Black Valentine Series: #3 George and Marcia Williams (Gifted Productions)…40 years of romance during the easy times and hard times, too

In honor of the combination of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day week, I’m running a “Black Valentine” series to profile several of the most vibrant Black couples I’ve met in St. Louis. I met Marcia at a Black Community Empowerment Workshop run by Howard Denson of the Black Pages. Marcia is the creative drive behind Gifted productions. Contact Gifted Productions:
Gifted Productions P.O. Box 2842 St. Louis, MO 63111 Phone: 314-352-4857 or 314-918-0511
Email: newdar@sbcglobal.net—JGR
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There George was, standing in the doorway of the Masonic Hall. Wearing a wool, black and red shirt and those cute little horn rimmed glasses. I didn’t know it then, but they weren’t prescription glasses, he wore them for “effect.” It worked! He looked so astute yet charming. He had beautiful skin, soft, wavy black hair and a cute little pointed nose. That nose earned him the nickname “Pinocchio” later it was shortened to “Noccki”… that’s what his friends called him. I liked it… the nick name suited him. He’d come to the Masonic Hall with a mutual male friend.

I was in a female singing group then and we were competing in a talent show that night. There were four of us and we had an awesome sound. We thought we’d put the Supremes out of business. Our mutual friend was dating one of the girls in our group and came to the competition to ask my big brother, who played the piano for us, to take us girls to a party they were attending that night. We went.

When I saw George at the party I didn’t want him to know I was really checking him out from across the room. He was so cute, I knew he wouldn’t be interested in me so I indulged in one of my favorite hobbies… dancing. I danced just about every record and did a pretty good job of looking totally pre-occupied; I’m sure he had no idea I was extremely aware of his presence.

I was 16 and he was 20, however, I carried myself very maturely for a 16 year old and George had no clue there was four years between us. I wasn’t about to tell him and neither did my big brother. Bless his heart! Shortly after the dance, our mutual friend told me that George was interested in talking with me. Well one thing led to another and before long, we were an item.

My mother loved him. He was in! It didn’t take long to see that George was a very caring and generous person. He began to buy me nice things… really nice things and guess what? He didn’t expect anything in return. He made that clear. He simply loved doing things for me out of the goodness of his heart. It’s true! He was wonderful! I’d never met anyone like him.

We dated for two years and were married on Sunday, Sept. 29, 1968! George still loves to shower me with gifts, buy me clothes and our favorite date is still dinner and a movie. We share popcorn and hot dogs… we would share sodas but he hates diet so we each buy our own.

We now have three children, Monya, Teddi (both girls) and Derek; two sons-in-law (Anthony and Clifton, I call him Cliffy) and six granddaughters, Marcia (my name sake), Lynita, LaToya, Tazera, Rachel and Yasmia. We enjoy spending time with our family and whenever we are together… we laugh a lot. We’ve had lots of ups and downs throughout our journey together, in 1986 George suffered a heart attack, he was 39 years old; he recovered quite well and in Oct. 2001, he had another. God is good to us… all things considered, he is still doing quite well, having recovered from that one too. We have an awful lot to be thankful for… our family, friends, our relationship and great love and respect we still have for each other.

He still makes me blush and it’s still exciting to spend quality time together… that can be anything from running errands to spending a quiet weekend in front of the TV, just the two of us. He’s the one in all the universe that was created just for me… I know it. Here we are… 40 years later and we still like to hold hands. It feels great! I wish that all married couples could share what George and I have. We don’t take it for granted… we are very thankful for each other and the life we share together. He’s my guy and I’m his girl and we wouldn’t have it any other way!