ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606100006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
She introduced herself with a kiss and then got his name.
Edna Shinault's girlfriend had dared her to lock lips with a stranger standing across the room in a West Virginia bar. Shinault walked right over, planted one on the man's mouth.
Two weeks later, they were dating.
Seven months later, they drove to Pearisburg where James Warmkessel took Shinault to be his lawfully wedded (not "awfully wedded," the reverend reminded the couple) wife.
It was the 36-year-old bride's fourth marriage, her 36-year-old husband's second.
And it all happened in one day. No waiting period. No blood test.
That's the lure of a Giles County marriage to those across the state line in West Virginia. Getting married in Virginia is a comparative snap.
"It's easier," said Robert Blaine O'Quinn, a U.S. Army soldier and new bridegroom who had Jennifer Hall O'Quinn on his arm. "Both my parents got married here," the Princeton, W.Va., groom said.
His bride - who calls Athens, W.Va., home - said getting married in Pearisburg is practically a family tradition.
"They say `time to get married, time to go to Pearisburg,''' Jennifer O'Quinn said and giggled.
1,500 licenses a year
Scarlet Buckland Ratcliffe, Giles County clerk, began issuing marriage licenses in 1966 when she first joined the office as a deputy clerk. She can't remember a time when Giles County didn't issue at least double the number of licenses of surrounding counties.
"It's amazing," Ratcliffe said.
Her office issues 1,500 licenses each year, fewer than 100 for Giles County's 16,000 residents, she said. In comparison, Montgomery County, with a population of more than 76,000, issues about half that number.
All advertising is by word-of-mouth, according to Ratcliffe. The work keeps all five employees hustling.
Ratcliffe has noticed a change in attitude through the years among the couples getting married. "I don't think there's a lot of commitment; it's almost like getting invited to the prom. ..."
But through it all, the clerk and deputy clerks said they enjoy their job of issuing the most marriage licenses per capita of any county in the state.
"You meet all types and classes of people," Ratcliffe said.
Husband No. 8
And how could they not have fun? The juicy tales they tell leave any listener asking for more.
Like the one about the woman who rivaled Elizabeth Taylor as she exchanged vows with husband No.8. Or the two men who asked for a license to marry each other. The license was refused because state law does not allow same-sex marriages.
Then there are the couples who married Friday and called the office Monday asking if they also issued annulments. (In case you're wondering, they don't.)
The most memorable license for Ratcliffe, however, was the one she never issued.
About 12 years ago, the sheriff called Ratcliffe and told her to be on the lookout for a couple headed her way for a marriage license. They had just left West Virginia and the groom was wanted for killing his grandmother.
"He [the sheriff] told me to wait till they were in here and then call him," Ratcliffe said.
The couple arrived, and Ratcliffe made her call. Then her jittery fingers began typing the license.
"I tried to type that license ... your mind just goes blank," she said.
It turned out the grandmother had refused to lend her car to her grandson for the trip to get married.
The grandmother ended up dead. The grandson went to the penitentiary. And the bride was left standing in the clerk's office with a half-filled-out marriage license.
`Going to the chapel ...'
Fridays and Mondays are busy days when it comes to marriage licenses. And May 24, the Friday kicking off Memorial Day weekend, was one of the biggest this year.
Each license carries a number and the count starts fresh each year. The office easily broke 500 this day as it issued 26 licenses - just two shy of the office record of 28.
Couple No.498 was the couple who met in the bar.
With license in hand, groom Warmkessel skipped, twirled and danced his way out of the clerk's office singing "going to the chapel and we're going to get married. ..."
"My mother and daddy got married here," Shinault said of her choice to marry in Giles County. Her previous three weddings were in Tazewell. "This one's forever!" she said when asked about her predictions for marriage No.4.
At the First Baptist Church of Rich Creek, Shinault shed her T-shirt and shorts in the church bathroom to emerge in a white dress covered in lace. Her future husband made his eyebrows dance and said, "She looks good!"
The Rev. Alan Wilder, one of several ministers on a rotating list in the clerk's office, led the couple to his office to discuss the ceremony. Before ascending the stairs, Wilder tapped the play button on a tape player and wedding music filled the room.
In his office, Wilder began his premarital speech, nearly the same for each couple he marries. After bride, groom and minister discussed the vows, Wilder explained that second - or even fourth - marriages succeed more often if the bride and groom attend church at least twice a week.
Both bride and groom admitted they did not attend church, but said they were "associated" with a church.
In 20 minutes, the minicounseling session was complete, bride and groom exchanged vows in the church's "family room," which is outside the sanctuary, and were proclaimed husband and wife.
Two other couples sat on pews awaiting their turn to buy the reverend's basic package, which includes a Polaroid photograph and a copy of the vows printed on bordered stationery.
Not many couples choose the deluxe wedding package - twice as costly - complete with a 12-shot roll of 35mm film taken after the ceremony and a videotape, Wilder said.
Commitment is key
Wilder said he got out of the marrying business in Giles County about three years ago, soon after he arrived from Florida. A couple rang his doorbell one Saturday morning asking to be married. (That was back when the clerk's office issued marriage licenses on Saturday.)
"They drove all night from Ohio after meeting in a bar on Friday," Wilder said.
It took a little more than a year for Wilder to recover from the shock of a one-night-stand-turned-lifetime-commitment and get back in the business.
Now he said he tries to "bring a dignity" to the weddings he performs.
About 100 weddings later, Wilder said his attitude about the couples being married in a day has changed.
"I don't try to judge," Wilder said. "Most of the couples I marry now already live together. Most do not come with a Christian commitment. ..."
What is important for the couples, Wilder said, is the commitment they bring to the marriage.
First and last time
Time - or the seeming lack of it - is often the reason couples give for their journey to Giles County.
Take Vanessa Wallace, 18, from Josephine, W.Va. She promised her parents to wait until she finished high school to marry 30-year-old Keith Ferguson.
"I asked her what her plans were for after [high] school and she said `to get married,''' said Charlotte Wallace, her mother. "I asked when and she said `on Friday.''' - her first day as a high school graduate.
Leslie Withrow and Craig Baldwin were one of the two couples who took Wilder up on his offer to marry them together. A third couple refused to make it a marriage threesome because, as the groom put it, "This is the first time and the last time I'm going to do this. I'm not getting married with someone else!"
While one groom, who asked not to be named, wore a three-piece suit for the double ceremony, Baldwin stood before the minister in denim cut-offs, moccasin-type shoes without socks that left exposed his barbed wire tattoo ringing his left ankle. His T-shirt read "Everlast."
`A lot of jerks'
Wilder worries about how seriously couples today take their vows and under what circumstances the bride and groom met.
"I got a caller one time who said `Do you know the people you married yesterday broke my marriage up?''' Wilder said.
He even did a "shotgun wedding" where the pregnant, 16-year-old bride's mother brought her daughter and the 20-year-old father to the chapel. A few years later, Wilder said, the groom left his wife for another 16-year-old.
"There's a lot of jerks out there," Wilder said.
More recently, however, Wilder married a Pennsylvania couple who had lived together for 11 years. They had two children and drove to the church in a BMW.
Wilder said he knew the couple were sincere in their vows. Both bride and groom cried as their son and daughter looked on.
"I felt like I was really helping them," Wilder said.
LENGTH: Long : 196 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LORA GORDON. 1. Keith Ferguson and Vanessa Wallace holdby CNBhands as they wait their turn to be married in Giles County (ran on
NRV-1). 2. Edna Frances Shinault (left) and Sherry French share a
laugh in the bathroom of First Baptist Church in Rich Creek as the
two get ready for Shinault's wedding to James Thomas Warmkessel. 3.
The Rev. Alan Wilder counsels Edna Frances Shinault and James Thomas
Warmkessel at First Baptist Church in Rich Creek. Wilder gives
almost the same premarital speech to each couple he marries. After
bride, groom and minister discussed the vows, Wilder explained that
second - or even fourth - marriages succeed more often if the bride
and groom attend church at least twice a week. 4. As the Rev. Alan
Wilder completes the marriage ceremony, the new Mr. and Mrs. James
Thomas Warmkessel are pronounced husband and wife. 5. Keith
Ferguson, 30, and Vanessa Wallace, 18, (center) await their turn to
be married at First Baptist Church in Rich Creek. Wallace's parents,
Charlotte and Charles Wallace (right) accompanied the couple, who
live in Josephine, W.Va. Also waiting to marry are Cindy Hughes and
Bill Asbury, of Chesapeake, W.Va. color. 6. Robert Blaine O'Quinn
and Jennifer Marie Hall stop by the Giles County Courthouse to
pickup their marriage license. O'Quinn was on a four-day leave from
Fort Stewart in Georgia. "Both my parents got married here," the
Princeton, W.Va., groom said. Behind the couple, Scarlet Buckland
Ratcliffe helps another couple complete the paperwork for their
marriage license. 7. The ceremony completed, the Rev. Alan Wilder
snaps a picture of the wedding party after marrying Edna Frances
Shinault and James Thomas Warmkessel. Best man and maid of honor
were Ron "West Virginia Hillbilly" Johnson (left) and Sherry French
(right). Graphic: Chart by staff: What it takes to get married. KEYWORDS: MGR