Mercy
Ramsey and Ed Carl’s Announcement Party and Wedding Movie,
1940
This is an illustrated, edited transcript of an interview by Charlotte Carl-Mitchell with Mercy Ramsey Carl and Ed Carl narrating the movie made in 1940 of her announcement party and their wedding. The audio tape was undated but Mother said near the end that it was 45 years later so that means it was made in 1985. I have added additional information in brackets and still images taken from the movie.
Mother said:
This is my announcement party. Almost everyone had an announcement party back then. I designed the centerpiece myself: Mercy - June 12th – Ed. I don’t think I had 1940 on there. I can’t remember the florist I had do the flowers, it was Connelly’s or Hilliare’s. The date of the announcement party was May 18, 1940, but I was giving the date of my wedding to be on that little centerpiece there.
I had tried to keep it secret from everybody at school because two or three of us were getting married that same summer and I didn’t announce mine till real late.
That’s Maxine Fincher [later Templer]. She held off on her announcement until I gave mine.
That’s Mr. Carl
and Uncle Doc Murray, Margaret and Annabel’s father
Miss Minnie Carl
Annabel Murray, Thomas now, my cousin
That’s the one we can’t .. that might have been her son. [I have no idea who Mother is talking about, whose son the man could have been nor do I recognize him. Maybe someone else will]
That’s Alice Ann and Harry Wilder.
Jessie Mary Cate, my sister
And that’s myself. That’s Daddy, Ed. Real special occasion.
Ella Quante (sp?) and Stella Wilcox.
My sister-in-law Alice Ramsey.
There’s Stella again. And Maebess Mathews, one of my good Rainbow friends and Phi Mu friends.
My cousin, Margaret Murray now Bailey.
Bobbie Jo Cook from Bryan. Mary Jean Murray [later Redfield].
My mother and Daddy. They gave me everything I wanted for my wedding.
And that’s Helen, my sister and her [first] husband, Walter Hudlow.
That’s my Uncle Hilliare making fun of my daddy’s mustache.
and Aunt Winnie Nitschke.
That’s my brother Murray and his wife, Alice.
Miss Minnie, Ed’s stepmother, and Mr. Carl
A real sweet, precious kiss!
Mother and Daddy again. Mother did not like to smile so she very seldom did. There’s Daddy’s mustache; it was red.
That’s Elizabeth or Lizzie and Ernestine and I’ve forgotten the boy’s name. They helped us out. Ernestine worked for us.
There we are coming out of the church. We married in Central Christian Church [on June 12, 1940] because that’s where I was going then.
[These are the people coming out of the church]
Murray and Alice [Ramsey]; Mary Jean Murray [later Redfield] and Julian Cate
Mother and Dad. That looked like Aunt Jessie [Ramsey Murray] real quickly
That’s May Caller Rowland, my friend from 1st grade through college [with Helen Ramsey Hudlow later Rugeley]
That’s Walter [Hudlow] again.
And that’s J.W. Carl and Paul Carl, Ed’s half-brothers.
Annabel and Margaret Murray. Margaret married that summer; we came home from our honeymoon to her wedding. They sang in our wedding and Annabel sang a solo. I think they’re singing I Love You Truly. And Ich Liebe Dicht was the other one.
That’s Minnie and John Ray, Ed’s sister and her husband. They lived in Dallas.
That’s Mary Jean [Murray Redfield] again, one of my old, old-time friends. There’s Margaret [Murray Bailey] again.
And Helen and Walter – Helen was my younger sister.
That’s Martin and Ann Reinhard, Ed’s cousins. They were from San Antonio too.
Annabel [Murray Tbomas] again
And Ed’s cousin who was the Best Man, C. N. Wideman and his wife Howard from San Antonio. C. N. again.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl; we always called her Miss Minnie, Ed’s stepmother and his dad.
That’s Aunt Callie Miller Freeman. She wasn’t my aunt, but she was Mother’s good TCU friend that played a violin solo for the wedding. [She is with Annabel in the middle photo.]
The reception was supposed to be outside and it started outside, but it rained and we had to bring it in the house. [The house was Mercy’s childhood home, J.M. and Mercy Ramsey’s house at 4312 Speedway in Austin. Because it rained on her wedding day, Mother always said it was good luck to have rain on your wedding day. Whether that was an old tradition or her own, that was her belief. One of the black and white photos of Mother and Daddy and their wedding cake was taken outside. See below]
That’s Mother and her good friend, Aunt Callie. They both played the violin at TCU [Texas Christian University when it was in Waco. It later moved to Ft. Worth.]
That’s Jimmy Cate, he must have been about 3 years old. [He was born on 27 Aug 1935 so he was 4 going on 5 in Jun 1940.] And is that either Paul or JW?. [I don’t think so. He is dressed differently and doesn’t look like Paul or JW.]
That’s Jimmy again – he’s calmed himself down.
And Jessie Mary and Julian [Cate]. She wasn’t in the wedding because she was pregnant [with Pat]. May Caller Rowland was also pregnant so she couldn’t be in the wedding so they helped at the reception. Jimmy was about two [no, 4 going on 5]
That’s Alice again. [And Alice and Murray] Since Daddy was a nurseryman, we wanted to be fair to all the florists – one florist made my bouquet, another made two [bouquets for the bridesmaids] and another the other two.
May [Caller Rowland] was from Del Rio. We started in the first grade together and graduated from college together. She was pregnant [with Martha Ann Rowland, born on 15 Aug 1940.] I was in her wedding and she was going to be in mine, but couldn’t be.
There’s Miss Minnie and Mr. Carl again, from San Antonio. We were so glad they got to come over.
Mother and Daddy again. As I said, Mother would never let any of us kids smile for a picture so she’s not going to smile either. Daddy with his red mustache although he was really dark headed, but he had one or two sisters that had red hair.
Daddy and Jessie Mary and Mother. Daddy is trying to make her smile and she hates to.
And Helen and her husband – they hadn’t been married too long. [Helen and Walter had married on 7 Jan 1938 so had been married almost 2 1/2 years. They divorced before Helen married her 2nd husband, William Rugeley on 4 Sep 1942. The left photo shows why Grandma didn’t like to smile, she had bad teeth!}
Alice and Murray. Gosh, don’t they look nice? Everybody looks so nice!
I don’t know why I chose pink and blue, I think I just always wanted pink and blue. Of course, the roses were pink roses and then mine were the white roses. Their little headdresses were made specially and my headdress has real white roses.
I can’t tell what that says. Oh, he’s sitting on the couch... [After this, Alice and Helen swatted Walter with their bouquets for disrupting the movie!]
Now these are some of the gifts that we received. While I took a nap that afternoon of the wedding, May came over and took all the gifts from downstairs and put them in the two bedrooms upstairs so that nobody could trip over the sheets that we had on the beds [she probably means tables]. We didn’t have any real pretty cloths. So that nobody could trip and break any of the dishes.
I think Ed and I were real fortunate. We received so many lovely gifts. [In the background I asked Mother how much things cost back then.] A spoon was $1.65 but the tablespoons were $3.50 and we got about four – that was like a fortune. The president of Daddy’s bank – Capital National Bank, gave us a three piece service, a teapot, coffeepot, sugar and creamer so it was four pieces. Then Mother and Daddy gave us a piece later on, well it was the coffeepot and Mother gave us the teapot later and the water pitcher to match it. Aunt Jessie asked would I rather have a knife and a fork or a tray. I said I’d rather have a big tray because we were getting individual knives and forks. So she and her family gave us the big tray that we still have. And of course, we still have all of these things. Our crystal was $3.50 a stem then and somebody gave us six. We thought that was just a fortune. I couldn’t believe we would get more than one. [In the background I asked who gave them. Mother answered] Hattie Lucille Dowell Gilbert. And our china was made in Germany and had already been discontinued so they saved for us every piece they had. They sold one little serving dish that we didn’t get hold of.
[Below are the official wedding photos starting with one showing the reception that began outside with the cake and Rev. Dr. Sadler. I wish the photos had been in color but the movie stills show what color the bridesmaid’s dresses and bouquets were. I suppose it wasn’t customary at that time to have a photo of the groomsmen.]
END OF MOVIE NARRATION. THE INTERVIEW CONTINUES
Charlotte – ‘Do you have any other memories of the day?’
Mother – ‘Gosh, the one and only thing I remember that I didn’t have for my wedding was I wanted arches. I’m sure Daddy didn’t have any idea of what all that meant to me at that time.
Charlotte – Well, speaking as one of them, I’m glad that y’all got married.
Mother – I’m glad we had you too, honey and the others. And I always wanted a big wedding. The other girls didn’t want a big wedding. Didn’t plan the way I did.
Charlotte – Was yours the biggest then of all?
Mother - Oh, yes, we sent out at least 500 invitations which was a big thing. We had a recording made of our wedding which the woman’s editor at the paper said it was the first time she’d heard of that being done. I said ‘Don’t you let anybody know about this until after the wedding’ and we had a movie taken of part of the wedding, of the reception and all that.
Charlotte – And who did that, who took the movie?
Mother – Murray, my brother Murray took the movies of all of that. Well, I don’t know who took them coming out of the church. I can’t remember. He got somebody to take his place.
Charlotte – Because he was part of the service
Mother - Part of the service and I think the only thing that I didn’t have was the arches down the middle of the aisle of the church. I wanted daisies all the way down the church. They said no, it would just be too cumbersome and so we had little bouquets of daisies up and down the aisle on the benches because they were raised at the nursery. [Ramsey’s Austin Nursery started by her great grandfather, AM Ramsey, continued by her grandfather, FT Ramsey and then owned by her father JM Ramsey and worked for by her brother, MP Ramsey.] But the florists arranged all those and put them on the aisle of the church.
Daddy – unintelligible
Mother - Yeah, I said that was the first one recorded that the woman at the paper ever heard about so we had all of our girls’ weddings recorded too. Of course, after that a lot of weddings were recorded so we still have our record of that, of our wedding, the solos and duets
Charlotte – And Daddy had wanted that one particular solo you had said?
Mother – I wanted ‘I Love You Truly’ and Daddy wanted ‘Ich Liebe Dicht’ which is Grieg’s love song so we had both of them.
Daddy – ‘Ich Liebe Dicht’ was sung in German
Mother – Yeah, and Annabel and Margaret had to learn that because they didn’t know that song. And there was some special song that the Ramseys always had at their weddings and Annabel wanted me to have it and I said, no, that’s not the one I want. I can’t remember what it was.
Charlotte – It obviously wasn’t special to you.
Mother – I liked ‘I Love You Truly’ a lot better.
Daddy – ‘Well, Ich Liebe Dicht’ means the same thing.
Charlotte – Did they sing it in German?
Daddy – I don’t remember.
Mother – No, I don’t think so, I think they had to get it and learn it in English. But it’s a pretty song too.
Daddy – It’s the same as I love you truly.
Mother – Maybe so. I didn’t realize that, Daddy. And the flowers that I had the florist use on the centerpiece for the announcement party were cornflowers because I knew I could get pink and blue ones. And again I can’t remember the florist that did that either.
Charlotte – But you used different florist for your announcement as well as for the flowers for the wedding?
Mother – Yeah, we might have used the same. We might have repeated one, like my bouquet and then that centerpiece. That part I can’t remember. But Daddy wanted to use all the florists in town since he dealt not just in flowers but he dealt with all the florists.
Charlotte – How many were in town at that time?
Mother – Well, this might have been about all of them. Three or four. So he wanted to patronize all of them. And we did.
Charlotte – And Daddy, as in my daddy, paid for the flowers for the after the wedding party and your bouquet?
Mother – I can’t remember. Daddy, you know, Daddy had just gotten out of the hospital when we had our wedding all planned. And he thought he was supposed to pay for the wedding announcement party flowers so I guess he paid for my corsage for that. I can’t remember and then paid for my wedding bouquet too.
Daddy – I also paid the ? [musician? minister?]
Charlotte – Oh, that’s traditional [Since I said that, he probably said minister.]
Mother – We didn’t tell who the minister was in this. Rev Sadler was the minister of Central Christian Church at that time. And he later became, what, president? chancellor? of TCU?
Daddy – Yes
Mother – He left here and became chancellor or president of TCU and so we feel real honored to have him as our minister. But he was the minister of my church. So we had lots of memories. And now this is 45 years later that we’re recording this and the memories are just as plain as if it were that day.
Charlotte – That’s wonderful.
Mother – Lots of memories
Daddy – You know, there’s one thing not included in this recitation [?] was the fact there was a very heavy rain just prior to the wedding and I almost didn’t get there in time
Charlotte – That would have been traditional!
Mother – I’d forgotten that.
Charlotte – Who brought you to the wedding, Daddy? So did you drive yourself or did your best man drive you?
Daddy – I drove myself.
Charlotte – Where was your family staying, up from San Antonio?
Daddy – I don’t know.
Mother – I don’t think at that time they got rooms or anything.
Charlotte – So they just came up?
Mother – Probably so. Maybe went back that same day. I can’t remember that at all.
Charlotte – And Minnie and John, would have come down from Dallas? Were they were living in Dallas at that time?
Daddy – Yes
Charlotte – Were you nervous, either of you?
Laughter
Daddy – I was.
Mother – Of course, we both were.
Daddy – And that aisle in the church was about five miles long.
Charlotte – Well, now, you didn’t have to walk down it. You just had to look down it and walk down it after it was over.
Daddy – That’s what I mean.
Charlotte – Now you had a double ring ceremony. That was somewhat unusual back then, wasn’t it?
Daddy – I don’t know.
Mother – I don’t know either. I don’t remember about that being unusual. Sure don’t.
Daddy – It sure was a long aisle. But there were other things involved in this that happened as we were on our honeymoon.
Charlotte – What was that?
Daddy – Uncle Murray and some others had put some gravel in the ? of our car.
Mother – And onion. Do you remember the onion?
Daddy – Yeah.
Mother – In Daddy’s good suit.
Daddy – They put onions in my tuxedo and then we were a few miles out of town and we were stopped by the highway patrol.
Charlotte – Why?
Daddy – Because I had a Colorado license on my car and the patrolman noticed one of my lights wasn’t burning. I told him that we were on our honeymoon and didn’t have time to take care of it and he let us go without giving us a ticket.
Mother – Tell her who you think thought that up.
Daddy – But I think Uncle Murray was the one who alerted the highway patrol to stop us.
Charlotte – He sounds like the ring leader of everything.
Mother – He was.
Daddy – Actually, there wasn’t anything wrong with my car. He just did that on purpose. ???
Charlotte – Well now, did you go directly from Austin to Kerrville for your honeymoon or did you go, where did you go the first night?
Daddy – We went to San Marcos and spent the night in a cabin along the river at San Marcos.
Charlotte – Had someone given you the use of that too?
Daddy – No, we paid for that.
Charlotte – What was this about hamburgers? Didn’t you have some old hamburgers you never got around to eating?
Mother – We hadn’t had any supper so when the wedding was over and the reception was over, we were hungry. So we stopped on the way to San Marcos, out of town, South Austin and got us some hamburgers but when we got to San Marcos we didn’t want to eat them. [laughter] So we went on to bed and after I showered and everything about one o’clock Daddy woke up and said, ‘I’m hungry.’ Well, do you want some scrambled eggs and bacon? We were going on our honeymoon out in Kerrville so about one o’clock in the morning I had to get up, or I did and we had scrambled eggs and bacon and I guess toast probably. And then, Aunt Callie had this cabin in Kerrville at this Methodist encampment and she let us have it for as long as we wanted to and we honeymooned for oh four to six weeks I guess out there.
Charlotte – That long?
Mother – She just let us have the cabin and then we came back into town for Margaret’s wedding which was in July [Margaret’s wedding was actually on 3 Aug 1940.] so I can’t remember how long we were out there.
Charlotte – And you bought food in town and cooked out there?
Mother – Uh huh, yeah we took some stuff with us, of course and a few of our dishes that we had received as gifts.
Charlotte – What a wonderful arrangement.
Mother - Yeah, it was lovely. We didn’t have any money and she let us have it as long as we wanted. Then we left her some little dishes when we left there, you know, some knives and forks to cook with or something. I remember that.
Charlotte – You bought that as a gift for her?
Mother – Yeah, to leave for Aunt Callie.
Charlotte – That was nice.
Daddy – While we were out there a yellow and striped cat took up with us and we brought it back with us in the car. [There is a still photo of Daddy on their honeymoon holding a cat by the scruff of its neck. That was probably the cat they later adopted.]
Charlotte – Did you?
Daddy – Yeah.
Mother – Not only that, Daddy got poison ivy on the honeymoon.
Charlotte – Oh, no.
Mother – He sure did.
Charlotte – Did you have anything to put on it?
Mother – Did we go out to the Veterans Hospital or the drug store to get something and put on it?
Daddy – I don’t know.
Mother - I don’t remember now but that was an experience too.
Charlotte – I’m sure it was. Yes. And you went directly there then to the little cottage that you had rented. Had you rented that ahead of time?
Mother – No, did we come back and spend a day or so at Mother’s maybe?
Daddy – Yeah.
Mother – Yeah, and that’s when I think we found out, right after that, Helen was divorcing her husband.
Charlotte – So it was her first husband in the tape.
Mother – That’s right. And since then she married Bill Rugeley and had two children. It was that very year that that took place. [Again, Helen and Walter had married on 7 Jan 1938 so had been married almost 2 1/2 years in Aug 1940. They divorced before Helen married her 2nd husband, William Rugeley on 4 Sep 1942.] We have some wonderful memories.
Daddy - unintelligible