She ran to the boy who later became her husband

Cleovis and Arwilda Whiteside

Cleovis Whiteside kept the other boys from bothering Arwilda Kelley when they were kids. He later vowed to protect her for life.

Arwilda was walking home from church with a friend in Clarendon one Sunday around 1934. They had some new neighbors and as they walked past the newcomers' home, Arwilda's friend issued a warning.

"My little friend, named Caroline, she told me to watch out because some boys were going to jump out of the woods and scare us," Arwilda says. "My friend said, 'If they come out of the woods today then you run to the tall one.'"

Arwilda was 9, and when she saw the boys thundering toward her and her friend, pretending they were Tarzan, she did as she had been told.

"I ran to the tall one. That was my husband-to-be," she says.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/sep/04/she-ran-to-the-boy-who-later-became-her-husband/