VALDOSTA — Ten days of courtship led to a “lifetime of love” for a Naylor couple. Charlie and Jenny Mullinex celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on Oct. 13. They sat down Monday afternoon to recall how it all came about.

Charlie, a Brooks County native, had fibbed about his age to get into the Navy and had just turned 17 when he was sworn in. Coming home on leave from Lakehurst Air Naval Station, N.J., in July 1953, would change his life forever.

“When I saw her, I said I was going to marry her,” Charlie remembered of seeing the former Jenny King of Hahira for the first time. “I didn’t even know who she was. I talked to her for two weeks, went back to the base and wrote to her until the last of September.”

Charlie came home on Oct. 3, and they courted for 10 days before they were married at the Ware County Courthouse in Waycross on Oct. 13, 1953.

They had gone earlier to Folkston to get their blood work done and had planned to get married there. But there was a hitch: They were 18 years old, too young to get married without parental consent (which, back then, was 21).

Charlie said he decided to fib again so they could get married and told Jenny to tell the Ware County Ordinary that she was born in 1932 instead of 1935. But when it came time to tell her birthday, Jenny froze. Charlie had to punch her and said she was born in 1932.

Charlie returned to his base and Jenny, who “had never been anywhere,” would later follow by train, getting on at Quitman and then switching trains at Savannah for the East Coast Champion run to New Jersey.

“It was scary because it was at night,” Jenny recalled.

Charlie spent only a year in the Navy after they married.

“It was called a minority cruise — you got out before you are 21,” he said. “My ship was going to the Caribbean for 18 months: They called it a world cruise. I had just gotten married and wasn’t going to ride around with them.”

Two years after they married, their first child arrived, Glen Mullinax of Lake Park, eventually followed by Charles “Buzzy” Mullinax of Valdosta, Bonnie Hogue of Waverly Hall, Linda Mullinax and Ed Mullinax of Naylor. The couple also has 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Charlie’s careers included working for Proctor & Gamble, traveling 11 states going door-to-door giving out Cheer detergent samples, and driving a truck for TG&Y. He would also spend about 20 years in law enforcement, including the Quitman Police Department, the Department of Corrections, Thomas County and Tift County Sheriff’s Departments, and Valdosta Police Department, retiring as a detective. He was also the police chief at Remerton.

Jenny’s careers included working at B.C. Moore’s, Levi’s, and Big Star Grocery.

The couple enjoys singing in the choir at Good Hope Baptist in Naylor; going to garage sales, gospel sings and Ray’s Mill Pond restaurant; and visiting family.

“We just like to get out and ride,” Charlie said, adding that they had found their home that way.