stand in a long white gown and toss the bridal bouquet?
"I think that's just money wasted," she said. "We can use that, if the people will ever leave us alone, to maybe take a trip."
Simpkins' parents, Clark and Brenda, have been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allowing Gallimore and their daughter to consummate their marriage at the Simpkins' house.
"It wasn't nothing we done that pushed her into it," Brenda Simpkins said. "Elwood, he's a good man."
Sabrina Simpkins has gone to the Evangelistic Tabernacle since she was a baby. Clark Simpkins, her father, has been friends with Gallimore for more than 30 years.
"I feel like she's probably got somebody that's really going to be good to her," Clark Simpkins said of Gallimore. "The only thing that bothered me was I was losing my only baby girl."
When Gallimore was charged with seduction and taking indecent liberties with a minor, he promised a magistrate he would see Simpkins only during church activities. The seduction statute is a century-old law designed to protect chaste Virginia women from smooth-talking carpetbaggers.
But at the Evangelistic Tabernacle, there are many church activities. There are services five nights a week and a softball game every Sunday afternoon.
So the two keep in touch. In the parking lot before a recent service, Simpkins walked past Gallimore, winked, and said, "Hi, fella."
Though she only has one year of high school left and gets good grades, Simpkins wants to drop out.
"I think my place is at home, in the kitchen," she said. Then she chuckled, knowing the comment could be considered demeaning to women.
If his legal problems are solved in his favor, Gallimore wants Simpkins to move in with him and Janice. The Gallimores have three children - all older than Sabrina and married - and five grandchildren.
Sabrina has two brothers, Anthony, 19, and Ben, 11.
Before her courtship with Gallimore, Simpkins dated some boys closer to her own age. But the spark she was looking for was missing.
"I went with some, but I never felt for them like I did him," she said. "He's an attractive man."