Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Between the Coopers & the Swans: Love stories on campus
Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Rome, GA
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Between the Coopers & the Swans: Love stories on campus

February 12, 2015 | 1233 views

Clark McGehee ('06) and Elizabeth Buice ('08) began a friendship at Darlington that will soon culminate in vows taken at the altar on May 23, 2015.

From the first day that a new Tiger enters the halls of Darlington, they expect academic rigor, a beautiful campus, attentive faculty and staff, and a variety of opportunities and experiences that only this school can offer them. 

In hindsight, however, not every one of these students considers these same formative years as the time they could easily be attending world history class with their soulmate and future spouse.

Darlington’s 500 acres have seen several notable couples that have carried the romantic torch, including founders John Paul and Alice Cooper and more recently Silver Lake’s two iconic swans; but the tradition of sparking love stories and kindling courtships can be found all throughout the school’s 110-year history.

Numbers compiled by Darlington's advancement department speak for themselves. At least 127 married couples alive today are both cut from the same purple cloth. These newly-termed “Darlington duos” committed individually to a life of honor at their alma mater, and later to each other through sacred vows at the altar. Countless other members of the alumni base have dated at some point, and many of them have become engaged.

Elizabeth Buice ('08) first met Clark McGehee ('06) when they were students and fellow runners at Darlington.

“With our running community, you spend lots of time together year-round between cross country, conditioning, and track,” said Elizabeth, now in her final year of physical therapy school at Duke University. “Clark and I were always in the same kind of ‘arena.’”

It often became a playful game for the pair to "unofficially" compete against one another as they ran laps.

Following Clark’s high school graduation, the two remained in touch and would get together from time to time when he would visit from North Carolina. It was not until fall break of Elizabeth’s junior year in college that they were reunited again in Rome, at which point it became harder to bid farewell.

“We had always been good friends,” said Elizabeth. “After that weekend things changed, and we never looked back.”

From kindred hearts pounding on the trails, to smitten souls quickly approaching “I do,” the two will become one in a ceremony at Morris Chapel on May 23—on the campus where it all began.

“Sam says he fell in love with me during freshman year, when we used to wear flannel and Birkenstocks with socks,” said Julie (Wilson) Lucas ('97). “Back then, he would have said that I was attracted to older dorm students.”

Sam ('97) and Julie were both living in Atlanta some years later when it came time for the two to travel independently back to Rome.  

“We actually didn’t reconnect until our five-year reunion at Alumni Weekend in 2002,” said Julie.

After another six months had passed, the two Tigers began a relationship that would give birth to a relocation back to Rome and two little boys: Wilson (‘28) and 2-year old Hudson.

As a member of a legacy family and as Darlington’s director of development, Julie bleeds purple in more ways than one.

“For me it is very personal,” said Julie. “Darlington is a natural connector between two people—that deep love for this school truly unites.”

Fellow classmates Spence ('97) and Mary Katherine (Watkins) Erwin ('97) met during that same season of the school’s history.

Day student Spence and dorm student Mary Katherine didn’t meet until the latter half of high school when she enrolled at Darlington.

“I had a crush on her from the time we were juniors,” said Spence. “When we were seniors, I switched into Mr. Powell’s drama class just to be with her.”

“I had a friend who liked him and kept getting me to ask him certain questions—and he thought I was asking for me,” said Mary Katherine.“We became very close friends, eventually started dating, and went to senior prom with each other.”

The Darlington duo enrolled at the University of Alabama together, but made the decision to date other people in college. By their senior year, Spence and Mary Katherine were back together again.

Now married and the parents of Harley, Teagan and Henry, the entrepreneurial couple now operate the first Steak 'n Shake in their state.

If you ask the happy couple to this day, there is still a debate over who really followed who to Alabama.

“If Mary Katherine hadn’t come to Darlington with her strong ties to the school—if her grandfather and her father had never gone to Darlington—we would have never met,” said Spence. 

Even before the Thornwood School’s female student body merged with Darlington’s boys, love was still in the air for many of the students learning across town on their respective campuses.

Bill ('71) and Mai Mai (Selman) Kelly ('72T) were both in middle school when the young teenagers first met. Mai Mai was friends with Bill’s sister, but it wasn’t until after a few years passed that the future couple began to really get to know each other.

“Girls from all over were in Darlington’s theater productions,” said Mai Mai. “I knew Bill was going to play a sailor in ‘South Pacific,’ and that’s probably the reason I got so involved behind the scenes!”

When it was still custom for the boys to call the girls, Bill would phone his future bride, as the relationship continued to blossom.

“A bunch of people tried out for cheerleading when they began to let girls onto the football field in the early 1970s,” said Mai Mai. “I made the squad, and that was another way that I got to spend time with Bill, who was the quarterback."

Bill and Mai Mai ultimately thank Darlington for bringing them together, and were able to provide that same quality education for children Molly Kelly Steeves (‘98), Bess Kelly (‘00) and Jack Kelly (‘11)

“I don't think Mai Mai and I would have met otherwise,” said Bill. “Darlington has meant everything to me and has opened lots of doors—of all kinds.”

Students are sent to Darlington to gain wisdom, partake in service, and abide with honor. Perhaps if even for the month of February alone, as the world brings its focus to shades of pink and red and appropriately-shaped doilies, Darlington could add an extra line to its motto: Wisdom more than knowledge, service beyond self, honor above everything, and romance among it all. 

Tigers make lifelong friends inside the gates of Darlington. It happens all too often that the platonic love of one's classmate develops and grows, encompassing something even more cherished and beautiful—and romantic.