SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee were married over the weekend in a private ceremony in Tennessee.
The wedding came almost a year to the day after the couple’s originally scheduled wedding date. Johnson’s office announced Tuesday that the ceremony was held Saturday at Blackberry Farm near Knoxville.
“We had a small ceremony with an intimate group of family and friends and are thrilled to be starting our lives together,” Johnson said in a statement.
The former NBA star and the education reform advocate had planned to marry on Sept. 4, 2010, in a much larger ceremony in Sacramento, but they rescheduled the nuptials after a wave of intense public interest. Some of that interest centered on plans to hold an after-ceremony party and reception at the Sacramento-area home of Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, a developer with extensive land holdings in the region who has been a longtime supporter of Johnson.
Johnson and Rhee have been engaged since 2009.
Johnson, a Sacramento native, played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association — most of that span with the Phoenix Suns — before returning home and working to revitalize the Oak Park neighborhood. Many of his efforts there were under the auspices of St. HOPE, which helped launch a cultural center and charter school in the area.
Rhee served on the board of St. HOPE Public Schools in 2006-2007, and the couple attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration together.
Rhee assumed the role as chancellor of the D.C. schools in 2007, but resigned in October 2010 after the mayor who supported her lost his re-election bid. She was featured in the school reform documentary “Waiting for Superman” and founded the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group StudentsFirst.
A honeymoon was planned, but a spokesman said the mayor will not discuss details because he planned to surprise his new bride.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.