NEWSPAPER:  James Durham & Ermine Hubbard Fields 70th wedding anniversary.

Article from newspaper (probably Lebanon, Ky) sent to me by Ermine Fields, 
letter postmarked June 3, 1992: "FIELDS FOREVER" (caption beside picture
of Jim standing on a mule & Ermine holding the reigns) "James Durham and 
Ermine Hubbard Fields of Lebanon celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary 
on Monday, June 10. The couple met in Metcalfe County where Ermine was born 
and Jim was raised. In top photo, Jim showed off one of the stunts he 
learned from watching circus riders who came to town. He is standing on a 
mule (not a horse) and holding a Smith and Wesson. His wife to be holds 
the reigns. The photo was taken in 1919 or 1920, shortly before the two 
married. In bottom photo, the Fields today. (Photo by Ilona Burdette) 
"70 YEARS - ONE LEBANON COUPLE TIED THE KNOT IN 1921...Once long ago, 
when a man was as good as his word and word was his bond, a young man and 
woman pledged themselved in marriage. The groom was James Durham Fields, 
a Taylor County native born Dec. 4, 1902. His bride was Ermine Hubbard, 
a Metcalfe County girl more than two years his junior.  The bride-and 
groom-to-be were young teenagers when they met, and Jim fell for her 
"just like that," he said with an emphatic clap, "the first time I saw 
her." For her part, Ermine thought he was the best looking young man she 
had ever seen.  He'd seen her perhaps twice before when they met one 
evening at a moonlight party.  Laterns were strung in the trees, a hundred 
or more partygoers were gathered in the yard, and though the young people 
did not dance, they enjoyed the music and took part in games together.  
He escorted her home that night, and thereafter regularly traveled by 
mule the seven miles between their homes, slipping off to see her often 
as he was able.

She was still a child, only 13 or 14 years old, but at 14 her mother had 
entered into a marriage which was to last 63 years.

Ermine and Jim bided their time, however, courting two or three years 
before taking their marriage vows on June 10, 1921.
As a young married couple, the Fields lived with her parents two years 
and in a tenant house on their land for another three. Together they raised 
tobacco, corn, sheep, hogs and cattle, with Ermine taking part in the farm 
work and seeing to the finances.  Their river bottom farm was voted the 
best in Metcalfe County one year.  When they were able to afford a place 
of their own, they purchased a farm in Edmonton, where they lived on the 
same 300 acres for the next 15 years. Besides tending the farm, they 
raised two daughters there, Lilias Wheeler of Hudson Fla., and Thelma 
Eubank of Lebanon.  Then opportunity knocked. When a prospective buyer 
offered the right price for the farm, the Fields picked up and headed 
for a tobacco farm in Taylor County.  They stayed only a year, however, 
before moving to Miller Pike in Marion County. They had sold their 
tobacco here in the past, and wanted to live where they found the people 
to be so nice and fiendly.  All the while, as often as they bought and 
traded farms, they never signed a land mortgage.  Land values were on 
the rise, and Jim made money and "fed that little girl," he said, 
pointing to his wife now of 89 years old.  Ermine didn't care too much 
for the repeated moves, but her husband "would do anything to make a 
dollar that was honest," he said, so when the time came she took part 
in the moves.  Together they also traded cattle, mules and horses, 
traveling to nearby states in the process. This led to an enjoyment of 
traveling which led them to all but five of the contiguous 48 states, 
and to Mexico.  Around 1960, they moved to town, to the house they've 
lived in ever since.  Both the Fields come from homes in which faith 
in God played a major role. Her father was songmaster, his a circuit-riding 
minister.  Together they've always tried to "put the Good Lord first."
"We've always worked together and tried to be the best we could and 
raised our family," Ermine said.  Besides their daughters, their family 
includes a grandson and two great-grandchildren.
"You have to give and take" to keep a marriage strong, Ermine said.
"Eat and sleep regular," is Jim's advice.
In all, though every marriage has its stresses and strains, "we've totten 
along well enough that we've been together 70 years,' she said."  

NOTE: At the bottom of the newspaper clipping, Aunt Ermine wrote: "My
Mother was 23 when she was married Jim's mother was 14 when she married."


Submitted by: LILLIE RACKLEY
email: lrackley@goinghot.com

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