Murphy – A wedding does not have to be fancy, expensive or planned for years. Sometimes it just takes two folks in love.
Jerry Basinger and Linda Cotton Dabbs decided on a whim to get married downtown Thursday evening. The called a few witnesses, a musician and a photographer, then went from there.
“They called me yesterday,” musician Theresa Gaffney said right before the ceremony began. “They said today was the day.”
The happy couple moved to Murphy eight months ago after being neighbors in Hohenwald, Tenn. They are happy they did after nearly five years together.
“We love the beautiful flowers, and we love this area,” Basinger said.
“We wanted to get married here – very quiet, very simple,” Dabbs said. “We’ve been saying we want to get married, and we did it in the City of Flowers.”
Basinger, 80, is a Vietnam War veteran who served as a respiratory therapist and a medic in the U.S. Army. Cotton was an entrepreneur, owning several businesses back in the day.
Dabbs, 67, has seven grandchildren, while Basinger has 14 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Basinger’s grandson married Dabbs’ ex-daughter-in-law, so they actually share two grandchildren.
The couple just returned from Raleigh, where family members gave blessings for their imminent nuptials.
The ceremony was performed by the couple’s good friend Joy Stein, an ordained minister. The ceremony was short and sweet, and the couple shared a dance right there in the town square after saying, “I do.”