When Shirley Weeks got home from work one Saturday a few years ago, there on the kitchen counter sat the prettiest coconut meringue pie she believed she’d ever seen. “Who brought the pie?” Shirley asked her husband, Bob. Nobody brought the pie, Bob told her. He made the pie.

“I don’t know what prompted him to do that, but he just found a recipe in one of my cookbooks and went at it,” Shirley says. “And he’s been making pies ever since.”

Okay, Bob’s pies may be pretty, but are they good?

“Oh, let me tell you what: He makes one mean coconut pie—and chocolate and lemon, too,” she says. And don’t even get her started on the “absolutely wild fruitcake” he makes every holiday season.

Bob and Shirley, who live outside of Sulligent in Lamar County, have been married 50 years. They have four children, who are now grown, married and parents of the Weekses’ nine grandchildren. Careerwise, Bob worked for 32 years at 3M in Guin; Shirley put in 20-something years with the county, most of that with the health department.

They both retired in ’93, and it’s a good thing. “There’s no way we could hold down jobs and keep up with what all we’ve got going on,” Shirley says.

The Weekses are active in the First Baptist Church of Sulligent—although they’re gone so much that some church folks refer to them as visitors—and they both have numerous other irons in the fire. Both are Lamar County Farmers Federation board members, for instance, and Shirley’s long been active in the county and state Women’s Committees. Just recently, the couple bought a neighboring farm that has put Bob in the hay business.

Long before the baking bug bit Bob, he was a master of the grill. Although Shirley likes to cook, she’s always enjoyed knowing that, come mealtime, she could—and does—count on Bob to lend a hand.

“I’m lucky, I know that,” Shirley says. “There’s a lot of women who would love to have a husband who can cook like mine.”

But since Shirley’s apparently got the permanent hold on Bob, we’ll have to suffice with some of Bob’s—and Shirley’s—favorite recipes. That’s a mighty nice consolation prize.