It is appropriate that Violet Crump recently won the contest for Valentine Queen at Ridgeview Health Services in Jasper. She knows what love is all about. Violet and her husband, Arrel Crump, were married for 48 years before he died last year. Forty-eight years. Truly amazing, considering all of the obstacles that this life throws at us.Along the way, the pair had three children: Timothy, Sherrie, and Charlotte. A cluster of grandchildren have followed. “She was a good mama,” says Charlotte, who visits her mother frequently and helps care for her while she is at Ridgeview. And you can bet that feeling is returned, as Violet dotes on her children.Long before Violet was crowned Valentine Queen, she was raised in a little community in Cullman County called Bethel. She remembers picking cotton and spending time near Clarkson Bridge, one of the oldest covered bridges in Alabama. Her parents were A.D. and Clara Jones. A.D. worked for the highway department and both parents were devout churchgoers.“My mother and daddy was Christians,” says Violet. “They’d have church at their house on Friday and Saturday night. I had to help mother. She cooked and prepared food. Friends from Gadsden and kinfolk would come. They all ate at the house and spent the night. Those were good memories.”Violet struggled with asthma as a child, and when she was around ten years old, the family moved to Grand Lake, Colorado where the air is crisper. While in Colorado, A.D. drove a forklift at a sawmill. An explorative young girl, Violet soon discovered a gold mine close by, and remembers sitting down and talking to the owner of the mine, who was on in years. “One day, he gave me a jar that was full of gold,” recalls Violet. “But crazy me, I took it to school with me and somebody got it.”But the lure of the South eventually tugged them home, and the family moved back to West Point after four years out West. They would live in Alabama the rest of their lives, and, except for her time in Colorado, Violet attended and matriculated at West Point School. She says her parents wouldn’t allow her to participate in school activities in high school, so she found other pursuits. “I’d slip out and square dance at the school on Friday nights,” she says. “One time, I got a whippin’ for it! And I still went back. I done it anyway.”As it turns out, one of those square dances led to a chance meeting with her future husband. “This time it was at Double Springs. I slipped off again,” says Violet, with a laugh. There, she met a handsome Navy man named Arrel “Gwen” Crump. Folks called him A.G.“Daddy was a nice looking man,” interjects Charlotte.But it took Violet a bit of convincing until she took a shine to A.G. “I didn’t like him at all. He liked me! He said ‘that’s my wife’ and I couldn’t get rid of him,” she says. “One of my brothers didn’t want me to see him. My brother Billy said he was going to nail up the bars of the house, but my brother Floyd said he’d raise the windows.”Violet and A.G. were eventually married at A.G.’s sister’s house in west Jasper. The newlyweds first moved to Decatur, and A.G. worked in nearby Huntsville as an electrician. Soon he would be called back to his hometown of Parrish, and the mines. A.G. worked at Mary Lee #2 mine for a number of years before working at Concord mine near Hueytown. While at Concord, A.G. saved the lives of two men.The couple moved back to Walker County for good when they built a house on Old Tuscaloosa near Parrish. After raising her three children, Violet worked at Thelma’s Flower Shop and Dill’s Flower Shop. She also worked at the Kopper Kettle Kafeteria in Jasper as a server, and volunteered for the Band Boosters at the concession stand during Parrish High School football games. In the summers when the coal miners were off work, A.G. and Violet would travel all over the South—Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Back home, they attended Sardis Nazarene Church in Parrish.Now 73, Violet spends her time at Ridgeview. She is very active is one of the favorites at the nursing home.The petals of the violet plant blossom into the shapes of hearts. Their famous purple and blue hues have inspired many parents, through the years, in the naming of their children. When A.D. and Clara Jones brought their daughter Violet into the world, they watched her blossom into a strong woman whose petals were beautiful and bright. Now Violet’s children admire their advancing flower and continue to appreciate her loveliness. Violet Crump’s love is heart-shaped. She understands what love is all about. She is the perfect Valentine’s Queen.Love, too, is like a good queen. May it reign and have a long life. 78