Gomer Pyle Star Jim Nabors Marries Stan Cadwallader, Partner of 38 Years
Jim Nabors and Andy Griffith.
"Golly!" After nearly four decades together, Jim Nabors and his partner have tied the knot.
The 82-year-old actor and Stan Cadwallader, 64, married in a private ceremony in Seattle on Jan. 15, TV news station Hawaii News Now reports.
"I'm very happy that I've had a partner of 38 years and I feel very blessed. And, what can I tell you, I'm just very happy," Nabors told the station in a phone interview.
Known for his role as the goofy Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Nabors was open about his sexual orientation with family and friends, but hadn't publicly commented on it until now.
"I'm not ashamed of people knowing, it's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't tell anybody," Nabors said.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State last December. The couple traveled to Seattle for the occasion from where they reside in Hawaii, according to the news station.
"It's pretty obvious that we had no rights as a couple [before marriage]," Nabors said.
"Yet when you've been together 38 years, I think something's got to happen there, you've got to solidify something. So I just said, at my age, it's probably the best thing to do."
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