Donnelle is a native of Gulfport, and graduated from Auburn University with a B.A. in English in 1996, and received a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Southern Miss in 2000. Donnelle was raised Southern Baptist, but "came home" in 2005. She is currently the librarian at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel.
Dennis was born in San Francisco in 1972 and graduated from Blackburn College in 1995. He received a law degree from Loyola in New Orleans in 1999. After practicing law for three years, he decided "he was in league with the devil, and repented (retired from the practice of law)." Dennis then returned to school and is currently finishing his Ph.D. in history at Southern Miss.