valve body and stall converter question

I have never had a mopar with an automatic and I am getting married soon and I would love for my new wife to be, to be able to drive a real car. so I am thinking of putting an auto together for a duster.

It is a 73 duster and it has an older year but stock 340 and I have some core SB 727s and a running 904 so I am thinking of going with 904 since I know its a good unit.

I am thinking of going with a reverse pattern valve body to eliminate the kickdown linkage and make it more fun to drive. I will most likely put the auto on the column so all she has to do is pull the shifter down away from "N" to shift. (seems easy enough)

But my question is do I still a stall convertor even with a manual valvebody ??