Category:
Marriage

Runaway Groom



Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 01, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Drugs, Marriage, 1950s, Brain Damage

Target Practice

Did she hit her target, or miss?

Grand Prairie Daily News - May 13, 1954



In Gutersloh, Germany, police arrested Friedelina Kleine-Beek after she followed her husband to a local tavern, watched through the window as he raised a glass of beer to his lips, then carefully aimed a rifle and fired, shattering the glass, but leaving her husband unscathed.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 24, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Marriage, 1950s, Couples

Secret to a successful marriage

February 1954: J. Frank Winebrenner, wed 72 years, when asked what the secret to his successful marriage was, replied, "We did little fussin'. We said little. Mostly we just set."

Looks like Frank died in March 1955 and Tressa in 1956. They're still "setting" together, saying little.

Chicago Daily Tribune - Feb 10, 1954



Los Angeles Times - Feb 4, 1954

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 24, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Marriage, 1950s

Allergic to her husband

BBC News reports on the case of Johanna Watkins who has a rare disorder (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) that has caused her to become allergic to a whole bunch of stuff, including the scent of her husband. The allergy only developed after they got married.

At this point, they live in the same house but can no longer get close to each other. Instead they communicate via phone. Their "date night" involves watching a show together: "he will be three floors below me in a room on his laptop and I will be on mine and we'll watch the show at the same time and then text about it as we're watching it."

Scott and Johanna Watkins


This reminds me of the 1949 case of Joyce Holdridge, aka the "Allergic Bride," who broke out in a rash every time she was near her husband. She was the first reported case of a wife who developed an allergy to her husband. (I wrote a fairly long article about her for about.com, but it looks like about.com has since deleted it.)

After the Holdridge case, quite a few women came forward claiming to be allergic to their husband. So allergic wives are definitely a recurring theme in weird news. For whatever reason, cases of husbands who are allergic to their wives are much rarer (although not nonexistent).

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 17, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Health, Marriage

Owen Smells and Mary Knows

In its July 5, 1943 issue, Time magazine noted the marriage in Pryor, Montana of Owen Smells and Mary Knows.

The marriage only lasted three years, but in that time they had a daughter, Theresa, who eventually married Joseph Rock Above and became Theresa Smells Rock Above.

Findagrave.com lists a grave for Owen Smells which may or may not be the same Owen that married Mary. I'm not sure. But the dates seem about right.

Helena Independent Record - Oct 1, 1946



Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 08, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Odd Names, Marriage, 1940s

Must Get Married by August 15th


August 1973: Jean Roth sat in the lobby of a building at Southern Illinois University with signs that read: "I must be married by August 15th for inheritance purposes."

She explained to anyone who asked that she would give $50,000 to any man who agreed to marry her for a year. Many men immediately volunteered to help her. In addition, "Scores of men called the campus newspaper to get the girl's telephone number."

But it turned out, not surprisingly, that the offer was bogus. It was all just a sociology experiment dreamed up by Dr. James M. Henslin, the teacher of a Sociology of Deviant Behavior class that Jean was enrolled in. Explained Dr. Henslin: "In this [class], we deal with deviance from the norm or deviance from what is expected of people. It was an experiment to create a form of deviance and look at the reactions."

So it sounds like it was one of those breaching experiments that became all the rage in sociology classes around that time (late 60s/early 70s).

The class had chosen Jean to be the heir in need of a hubby and had then coached her on how to respond to potential questions. In fact, Jean was already married. Her husband, also a student at the university, reportedly thought the experiment "was stupid."

Ogden Standard-Examiner - Jul 29, 1973



It reminds me of the Dormitory Escape Plan of 1967 that I posted about a couple of months ago, in which a young woman had advertised for a husband as a way to escape from the all-female dormitory that she hated living in.

Also, it seems that Dr. Henslin is the author of several sociology textbooks that are still in use — Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach and Social Problems: A Down to Earth Approach. He's now retired from Southern Illinois University.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 17, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Experiments, Marriage, 1970s

Mother-In-Law Beneath Bed

There's in-law problems, and then there's this:

The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) - Sep 18, 1956



Wife Complains In-Law Under Bed
SINGAPORE, Sept. 17 — A young Chinese wife complained in court today that her mother-in-law always slept under the bed she shared with her husband.
Them Kim Kow said she had left her husband but would go back to him if her mother-in-law could be forced to sleep in a separate room.
An adjournment was asked while the court and attorneys considered the case.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 14, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Divorce, Marriage, 1950s

His wife’s brother was really her husband



A bizarre love triangle on a Wisconsin farm.

Freeport Journal-Standard - Dec 13, 1952



Farmer Learns Wife's 'Brother' Is Actually Her Undivorced Husband
WAUSAU, Wis — Farmer Walter Brandt was married six years, he testified Friday, before he learned that the man living with him and his wife was his wife's undivorced husband, not her 'brother."
Brandt, 36, told County Judge Frank G. Loeffler that his wife, Minnie, had identified Joseph Ruddock as her brother before they were married in 1946. Brandt said Minnie and Ruddock at that time were living on a farm near Vesper.
But when Brandt married Minnie and moved to his farm in Town of Eau Plaine, he said, Ruddock moved in with them. Last July Brandt said Minnie's sister told him Ruddock was Minnie's husband, not her brother.
Joe and Minnie admitted deception but claimed they had been divorced, Brandt stated. But, he said, he "blew up" and started annulment proceedings.
Judge Loeffler told Ruddock his story of how he got a divorce was implausible and that he and Minnie still were married. Brandt was granted his annulment.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 14, 2015 - Comments (2)
Category: Marriage, 1950s

Ordered Back To School

Family values in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — 1930s. She got herself a husband, so why does she need any of that fancy edumacation?

The Wilkes-Barre Record - Nov 21, 1935

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 06, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Education, Marriage, 1930s

Put husband under bed, 1907

This sounds like it was straight-up spousal abuse, and the wife got away with it.

The Washington Post - May 24, 1907



More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 22, 2015 - Comments (3)
Category: Husbands, Wives, Marriage, 1900s

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Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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