Hometown Madison - January & February 2017

“HE HAD BEEN
ACTING A LITTLE
FUNNY, BUT
I DIDN’T THINK
ANYTHING OF IT.”
“It was September 26, 2015,”
recalls Whitnie McGee. “It was
game day, and most people
have a hard time believing we
were both wearing red.” That’s
because Whitney, a Booneville
native, is a die-hard Mississippi
State fan. “I used to tell my family
and friends that I’d never date or
marry anyone from Ole Miss or
Alabama.” That’s what makes the
story so much fun. Richard is a big
Ole Miss fan. Because she was a
good girlfriend, Whitnie agreed to
accompany Richard to an Ole Miss
game in Oxford, and she thought
he was taking her to dinner at the
Ajax Diner on the Square before
the game. “He had been acting
a little funny, but I didn’t think
anything of it.”
When they got to the
sidewalk in front of Square Books,
Richard stopped and told Whitnie
that on the very spot where they
were standing, his grandfather
had proposed to his grandmother
65 years earlier. “Then he told
me that he wanted to spend
the rest of his life with me, and
he got down on one knee and
proposed.”
Luckily, she said “yes,” because
just above them on the balcony,
her mother and his entire family
were looking down on them.
“They all clapped and cheered,”
says Whitnie. “It was the sweetest
thing.”
The storybook romance
began on Halloween in 2013.
“His best friend married my best
friend and that’s how we met,”
Whitnie says. “We were at a
Halloween party and hit it off.
Somehow, we ended up singing
karaoke somewhere and I sang
the Ike & Tina Turner version of
‘Proud Mary.’”
Whitnie had a feeling she
might see him again, and a couple
of days later he texted, asking if
she’d like to hang out. “He cooked
me dinner the next week, and
we just connected. We’ve been
together ever since.”
Richard was originally from
Canton, and when the couple
began planning their wedding,
set for April 23, 2016, they chose
to get married at Lake Caroline.
42 •• Jan/Feb 2017 2017