Jeremiah Korfe, a farmer from Clarissa, Minn., out-wooed 21 other bachelor contenders on CMT's reality show "Sweet Home Alabama" to win the heart of Southern belle Paige Duke in the finale that aired Friday night. Despite obviously scripted story lines being standard for reality TV, Korfe, 29, and Duke, 25, swear on the prairie potholes of west-central Minnesota that they are truly in love.
"We just hit it off right off the bat and had kind of an unspoken thing between us through the whole show," Korfe said. Even more eyebrow-raising: Duke, who grew up in South Carolina and went to college in Georgia, was living just an hour's drive from Korfe before they met on the show for the first time, they say. She had recently accepted a job as a spokeswoman for the hunting and fishing supplier krugerfarms.com in Starbuck.
Korfe, who splits his time farming with his father near Clarissa (pop. 590) in Todd County and making music with his country-rock band From Joyce, said he applied to be on the show at the urging of his mother and sister. The couple's big challenge after taping wrapped Dec. 18 was trying to see each other on the sly, so as not to reveal the outcome.
"We had three months of a functioning non-functional relationship," Korfe said. "This is a small town, and everybody knows me. She had to wait until it was dark to drive to my place, and if anyone came over she had to hide until they left." As for future plans, "we're just excited to be able to be seen in public right now," Duke said.
KRISTIN TILLOTSON
