By Katie Ginn
She was a junior at Southern Miss. He worked offshore. But on this night, they were both out on the town, at a place called Roper’s Rockin’ Country in Hattiesburg.
The petite, spunky blonde saw the dashing young man – tall, brown hair, bit of a dimple – line dancing. She decided he needed a dance partner. She walked up, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “You think you know this (dance)?” As she recalled later, it was “fun at first sight.”
No, you didn’t just read a deleted scene from “Sweet Home Alabama.” It’s actually the start of Rebecca and Dalco Turner’s story. A little sheepish sharing their meet-cute for a Christian magazine, Rebecca said with a laugh, “The Lord would know if I didn’t tell the truth.”
Twenty years later, the Turners are still together, now living in metro Jackson, and with a lifestyle focused on faith and family. Though a line dance wouldn’t be out of the question.
Building a foundation
Rebecca and Dalco were both believers when they paired up at Roper’s. Still, “we met in a bar in our early 20s – not exactly walking that particular walk (with Christ),” Rebecca says.
They dated for six months, then were engaged for two years. Rebecca’s parents would only pay for the wedding if she finished college beforehand, especially since she’d be the first in her family to earn a degree. She did one better, graduating with her master’s in May 2007, and then she and Dalco married in October, with a little line dancing at the reception.
During their long engagement, “we grew up and matured together, which was a good thing,” Rebecca says. “As much as we were blindly in love at six months in, you just learn more about someone the longer you stay with them.”
Another good thing? Her signing up for a half-marathon shortly after the wedding.
“It was on those long runs where I just reconnected with that still, small voice,” Rebecca says, “(and) my long runs on Saturday morning became more important than what we would normally do on Friday nights. (I) wanted to be well fed and fueled, and hydrated. (Dalco) never bucked that.
“We also just knew it was time (to grow in that way).”
Meanwhile, they started church shopping in Hattiesburg. “I was raised Church of God, and Dalco was raised Baptist,” Rebecca says. “He would’ve certainly gone down that (Church of God) road with me, if that had been super important to me – but us being comfortable together was more important.”
As Rebecca started her career as a dietetic intern, her coworker Lisa Case “had a super strong faith,” and she took Rebecca under her wing. The two of them started talking about the Bible and doing devotionals together, and Lisa invited the Turners to church.
“She was my first friend where I felt like faith was a part of the friendship,” Rebecca says.
Then, after a couple years of trying, the Turners were pregnant with Neely, their first daughter. “It changed everything. We recognized (getting pregnant) was a miracle in itself, and we recognized that a lot of things had to change.”
After Neely was born, Dalco attended a men’s event where Will Primos shared Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
“I came home that night and told Rebecca about that verse, and for some reason, that one just stuck with me,” Dalco says. “That would be kind of what got me back on track with the walk we needed to be in.”
By that time, the Turners had started attending Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison, which became their first church home, where Rebecca was baptized on Christmas Day 2011. They had moved to Gluckstadt early in their marriage thanks to a job opportunity for Dalco.
They made church a regular habit and got involved in life groups – something Rebecca says she wishes they’d done earlier. If she could give her younger self a piece of advice, it would be: “Pick good friends (even sooner). Especially as we got into parenting, we picked friends who embodied what we wanted to do.”
Gators and weights
Second daughter Emilee James, or EJ, was born to the Turners in 2019 as a “surprise” and keeps the surprises coming, including a picture she colored for this writer during the interview. With two girls, Rebecca and Dalco work hard to put their family’s needs first.
However, “we both have always enjoyed extracurriculars,” Rebecca says. “We don’t get everything right in our marriage … but I think one thing that has held pretty well over the last 18 years is respect for each other’s personal engagements, and teaching the girls to be proud of and encouraging to each spouse (in those hobbies).”
As someone who thrives on a physical challenge, her hobby of choice is fitness. His is the outdoors, especially fishing, hunting, and archery. He supports her endeavors and vice versa – but always with the family prioritized.
“With working all week, and the activities that I do mostly happening on weekends, I always try to keep in mind what the family has coming up,” Dalco says. “I like to spend as much time as I can with (the girls) on the weekends.”
A previous boss got Dalco into fishing. “Then (came) the first boat,” he says.
“I was fishing for fun at first, and it got to where – I’m just competitive by nature. I did archery tournaments for a number of years. That took a lot of weekend time. So fishing was a new outlet, being able to fish during the week, living close to the Reservoir.” (By then, the Turners had moved from Gluckstadt to Rankin County; they’re now members of First Baptist Brandon.)
Dalco joined the Magnolia Crappie Club, and now he’s three years into tournament fishing. He also offers crappie guiding on the Reservoir, gives back to organizations like Wounded Warrior through guided fishing, and even dabbled in gator hunting for several years.
The latter “stemmed out of my archery career,” he says. Some archery friends offered to take him on a gator hunt if he got a tag. On his very first gator hunt in 2013, he caught a 13-foot, 6.5-inch monster that weighed 741.5 pounds – a state record.
“It went worldwide. It looked like a dinosaur,” Rebecca says. “We had Diane Sawyer calling the house.”
Rebecca’s fitness journey led to her own moment in the spotlight last summer.
First, after graduating from half to full marathons, she heard about CrossFit – and bought two memberships.
“CrossFit (often involves) lots of fit people who exercise with very little clothes on. I wanted (Dalco) to know, ‘I’m not going for that. Please come with me!’” And he did.
CrossFit friendships led Rebecca to training with Mississippi Barbell (Lee joined her in that for a bit as well). Then, ready for the next challenge, she heard about the relatively new Natural Strongman federation from a coworker.
As the name implies, Natural Strongman “emphasizes drug-tested, genetically gifted strength and power … providing a level playing field for non-enhanced athletes,” Rebecca says. (Strongman competitions involve functional movements, i.e., picking up heavy loads and moving them, rather than traditional powerlifting.)
Rebecca competed in a local event, the Red Brick Rumble in Clinton, and “got hooked,” she says. Then she heard there’d be a qualifier, also in Clinton, for Natural Strongman Worlds. She decided to take nine months and train for it. She’d be competing in the lightweight women’s over-40 division.
“My only goal was to go and do OK,” she says, adding that she probably wouldn’t have bothered if the event had been held further away.
At the January 2025 competition, she won her division, earning a bid for Worlds – which would be held in Ireland in August.
Rebecca recalls thinking, “As this sport grows (and more people get involved), the chances of me qualifying again (are slim). This might be my only chance.”
Neely was going to turn 13 the weekend of Worlds and told her folks she’d be OK spending her birthday in Ireland. One would hope!
For his part, Dalco quips, “I’m not going to qualify for anything to go to Ireland, so I might as well ride my wife’s coattails. … She always has a crazy idea (for an adventure), and I’m along for the ride.”
From January to August, Rebecca trained and trained some more.
“I couldn’t have done it without Dalco’s support,” she says. “There were a lot of tears, a lot of feeling like an imposter … Most of those ladies had been at this sport for decades.”
She had no illusions of winning, but “I felt like I needed to do it (anyway), because I was so scared of it. I just felt like God was like, ‘Just step out and see,’” she says.
When she started training, she could only complete one of the seven events that would happen at Worlds. By the time she got on the plane to Ireland, she was completing six out of seven events.
In the end, the family had a fabulous Irish vacation. And Rebecca took second at Worlds in the Max Axle event, in which participants must lift a thick-handled barbell from the floor to overhead “by any means necessary.” She lifted 165 pounds.
“There’s this idea that once you turn 40, it’s just over. And for me and my journey, that is not true,” Rebecca says. “I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m the fittest I’ve ever been. My faith is the strongest it’s ever been.”
The amount of support she received – and the number of people who were inspired by her Natural Strongman journey – showed Rebecca “it was bigger than me,” she says.
“My mom has osteoporosis at 70 … Strength training is one of the major ways we can fight back against signs, symptoms, and all the risk factors.”
That said, while Rebecca does have her eye on the 2026 Red Brick Rumble, at the time of this interview she was taking it easy – at least for someone who just competed on the international level.
“I’m getting back into more of (weight training) for enjoyment, versus trying not to die,” she says, laughing.
Running their race, living their call
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle – spiritually and physically – requires sacrifice. Rebecca wakes up at 4:15 a.m. and hits the gym at 5, while Dalco gets the girls ready for school. Dinners are as healthy and home-cooked as possible. (Rebecca is still a dietitian and also hosts the radio show “Good Things with Rebecca Turner” on SuperTalk. Dalco is operations manager at XPO in Richland.)
The Turners encourage their daughters to be active, too. EJ is a “dancing machine,” Rebecca says. Neely runs cross-country, and Dalco describes himself as an “intermittent runner” who stays fit enough for the occasional 5K – and to jog across shortcuts during Neely’s cross-country meets so he can cheer her on at different parts of the course.
More importantly, the Turners know they have a calling – though it takes a different form for each of them.
Dalco wants to make sure he provides for his family financially, especially in case anything happens to him.
For Rebecca, “Right now my purpose is for our girls to see what true love and respect look like (in our marriage). I pray all the time that they find someone that loves them the way their dad loves me. And we talk about that, openly, what a good and healthy relationship is and isn’t.”
On a day-to-day basis, “we try not to allow people to get into their own silos. We try to force family TV time,” Rebecca says, laughing. “We’ve made a habit of being highly involved with our kids.”
That involvement includes a lot of prayers that sound like, “Help me see what I need to stay on top of.” For instance, “Dalco is good about having conversations with Neely that are probably awkward, because boys do weird things these days that didn’t happen (when we were young),” Rebecca says.
“We’re trying to just navigate this world and get (our girls raised) as intact as possible.”
With a dad who kills monster gators, a mom who could lift them – and both parents following the One strong enough to carry all burdens – the Turner girls should do just fine.