The Marryin' Man of Sevierville

In the 200-year-old city of Sevierville, Tenn., (pop. 9,742) in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, stands the Sevier (pronounced severe) County Courthouse, its lawn adorned with a bronze sculpture of the community’s favorite daughter, Dolly Parton. Inside the courthouse, a young man is paying for a marriage license, his fiancée standing shyly behind him, eyes sparkling with the anticipation of a life together.

“What time does the feed store close?” the young man asks the clerk.

“Five o’clock,” she replies in a soft drawl. Checking her watch, she adds, “Y’all better hurry.”

A typical walk down the aisle usually involves a church and lots of friends and family watching from the pews, but couples who marry in Sevierville tend to do so at Temple’s Feed Store on West Bruce Street—amongst stacks of seeds, gardening implements, and farming supplies. And they consider it about as romantic as it gets.

People from around the globe take their vows of holy matrimony at the feed store, where owner Jimmie Temple has served as Sevier County’s justice of the peace since 1966.

“They call me a county commissioner these days, but I still have the power to marry folks,” a silver-haired Temple grins.

He shrugs off the popularity of his feed store as a marriage site. “I’m close to the courthouse, and I don’t charge anything. There are wedding chapels and the like all over these mountains, but they cost money. I don’t.”

And the feed store doesn’t detract a bit from the occasion’s solemnity. As a devout Christian and active church member, Temple makes certain that couples understand the sincerity and permanence of their commitments.

“Right here’s where I ask my couples to sit while I talk to them,” he says, indicating two padded office chairs facing his beige metal desk. “I always do a bit of counseling before I marry anybody.

“All the marryin’ takes place right here.” He points to a corner between a pair of louvered closet doors and his office doorway.

Back at his desktop, a small metal box identifies its purpose: “Donations to First Baptist Church.”

“I started accepting donations about three years ago—to help my church. Since then, these donations have paid for a new piano, a set of hand bells, and some other things.”

Temple isn’t sure just how many couples he’s married.

“I don’t reckon I’ve ever counted ‘em all up,” he ponders. “I’m guessing about 15,000. I did figure up 1999’s (weddings). That was 1,138. Some days I marry a lot of folks.”

Flipping through a well-worn journal, he points to Oct. 20, 2000. “See this day here? That was a Friday. 10:38 a.m., I married a couple from Kentucky. At 12:37 p.m., another one. 3:40 p.m., here’s a couple from Knoxville. 3:55 p.m., Toledo, Ohio. 4:55 p.m., Hillsville, Virginia. And 5:15 p.m., (The store closes at 5; he was backed up.) I married a couple from Logansville, Georgia.

“I don’t marry nearly as many locals as I do people from other places. I guess I’ve married folks from most everywhere,” Temple says. “Iran, Australia, Germany, England. I’ve got records of every one of ‘em.”

To the best of his knowledge, people find him by simple word of mouth, although Sevierville and its neighbor, Gatlinburg, long have been popular wedding and honeymoon spots.

“I’ve done some interesting marriages in my time,” he reflects. “One of my first was an older couple. The man was from way up in the hills, and he came in and asked if I was ‘the marryin’ man.’ Seemed him and his missus had seven young’uns but were married only by common law. He wanted to make it official without anybody having to know about it. So I assured him it’d be just between us, and I married them. He was a proud old man.”

Temple recently had the pleasure of re-visiting many of the couples he’s united in wedded bliss. As part of its ongoing Winterfest Celebration, Sevierville hosted on Feb. 3 a “Renewal of Vows” ceremony for all couples who had been married in Sevierville. Naturally, Jimmie Temple served as the honorable “knot-tier,” guiding the assembled couples through a moment of recommitment.

While Temple has made Sevierville weddings special for more than 35 years, nuptials prior to that were solemn in another way, explains D. J. Atchley, president of Sevierville’s chamber of commerce. Standing in the front foyer of his business, the Atchley Funeral Home, he recalls, “Back when my daddy was justice of the peace, the couples would come here to get married.

“It worked out pretty good, too,” he grins. “We always had flowers handy.”

Judy Bates is a freelance writer from Alabama.

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