Robert Earl Wildermuth and Dorothy Davis on their wedding day, Easter Sunday 20 April 1946

Sepia-toned studio portrait of the bride and groom on their wedding day, Easter Sunday, 20 April 1946. Identified by Chuck Eesley 2026; the wedding date and circumstances are recorded in Robert Earl Wildermuth’s 1989 memoir.

What the photograph records

Robert Earl is twenty-one, almost twenty-two — back from the Pacific tour less than five months (separated from the Army Air Corps 30 November 1945). He stands with his arm linked through Dorothy’s; she leans in toward him; both are smiling broadly. He wears a dark suit and a wide tie with a bold patterned design; she wears a tailored satin suit with a shoulder corsage. The light hair and pale blue eyes he describes in his own memoir’s opening paragraph are visible.

This is the first piece of post-war Robert Earl in the archive — the discharged-veteran-and-civilian-bride frame that begins the rest of his life. Within two months he would start the Marietta College pre-med program on the GI Bill; within two years he would be at Stanford; within three years he would be a father to Terrie.

What the memoir says about the day

The wedding had been planned as a large church wedding at the First Methodist Church in Marietta for 20 April 1946. Dorothy’s father Homer Davis had a sudden severe case of appendicitis that week and was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. The big wedding became a small ceremony at the preacher’s house, with both sets of parents (Earl Adam and Sadye Irene Wildermuth; Marie Davis) present. Robert Earl’s memoir on this:

“On our scheduled date, however, my mother and father, Dorothy’s mother, Marie, and Dottie and I met at the preacher’s home and the wedding vows were exchanged and the wedding knot was tied just as tightly and lasting as if we had had our big church wedding. It was Easter Sunday and Dottie and I left for our honeymoon to Columbus, Ohio.”

This photograph appears to be the formal portrait taken from that day, either at the preacher’s home or at a Marietta studio shortly afterward.

Source: identification confirmed by Chuck Eesley, 2026; cross-referenced against Robert Earl Wildermuth’s 1989 memoir for date, circumstances, and the appendicitis-and-preacher’s-house wedding context.