Rubuta ci gaba ga wannan sakin layi - Ya sadu da Helen Poteat yayin da yake Wake Forest. Ita ce 'yar Dr. William Louis Poteat, shugaban jami'a, kuma' yar'uwar farfesa na Stallings na gargajiya. Sun kasance masoya a duk lokacin da suke makaranta. Ya kammala karatunsa daga Kwalejin Wake Forest a 1916, kuma ya sami aikin rubuta kwafin talla don ofishin daukar ma'aikata na gida. Ya kasance da tabbaci ta hanyar rubutun kansa, ya shiga Amurka Marine Reserve a 1917. Ya bar Philadelphia don aiki a ƙasashen waje a Faransa a kan jirgin USS "Henderson" a ranar 24 ga Afrilu, 1918. A Faransa, ya yi aiki a matsayin kwamandan kwamandan tare da 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines a lokacin yakin Château-Thierry. An ji masa rauni a kafa a yakin Belleau Wood
bayan da aka kai hari a kan wani makami mai linzami a ranar 25 ga Yuni. Bayan ya roƙi likitocin kada su yanke masa hannu, ya koma gida ya yi shekara biyu yana jinya a asibitin Brooklyn Naval Hospital. Daga baya ya lalata shi da faduwa a kan kankara, kuma an yanke shi a 1922. Shekaru da yawa bayan haka, dole ne a yanke sauran ƙafarsa. Bayan kammala warkewarsa, Stallings da Poteat sun yi aure a ranar 8 ga Maris, 1919; suna da 'ya'ya mata biyu, Sylvia (an haife ta 1926) da Diana (an haife ta 1931), kafin su saki a 1936. A cikin 1928-1929, sun mayar da gidan Poteat kusa da Yanceyville, North Carolina. Ta hanyar Helen mahaifiyarsa ta hanyar aure ita ce mai zane-zane Ida Isabella Poteat.