By Staff
Leada Gore, Editor
Anthony Owens is a man in love with love.
Owens, 33, has been married eight times. The problem, at least according to law enforcement officials in Alamo, Ga., is that Owens was married to the eight women at the same time. In legal speak, that's known as bigamy, and it landed Owens in prison for two years.
Owens' story was featured in an Associated Press story last week. It seems Owens, who is a traveling minister by the way, has decided to turn over a new leaf and is offering apologies to his wives.
Police said Owens was first married in 1990 in Memphis, Tenn., when he took the hand of 43-year-old Joanna Hill. He was 18 years old. That marriage wasn't a happy one, according to Owens, and he married 41-year-old Earleen Mabien in 1992. He was 20 and had two wives.
After the initial two, the remaining ones fell into place. In 1995, he married Queenie Sanders of South Carolina. In 1997, he walked down the aisle with Valeria Brown of Alabama. He opted for another Alabamian in 1999, swapping vows with Mattie Noland. He headed back to Tennessee in 2001, marrying Paulette Miller and, later that year, Shirley Rhodes. The next year, he married Gwen Robinson of Duluth, Ga.
And that's what did him in. Robinson learned of her husband's other spouses and turned him into the police. Owens claimed he had divorced some of his wives but was unable to remember which ones. I guess after the first seven divorces, things could get confusing.
Police didn't believe Owens' claims of divorce and he landed in prison. Now, he is vowing he's a changed man.
Owens said he has apologized to his wives and is willing to do so again, though I would advise him to avoid having them all in the same room when this apology is issued. There may be one or two wives who are willing to forgive him but that would still leave six on one odds and my money is on all the Mrs. Owens.
Owens said he is seeking to legally and officially dissolve his many marriages with one exception. There's one wife, he said, he hopes will stick with him.
"There is a wife I want to stay with," Owens told the AP. "I really don't want to say it for the newspaper but she knows who she is."
I hope things work out for Mr. and Mrs. Owens – whomever she may be. I hope that special one does know who she is. It would be awkward, for example, if two of the Mrs. Owenses thought they were the true Mrs. Owens only to find out they weren't.
You've probably heard it said there's someone for everyone, but in this case, I think it would be best to keep our options as limited as possible.