Leah Dauley has been going to the Oregon Jamboree for more than a decade, but memories of this year’s event are sure to stand out, way above the rest.
The 2010 Sweet Home High grad and her boyfriend, Michael Jones of Springfield, were sitting backstage during Neal McCoy’s performance on July 30 when he called them out onto the stage.
“I thought we were just going to dance on stage,” Dauley said. “My mom and my stepdad went to the Neal McCoy lunch barbecue. They said they got backstage passes and were giving them to me and Michael.”
The real reason they had passes was a little more complicated.
McCoy and his team were co-conspirators with Jones in his plan to propose to Dauley onstage.
“I downloaded Twitter, which I never used before, and messaged Neal McCoy,” Jones said.
McCoy responded and gave him the email of one of his team members, Jones said.
“Once I got a hold of Neal McCoy’s team, they said ‘we’ll just say you won tickets,’” Jones said.
As the date approached, Jones said, he was nervous because the details hadn’t been solidified yet.
“The day before it was supposed to happen I was running around searching (for the contact),” he said.
At same time, he was trying to keep Dauley, who now lives in Eugene, from finding out.
His plan worked.
“At the last moment, everything fell perfectly into place,” Jones said.
When they went out on the stage, Dauley was holding her “Neal McCoy” sign.
In front of the crowd, she turned to look at the singer and when she turned back around, “Mike was just on his knee and that’s when I just dropped my sign,” she said.
Jones said, with help from McCoy’s mic, that he believed they were meant to be together and asked for her hand.
After she said “yes,” the couple danced as McCoy crooned his hit song, “No Doubt About It.”
“I told him that was her favorite song,” Jones said. “It was perfect.”
No word yet on a wedding date.