HOW THEY LIVE
s eco nd ac t A historic home once owned by Bill and Ida Friday has been transformed into a contemporary oasis by M o rg an C ar tie r We ston P h o to g rap hy by Be th Mann
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r. Jo Anne Earp and Dr. H. Shelton “Shelley” Earp met in Baltimore in 1972. She was completing her doctorate in behavioral science at Johns Hopkins University; he had finished a medical internship at Vanderbilt University and was drafted for the Vietnam War. At the last minute, his orders changed, and he was stationed in Maryland. A mutual friend asked Jo Anne if he could give Shelley her number. “I said no,” Jo Anne says. She was head of the Student Peace Union at Bryn Mawr College and had spent several years in Louisiana in the 1960s as part of the civil rights movement. “I thought, this person is a fraternity member who loves sports and was in the military. What in the world could we possibly have in common?” The unlikely duo was to face several challenges; first, immediately after being given Jo Anne’s number, Shelley lost it – for an entire year. “When he finally called, he told me what happened. I remember thinking it was a pretty lame excuse,” Jo Anne laughs. But their friend ended up being right: three weeks after their first date, Jo Anne and Shelley were living together. “I commuted 60 miles each way to Fort Detrick every day,” he says. Both knew their options for continued professional growth were limited in Baltimore.
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chapelhillmagazine.com
November 2019