In today’s culture, Simpson County included, high school graduates leave for college or trade school often never to return to their hometowns. But the three adult children of Dennis and Allyson Berch have opted to remain in Magee, at least for now.
Katelyn Lindsey and husband Aaron, Molly Allan and husband Michael and youngest sibling Ben not only live in Magee, they all live on the same street. Katelyn explained, “We grew up on Kennedy Drive, and growing up there were several families with young children on that street. Mama and Daddy were on Kennedy Drive; Mama Jean and Papa Ted were on Kennedy Drive; and Mama Jean’s parents, Mom and Pop, were also on Kennedy Drive. Some people are like ‘I want to get far away from my family – I certainly don’t want to live on the same street as my family.’ But I’ve really enjoyed it. We’ll ride the golf cart or side by side to each other’s house. If you’re short an ingredient – ‘hey have you got an extra egg? I’m on my way if you do!’”
Family is the priority for keeping the siblings in Magee.
All three graduated from Simpson County Academy. Katelyn and Molly chose college after graduation but Ben decided to work in the family store, Central Building Supply in downtown Magee. He is a fourth generation employee. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to waste the money going to college. I’d rather be trying to make a dollar than sitting in a classroom. You’d get an associate’s degree or something like that and have a piece of paper with your name on it. To me it wasn’t worth that to sit in a classroom…I say for nothing just because I didn’t have a plan for college. If you’ve got a plan, that’s different. Going to college, just to go because you don’t know what you want to do? I prefer just to work.”
Katelyn attended Co-Lin Simpson Center and received her associate’s degree with the intent of pursuing a degree in business. She attended Mississippi College for a semester but returned to Magee in December 2013. In February 2014 she enrolled in court reporting school, graduating in fall 2016. Only a few weeks later she went to work as a court reporter.
Molly traveled north and attended Northwest Community College in Oxford, MS, for a year. However, she didn’t know what she wanted to do so she returned to Magee. She began working and attending William Carey University but was still unclear what path to follow. While working and living in Hattiesburg Molly did some shadowing in the medical field. She enrolled in the University of Mississippi Medical Center radiology program, living with Katelyn, who lived in Rankin County at the time. Molly went on to Hinds Community College to get certified in ultrasound, then worked at Merit Health hospitals in the Jackson area.
While living in Rankin County Katelyn began looking for a house. “We all know as a single girl it’s expensive to live in Rankin County. I’m going to look in Magee. I really didn’t want to rent if I could help it. There was this house actually up the street from Mama and Daddy’s house. I said ‘that’s a cute house. It’s got a lot of potential. It’s the perfect size.’ It needed lots of TLC. I reached out to the owner and, long story short, I ended up purchasing that house, I think the week before Christmas of 2018. My husband when we got married in 2022 moved to Magee. We are still there. Magee is a half way point for us with work. He works in Richland and the court district I’m in covers four different counties.”
There was never even a question of where Molly and Michael would live as both are Magee natives born and raised. Michael is a fire fighter with Magee and Columbia as well as a police officer with the Magee Police Department. “Between us working here and having family here we wanted to be close to family,” said Molly. She recently took a job with Simpson General Hospital, thankful to give up the two hour round trip commute to the Jackson area.
While Ben works full time at the store, he is also a part-time police officer with the MPD and a lieutenant with the Magee Volunteer Fire Department. He graduated from the Police Academy in July 2025, giving him certified status. He works and prefers night shift. Ben joined MVFD during his senior year in high school. Volunteers must be 18 to join.
He became a volunteer firefighter because his grandfather, Ted Allen, was a volunteer firefighter. “I also had a bunch of friends on the fire department too, so they kind of persuaded me to be on there and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. This will actually be my fifth year on the fire department. Once I got on the fire department, there were a few guys also in law enforcement and that peaked my interest.”
Molly and Michael knew each other from a distance growing up in Magee. Her Hattiesburg roommate’s eventual husband was good friends with Michael so the two were around each other more often. “It was 2019 when Ben was getting ready to graduate from Simpson Academy and he was doing his senior project with the fire department. Michael was Ben’s mentor for his senior project so they became friends. Michael started coming around more, hanging out with Ben, and it just kind of happened. We’ve been together ever since. Almost five and a half years together.” The couple will celebrate their first wedding anniversary in November.
Ben and Michael also convinced Aaron to join the MVFD, making it a real family affair.
The three siblings say they loved growing up in Magee. Katelyn and Molly are looking forward to having children in the future. Both sisters believe Magee is a great place to raise a family. At 23, Ben has not thought that far ahead, admitting he is not ready to settle down to one job yet. He added, “At each job you’re here to help somebody, just in different ways. I’ve seen people in here I’ve put out a fire and I’ve seen people in here I’ve given tickets to. It’s different every day. Then vice versa, you go to a fire call or a law enforcement call and see people you’ve seen in the store. It’s all about helping people. At the end of the day I want to help as many people as I can, try to leave a positive impact as much as I can in all three positions.”
Katelyn and Molly say Magee has so much to offer for families especially its convenience between Jackson and Hattiesburg. And the sisters are excited to see their parents as grandparents. “I don’t think there will be lacking any spoiling!” Katelyn added.
