Half a Century Later, Divorced Couple Decides to Remarry
After 48 years apart, one Buffalo couple is ready to say 'I do' — again.
Roland Davis married his high-school sweetheart Lena Henderson in 1944. Both he and Henderson were 19 at the time, but they tried to make it work despite their youth. They stuck by each other through 20 years and four children, but in 1964 they decided to go their separate ways.
"I won't exactly say he was wild, but you couldn't tie him down for anything," Henderson told ABC News.
Both moved on: Davis remarried and Henderson had another child. They kept in touch throughout the years, naturally, but, a few months ago, the casual conversations turned into something more. Davis and Henderson, now 85, had begun speaking regularly on the phone, behind their children's' backs.
"I never told the kids anything, it was not their business," said Henderson. "It was grown folks' business."
Eventually, Davis proposed to Henderson who thought it over for a while before finally agreeing. "It's like a dream come true," said the couple's second-eldest child Johnnie Mae Funderbirk. "I'm 65 years old and I'm like a kid who's nine, finding out that my parents are getting back together."
The ceremony will be held this Saturday at Elim Christian Fellowship Church.
"You don't think people are going to get married at this age," Davis told the Buffalo News. "We're just thankful we've lived this long and that we're still here. We have a lot to be thankful for."
