Virginia Hickey was her maiden name.

She had had epilepsy since childhood.

And her family was understandably doting on her and concerned about her because occasionally she would have really bad reactions to the medication.

So she would either be hospitalized from, you know,

grand mal seizures or she would be hospitalized for what the medicine was doing to her.

She would have a kind of a reaction to the medicine. So they were very pleased when probably the most normal thing happened was a young soldier

from the neighboring county, Alvin Ridley, was courting her.

And they married in a little Baptist church in Ringgold, Georgia, three weeks after Dolly Parton

and Carl Dean got married in Ringgold, Georgia. See, we were the marriage mill of the southeast

because of its juncture with three other states and the marriage laws in Georgia, which provided for one-stop shopping,

you got down there, you got your blood test and your marriage license, and you could have a

ceremony, that became the place to run off to get married. So Dolly Parton, against her manager's

wishes, she and her husband to this day, and her mother went down to Ringgold, Georgia, and she got married.

Three weeks later, Alvin and Virginia go and get their marriage license, and they go on to another Baptist church and have their marriage.

By the time George Jones and Tammy Wynette came to Ringgold to get married in 1969,

Virginia Ridley was missing.

And her parents, I don't know if you can Zoom, I'll give you this later for you to look at, but

her parents put out an article, Parents Seek Married Daughter, and that was 1968.

1998, the tabloid National Examiner has an article, Sick O' Hull's wife 30 years, captive, then kills her.

And those are the bookends of the public awareness of Virginia Ridley.

She was declared missing in 1968.

She was found dead in 1998.

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