But King pursued her relentlessly. For his first date he took his best pair of pants, put them between two boards, and then put the boards under his mattress for a few days in order to ensure a crease. He asked the lady who ran the boardinghouse to iron his best shirt. “Why, Reverend King, you must be fixin’ to court some nice young lady,” she had said. “No, ma’am,” he answered. “I’m fixin’ to get married.”
