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Rev. William "Bill" and Audrey Lawson Correspondence 1952 to 1954, volume 1

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Identifier	bk0006v1
Title	Rev. William "Bill" and Audrey Lawson Correspondence 1952 to 1954, volume 1
Alternate Title	Courtship of Little Red and the Pin, volume 1
Author	Lawson, Audrey Hoffman ; Lawson, William "Bill"
Description	"These three volumes tell the story of a courtship that began between two people who had never seen each other, and lasted for fifty-six years. Most people know this couple as Rev. William and Mrs. Audrey Hoffman Lawson. Audrey wrote to William on a dare in the women's dormitory at Tennessee State University. He had graduated from Tennessee State, and she transferred there from Stowe Teachers' College in St. Louis after he had left. So she hadn't a clue who this alumnus was. But he was writing to some of the girls in Hayes Hall, the women's dormitory. One night when they were sharing a letter from him, Audrey remarked that she liked the letters, and that she might write to him. One of the girls dared her to do it, and on that dare she wrote a first letter. This was over half a century before Facebook! William (or 'Bill,' as he is more popularly known) wrote back to this unknown TSU student, and that started a correspondence that soon became daily. Their epistolary dialogue started out platonic, but warmed up until Bill realized he was falling in love with this faceless young woman. They had not even exchanged pictures, although they had become fairly constant in corresponding. They were both from St. Louis, and under the rather shaky pretext that he needed to visit his relatives, Bill took a trip to St. Louis. Of course, he visited the Hoffman home, and when she came to the door, she was dressed in a bright red corduroy suit. This was the first sight he had ever had of her, and they chatted for two or three hours. That first vision of Audrey led Bill to nickname her 'Little Red.' The two saw each other only nine times during the nearly two years of their daily letters to each other-never for more than two days at a summer camp, where he proposed to her, never alone with each other. The ninth time was their wedding, Saturday, January 30, 1954. Want to know how old fashioned they were? After Bill proposed to her at that summer camp, he asked her father if they could be married. Because red had become the color with which he had indelibly labeled her, the engagement ring he gave to her featured a ruby surrounded by diamonds. On that day, she had all of her bridesmaids in pink dresses with rose-colored sashes. And since that day, roses and rubies and other red items have been part of his gifts to her. The bindings of these volumes (skillfully crafted by Charlie Arbore, a volunteer in the Houston Public Library) are significantly made of red fabric. Audrey and Bill hope you enjoy reading this courtship through letters that preceded a long and happy marriage. Can you imagine a fifty-six year love partnership started by a college girl taking a dare? God works in mysterious ways!" -- Audrey Hoffman Lawson and William "Bill" Lawson
Date Original	1952 ; 1953
Source	correspondence ; Missing page 4 of October 30, 1952 letter ; Disclaimer: Some pages have been put into numerical order for clarity.
Type	Text/Image
Language	English
Coverage Temporal	1950s
Publisher	Electronic version published by Houston Public Library, Houston, Texas.
Collection	Lawson Collection
Date Digital	2011
Format	pdf
Digitization Specifications	Digitized on an i2s CopiBook scanner.
Object File Name	index.cpd

Identifier	bk0006v1-c01.pdf
Title	Front cover
Object File Name	bk0006v1-c01.pdf

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Rev. William "Bill" and Audrey Lawson Correspondence 1952 to 1954, volume 1

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