Southern Sweethearts

southern-sweethearts

Celebrating alumni couples who have joined their hearts and lives.

We are proud to recognize more than 3,500 married alumni couples! Whether you found love before you arrived on campus, as students, or later in life, we’re glad that Southern is a part of your journey together.

Recently Married Your Southern Sweetheart?

We want to celebrate, too! Complete this form before your first wedding anniversary and the Alumni Association will mail you a complimentary gift to celebrate your new journey together.

Share Your Love Story

Tell us how Southern is a part of your shared story! We regularly receive touching, heartwarming, and funny stories from alumni couples. We’d love to hear your story, too!

Stories from Southern Alumni Couples

Don (attended) and Dolly (Darbo) Fillman, ’53

Don and Dolly celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in June 2020. They first met at a Fourth of July picnic at Southern Missionary College in 1949 and were married eleven months later in the Lynn Wood Hall Chapel. The ceremony was delayed when Dolly’s ride ran out of gas, leaving her to walk almost the whole way from her home on Prospect Church Road down the unpaved road to campus. Her bridesmaids scrambled to get her cleaned up before she walked down the aisle. Seventy years later, having raised six children, the Fillmans still live on the Darbo family farm a few miles from campus and stay busy with church ministries and community services for refugees.
- Submitted August 2020

Jason, ’99, and Shelly (Spencer) Merryman, ’98

The first picture was taken in 1997 where AdventHealth Hall is on Southern’s campus. As you can see in the second picture, the years have blessed us with a wonderful marriage and three beautiful kids. Our favorite memory is in 1995 when I stalked Jason while walking back and forth to class along the Promenade. That fall we had our first date, followed by many waffle dinners at the CK, walks around campus, watching "Friends" in the Student Center, and hearing the bass on Jason's truck as it drove down University Drive!
- Submitted February 2019

Andres, ’13, and Katie (Schuen) Palacios, ’14

Six years ago, we were just friends working together for Campus Ministries at Southern. Our favorite memory was when Andres told me he liked me during one of our Campus Ministries meetings. We didn’t date in college because his graduation was soon approaching! After graduation, our paths went separate ways; however, we were still able to maintain a close friendship. We never would have thought that God would bring us together as a happily married couple, serving together in ministry daily.
- Submitted February 2019