BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY | Special to the Birmingham Times
RONALD & ANNETTE WILSON
Live: Pleasant Grove
Married: March 30, 1981
Met: Early September, 1978, over the phone, through a mutual friend. Ronald was living in Detroit at the time, when his hometown friend, Denise, called him up from Birmingham and said ‘I got somebody I want you to meet’.
“I said that doesn’t make any sense, I live in Detroit, and she lives there… I was trying to figure out how the connection would work,” Ronald recalled. “And Annette was over at Denise’s house at the time so I said, ‘ok, let me talk to her.”
Annette and Ronald talked for ten minutes, exchanged numbers, and finished the conversation when she got home. “I was very interested and I went home and made that long distance phone call…,” Annette said.
Their connection grew quickly and Ronald invited her up for a visit, but Annette was not willing to go alone. “I did not want to go to Detroit because of the riots (she had seen on the news in the aftermath of the 1968 assassination Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), I thought I was going to see people laid all over the streets,” Annette laughed.
On Oct. 7, 1978, Denise accompanied Annette to Detroit to meet Ronald. Upon their arrival, Ronald’s brother and cousin were at the airport to pick them up, and when Annette saw who she thought was Ronald, “I said, ‘oh, girl, if that’s Ronald, I’m staying right here on this plane,” Annette laughed. Fortunately for Annette, it wasn’t Ronald.
Ronald said he was satisfied when he finally saw Annette. “I liked the way she looked, her smile, and her hair. She was wearing a curly natural…”
First date: During her weekend visit, Ronald took her to dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in downtown Detroit. “We went to the Renaissance Center and had a nice time,” Ronald said.
Annette remembers, “I was really shy, and I remember Ronald really liked his food,” she said. “I was laughing at the way he was eating… and I didn’t like my dinner. I ordered this broiled fish and it was huge, coming from the South, I was used to eating fried fish, but the pina coladas were good.”
Ronald said Annette left Detroit hungry “because she wouldn’t really eat in front of me, but the next time she came back she had gotten used to me and was eating all her food and mine,” he laughed.
The turn: “Love just appeared,” Ronald said. “When we weren’t [visiting] each other we were writing love letters, and I remember her telling me she loved me and I told her I loved her, so I knew something was in the making there.” he said.
By the time Ronald visited in December 1978 for Christmas, he was in love. “For Christmas, he bought me a black onyx ring. He bought an onyx ring because he didn’t want me to think he was proposing,“ Annette laughed.
Annette said she took her relationship with Ronald seriously from the get-go, “because he was so no nonsense, and I knew if I was going to spend the rest of my life with anyone it would be him. He was real old school and so sweet. He’s still the same, he hasn’t changed.”
The proposal: March 1980, Annette said Ronald’s proposal was more like a command. “I had been laid off from my job and we were talking about it and he said, ‘you don’t need to get another job there, you need to go on and move out here because we’re getting married anyway,’” said Annette.
“It wasn’t a command I was telling her she could come out to Michigan and get a job just like that. And since we’re gonna get married anyway, she should just come on out,” Ronald said.
Annette moved to Michigan and “when we got back to his apartment I went in the bathroom to wash my hands and he just walked in there and showed me the ring and put it on my finger and hugged me, and I said ‘I’m still waiting to be proposed to,’” Annette said.
“I had called her parents and asked for her hand in marriage, and her daddy said ‘you can have her hand. And I got another daughter here and you can have her hand too,’ and I said, ‘no, that’s OK, I just want Annette’s hand,” Ronald laughed. “And her mama said to make sure I helped her find a new home church because Annette loves church.”
In similar fashion to the proposal, a year later, Ronald declared the date they would marry. “He came home from work one day and said, ‘we’re getting married on March 30 because that’s the only day I have off,” Annette laughed, “and I just said Ok.”
The wedding: At Unity Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, officiated by the late Reverend Valmon D. Stotts. “He was supposed to marry us in his study, but when he opened the door and saw it was me (I was a member of his shepherd’s class) he said, ‘oh no, we’re not going to do this here, let’s go out into the sanctuary,’” Ronald said.
Ronald’s brother, Freeman, stood as his best man, and Annette’s aunt Ruth, and sister-in-law, Dorothy, were there to witness.
“Afterward, we went out to eat at Red Lobster, that was the place to go back then,” said Ronald.
Most memorable for the bride were the butterflies in her stomach and her birthday shopping trip afterward. “We got married on my birthday, so that was a great birthday gift. That’s why we went to the mall after dinner because it was time for me to do some birthday shopping. And the very next day, I went to the secretary of state and got my name changed to Wilson,” Annette reminisced. “The only thing I wished was that my mama or one of my siblings could have been with me, but it was still an awesome day.”
Most memorable for the groom was learning of Ronald Reagan’s assassination attempt during his wedding festivities. “It was all over the TV all evening and all night. And [it was kind of eerie because] my name is Ronald Wilson, and his name was Ronald Wilson Reagan,” Ronald said.
The couple did not honeymoon “but we’re doing a lot of things now that we were not able to do then, and we still have more ‘going’ to do,” said Annette. “Also, as the kids grew up, we were able to take them on vacations too.”
Words of wisdom: “Always keep God centered, and don’t let nothing or nobody come between you and your spouse, and trust me, many have tried and failed over the years. My daddy was a Baptist minister, and when I asked him how he met my mom and how they came to be, he said ‘son, when you’re ready to get married, you pray to God and ask him to send you your wife, and he’ll tailor make one for you…’,” Ronald said. “He told me that it won’t matter [who does or doesn’t like his future wife] because God made her for me. So I’ve always looked at that and kept God in the center. You have to enjoy being with each other. You can’t just love your spouse, you got to like her too. We’re friends too, and I tell her that she always has my unspoken passion.”
“Love is shown,” said Annette. “Ronald doesn’t have to speak it every day, and I don’t either. I know he loves me and he knows I love him. I don’t have to worry about him [when he’s not in my sight], I trust him and I believe him. Treat your spouse the way that you want to be treated. Respect them, love them, and trust them, because trust and respect will take you further than ‘I love you’.”
Happily ever after: The Wilson’s attend Revelation of Faith Christian Church in Hueytown, where Ronald serves as the Chairman of the Deacon Board, and Annette, a deaconess. They have three adult children, ages 46-38: Christopher Williams, and Lauren and Ronald Wilson, and their first grandchild, a baby boy, on the way.
Annette, 67, is a Roosevelt City, Alabama, native, and Wenonah High School grad. Annette retired from PNC Bank after 9 years, and State Farm Insurance, after 15 years as a customer service coordinator and a claims service assistant, respectively. She now works part time for Jefferson County School as a bus aide for special needs children.
Ronald, 70, is a Birmingham native, attended Minor High School, and graduated from Ensley High School. He attended Henry Ford College, in Michigan where he studied business management. Ronald retired from Ford Motor Company, in Dearborn, Michigan in 2003 after 30 years. He and family relocated back to Birmingham in 2003, where he began working for Jefferson County Schools as a paraprofessional, and retired in 2017. He now substitutes for Jefferson County schools part-time.
“You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them. If you would like to be considered for a future “Hello’’ column, or know someone, please send nominations to Barnett Wright bwright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number(s) and what makes their love story unique.
