A wedding rich in spirit
Saturday night, my wife and I attended one of the most unique weddings either of us had ever seen. It was a wedding of two former OU athletes, but it was not a jock-filled, sports-honored ceremony.
The wedding of Shannon Selmon and Vince Carter was rich in spirit. I was invited because I’ve gotten to know the Dewey Selmon family.
The very best thing I ever wrote was a 1995 Mother ’s Day column on Mrs. Jessie Selmon, mother of the Selmon brothers. I sat down with her and Dewey in her Oklahoma City home, and I just let her talk, and she told me about raising her kids outside Eufaula, and it took me about 15 minutes to write the whole column. I’ve also written about Dewey’s three daughters playing basketball together on the same Norman High School team, a second coming of the Selmon III. And I wrote about the family’s adoption — spearheaded by the girls, not Dewey and his wife Kathryn — of Christiana, a Liberian refugee.
I chatted with Dewey at the wedding. He told my wife I had been adopted as “another Selmon brother,” which is the best compliment I’ll ever receive but probably not terribly unique, since Dewey’s family makes everyone feel that way. It was a marvelous wedding, not opulent, not outrageous, but full of honor towards God and family. It included a choir from the Everlasting Life Baptist Church and a ballet dance from Christiana Selmon and wonderful words from two ministers.
Shannon, you remember, played basketball at OU for Sherri Coale. Vince was a four-year starting center for Bob Stoops. Shannon had a maid of honor, her sister Megan, and a matron of honor, her sister Lauren. Vince had three best men, including former Sooners Tommie Harris and Jonathan Jackson. But this was not a night that honored Sooners. It was a night that honored love and commitment, and one of the finest families I’ve ever known.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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