Inside Alan Jackson’s Daughter Mattie’s Love Story With Ben Selecman

Alan Jackson’s son-in-law, Ben Selecman, passed away suddenly last week, and country fans are now remembering him through his picture perfect romance with Jackson’s daughter, Mattie.

Selecman passed on Wednesday, Sept. 12, according to a post on Alan Jackson‘s website. The 28-year-old was in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he was trying to help a woman maneuver from the dock onto an unsteady boat. Selecman reportedly fell in the process, hitting his head and getting severe brain trauma. Selecman was an assistant district attorney in Davidson County, Tennessee. He was a lifelong Knoxville resident — even attending college and law school there. He was married to Jackson’s oldest daughter, Mattie.

The two had a romantic wedding, which was documented in Southern Bride. Mattie Jackson herself wrote out the tale of their romance for the publication, in an essay filled with dreamy imagery and happy memories.

“Ben will tell you we first met at a mutual friend’s wedding,” she noted, “but I just remember dancing with a cute guy and never thinking about him after.”

Their early relationship apparently followed that pattern for a while, with Selecman chasing down Jackson, who was more aloof. Jackson wrote that they really began to date two years later, “while he spent a summer clerking for a judge in Nashville during law school.”

“He asked me out and I said no, but he didn’t give up. Three months later, he called,” she remembered. “I finally relented, so he drove almost 4 hours just for dinner and we’ve talked every day since.”

Jackson also described the picturesque proposal, which Selecman apparently planned pretty carefully. “He took me on a picnic on the Old Historic Natchez Trace, where we enjoyed incredible wine, cheese, dancing and the most romantic proposal,” she wrote.

As for the wedding itself, Jackson noted that Selecman took an active role in planning their special occasion. She said their favorite part was the first dance, which was a surprise to their families. They did a two-step to Alan Jackson’s first radio single: “Blue-Blooded Woman and a Redneck Man.”

“It felt like the first day of school, senior prom, and a sort of graduation into a world with so much more gravity than any we’d yet experienced,” Mattie wrote. “I was calm and ready to cross the finish line, while Ben was giddy and charged like a little boy throwing his first fastball.”

The family has asked for thoughts and prayers during their difficult grieving process, which many fans have been quick to provide.