Top weddings of the year

Ebony, Feb, 1998 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

Tradition with a twist was the theme for some of 1997's best broom jumpings. Couples followed their own flair and fancy as they proclaimed their "I Dos" with traditional gowns and personalized ceremonies. Couples from New York to Los Angeles pledged their love and fidelity forevermore, and they did it their way.

Among the best weddings of the year was the much-anticipated alliance of two of Black America's most talented actors, Courtney Vance and Angela Bassett, who had to work in their lavish but intimate nuptials between movie takes. Both actors were filming roles far apart from each other, Bassett in Jamaica and Vance in Canada. The couple, who wrote their own vows, plan a delayed honeymoon sometime this year.

Rhonda Ross, daughter of Motown mogul Berry Gordy and song-stress/actress Diana Ross, pledged her troth to jazz pianist Rodney Kendrick in New York City. The jazz world and the bride's entire family turned out to toast the couple in a ceremony performed by. Muslim Minister Conrad Muhamed. Ross Kendrick currently portrays the character Toni Burrell on the soap opera Another World.

Another New York wedding that had the entertainment and society world atwirl was the wedding of producer and television writer Susan Marya Fales to financial executive Aaron Christopher Hill. The groom is executive director of SBC-Warburg Dillon Read, an investment firm. The bride is the daughter of world-famous actress Josephine Premice Fales of New York and Capt. Timothy Fales of Paris. Her father is a captain in the United States merchant marine. The bridegroom is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Errol G. Hill of Hanover, N.H. The bridegroom's mother, Grace Hope Hill, teaches movement and dance in Hanover. His father, who is the John D. Williard Professor Emeritus of Drama and Oratory at Dartmouth, wrote Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors.

More than 200 star-studded guests witnessed the nuptials, including actors Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lynn Whitfield, Diahann Carroll, Tim and Daphne Reid, and Vanessa Bell Calloway. Yvette Lee Bowser, creator of Living Single, and her husband, Kyle Bowser, also attended as did Lady Stella St. John, former first lady of Barbados, who is the groom's aunt. Fales-Hill is currently developing projects with actor-producer Tim Reid and Whoopi Goldberg. She was the executive producer of A Different World.

Deanna Brown, daughter of the "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, made her famous father proud when she wed businessman Shawn Thomas in South Carolina. The bride is an entertainment reporter for WRDW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Augusta, Ga., and the groom is CEO of the Seafood Palace Restaurants in South Carolina CEO of Thomas Realty & Construction and co-owner, along with his new father-in-law, of World Ribs & Wings in Augusta, Ga.

Top gospel singers also were blessed to find love in 1997. Award-winning gospel star Yolanda Adams exchanged vows with businessman and former football player Tim Crawford in Houston. The wedding was attended by many of gospel's recording royalty, such as Kirk Franklin, Vicki Winans and singer Jennifer Holliday.

Joey Kibble, the youngest member of the Grammy Award-winning group Take 6, took the former Karima Trotter of the gospel group Virtue as his bride in New Orleans. More than 300 people witnessed the wedding, which included a duet the couple sang to each other, "My Rainbow Maker," written by Kibble. Take 6 also performed a special song for the couple, who both attended Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala.

Jamaica was the wedding location for actress Regina King and her groom, Ian Desdune. The bride, who was a child actress, practically grew up on television when she starred as Brenda Jenkins on the popular sitcom 227. She has been in a variety of movies, including Boyz 'N The Hood and Jerry Maguire. Her husband is a vice president at Qwest Records.

The son of noted New Jersey educator Joe Clark also wed in 1997. Joe Clark II and the former Jearl Miles married in Gainesvine, Fla. The bride is a three-time Olympian and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist in track and field. The groom is his new wife's track coach at the University of Florida. The couple honeymooned in Athens, Greece.

Football stars made end rims for the altar in 1997, too. Some of the happy couples included Chicago Bears mide receiver Simon (Bobby) Engram III and Deanna Elizabeth Haynes, who married in South Carolina, and Jewel Jacobia Walker, Minnesota Vikings quarterback, who married Monique Janee Anderson in Washington, D.C.

Baseball legend Ernie Banks added another home ran to his lengendary career when he married the former Liz Ellzey of Chicago in Barbados last year. Among the many guests who attended were award-winning country singer Charley Pride and business executive Stedman Graham, who both served as groomsmen. The all-time home run king, Hank Aaron, served as best man.

Featured on these pages are some wedding highlights and front-pew views of some of the most interesting weddings of 1997.