Country Singer Rory Feek Marries His Daughter’s Teacher 8 Years After the Death of His Wife Joey

Rory Feek has remarried nearly a decade after the tragic death of his wife, Joey.

The 59-year-old country singer shared on his blog that he and Rebecca tied the knot on July 14 “under a beautiful timber-frame pavilion” in Greycliff, Montana in front of family and friends who made the long trek on short notice. In a post on his blog aptly dubbed “the wedding singer,” Rory shared how he and Rebecca ultimately decided marriage was, in fact, in the cards, and it’s all thanks to Rory and Joey’s 10-year-old daughter, Indiana.

For some time now, Rory shared that “Indiana only saw Rebecca as ‘Miss Rebecca’ her schoolteacher and our friend.” He added, “And although she had become much more than that to me, I was very careful to let Indy ‘figure it out’ on her own.”

Rory said he wondered if “it might ever occur to Indiana that Rebecca could more than just a friend to her Papa, and to her.”

Not only did Indiana figure it out, she practically brokered the nuptials.

The way Rory tells it, it happened in March as Rebecca was taking Indy to school. And something magical happened just moments later. Rebecca returned with Indiana to the house and Rory says she told him, “Indiana just asked me something that I think you need to hear.” Rebecca had shared that Indiana told her, “‘Ms. Rebecca, I think you should marry Papa.'”

With Indiana present in that conversation, Rory says Indiana looked at him and said, “‘[A]nd I told Miss Rebecca that my Mama’s been gone a long time. And if she marries you, maybe she could be my new mother.'”

That sweet moment, Rory says, brought tears to his eyes.

At their wedding, Rory surprised Rebecca with the song, “I Do,” inspired by Rebecca’s unparalleled love. The ceremony and his performance was captured on video and shared on his YouTube channel. But the picturesque event and the surprise song wasn’t even Rory’s favorite part of that special day.

“And although surprising Rebecca by singing a song I wrote for her at the wedding was a wonderful, I think by-far my and her favorite moment of the wedding was this one,” said Rory, who also has two daughters, Heidi and Hopie, from a previous relationship. “When Indiana was given the gift of having a Mama in her life again. And Rebecca was given the gift of being a mother. And we became a family.”

Joey Feek, one half of the country and bluegrass duo Joey + Rory, died on March 4, 2016, after a battle with cervical and colorectal cancer. She was 40. Nearly a year after Joey’s death, the duo won a GRAMMY for Best Roots Gospel Album for their album, Hymns That Are Important to Us. At the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards, Rory gave an emotional acceptance speech in memory of his late wife.

Two months after that emotional GRAMMY win, Joey’s solo album, If Not for You (recorded in 2005) was posthumously released by Capitol Christian Distribution and Universal Music, as well as Rory, the album’s co-producer and Joey’s songwriting partner.

“When this album was recorded in 2005, Joey and I were still newlyweds, or at least we felt like we were,” Rory shared in a press release. “Though we had hopes for the record at the time, it wasn’t meant to be, and so this collection of music sat quietly on a shelf for the last 10 years or so, waiting for the right time to come along, when maybe somehow, someone would care. A time like now.”

“It is one of the great joys of my life to dust these songs off and bring life to them again,” he added. “Not just the songs, but also the stories and the life of the special woman that these songs represent.”

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