HER FATHER WARNED HER NEVER TO DATE A BALLPLAYER. ROZENE MARRIED ONE — AND STAYED FOR SIXTY-FOUR YEARS. Ebby Rozene Cohran grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, raised by a father who loved baseball enough to take his daughters to games — but warned them never to marry a ballplayer. Then, in 1956, she met Charley Pride in Memphis. He was a young pitcher, shy and unsure whether a girl like Rozene would ever choose a man still chasing a dream with no guarantee behind it. Six months later, on December 28, 1956, she married him while he was on Christmas leave from Army basic training. Her father had warned her. Rozene chose Charley anyway. For the next sixty-four years, she stood beside him as baseball gave way to country music, as radio heard his voice before America saw his face, and as rooms that once hesitated slowly learned every word. Charley became country music’s first Black superstar. But behind the history was a marriage that had started before any of the world believed in him. Some people marry the finished legend. Rozene married the uncertain young man who still had to become one.
Her Father Warned Her Never to Date a Ballplayer. Rozene Married One and Stayed for Sixty-Four Years Ebby Rozene Cohran…