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Marriage of Charlie Johns and Eunice Winstead

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Charlie and Eunice Johns

The marriage of 22-year-old Charlie Johns and nine-year-old Eunice Winstead was a child marriage that took place in the state of Tennessee, United States, in January 1937.[1][2][3] The event received national attention after Life magazine published an article about the union the following month.[4]

In response to Johns and Winstead's marriage, the state of Tennessee introduced a law setting the minimum age of marriage at fourteen years.[5] Other states, including Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C., introduced similar laws.[4] The couple remained married after the Tennessee law was passed,[6] and the marriage lasted until Johns' death in 1997.[2] Johns and Winstead had nine children.

Marriage[edit]

On January 19, 1937, 22-year-old tobacco farmer Charlie Johns married his 9-year-old neighbor, Eunice Winstead.[1][7] The couple was joined by Baptist preacher Walter Lamb in Sneedville, Hancock County.[1][2][4] Johns offered Lamb a dollar (equivalent to $21 in 2023) to perform the marriage.[8] To get to the wedding without her parents' knowledge, Winstead told them she was going out to get a doll.[9]

Johns falsified Winstead's age in order to obtain their marriage license.[10][1] At the time of their marriage, the state of Tennessee had no minimum age for marriage.[11][4] Winstead's mother had married at the age of sixteen, and her sister Ina married at thirteen.[1] Though the mothers of Johns and Winstead initially believed that Eunice was too young to marry, they ultimately decided to approve the matrimony.[12]

Later life[edit]

Winstead dropped out of school in 1937.[13] She attended school for two days but her husband pulled her out after she was switched for misbehaving.[14] State law was changed to reflect that married children were exempt from compulsory education.[5]

As of 1938 the couple still lived with Johns' parents.[15] They slept together in the same room.[8] In December 1942, at the age of fifteen, Winstead gave birth to the couple's first child. They subsequently had eight more children.[2][10] Johns objected when his oldest child, 17-year-old Evelyn, eloped in 1960 with 20-year-old John Antrican. He alleged that Antrican had falsified Evelyn's age to obtain a marriage license.[16] Johns and Winstead remained married until Johns' death in 1997. Winstead died in 2006.[2][10]

Reactions[edit]

Johns and Winstead's marriage was discovered by the press approximately ten days after the wedding.[9] It was then widely covered by American newspapers and magazines.[4] The union was reported by The Times and Life magazines, along with The New York Times. It also inspired the 1938 film Child Bride.[3] Johns avoided media attention, accusing reporters of making things up, and he disallowed any photographs to be taken of his wife and children.[9]

A 1937 piece published by Life about the case displayed a picture of Winstead and Johns at their home in Sneedville.[4] In a news article published that year, The Knoxville Journal reported that "The Winstead family seems complacent over the future of the 9-year-old bride because Charlie, the bridegroom, owns 50 acres of mountain land, several mules and he's a good farmer".[1][2] Another article in Newsweek portrayed Winstead sitting on Johns' knees.[17]

Reactions to the marriage triggered a change to the law, forbidding marriage of individuals under the age of 16, even if they have parental consent. It provided for exceptions in cases such as pregnancy.[16]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f L. Syrett, Nicholas (2016-10-03). "Chapter Eight. Marriage Comes Early in the Mountains: The Persistence of Child Marriage in the Rural South". American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States. University of North Carolina Press. doi:10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629537.003.0009. ISBN 978-1-4696-2953-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Carey, Bill (2023-10-09). "The creepy stories behind Tennessee's marriage laws". Tullahoma News. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  3. ^ a b Syrett, Nicholas L. (2014). "Imagining Rural Sexuality in the Depression Era: Child Brides, Exploitation Film, and the Winstead-Johns Marriage". American Studies Association. Archived from the original on 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Tsui, Anjali. "Married Young: The Fight Over Child Marriage in America". PBS. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  5. ^ a b "Education: Exempt Bride". Time. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  6. ^ Fox, Lauren (2019). "Child Marriage in the United States". Law School Student Scholarship – via Seton Hall University repository.
  7. ^ Nivès, R. (March 1937). Enlèvement de Mineure ou Mariage Légal (in French). Police Magazine.
  8. ^ a b "Religion: What God Hath Joined". Time. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  9. ^ a b c "Child Bride, Wed Nine Years Ago, Now 18, Happy With Mate, Babies". Chattanooga Daily Times. May 21, 1946. p. 9.
  10. ^ a b c Pylant, James (2020-09-28). "A Child Bride in Tennessee". Genealogy Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  11. ^ Mensah, Ebenezer (2023-09-11). "Unearthing a Forgotten Chapter: The Marriage of Eunice Winstead Johns and Charlie Johns in 1937 Tennessee". BNN. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  12. ^ John, Mary E. (2021). Child Marriage in an International Frame. Taylor & Francis. p. 75. ISBN 9781000373448.
  13. ^ "Private Lives". LIFE. Vol. 3, no. 8. Time Inc. 23 August 1937. p. 65. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  14. ^ "CHILD BRIDE SWITCHED; Two Days of School Discipline End Her Education in Tennessee". The New York Times. August 9, 1937. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  15. ^ Child Bride Asks to be Let Alone (January 1938). Daily Illini.
  16. ^ a b "Tennessee School Board Are Faced With Problem of Student Marriages". Morristown Gazette Mail. August 21, 1963. p. 16.
  17. ^ Robertson, Stephen (2006). Crimes Against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880-1960. University of North Carolina Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780807876480.

External links[edit]

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