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Beulah and Alton Elrod posed for a wedding photo after their marriage on January 22, 1949.
By Carolyn Reid, 2019 article written in honor of their 70th anniversary
When Alton Elrod went to grab his buddy Randall Schlueter to go to a movie, he had no idea that his future was about to meet him.
“Randall said he couldn’t go to the movie because he had to take his sister Beulah to the skating rink. I told him that she could just ride with us,” Alton explains. “We could drop her off at the rink, and then we could go to the movie.”
“But when they brought me home,” Beulah laughs, “Alton stayed and talked to me. And he kept coming back to talk to me.”
By the time three weeks went by, Alton knew she was the one for him.
“I went to Paul Fleeman and told him, ‘I met a girl, and I believe I am going to get engaged.’” He bought a ring at Held Jewelers in Falmouth and headed to Lenoxburg to ask her to marry him.
Alton was 18. Beulah was 17.
“I didn’t want someone else to get her before I did,” Alton admits.
When he brought the ring, Beulah could not just say “yes.”
“I went in and asked my mother if it was OK if I took it. She said she guessed so. I think I surprised her,” she laughs.
That was over 71 years ago. On January 22, 2019, the Elrods will be married 70 years.
Beulah knows the problems that come with marriage, and she expresses her disappointment that so many divorce today much more easily than they marry.
“When young couples today have a little trouble, they want out. They don’t understand the commitment.”
She and Alton know commitment.
Their marriage by today’s standards had a quaint start. Their wedding day consisted of going to Bro. William Lenox’s house with two friends, Mary Jo and Adrian Hanson, standing up with them. Alton was 20, and Beulah was 19. They left the minister’s home and went to Cynthiana to eat and have pictures made; then, they spent the night in a hotel that Alton had come to know through business travels. After that, they went to Morehead and stayed with relatives for a bit.
When they came home, they lived with Alton’s father, Percy Elrod, for three months, and then they lived in a house near his home in Bracken County for a few years.
“We had troubled times,” Beulah remembers. “We had to work for our money.”
Work they did. Alton shipped milk from dairy farms in the region (a job he held for 44 years), and Beulah and he raised tobacco to help buy a home. They bought a farm in Caddo, and they lived there for 45 years. They also raised two children in that home--Phyllis Kelsch and Rick.
According to Phyllis, the work didn’t let up once they bought the farm on Caddo. She says, “Dad would be out on the milk truck all day.” That meant he couldn’t help around the farm during the day, so Beulah carried out her role as his help meet in every way she could.
They raised a big garden. Beulah would spend the summer canning to prepare for the winter months. She also tended to the chickens, hogs, and cattle that they raised. With all this, she still had the household chores to tend to.
“Mom had a big wash on the clothesline every Monday morning,” Phyllis remembers. Beulah ironed all of it, too.
Beulah especially recalls stripping tobacco alone during the day once canning season was over and fall was in full swing. “I would go out to the barn on the farm and take my little dog with me,” Beulah recalled. “I would strip tobacco alone all day, and then Alton would come in from work and bale what I had stripped. I would go to the house and fix supper, and then Alton and I would both go back to the barn.” She laughs. “The dog would stay at the house then.”
“She was a hard worker,” Phyllis shares.
This camaraderie grew their relationship. They became a team. “We are compatible.” Beulah describes their bond.
And that camaraderie grew still more as their children married and had families of their own. They have followed their grandchildren’s activities every bit as much as they supported their children’s, even when their health was questionable.
Their family has watched as they have dealt with life and its difficulties, and Phyllis sees how faith has helped them along the way. “They truly believe that putting God first enables everything else to fall into place, even in the difficult times,” she relates.
“They always provided what we needed. We were rich in many ways, just not monetarily.”
Difficult times have come, and not just financially. They have suffered the losses of parents, siblings, and even two grandsons and a son-in-law. Fewer and lesser traumas have destroyed families, but the truly committed ones seem to grow stronger. This is true for Alton and Beulah and their family. Through it all, they have leaned on each other and on God to make it through.
Their health has been an ongoing concern for several years now, but they are rarely apart. When one has been in the hospital, the other is there every day. The only time that has not been the case is when Alton was in the hospital, and Beulah cracked a vertebra in her back and had to stay home and rest for it to heal. Otherwise, “I never go anyplace without taking her,” Alton says.
Phyllis shared that the two order the same meals when they go out to eat, their bond is so strong.
“They have forever been satisfied to spend time together,” Rick agrees. “There was an occasional trip to Jenny Wiley State Park or to Gatlinburg with family and friends, but mostly they spent time together enjoying cards, ball games, and family time. That still rings true today.”
Since Alton has retired (he worked at Klee’s Wholesale for 14 years after he retired from shipping milk), he has taken on some of the household duties, running the vacuum and helping with household chores because sharing the burdens, no matter how big or small, is what they have always done.
When you ask what their secret is to a strong marriage, Alton doesn’t hesitate. “Her.” He points to Beulah.
Beulah doesn’t take credit. “It was God’s will that we met,” she says.