In 1947, Bill Nobles' Chevrolet sedan was the only car in the Midway community near Bellevue, so he served as the daily taxi service for six women who worked at the Kress store in Hattiesburg. He charged them $7 a week.
Among those six riders was Shirley Stringer, who met Bill after they both graduated from high school. Shirley attended school in Sumrall, while Bill was an Oak Grove area student.
And during those rides to Hattiesburg, 21-year-old Bill took a liking to Shirley, 20.
"It was love at first sight," Bill said. "(But) I could not tell her that I had fallen in love with her because I needed that $7 a week. Finally, she decided to quit work and go to college."
The next weekend, Bill drove to Clinton, where Shirley had started school at Mississippi College. Bill told her he loved her.
"It was kinda sudden for me," Shirley said. "I told Mama and Daddy that I wasn't going to go back to school. We went back up there, packed up all my stuff, and came back. In November, he asked me to marry him."
The two married on Dec. 23, 1949.
Shirley and Bill Nobles hold a photograph of them three days after their wedding as they stood outside of the 1947 Chevrolet that was Bill’s first car.
Seventy years later, the Nobles are still married, still in love, and celebrating Christmas with their family.
And they, along with a host of relatives and friends, celebrated the special 70th-anniversary occasion this past Sunday at the home of the Rev. Mark McArthur, who is their son-in-law.
Shirley said the 70 years of marriage has been a roller coaster ride.
"We had good times and bad times, but the good times outweigh the bad," she said.
Through the peaks and valleys, Bill and Shirley have had their share of stories: from Bill's "sleeping with two women" – as he says – on the third day of marriage, to Bill's salvation from his life of drinking, to his life as a pastor and evangelist. And even as a Bausch & Lomb salesman that led to his building Country Optical in western Lamar County.
Bill said he and Shirley spent their first night of marriage in Hattiesburg in the Forrest Hotel.
"Then, the third night, we went out to Mama's house, and I slept with two women," he said with a sort of chuckle. "Shirley went to bed, and I got sick in bed. She got up and went to Mama to see what she needed to do. So, Mama came in there, and that third night I slept with two women–Mama would not get up and leave her baby; I was her baby child."
Bill worked for his brother after the wedding, hauling stumps in his truck. However, later, he took the family to Mobile, Ala., to be a salesman for Bausch & Lomb Optical Company from Florida to Louisiana. It was then that Bill said his drinking problem was taking over his life. And all along, he figured Shirley thought he was a Christian because he was a preacher's son. However, Bill never told Shirley he wasn't saved.
"She was a Christian, and I wasn't," he said. "We got married, and then she and I had five kids. I was lost; because she assumed that I was saved, she probably never would have married me."
Bill said he took his alcohol problems on the road.
"I called on all of those doctors, and I was a drunkard," he said.
Further, even when he was home with Shirley and the five children, Bill would tease Cal, his youngest son.
"He would come running over to me in my chair," he said. "I'd drink it and give it to that little boy. I don't know how long I did that, a month, maybe."
However, the situation at home suddenly changed when Bill returned from a Marianna, Fla., trip.
"I came home, and I went to my chair," he said. "Here came Cal, who was about 7 or 8 then. That time he said, 'Daddy, you ought not to do that,' and he turned and walked away. Shirley had led him (Cal) to the Lord. That tore me up."
A month later, Bill made a return trip to Marianna.
"I was in a mess," he said. "I called on eye doctors all the way over there. I said, 'If I ever get to my room in Marianna, I'll get over this.' I'd get into these doctors' offices in other towns, get something to look at, and I'd get to feeling better."
"I stopped just before I got to Marianna and bought a case of beer. I couldn't even stand up in the middle of the floor at midnight. But God got hold of me. Back then, we had a phone, but it was in the kitchen. At 2 o'clock in the morning, I called Shirley.
Their phone conversation follows:
'Honey, I love you. Guess what?' I said. She said, 'You're saved.' I said, 'How'd you know that?' She said, 'I heard it in your voice.'
Bill credits Shirley and her faith for saving him and their family.
"God took care of us," he said. "These young' uns of ours – and thank God for her – most of them were already saved then. God took care of us in that, and life has been good."
After he accepted the Lord in that Florida hotel room, Bill began to tell his story and demonstrate his faith.
"I answered the call to preach after I found the Lord, not too many years after that," he said. "Then, I didn't pastor a church for ten years because God had me traveling all over the country preaching. I preached about 35 revivals a year."
Bill traveled the United States and Mexico, preaching the Gospel. He established a mission in Sonora, Mexico, that he visited twice a year for several years.
Bill and Shirley Nobles work together to build lighted Christmas trees for the holidays. Bill strings the beads on the pins and installs the lighting, while Shirley assembles the 210 pins.
"In 2000, when they built Community Church in Oloh, I was the first pastor," he said. "We started with a trailer, and then they built a church."
Then in 1982, Bill and his sons opened Country Optical on U.S. Hwy. 98.
"The reason I built that building out on Hwy. 98 was (Shirley's) daddy owned the land," he said. "I got the land at a good price, and I built that building there."
Their son-in-law, Mark McArthur, who was the pastor of Goss Baptist Church, now serves as the Missions Strategist for the Tri-County Baptist Association. He said Shirley was the subject in many of Nobles' sermons.
"Shirley followed him every step of the way," McArthur said. "If he was in a revival, she was right there with him. I've used her example of not giving up, praying for him, raising her children in church when he wasn't, and she was consistent. She finally brought him to the Lord. Both of them are revered and loved by everyone. Of course, it's gotten harder as they've gotten older, but they have been faithful and great examples."
The two of them share something special.
"I thank God for that woman not giving up on me," said Bill.
Through it all, he said he has a philosophy that has led him through life.
"I enjoy living, and I don't worry about dying," he said.