JACKSON (AP) — Former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove has remarried, The Associated Press confirmed Wednesday.

Musgrove married the former Melody Bounds on Aug. 4 in a small ceremony attended by their children. The couple had been dating about two years.

Ronnie Musgrove, 51, is an attorney for a Jackson-area law firm.

Melody Musgrove, 47, works in Mississippi as director of business development for Florida-based LRP Publications.

The couple lives in Madison.

Each has two children from a previous marriage, and the children range in age from 19 to 24.

Ray McNamara, managing partner of the Copeland Cook Taylor & Bush law firm where Musgrove works, announced the Musgroves’ marriage in a memo to the firm. AP obtained an excerpt of the e-mail on Wednesday.

“If you had the pleasure of meeting her, you know that Ronnie should be congratulated,” McNamara wrote. “If you have not met her, then you have something to look forward to.”

Ronnie Musgrove and his first wife, Melanie, were married nearly 24 years before divorcing in 2001, during his second year as governor.

Melody Musgrove is a former director of special education for the state Department of Education. She used to be married to Sam Bounds, who for the past several years has been executive director of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents.

Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, served two terms as a state senator from Batesville and one term as lieutenant governor before becoming governor in January 2000. He was defeated in November 2003 by Republican Haley Barbour.

Education was among the issues Musgrove promoted most aggressively during his time in public office. As lieutenant governor, he was instrumental in rewriting Mississippi’s school funding formula in 1997.