These words from John Denver's Annie's Song were sung on the evening of Friday, February 12, 1982 during the marriage ceremony of Bill and Bernice Escue Young. They both felt that no words could better describe their feelings for each other. The wedding, held in the home of Bernice's long time friend, Leah Martin, was attended by all five of their children, and Bernice's sister and brother-in-law, and brother and sister-in-law. To this day, each time they hear the tune, Annie's Song, they are reminded of the occasion that united them.
Following the ceremony, Bill and Bernice left to spend the night at the condo atop of Red Mountain. Melvin served as chauffeur. Saturday they went to the cottage on Lay Lake where they had spent the previous Christmas. Tuesday it was back to work at the office in Birmingham. They delayed the actual honeymoon until April when they were scheduled to go to Hawaii for a convention.
Bernice had loved Hawaii since she was a young girl. Bill had never been there, although he had several opportunities to go there while in the Air Force. They arrived there for a three-week stay several days before the convention started on the island of Oahu. The first island they visited was Kauai. Bill would have been perfectly happy if that had been the only island they saw. To this day it is his favorite because of being less commercial. Bernice assured him that each of the four islands they would see would have something special to offer. She was right.
Then it was off to Oahu and the city of Honolulu for the convention. They stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki where the Telocator Convention was being held. This part of the trip was business and not so special but they would return to this island in seven years for something very special. After Oahu it was off to Maui. They covered most of the island, as they did the others, by rental car. The last island was the Big Island, and its name is Hawaii. It is big, in comparison to the others. Just as Bernice had said, each island was different and unique. Any of the four would have been the perfect spot for a honeymoon. To see four different ones was like a fairy tale.
The honeymoon came to an end and it was back to business. Bill was working on the cellular telephone license application for Birmingham. It was being worked at the same time as the application for Nashville. John Orman had the responsibility for that one and they worked together with a firm in Dallas that was doing the engineering. When Bill was in Chicago working with the cellular license he met with a man named John Palmer who was interested in purchasing Telpage of Tennessee. Bill Featheringill and his partner Bill Acker were brokering the sale and talks were in their final stages at that time.
Bernice sold the home on Jacque Circle to Sherry and her husband Jabe in August of 1982. She sold it to them with no money down and 100% financing. That was the kind of deal that was hard to refuse.
In September, Bill and Bernice traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee to a regional Telocator meeting. From there they went on to Washington, D.C. for the national Telocator meeting. While they were there, one of Motorola's executives asked them to step outside during a cocktail party. While outside he asked Bernice if there was anyone she would like to call. She said she would call her son Mike at the University of Alabama. The man handed her a handheld telephone and she placed the call. She talked with Mike for a few minutes and when she concluded the call she was amazed at the quality of sound and how it operated just like a telephone that would be wired in the home. She had just made a call on a cellular phone. These phones were still in the development stage and kept under raps at Motorola.
The deal to sell Telpage of Tennessee was finalized on September 29, 1982. It was sold to Mobile Communications Corporation of America based in Jackson, Mississippi. John Palmer was the CEO of that company. Today, John Palmer is on the board of Directors of AmSouth Bank in Birmingham.
Over the next six months Telpage's major competitor, American Mobilphone, tried every way possible to buy Telpage. They made a good offer as far as price was concerned, but Bernice felt like they would get rid of most of Telpage's long time faithful employees. She held out for a bid from a more reputable company even if the price was a bit lower. The wait paid off. Agreement on the sale of Telpage, Inc. and Telpage, Ltd. to PageNet, Inc. was signed on April 18, 1983. The sale price was $4,850,000.00. The sale required the approval of the FCC and that took most of the remainder of the year. American Mobilphone had submitted a higher bid and they protested the contract that was sent to Washington for approval. This protest delayed the closing on the sale for quite some time.
Bill and Bernice took off to Florida in search of a new place to call home. They planned to leave Birmingham after the sale was finalized. They started at the Florida line where it borders with Baldwin County, Alabama and worked their way east. Nothing appealed to them until they hit Destin, Florida. They spent about a week there and decided on a condominium at Emerald Towers. They moved into the condo, which was Unit 701, the first part of May 1983 and became residents of the Sunshine State.
There were not many places in Destin for shopping back then so a trip was made to Atlanta to find things to decorate the new condo. While there, a telephone call announced the birth of Ashley Lynn Brewer. Bill and Bernice cut the shopping trip short and headed for Birmingham to see Bernice's first grandchild. As this is being written, it seems impossible that we just attended the high school graduation of this girl who gave Bernice her nickname,
