Wilson Daily Times, 29 July 1940.

Ed and Rosa McDaniel Gause arrived in Wilson from Mullins, South Carolina, in the 1920s. The family settled at 716 East Green Street, and Maude Gause is listed in the 1930 city directory as a factory laborer.

On 22 July 1940, Maude Gause married J.P. Perks in Greensville, Virginia. Essentially, they eloped. Just over the border from North Carolina, Emporia, Virginia, was a popular marriage location because the state did not require witnesses, blood tests, or waiting times.

For reasons presently unknown, the marriage did not last long. In July 1942, the Atlanta Daily World ran a photo of Rev. and Mrs. J. Porter Perks, but Mrs. was the former Susie C. Clark of Louisiana.