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The way<br />
WE were<br />
Mary Lois & Gerald Rayburn<br />
Leah Mitchener<br />
There are many recipes for a<br />
lot of things in this world. Ones<br />
for pot roasts or chicken<br />
casseroles, some for disaster or<br />
success. But love? Oh yes–love is<br />
probably the most desired yet<br />
elusive one. Gerald and Mary Lois<br />
Rayburn have done a great job of<br />
throwing the ingredients of life<br />
together to make their own love<br />
story one worth sharing.<br />
“Mother knows best” isn’t just a<br />
platitude in the Rayburn household.<br />
The couple was actually<br />
introduced by Mary Lois’ mother,<br />
lovingly known as ‘Little Momma’,<br />
in early 1964 in Batesville,<br />
Mississippi. They went out on a<br />
double date with some of Gerald’s<br />
friends, “and from then on it was<br />
very nice,” said Mary Lois. “We<br />
laugh about it even now,” she<br />
added. It was a very short courtship<br />
before they announced their<br />
engagement and were married<br />
on April 19th of that same year.<br />
They lived in Canton, Mississippi,<br />
for 45 years before they moved to<br />
<strong>Madison</strong> where they currently<br />
reside.<br />
Gerald had spent some time<br />
enlisted in the Navy and was<br />
stationed in Hawaii working with<br />
a flight crew before he met his<br />
wife-to-be. The rest of his working<br />
life was spent as a salesman of<br />
some sort or another, mainly<br />
dealing in farming equipment.<br />
Mary Lois made a lifelong career<br />
at bookkeeping–first for a car<br />
dealership, then First National<br />
Bank, and finally at Mississippi<br />
State Extension Service in <strong>Madison</strong><br />
County for almost 20 years. She<br />
retired in December of 2008,<br />
excited to be able to spend more<br />
time with her husband and their<br />
grandchildren. Gerald continued<br />
working in sales until he officially<br />
retired “completely” in October<br />
of 2016.<br />
Family is the Rayburn’s main<br />
ingredient in their happy marriage.<br />
“We didn’t really even take any<br />
pictures until the kids,” said Mary<br />
Lois. When their sons were<br />
younger, they would take family<br />
trips every summer. “Probably<br />
when we carried the kids to the<br />
Grand Canyon would be my<br />
favorite memory,” said Gerald.<br />
“That was a beautiful, beautiful<br />
trip,” added Mary Lois. Their<br />
oldest son, Billy, and his wife and<br />
daughter, live in the Memphis<br />
area, while their younger son,<br />
Bobby, lives in Baton Rouge with<br />
his wife and two children. The<br />
Rayburns are sad that they are so<br />
far away from their sons, but love<br />
the fact that they are pretty<br />
centrally located between the two<br />
of them. “If they leave our house<br />
at the same time, they both call<br />
saying they got home at about the<br />
same time,” laughed Mary Lois.<br />
8 • Jan/Feb <strong>2018</strong>
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