Ordinary mornings.
Ordinary evenings.
Thousands of decisions made together.
Charley and Martha experienced all of those things.
Their family grew to include three children, followed by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Their son Richard was the youngest of their three children.
He later described his parents' relationship as one that had remained remarkably consistent over the decades.
Charley became active in his church.
According to the family's obituary, he was a Sunday school teacher and sang in the choir.
Martha was involved in the church's ladies auxiliary.
Faith was not simply something they mentioned at the end of their lives.
It was part of the life they had built together.
They were both members of New Hope Free Will Baptist Church in Joelton, the same church where their funeral service would eventually be held.
Their relationship therefore existed within a larger community.
They were spouses.
They were parents.
They were grandparents.
They were church members.
They were neighbors.
They were people whose lives were connected to other people.
That is one reason their loss was felt beyond their immediate family.
Charley's Life of Work and Service
Charley had a professional life that extended well beyond his role as husband and father.
After college, he taught for three years at Glencliff High School in Nashville.
He then entered the banking industry.
According to his obituary, he began at Whites Creek Bank & Trust and eventually became a vice president.
Later, he opened and designed United Citizens Bank in Ashland City.
He subsequently helped establish First Cumberland Bank in Madison with Jerry Garrett and Winfield Dunn.
He later continued working in mortgage lending and even spent time working at Pebble Brook golf course.
His career therefore went through several distinct phases.
Teacher.
Banker.
Bank founder.
Mortgage professional.
Golf-course employee.
But beneath all of those roles was the same constant:
Martha.
The woman he had met as a 12-year-old remained his wife throughout every chapter of his working life.
Martha Built a Life of Her Own
Martha's life was different from Charley's, but it was equally full.
She was a homemaker and also owned and operated Ashland City Office Supply & Hallmark Cards.
The business supplied books to schools in Cheatham County, connecting her work to the community around her.
She also enjoyed crafts and created what the obituary describes as “Memories in Glass.”
These details may seem small compared with the dramatic circumstances surrounding the couple's deaths.
But they matter.
A person is not defined by the moment of death.
Martha was not simply “Charley's wife.”
She was a mother.
A grandmother.
A business owner.
A church member.
A creative person.
And someone who had spent decades contributing to her community.
The same is true of Charley.
Their final moments were extraordinary, but their lives were made meaningful by thousands of ordinary moments that came before them.
Six and a Half Decades of Marriage
When people hear that a couple was married for 65 years, it can be difficult to understand the scale of that number.
Sixty-five years means more than half a century.
It means that their marriage began before many of the technologies and cultural changes that define modern life.
They married in the 1950s.
They raised children during the second half of the 20th century.