In 1937, a 32-year-old man from Monroe County, Tennessee married an 11-year-old girl, becoming the first person charged under the state’s recently enacted child bride law, passed in the wake of another child-bride marriage in Hancock County.
The marriage of Homer Peels to Geneva Hamby became a national scandal, a media storm, and, believe it or not, a marriage that lasted nearly 40 years. This week on our YouTube channel, we tell the story of Homer and Geneva Peels, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
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(Monroe County Courthouse picture by Brian Stansberry)
