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Hundreds AttendUInternatio nal” Wedding At College HereAn American war veteran and his Japanese bride who fell in love in her native Tokyo and persuaded the U. S. Congress and the President to permit their marriage, are today on their honeymoon after a gala wedding ceremony, Saturday afternoon under the oaks on the Athens College campus to which, in their jubilance, they had invited everybody” and to which hundreds of Athens and North Alabama residents came.Following the wedding, attended also by the student bodyand faculty of Athens College, the couple left by auto for Nashville, Tenn., where the Maxwell House as a wedding present provided them with a bridal suite and meals for their first stop of a trip which will carry them into Canada. The Nashville Tennessean also arranged interviews, photographs and asight-seeing trip to points of interest in and near the Tennessee capital.The groom, more than six feet of stalwart ex-GI, John E. Williams, hails from Nisland, South Dakota, near Rapid City,but is now associated with Thompson Products, Inc., an auto parts manufacturing firm ofConant Ave., Detroit, Mich. Asits own wedding present, this firm gave Williams a honeymoon vacation with pay. Williams, who lives at 2103 Ellsworth St., Wayne, Mich., and for two years attended FlorenceState Teachers College, just aslight courting-trip distance from Athens College where for the past two years his bride has been a student, plans soon fo resume his technical training to become a mechanical engineer.The bride, who was the pretty and tiny Toshiko Ono and speaks English fluently, worked for two years with the American Military Government office in Tokyo as interpreter-secre-t a ry.The wedding itself, a big event for this quiet college town and for this area which a few years ago sent many young men across the non-peaceful Pacific to fight Japan, was as impressive as two officiating clergymen and five attendants could make it. The rituals were read by the Rev. Perry B. James, D. D., and the Rev. Keener L. Rudolph, D. D. President and Chaplain, respectively, of Athens College. Three associate students of the bride were her attendants. Marie Surrette ofIWater Valley. Miss., was maid of honor. Marian Mason of McDonald, Miss., and Sara Puckett of Carrollton, Ala., were bridesmaids. Richmond Hogan of Decatur, Ala., was the best man. Howell T. Heflin. Tus-cumbia (Ala.) attorney, who asa professor of Williams’ class in political science at Florence State Teachers College became interested in the East-West ro-i;Till iMany ThanksIiI would like to take this method to thank all my friends for their k|nd expressions of sympathy and best wishes during my recent stay in the hospital.I expect to reopen the dining room at Park Inn in about two weeks, and am anxious to see all my old friends and patrons again.t LPARKSmance and helped to initiate proceedings for waving the Federal ban on marriages withOrientals in this case, served, in loco parentis at the wedding and formally gave the bride away. Daisy Fai James played the wedding march, processional anod recessional, and Ruth Peglow, also of the Athens College music faculty, sang, Oh Perfect Love” and I Love Thee Tenderly.” The Madame Butterfly” opera legend seemed far away.With the four huge white columns of the Colonial-type Founders Hall as a background, an altar was improvised on the front porch steps, heavily banked by flowers contributed by residents of Hartselle, Ala., at the instigation of Mrs. L. H. Houston of that place, an Athens College alumna, who arranged the decorations and provided corsages, bouquets and gardenia coronets for the bride and her attendants. The altar and processional aisle were marked off with strands of %/hite ribbon. The officiating clergymen wore academic robes, and the other male participants had gardenias as boutonnieres.The diminuitive Japanese bride, who despite her high-heeled American white slippers scarcely reached to the groom’s chest, was poised and radiant in a long, untrimmed dress of white rayon dotted swiss, ankle length, with fitted bodice and full skirt. Her coronet of gardenia petals accentuated theblack luster of her hair, high-swept in a truly American coiffure. Besides her bouquet, she carried a small white Bible, historic with Athens College traditions. Her attendants were costumed in pink and yellow. Although the bride never before had even seen an American wedding, she went through the full formal ceremony withEighteen Die From Tubercu! Montgomery — Tuberculosis * killed 907 people in Alabama last year, including 18 in Limestone County, the State Department of Health revealed today.Only six counties reported as many as 20 tuberculosis deaths in 1949. Jefferson’s 249 led all others. The five other counties reporting 20 or more were Mobile, with 78; Montgomery, with 50; Morgan, with 44; Madison, with 26; and Dallas, with 20.Last year’s state total failed by 104 to equal the 1948 totalof 1,011.In making the figures public, Ralph W. Roberts, State Registrar and Director of the StateHealth Department’s Bureau ofgrace, and afterwards presided calmly in cutting a wedding cake for the guests despite flashing of photographers’ bulbs.As a feature of the post-wedding reception, the throngs of visitors saw for the first public showing the Great Parlor of Founders Hall, not yet finished, which is being redecorated as a formal reception room of the college, and which already contains rugs, chandeliers and much Colonial-type furniture being provided by the General Alumni Association of the college. A wedding rehearsal was held the evening before the ceremony, and afterward President and Mrs. James of the college had a small reception in their home for the wedding party. Students contributed to provide several wedding presents for the bride, including a combination bride’s book, guest register and photo album and scrap book.U. S. Senators John Sparkman (a trustee of Athens College) and Lister Hill, and Representative Bob Jones, who put through Congress the private bill authorizing the marriage, sent their best wishes.For the past two years, the bride has attended Athens College on an exchange student’s visa, as arranged by Williams shortly after his own return from Tokyo. He was born in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, living in 1929-37 in Miller So. Dakato, and subsequently in Nisland where in 1946 he was graduated from high school and where his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Williams, still live., tai r .
Newspaper Details
Athens Alabama Courier
Athens, Alabama, US
Thu, Jul 13, 1950
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Wilmette P.
IL, USA 27 Apr 2023
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