Benson couple mourned after fatal head-on collision

North Carolina State Highway Patrol Troopers say a pickup truck crashed head-on into the couple's truck on N.C. Highway 210 near Benson.

Robert McGee, 81, and his bride of 58 years, Melba McGee, died at the scene.

Both were well-known in the McGee's Crossroads community for making music on Friday nights, and for years, people crossed county lines to go to Beaver Creek Music Hall to hear the couple who lived their songs like a love song.

Kenneth McGee says his brother had a treasured his music – hard country and bluegrass – and had a fondness for cowboy hats, the music of George Jones and shooting a buck.

"The only time he didn't wear a cowboy hat is when he was singing gospel songs and deer hunting," Kenneth McGee said.

"This community has lost two angels, I'll tell you that," said family member Pat Penny. "But they're together now, and that's the way they would have wanted it."

The Highway Patrol isn't sure why the driver, David Michael Walker Jr., 19, of Princeton, crossed the center line, saying that it doesn't appear alcohol or speed were to blame. He was charged with death by motor vehicle and cited for driving left of the center line.

At the scene of the crash Thursday, mourners stopped by with flowers.

Back at the home place, the McGees' family yearned to hear the couple's duet, "I Wouldn't Change A Thing About You."

"That's the only song she would sing with him," Penny said. "You know, where you saw one, you saw the other. They were just the most loving people."