After sparking up conversation while standing in for lottery tickets, Edith Hill, 96, and Eddie Harrison, 95, were destined to fall in love. And get married. Thought they are not officially entered into the Guinness Book of World Records, the Virginia couple is likely the oldest married interracial couple in the USA, according to Rebecca Wright, Hill’s daughter.
The newlyweds have been companions for more than a decade but their recent marriage has sparked controversy – but race isn’t a factor. The wedding has been deemed “problematic” due to Hill being declared legally incapacitated for several years.
A judge learned that Wright, who shares co-guardianship with sister Patricia Barber, took Hill to get married without the court’s permission. Barber was against the marriage.
“I guess I wanted company,” Hill said in an interview, explaining why she married. “I wanted somebody I could help, and they could help me. … We were both single. My husband was gone. His wife was gone. We became the best of friends.”
Hill’s granddaughter Robin Wright told AP, “You catch them kissing all the time,” she said. “They’re actually in love. Really in love. … I know he’s part of the reason she gets up every morning.”
Barber’s representative said the marriage was frowned upon because it caused confusion over how to split Hill’s estate but that didn’t stop the love birds. The court eventually removed Wright and Barber as Hill’s guardians and ruled that breaking up their marriage would “create a circumstance in Ms. Hill’s life that she doesn’t deserve.”
In this case, timing is everything. Being the law abiding citizens they are, Hill, who is African American, and Harrison would have had to wait until they were close to 50 to lawfully marry and avoid jail time for violating the state’s Racial Integrity Act.
“That’s done away with, isn’t it,” Hill responded when asked about laws banning interracial marriage. And she would be correct, interracial unions were illegal in Virginia until 1967.