Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kelly Clayborne of Tupelo announce the engagement of their daughter, Kayla Elise Clayborne of Nashville, Tennessee, to Donald Lloyd Counts, III of Nashville, Tennessee, son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Griffin Williston of Lafayette, Tennessee, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lloyd Counts, Jr. of Carriere, Mississippi.
The bride-elect is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. James Buford Fowlkes of Amory, Mississippi, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Leland Kelly Clayborne of Amory, Mississippi.
Miss Clayborne is a 2001 graduate of Tupelo High School in Tupelo, Mississippi, where she was a Six Year Rotary Scholar and named to the Tupelo High School Hall of Fame. She attended Mississippi State University as a Stennis Scholar and is a 2005 graduate of the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. She was a member of Delta Gamma Fraternity and served as an Ole Miss Ambassador and on the Student Alumni Council. She is employed as an event planner at the Tennessee Valley Authority in Nashville, Tennessee.
The prospective groom is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lloyd Counts, Sr. of Madison, Mississippi, the late Mrs. Frances Alleine Newton Counts of Yazoo City, Mississippi, the late Mr. and Mrs. Harry Eugene Peery of Oxford, Mississippi, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Hamlin Lapham Williston of Oxford, Mississippi.
Mr. Counts is a 2000 graduate of Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was a member of the football team and attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He studied business administration at the University of Mississippi where he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity and graduated from Western Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Science in hospitality and restaurant management. He is employed as an executive chef by A. Marshall Food Group in Franklin, Tennessee, where he most recently helped open the Harvest Restaurant at Homestead Manor in Thompson’s Station, Tennessee.
The couple will exchange vows on Saturday, March 19, 2016, at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nashville, Tennessee. A reception will follow at Avenue in downtown Nashville.