LOVE feature
Story by Melia Flowers • Photography by Laura McBryde
BO & ANNELLE
OSBOURNE
a love for all time
THE YEAR WAS 1982. On a cold winter’s night in January, a cute, petite girl was
hard at work at her job as hostess at a Turbeville, South Carolina, restaurant, The Compass. At
seventeen, this routine had become familiar, as she had worked there since the eighth grade.
Yet, this night would prove to different when a customer would walk through the doors and
change the course of her life – and his – forever.
Bo Osborne was ahead of most young men his age. Having graduated from East Clarendon
High School in 1970, Bo went on to earn a degree in business from Clemson University in 1975.
Returning to the town where he had grown up, Bo began working with Smith Grading and
Paving and quickly worked his way up to a management position. Unlike most guys his age,
he was not into partying or the typical antics one might expect. Focused and hard-working, Bo
had already built savings for himself and purchased a home of his own. Yet, there was something missing. Bo Osborne was single.
This is how the whole story began. “I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by this
pretty girl with the prettiest smile I’d ever seen in my life,” Bo described his encounter with
Annelle Coker. Her energetic, sweet personality immediately caught his attention; however, it was Annelle’s smile that stole his heart. Yet, that was not the first time Bo had seen
her sweet smile. Watching her flutter about the restaurant, he remembered the first time
he had laid eyes on that pretty face, now all grown up. Incredibly, Bo was first introduced to
Annelle by her mother (his eighth grade teacher), Mrs. Mary Frances Coker, when she brought
her newly-adopted, precious baby girl to meet her class. Yes, Bo and Annelle’s eyes first met
when she was just a baby in her mother’s arms and Bo was twelve years old. Now, 17 years
later, the grown-up and very beautiful Annelle was just feet away from him, and he did not
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intend to leave without talking to her. Conversation followed and, before parting, the two
exchanged addresses.
Annelle remembers that fateful night and the handsome man that seemed to walk into her
life out of nowhere. “I obviously thought he was very handsome and very nice,” she explained
with that same sweet smile. There was, however, concern that the twelve-year age difference
would be a problem, if her parents knew.
In the days that would follow, Annelle noticed Bo just seemed to “coincidentally” show up,
taking his daily run on a route that she also traveled to and from work. The two began writing
each other often; yet, they never put their names or return addresses on the envelopes. Many
of the letters that Annelle received from Bo included beautiful poetry, written just for her by
the wonderful new man in her life. While they enjoyed the intrigue of their secret communication, the time would come when they could no longer keep the relationship a secret.
To Annelle’s surprise, her parents were not upset about the idea of Bo dating their daughter.
Mrs. Coker remembered her former student as a “good boy” and knew he had grown up to
be a respectable young man. In fact, wisely, Mr. and Mrs. Coker reasoned that their precious
daughter was probably in better hands with Bo than the young high-school-aged boys she had
dated. From Bo’s perspective, that could not have been more true. “I was attracted to Annelle
because of her sweet spirit and who she was as a person. Sure, she was beautiful. However,
I respected her and would not have done anything to harm her in any way.” Amazingly, there
was added insight to the fact that love has no age limit… the happy marriages of Annelle’s
grandparents and Bo’s mother and father. Both men, just like Bo, were twelve years older than
the women they loved.
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