For the Davises, it was love at first phone call - Arkansas Online

Shirley Bradley fell for Pinky Davis almost from the moment she heard his voice on the phone.

She had been dating another young man for a while, though that was a long-distance relationship. When Pinky called to ask her out in October 1951, she agreed to go.

"I really had no intention of dating anyone because I did have a boyfriend," Shirley says. "But I loved the way Pinky sounded on the phone. He just had the nicest voice on the phone."

Pinky had seen Shirley on the campus of Little Rock Junior College, now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, when he was on his way to lunch with a friend.

"I was with a buddy of mine, and his girlfriend and her friends," says Pinky of the day he first saw Shirley. "I just thought she was cute. She had those dancer's legs."

Pinky is just six months older than Shirley, and they both grew up in Little Rock but attended different high schools -- he went to the old Little Rock Technical High School and she went to Little Rock High School, now Little Rock Central High.

Almost immediately after Pinky and their friends arrived to pick her up for their first date -- a football game in Conway -- she realized it had been right for her to accept his invitation.

"It was kind of love at first sight. He was just really different from anyone I had ever dated before," she says. "I loved to go to school -- I loved school -- and he really didn't care for it. He was kind of a party person, just a lot of fun and really outgoing, much less serious than I was, and had really more of a I-don't-give-a-dern-attitude. I was much more of a conformist. We are just opposites in a lot of ways."

She broke off her relationship with the other guy and started seeing Pinky.

"He just started calling me and we started going to movies and hanging out," she says. "And that was that."

Shirley was in a sorority at the college and he joined her for several of the functions through that organization.

"We'd go to dances, or we would double date with other people," she says. "There weren't all the things to do like there are now."

Pinky remembers that she was president of the honors society back then, too.

"She was smart," he says.

The following summer, Shirley and Pinky got engaged.

"It was just kind of one of those things that all of a sudden we were talking about getting married, and he bought me a ring and gave it to me on the Fourth of July," she says.

They were married on Jan. 1, 1953 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock.

"Our wedding was really pretty, and I loved it," she says.

After a honeymoon in Hot Springs they settled in a little apartment in Little Rock's Hillcrest neighborhood.

"We didn't have a car, but that was OK," she says. "We were right on the bus line and we rode the bus to work and we were in walking distance of a grocery store and a drugstore. And if we needed a car we borrowed my parents' or his parents' car on the weekend."

Pinky was an electrician when they were first married, but work was sporadic, so after their family grew by three children in three and a half years, he decided to look for more lucrative employment.

He got a job working for a photographer he knew from church. He later bought that photography business and for 33 years he traveled around the state taking school pictures, graduation and prom pictures and more. Shirley worked in the business with him, mostly helping out in the office.

"We've always worked together from the time he bought the picture business, and then we are still together, which some people seem to think is pretty amazing -- that you can work together and live together," she says.

The Davises had a cabin in Hot Springs for 37 years and they spent much of their free time there. About 20 years ago, they moved to Bentonville to be near their daughter and her family.

They have seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

"We get to see family a lot. What's funny is that our family that lives around, or even when they come in town -- we have the smallest home of anyone's but this is where they always want to come," says Shirley, who is happy to have them. "They always want me to cook and they always want to come here."

Shirley says that health and fitness have been a priority for her and Pinky for the past 40 years. They have made a point of exercising at a health club three times every week.

"We credit that for our ability to still be able to lead an active, busy life," she says.

For their 50th anniversary, their children took them on a Caribbean cruise.

"They gave us a trip to Italy one time, too," says Pinky, who will be 90 in November. "We've had a good marriage. We still have a good time together."

If you have an interesting how-we-met story or if you know someone who does, please call (501) 425-7228 or email:

kdishongh@adgnewsroom.com

The first time I saw my future spouse:

She says: “I thought he was very handsome. He was with our friends and they picked me up for our first date.”

He says: “I was going to lunch and I saw her and asked my friend who she was.”

On our wedding day:

She says: “When we went to check into the Arlington for our honeymoon, I guess because we looked so young, they said they had to see a copy of our marriage license.”

He says: “We had borrowed her granddaddy’s car to leave the church, and nobody knew we took off in it. They had decorated my mother’s car. They were driving home from the wedding in it and of course my brother, who was nine years younger, was in the backseat.”

My advice for a long happy marriage:

She says: “I can’t take credit for this but it’s great advice: Every day, when you get up, you have to say to yourself that I’m going to love this person today.”

He says: “Have a good time together.”

Shirley Bradley and Pinky Davis were married on Jan. 1, 1953. “The first gift Pinky ever gave me was a necklace with a mustard seed charm on it,” she says. “I have carried that charm with me in my purse for over 70 years,” she says. “If you have the faith of a mustard seed anything is possible, and that faith has shown everything works out like it is supposed to.” (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)

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