The 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration of Dora Sue and Russ Farmer
Held on December 29, 2017
The Festive Party
The Charleston Room of The Flower Shop in Barbourville was the chosen venue for the 50th Wedding Anniversary party of Dora Sue Oxendine Farmer and Russell Farmer of Swan Pond. Many family members and close friends of the couple were in attendance to help in the celebration.
The foyer over flowed with mementos from the wedding 50 years ago including two bridesmaids dresses in silk chiffon American Beauty red and jade green in near perfect condition. The American Beauty red dress was displayed on a dress form with the green one placed across a table. On a round gold cloth covered table in the entry way, Dora Sue’s pillbox hat, made popular by Jackie Kennedy, and veil sat atop a gold hat form while Russ’s Air Force garrison style cap sat atop another gold form. The cloche navy wool hat worn by Lucy Oxendine, mother of the bride, and pair of white gloves were displayed as well. Dora Sue’s wedding album sat in the center of the table for guests to peruse.
On the opposite side of the foyer, a table was set up holding a guest book and pen along with an opened travel case, popular with women during the late 60’s. The travel case was elegantly adored with gold lettering spelling out the word CARDS for guests to place the cards inside they had brought. The travel case was decorated and designed by the bride’s sister, Linda Oxendine Douglas.
In the area behind the travel case table, stood an upright life sized cut out of the happy couple as they appeared 50 years ago at their wedding. The cut out of the couple was the focal point for a photo booth that guests could use to have their pictures taken. Guests selected items from the photo props basket and enjoyed posing to have their photos taken alongside the smiling cardboard couple. Family photographers, Sharron Oxendine and Molly Vanover, niece of the bride, captured all the funny antics and mayhem. Wendy Farmer McRight, daughter of Dora Sue and Russ, created and designed the props basket along with its items used at the photo booth.
Photos of the couple were displayed all around the room including small snapshots placed on each table. A video made by Sharron Oxendine, the bride’s youngest sister and flower girl at the wedding, looped continually accompanied by the playing of the top 100 hit songs of 1967.
William Russell “Bill Russ” Farmer and Wendy Farmer McRight, children of Russ and Dora Sue both spoke about their parents’ love and devotion to each other all through their married life of 50 years. Their total commitment to each other in spite of numerous separations and set-backs created by the Air Force was a testament of their enduring and deeply abiding love for each other. Afterwards the guests toasted the couple and wished them many more happy years together.
Guests sat at beautifully decorated round tables covered in ivory colored floor length cloths. In the center of each table was a tall vase of spruce and curly willow branches surrounded by small candles, gold accents and a shorter vase holding magnolia leaves and one large magnolia blossom.
The enormous round tiered gold cloth covered food table displayed a magnificent towering floral display on the top tier. The massive crystal vase was filled with white snap dragons, calla lilies, aspidistra, dianthus, windmill palms, curly willow and asparagus fern. Guests enjoyed a scrumptious buffet of family prepared hors d’oeuvres, with everything ranging from festively prepared cheese balls and luscious cheese dips to Italian meatballs and Black Forest ham wrapped asparagus. Huge platters of desserts, Christmas favorites, included Oreo cheesecake cookie bites, chocolate covered buckeyes, peanut butter fudge and chess bars were exquisitely decorated and prepared by one of Dora Sue’s longest and closest friends, Ada Leger.
The highlight of the party was a lip sync performance which has been done at every Oxendine/Farmer/McRight family celebratory event for the past 25 years. This lively lip-sync and dance routine fashioned after Gladys Knight and the Pips’ award winning hit Midnight Train to Georgia was performed by the Oxendine family women. Sharron Oxendine performed her magic as she lip-synced Gladys Knight’s famous lyrics. Her backup Pips included: Dora Sue Oxendine Farmer, Wendy Farmer McRight, Linda Oxendine Douglas, Molly Vanover and Leann Jackson Butler. This entire routine was videotaped by Dora Sue and Russ’s son, Bill Russ Farmer and can be found on Facebook.
Her Dream of a Winter Wedding
Dora Sue had always wanted a Christmas wedding, but that was nearly impossible to plan because of the holidays, so 4 days later she had her dream wedding very close to Christmas. For her color scheme she used very traditional Christmas colors, red, green, gold and white. Dora Sue designed her bridesmaids’ bouquets containing holly berries and tiny glass gold balls. She also designed the bridesmaids and flower girl’s gold ribbon hair bows.
“It was love at first sight for both of us,” Dora Sue described. “The first time I saw Russ was at Swan Pond Baptist Church, and I fell madly in love with him at first glance. I knew then I wanted to marry him.”
Russ said the first time he saw Dora Sue walking up the road, and as she passed by his house one summer day in 1963, he fell in love with her instantly. The love story between the two, then 17 year olds, deepened and evolved over the next four years. They were engaged to be married in the summer of 1965 when Dora Sue had a year remaining at Union College. Soon after their engagement Russ received orders to Turkey. While Russ was working as a radio relay technician on a mountaintop near Ankara, Turkey, Dora Sue was teaching second grade with the London Independent School District. They planned to get married as soon as Russ returned back to the states.
Russ returned back to Kentucky in early October, 1967, with orders to begin work at the Bluegrass Army Depot in October as a radar technician. The couple decided to plan their wedding in late December near Christmas, since Dora Sue would have a two week break and Russ would be getting a week’s leave.
Planning a large wedding in less than 3 months was quite the challenge, but with her mother’s help, Dora Sue managed to get all the preparations completed. Her Mother had reserving the venue for the reception and ordered the wedding cake while Dora Sue made the other arrangements including traveling to Cincinnati to Shillito’s (a large department store similar to Macy’s) with bridesmaid Nancella Cobb to select her wedding gown and the bridesmaids dresses.
Finally the day arrived and 50 years ago on December 29, 1967, Russ and Dora Sue were united in marriage at the Conway Boatman Chapel in Barbourville with Rev. Charles Hansel officiating.
Stranded on Laurel Hill: Mother Nature’s Fury Unleashed
It was a wedding that was nearly cancelled by a raging snowstorm. Two days before the wedding a severe winter storm dumped 6 or more inches of snow on the roadways, valleys and mountains all around Knox County. Just as this raging snowstorm blew into Barbourville, Russ and Dora Sue were returning from London, KY after going to her apartment to check on her mail. Imagine trying to drive up Laurel Hill in 6 inches of snow; then you’ll realize what they were up against. It was around 10:00 at night, pitch black dark. Since no other cars had gotten out that evening, the entire roadway looked more like a snow covered field than a road. Since no tracks were in the snow indicating where the roadway actually was, Russ had to guess where the road lay.
What they couldn’t see, but definitely knew was there, was the road’s sharp drop-off into the river. The car’s headlights cast an eerie glow onto the snow as the car began slowly making its ascent. The car’s movement up the hill soon became a maneuvering nightmare for Russ as he discovered every time he put his foot on the gas, he car would slide sideways getting closer and closer to the edge. After a few more futile attempts, they just decided to stay put on the side of the road rather than risk sliding toward the edge and into the river. Using only their winter coats for blankets, they huddled together, cranked the heater up in the car and rolled down the window ever so slightly so they wouldn’t be overcome with carbon monoxide fumes.
Settling down for the night, they managed to stay warm enough and attempted to sleep for an hour or two until daylight. Once the sun rose, Russ was able to see the road. All he had to do was back the car down into the highway and turn it around. They drove back into town and picked up their marriage license at the Courthouse.
Stranded on Laurel Hill has become a traditional family story that’s been told and retold many times over the past 50 years. At the party, Dora Sue’s brother, Bill Oxendine recalled this event, describing their plight of being stranded all night long. He also shared the comments made by their parents that next morning when everyone realized that Dora Sue had never come home that night. Their parents thought they had eloped and left town.
Epilogue
As guests prepared to leave the party, many stopped and posed having their photos taken one more time with the happy stand up cardboard couple. Dora Sue and Russ spoke to all their guests and thanked them for attending. The couple received many lovely cards, beautiful gifts and useful gift cards. Dora Sue and Russ’s 50th Anniversary celebration had come to an end and a wonderful time was had by all.
