Woman Wears a Wedding Dress for the First Time Nearly 70 Years After her Wedding

In Birmingham, Alabama, 94-year-old Martha Mae Ophelia Moon Tucker finally had the opportunity to try on a wedding dress nearly 70 years after her wedding day.

On July 3, one of Tucker's granddaughters, Angela JD Strozier, shared in a Facebook post that she and her grandmother were watching the wedding scene in "Coming to America" when her grandmother said: "I have always wanted to try on a wedding dress."

When Strozier asked her grandmother to repeat herself, she again said that she had always wanted to try on a wedding dress, adding: "When I married, I didn't have one."

In a conversation with Newsweek, Strozier shared that she was "shocked" to discover her grandmother hadn't worn a traditional wedding dress on her wedding day.

"We share a lot; maybe too much," she said. "So to hear that for the first time was indeed a shock."

Strozier said that at the time of her grandmother's wedding in 1952, Black women in Alabama were not permitted to enter bridal stores.

"Jim Crow laws played a major part in every aspect of Black Americans' lives during that time," Strozier said. "Not just with obtaining a wedding dress — even the dress she wore that day had to be purchased by the lady of the house of the family she worked for."

The dress she wore instead was a navy blue "Carmen Jones" dress, a dress that we "now refer to as a 'mermaid dress,'" Strozier added for context.

Tucker and her husband were "childhood sweethearts." Though her granddaughter couldn't give the exact age her grandparents met, Tucker told her that they "claimed each as girlfriend and boyfriend back in grade school."

The night they wed was a surprise for Tucker. According to her granddaughter, though the couple had talked about marriage, they hadn't planned a wedding. So one night, a night that was meant to be their first movie date, Tucker's soon-to-be-husband took her to their pastor's study instead of the theater. And there, Tucker married her best friend in her Carmen Jones dress.

In the years following their wedding, Tucker took a job as a poll worker in Birmingham. In November 2020, after 57 years of service as the Chief Inspector for her district's election site, she retired.

"Since her commitment in 1963, she has never missed an election," Strozier said. "She served in the election of 11 presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson being the first."

Tucker also helped create a large family. She and her husband went on to have four children, 11 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. But sadly, her husband passed in 1975. Though she never remarried, she never let go of her dream of one day trying on a wedding dress.

When Strozier was made aware of her grandmother's wish, she immediately booked an appointment at David's Bridal. She hired a makeup artist for the special day, and some of Strozier's cousins joined the excitement.

"My 94-year-young granny never had a traditional wedding, so she told my cousin that she wanted to try on wedding dresses," said Strozier's cousin Erica Tucker in a Facebook post with over 24,000 shares. "Well, my cousin made it happen! It was absolutely beautiful! She was a beautiful 'bride!'

"Y'all better create moments and memories with your people," she continued to say in the post. "I'm so glad that I was there to witness this!"

Tucker's family was stunned to see their grandmother go viral; however, they were happy to see her receive so much love and attention.

"There's nothing that her children and grand[children] wouldn't give to make her smile," said Erica Tucker in a follow-up post. "I'm sure she doesn't know what going viral is, but she loves attention so please believe that all of this love has brightened her days!"

07/12/2021: This story has been updated to include comments from Angela Strozier.