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joining the Navy was the smartest thing he ever did, Wilbur Jones, Jr. of Wilmington said recently. It was that decision, in 1955, that made it possible for him to make his “second smartest decision,” asking Carroll Robbins to marry him.     She came from a Navy family, and at the time they met, her father had just been placed in command of an element of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, based in Naples, Italy.     In October 1958, Carroll had hoped to live in California, or take a magazine internship in Paris, but her father asked her to come to Italy to help her mother. “No choice. I sulked, but realized it had to be.”     Meanwhile, Wilbur had been assigned to Captain Robbins’ staff, which made it inevitable that the two would meet.     “There was nothing that would have attracted us to each other,” he said, “had we by chance met in the States under ‘normal conditions.’” But it didn’t take him long to notice her. “Not only was she one of the few young American women in town, but she was an absolute knockout.” at one of many parties welcoming the new commodore, Carroll recalled, “Someone brought a nice looking young man over and introduced him as Wilbur Jones. I asked him what people really called him. He was direct and a bit firm and replied, ‘You can call me Wilbur.’ No points for me there.”

Afterward she remembers realizing how rude she had been.     At another party, on a dare from his officer buddies, Wilbur asked her to go see the ruins of Pompeii. She remembers being hot, tired and rushed, because Wilbur had a dinner date with somebody else!     “Eventually we did go to dinner,” she said, and both agreed they just wanted to be friends. They concluded their backgrounds were too different — she the globe-trotting “Navy brat,” he the small-city Southerner, And, yet, “We found we were so opposite as to be fascinating.”     But the Navy kept creating opportunities for the two to get together. Carroll and her mother followed the Captain around the Mediterranean, acting as his hostesses.

Their first date took them to
the ruins of Pompeii. Here
Carroll Robbins and Wilbur
Jones visit the ruins of the
Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

Venice was one stop on the Joneses honeymoon tour, which
followed a wedding in Naples. Left, bridal fashion, circa 1959.

Wilbur and Carroll
Jones celebrated
their 50th Anniver-
sary in August 2009

And Wilbur, as the commodore’s flag lieutenant, followed him too.     “We were able to see one another in many wonderful, historic, and breathtaking ports” throughout southern Europe, she said. “We loved exploring. We ate where the natives ate, shopped in their stores, learned the language with the Neapolitan hand gestures and became almost inseparable.” Soon enough they realized “It was time to stop joking. This was truly a fairytale courtship.”

The following April, Wilbur proposed during a visit to the Italian resort of Capri.     Then came all the protocol for Americans to get married abroad: an OK from an admiral and the U.S. consul. Then a civil ceremony before the Mayor of Naples.     Finally, the formal wedding in an Anglican Church on Aug. 11, 1959, which just happened to be the hottest day in Naples’ history! The wedding, done with full Naval honors, was the social event of the season for the American military community. further naval deployments followed. Then Wilbur spent time in the White House during the Gerald Ford administration. He and Carroll raised three children and finally, in the 1990s, returned to Wilmington, Wilbur’s home town.     His current career is historical writer. He has become a specialist in the history of World War II in the Wilmington area and has published two books on that subject, as well as many others. He has also championed the preservation and restoration of the World War II-era USO building at Second and Orange streets in Wilmington.     In August 2009, Wilbur and Carroll celebrated their 50th Anniversary, with their children, at a party in the restored USO.