Kirk Franklin buys wife Tammy 23 dozen roses for 23 years of marriage

Article By Rhonda McKay // Marriage & Family // EEW Magazine

After more than two decades of marriage, GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, Kirk Franklin, continues to shower his bride with affection in the most creative and romantic ways.

To celebrate the couple’s 23rd wedding anniversary, he surprised Tammy Franklin with 23 dozen roses, which she absolutely adored.

“Y’all he continues to blow my mind with his thoughtfulness towards me,” she wrote on Instagram, showing off the gorgeous stems sitting in vases on a dining room table. “It hasn’t always been extravagant (in fact for me it doesn’t have to be). There was a time when we were dating when he came to pick me up from work (in a borrowed car) and he had one red rose because that’s what he could afford.”

But these days, the CEO of Fo Yo Soul Recordings, who has a massive catalogue of hits under his belt, is in a much better position to splurge on the woman he says makes him a better man.

Kirk and Tammy Franklin on their wedding day January 20, 1996

In his own heart-warming anniversary tribute online, the internationally known artist, who took Tammy as his bride on January 20, 1996, said, “23 years ago, I made a decision that changed the trajectory of my life. My life was headed down a dark road… a road my father, and grandfather traveled down that did not reflect the type of man I desired to be. I was afraid I was going to fail like them.”

The “Imagine Me” songwriter continued, “They were womanizers, absent fathers, and left no legacy for their children’s children. I stood next to this beautiful woman and her beautiful daughter, afraid I would fail them like I had been failed. But the man I desired to be pushed the man I was into the arms of the woman that possessed the key that would unlock that reality.”

Today, the pair’s reality seems blissfully happy, so much so, the lovebirds are gushing about it all over social media.

“I’m so proud of us,” said Tammy in an Instagram video. “We have put in the work and we still continue to put in the work, because we made a conscious choice that we didn’t want to just be existing, but that we wanted to have a healthy and happy marriage—not perfect, but healthy, and happy.”

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