“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Seventeen-year old Dot Pressley quickly knew Jack Dudley was special.
“I liked him from the first time I saw him,” Dot recalled, adding before long she knew he was the one with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. “That was my dream.”
At first, Jack was unaware of his secret admirer.
“Her friends sort of steered me along, telling me there was a girl in our group who liked me,” he said. “I don’t know how big the group was. It might have been the whole school.”
“It got down to name calling, and I said that suits me fine,” he continued. “I kept thinking I could live with that girl.”
It was 1948 and the two were both students at the rural Sharon High School in Abbeville, South Carolina.
“We were high school sweethearts,” Dot said. “At that time, there was a popular song about my future, and I would sing that about him to my girlfriends.”
Love continued to blossom for the two…