Reply #23: It seems from her autobio that she wanted to marry him and [View All]

[Cleita]

her family couldn't stop her because it was legal. I remember when I was in the eighth grade in 1953, there was a girl in our class of thirteen-year-olds who bragged about her fiance when we used to sit around the picnic tables eating our lunch. She seemed to be more mature than the rest of us flat-chested ones and that summer she married him. Apparently it was legal with parental consent. I never heard from her again but then another friend of mine a year later, that I had known from grade school but didn't go to school with at that time, invited me to her wedding. We were both fourteen. My mother didn't want to let me go but finally relented and helped me buy a present and agreed to go with me. The wedding was in a church and she wore the traditional white gown. There was a reception after with cake and all just like the grownups. She seemed happy and was marrying this guy who seemed ten years older than her willingly. Again, it was legal with parental consent and this was in California. So I don't think other cultures have a corner on child marriages.