Cothrens reach 70-year milestone

When James and Eloise Cothren exchanged vows seventy years ago, he had but five dollars to his name – he gave the preacher three and kept two to begin a new life with his sweetheart. That was October 17, 1952, and they’re still together.

“Well, back then you had to go to the doctor and get a test before you could get married in Texas,” James explained. “Eloise refused to go to the doctor. Our preacher had an Arkansas license so one evening after church, we drove up the highway to Miller County and got married in the middle of Blackmon Ferry Road, in the shade of a big oak tree.”

Eloise was only 16 years old; James was 19 years old. Eloise remained in high school. James was drafted in 1953. He was home on leave when she got pregnant with oldest son David her senior year.

James, the son of a sharecropper, had job from the time he was old enough to work. “I started walking behind a mule when I was 12, then I went in the Army; everything I’ve ever done was on my feet,” he said. Today James walks one to two miles at least five times a week.

Eloise worked the soda fountain at Tri-State Drugs and James worked for Will Grogan when they married. James went back to work at Grogan’s upon returning from the Army. “I made $125.00 a month for working six days a week,” he said. “Mr. Grogan went to West Side church and lived right off the old Shreveport Highway (Main Street). When I was in school, I drove him to church each Sunday. When I graduated in 1951, I went to work at his store the next day.”

As a wedding present, Mr. Grogan built the young couple a $2,000.00 house; the payments were $20.00 a month and there was no indoor bathroom. When James was drafted, he rented the house for the monthly payment while Eloise stayed with her parents.

“We had all used furniture when we moved in,” James recalled. “We finally bought our first piece of new furniture thirteen years later. It was a dresser, and we still use it.”

At $40.00 a month, his used car payment was twice what the house payment was. Today, James drives the same pickup truck he bought brand new – 45 years ago.

Although he was grateful to Mr. Grogan, he was still making the same small wage after ten years of work. When Perry Brothers Department Store offered him $375.00 a month in 1960, he thought he was rich.

“We moved to Nacogdoches, then a few other places and back home to Atlanta,” James said.

“It was hard with three boys, but the Good Lord took care of us. We never went without; we toughed it out and made it work,” James proudly proclaimed. “But I’ve had to apologize to Eloise several times. See, my daddy was a sharecropper and I always worked outside; I never learned to cook or do housework. Since she came down with Parkinson’s a few years ago I’ve realized how much she always did. I never helped with the boys or the house.”

Last week the “boys” gathered with their parents and family parents to celebrate the couple’s monumental achievement of staying married for 70 years. David, Sammy and Paul consider themselves blessed to still have both of them in relatively good health (although Eloise has recently given James and the boys a few scares).

“We’ve had a good life and we’ve learned to make do with what we had,” James said.

Their children are David (Jean), Sammy (Ember), and Paul (Loretta).

Grandchildren are Christy Myers, Joanne Gibson, Cindy Jackson, Jacki Hammontree, Daniel Cothren.

Great-grandchildren are Haylee Byrd, the late Jackson Ryan Myers, Nate Gibson, Annelise Gibson.