By Je’Don Holloway-Talley | Special to the Birmingham Times
(Second of Three Parts)
This Valentine’s Day, The Birmingham Times steps into the chambers of justice and the corridors of care to celebrate three extraordinary marriages where love lives at the intersection of duty and devotion. We shine a light on the relationships of three area judges and doctors who are building healthy bonds while serving a community shaped by history, faith, and resilience.
Love rises above all in the lives of Circuit Court Judge Fred Bolling and Brandi Bolling, M.D.; Circuit Court Judge David Hobdy and Cynthia Hobdy, M.D.; and Circuit Court Judge Reginald Jeter and Autumm Jeter, Ph.D.
On the bench, in the clinic, and in courtrooms, boardrooms, and state offices, these men and women are entrusted with the lives, liberties, and well-being of others. Yet at home, they are husbands and wives learning, like every couple, how to extend grace and use wisdom acquired over years of matrimony.
Over the next three days, we will share their love stories. Yesterday, the Bollings; today, the Hobdys and on Saturday, the Jeters.
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE DAVID HOBDY, & CYNTHIA HOBDY, M.D.
Live: McCalla
Married: Aug. 30, 1997
Met: Spring semester, 1986, at Northeast Louisiana University [now, ULM University of Louisiana Monroe], in chemistry class.
“I sat behind her… she was in the front of the class, and it was love at first sight,” David recalled. “My professor knew she had a crush on me, and he told me I needed to come up to the front and help her with the experiments,” he laughed, “and we had our first date on March 12, 1986. I took her to the movies and to Shoney’s for dinner.”
Cynthia remembered things differently. “Some of that might be some dreaming on the part of Mr. David. It was not love at first sight; it took a couple of months for it to kick in because I had to help him do his experiments, and it took a while to teach him,” she laughed, “but [the professor] did ask David to come up and be my chemistry partner…”
Although the two were well acquainted from being chemistry partners, Cynthia said in hindsight, “I guess I was nervous to go on the date with him because I had to have a drink before I left the dorm,” she laughed. “We went to a horror movie, which was his way of holding my hand. And after we held hands and our palms got sweaty together, he tried to put his arm around me.”
David’s plan must have worked because that date marked the beginning of their 11-year courtship. After undergraduate, the two began a long-distance relationship, as Cynthia moved to New York to attend New York College of Podiatric Medicine, where she obtained her Doctorate and eventually Memphis Tenn., where she completed her surgical residency at Germantown Midsouth Hospital, while David moved to Birmingham to attend Miles Law School where he made lifelong friends and wanted to build a life and raise a family. In the summer of 1997, the two wed, and Cynthia relocated to the Magic City.
Reality check: Asked when they realized their love would come with its own set of demands and compromise, Cynthia answered – “When I started driving from New York [while in medical school] to Birmingham to see him, that was love and compromise,” she said, “but we made it work. We would take turns visiting each other, sometimes we would drive, sometimes we would fly…”
For David, the reality was that their relationship would require “a lot of long nights on the telephone. A lot of the time, it would be 2 or 3 a.m. before she was through studying, and we would talk on the phone, and before you know it, it would be time to go back to class,” David said. “And I knew it was getting serious when her car quit, and I gave her my brand-new Jaguar.”
“That’s right, I drove his Jaguar, and he started driving a Nissan Sentra,” Cynthia said. “And this was before we were married,” David added.
Balancing the scales: Maintaining balance in your marriage is a juggling act couples work hard to master.
It all starts with understanding, David said. “We both started as pre-med majors in undergrad (I was pre-med but decided medicine wasn’t for me and went on to law school), I knew the demands of being a physician, and I have respect for it,” he said. “I have a good understanding of both professions and knew there would be times I’d have to do the cooking and cleaning…”
“Because the work never ends, I’m always doing charts and he’s always studying cases, so we have a lot of mini vacations [to destinations such as Aspen, New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Napa Valley, and Miami] where we don’t take the work with us and focus on each other and not carry any of that stress with us at all,” Cynthia said.
The Hobdy’s are well-traveled. They have taken vacations to Dubai, Paris, Nice, Cannes, Monaco, London, Rome, Amsterdam, New Zealand, India, Johannesburg, Ghana, Greece, Panama, St. Thomas, and other locales. They are scheduled to vacation in Egypt, summer 2026.
Comfort: Being a doctor and a judge does not come without emotion. Sometimes, a verdict or a life-changing medical case. Doctors sometimes refer to a patient’s diagnosis as a medical case, which can take a toll. Asked how they show up for each other during those times, David answered, “Sometimes you just have to listen. There is not a lot I can do to help her in her field or her job, and listening is all you can get from your partner…,” he said. “In both of our careers, there are things we can’t discuss with other people, and I’m blessed to have a wife I know I can talk about some things in confidence with, and that makes [the load] easier.”
Sometimes it is in finding ways to bring the other comfort, in Cynthia’s case, making comfort foods for her husband. “Being there doing things to make him feel comfortable to try and take some of the stress off of him,” Cynthia said. “There have been times when I’ve made a pound cake every weekend for months on end because I know he enjoys a piece of pound cake at the end of the night, and I know if I have one sitting on the counter, it makes him smile.”
David added, “I’ll take a look at her schedule and see how many patients she has that day and will [gauge what time she’ll be home] and I’ll have a bath drawn for her when she gets there,” he said.
Keeping the spark alive: Asked how they keep the spark and romance alive in the midst of demanding schedules, David said, “You never let it die. It has just never ended for us, and that is the best way to keep it alive. We have always enjoyed each other, and we always laugh. We can be home alone and turn the music on and dance, we can have a party, just the two of us.”
“When it has gotten hectic, sometimes, we would take off work early and spend some time together and not pick up the kids when they were school age. Both are now adults.” Cynthia added.
Lessons learned: A lot can be gleaned about patience, partnership, and purpose in marriage, and for David, marriage has taught him patience “because life comes in phases and you just have to be patient and you wait it out and hopefully, you are there for each other. We have been together for so long, and all of my days are not healthy days. When people say you are there for sickness and health, that is so true,” he said. “We have to understand that one of our purposes of being in love and being a couple is to be there for each other when health challenges arise.”
Partnership: “You cannot do marriage without having a great partnership. Everything we do, we discuss it, and we do it together, that is understood,” said David. “That’s just the way you tackle issues that you’re going to face in life and in a relationship. And if it is not a partnership or a team effort, it is not going to work, you are not going to prevail.”
Cynthia said, grace is “being able to come home and know you got a partner to help, and being able to take your boss hat off and just be a normal person. Everybody cannot be the boss at the same time, so being able to listen and work together is important.”
Happily, ever after: The Hobdys attend New Jerusalem Baptist Church in McCalla, and have two adult children, David III, 27, and Alecia, 24, Hobdy.
Cynthia, 59, is a Strong, Arkansas native, and attended Northeast Louisiana University [now ULM University of Louisiana Monroe], where she earned a BS degree in chemistry, and New York College of Podiatric Medicine, where she obtained a Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and did her surgical residency in Memphis, TN, at Germantown Midsouth Hospital. Cynthia moved to Birmingham in 1997 to be married to Judge Hobdy, and works in private practice in Bessemer at Bessemer Family Foot Clinic.
David, 59, is a Winnfield, Louisiana native, and attended Northeast Louisiana University [now ULM University of Louisiana Monroe], where he earned a general studies degree, and Miles Law School in Fairfield, where he obtained his Juris Doctorate degree. David practiced law for 15 years in private practice at Finley and Hobdy Law Firm, and later Hobdy and Stewart Law Firm, in Bessemer. He was a municipal prosecutor and judge in Lipscomb, Ala., and was elected in 2010 as a circuit judge for Jefferson County.
