Page 209 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

MY THREE WIVES

I have had the distinction of having been married to 3 different women, and my memories of my life
here in Columbia County would certainly not be complete if I did not mention them.

Wife No. 1

My first wife was Ruth Thomas, who was the daughter of the Union County School Superintendant, Mr.
T.S. Thomas, who was County School Superintendant during all of the 4 years I spent at Union High
School, as Band Director. I was married to Ruth for several years (I don’t remember exactly how long,)
and the main thing that I learned from my association with her is this: every girl who is pretty and looks
sweet, is not necessarily all that sweet. Ruth was an exceptionally pretty girl, and had a sweet
personality at first, which gradually, over the years we were married, wore completely off.

I am not saying that it was all her fault, but what 1 am saying is that I did not feel that I deserved to be
cursed, and called vulgar unprintable names, and a fellow should not be expected to just continue to put
up with that. I finally got wore out with the fact that we were just not getting along at all, and one
afternoon after 1 got home from after-school band practice, she lit in on me unmercifully, and when she
quieted down enough to listen, I told her this “Ruth, the very next time that you curse at me or call me
ugly names, 1 am going to walk out this door, and never walk in again. It is going to be over.”

Well, it wasn’t but a few days until the behavior was repeated, and 1 made no attempt to reason with her.
1 simply went to the clothes closet and took all my clothes hanging in the closet, hangers and all, and
laid them in the front seat of my pickup truck which was parked outside. I then took my stereo set, and
all of my high fidelity phonograph records, and loaded those items on the truck.

My truck was parked under the carport, and when I went to get in the truck to drive off, I noticed the ice
cream churn was sitting there, and so as a final gesture of defiance I picked up the ice cream chum and
threw it in to the back of the truck.

The next day, I went to my attorney Mr. Herbert Darby, and had him prepare the papers to enter a
divorce suit, and she notified me that she would like to be the plaintiff in the divorce suit, and she would
prefer to file the suit. 1 said ok, and later found out why she wanted to do that. She had spoken to Mr.
A.K.. Black, who was a very outstanding lawyer, particularly in divorces, and Mr. Black was a personal
friend of Judge Rowe, who was known to always favor the woman in a divorce case. This gave her the
chance to get Mr. Black to file the suit, and he drove all the way to Cross City where Judge Rowe lived
and filed the case in such a manner that he was assured that Judge Rowe would be the Judge in my case.
Mr. Black had previously been State’s Attorney in Judge Rowe’s Circuit, and they were quite close.

Ruth battled me for about 2 years in an attempt to take everything I had accumulated, and one day
Herbert Darby told me “Lenvil, she doesn’t want money. She doesn’t want property. What she wants is
revenge.” Herbert proved to be correct in his assessment, and finally after 2 years of battling back and

203

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982