Floyd [County, Georgia] Man Aged 99 Weds 69-Year-Old Lady---No doubt 
that in the part of the universe that we know, there was only one person 
who celebrated his 99th Christmas last Monday while enjoying a honeymoon 
with his bride of two days.

William Mac Hudgins, 99, of Silver Creek, near Rome, Georgia, and Miss 
Lossie Alice Nowlain, 69, of Royse City, Texas, were married at 10 p.m. 
Saturday night at the American Legion home in Rome. This event 
highlighted a round and square dance given by the Legionnaires.

This is the first marriage for the bride---the fourth for Mr. Hudgins. 
He has one child by his first wife, who died after living with him 18 
months. His second wife bore him seven children, and then died. The 
third marriage lasted 21 years but was not blessed with any children. 
She deserted him, he charged, and he filed for a divorce two years ago. 
Before the divorce became final, she died in South Carolina.

Hudgins created a stir at that time when he stated the reason he wanted 
a divorce was to marry again. The intended marriage did not materialize, 
but the man who has lived for almost a century didn’t give up. He 
registered with a Hollywood social register and became an ardent member 
of this lonely hearts club. He corresponded with many women and had been 
writing Miss Nowlain about three months when he popped the question.

“He wrote he loved me,” Miss Nowlain demurely related, “and asked if I’d 
marry him. I wrote back that I surely would, but I kept on writing 
several men correspondents who were prospective husbands for fear that 
he would change his mind.”

But Mr. Hudgins was equally enthusiastic about “getting hitched.” An 
active man for his age, he made the long trip to Texas last week alone 
on a Greyhound bus to fetch his bride-to-be. They returned Saturday and 
were married to the strains of hillbilly music provided by Happy 
Lumpkins Family before an overflowed house. The Rev. W.F. Conn said the 
ceremony.

Mr. Hudgins has eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Two 
of his children, Mrs. Annie Nelson, of Lindale and William Franklin 
Hudgins, live near him.

Miss Nowlain said the reason she had never married was that she had aged 
parents to take care of for many years when she was younger.

The couple are living in a three-room mountain cabin. They said they had 
already seen the “welfare lady” about getting her old age pension 
transferred to this state. Mr. Hudgins draws about $27 a month he said.

Hudgins said two years ago when he was seeking a divorce that “the 
trouble with most folks when they get to be 60 or 70 years old is that 
they think too much about dying. That’s the time to think about living,” 
he said.

When asked to what he attributed his long life, he replied, “I never 
took doctor’s medicine and never drank liquor and laid out late at 
night. I never used tobacco until I was 21 years old.” Both the bride 
and groom said they are regular users of “Hadacol.”

Mr. Hudgins’ father lived to be 104 years old, but as Hudgins put it, he 
didn’t die then. A freight train ran over him and killed him.

Explaining his ardor for his pert bride as he pinched her on the cheek, 
he stated, “she is mighty good to me and just the best woman I have ever 
seen.”

Gordon County News (Gordon Co. GA) December 28, 1950

Submitted by Caleb Teffeteller

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