Robert Dennis "Denny" Buchanan was born in Jackson, Mississippi on February 12, 1980 to Bill and Rhonda Buchanan. Bill was a successful lawyer and Rhonda focused on the family and "community activities" which consisted mainly of long liquid lunches and visits to the flower shop. Bill was largely absent, choosing to spend his life locked in his law office. Although a wonderful attitude to have from a work perspective, it was not a good way to raise a family. So he basically stayed away and steeled himself with a large glass of Scotch as soon as he walked in the door, on the rare occasions he came home from the office. Denny was the youngest of three brothers and, from the moment he was brought home from the hospital, was very much the baby of the family.

Early on in kindergarten, Denny often behaved in selfish ways, hording the blocks or crying whenever he had to give up a toy. And as the young Denny was already showing very noticeable personality quirks, his family already showed a willingness to take up for him. Later in life, Denny would joke about how he was the only kid in Mississippi to get kicked out of four different kindergarten schools. Whenever he got into trouble, Rhonda would dock her big Mercedes in front of the school door and march in to see the principal. It was never Denny's fault and this was an attitude that continued throughout his entire life.

Predictably, as Denny progressed through school, he was usually tolerated rather than appreciated. He did just well enough to keep passing through the grades, although most teachers would have given him a social promotion anyway, just to avoid dealing with an irate Rhonda.

At Jackson Prep, a private school, Denny played soccer and was voted onto the all-city team. He was naturally talented and his innate skill overcame his basic laziness. Coaches coddled him to avoid Rhonda's wrath. Her ability to blame Denny's shortcomings on everyone around him was famous by this point. Once, she even wrote a letter to the Governor, complaining that Denny failed his driving test because the administrator "didn't like him."

Denny graduated from high school and attended the University of Mississippi. Freshmen at Ole Miss are required to live in the dorms, but Rhonda thought this was terribly harsh treatment. So they paid the fees for dorm living and filled out all the paperwork and then promptly drove downtown and rented Denny a house off Lamar Boulevard.

Denny went to work pledging a fraternity and dating. Nominally, he was studying business at Ole Miss, but most of his time was spent loading up his convertible BMW with girls and riding out to Sardis Lake. Very good looking, Denny's family money and natural charm usually balanced out his less savory personality traits, so throughout high school, he had been quite popular.

For a while at Ole Miss, Denny dated numerous girls, never really getting serious with any one person. But when he met Barbara Dubois, he was incredibly infatuated. Here was a woman who didn't seem all that impressed by his money or his family. She enjoyed riding in the convertible, but didn't seem awed by it. And to top it off, she was incredibly beautiful and very active in the pageant circuit. It was expected that she would easily win Miss Mississippi and go onto the Miss America pageant. Denny was determined that she would be the perfect trophy wife to compliment the house his parents would build him in Madison after graduation.

In 2002, Denny asked Barbara to marry him following graduation, but she declined his proposal. He knew she had always been somewhat cool to him -- she didn't fawn over him like the other girls, which was a bit of her allure -- but he still thought she would accept his engagement. He was shocked and enraged and ran off to New Orleans for a long weekend of carousing with his fraternity brothers to get over being rebuffed.

After he graduated, Denny began working as a business manager for his father's law firm, although people often joked that he played more golf than worked. At the time of the Yoknapatawpha County Literature Festival Pageant, Denny was spotted back in Oxford, hanging out with old friends and visiting the various bars on the Square.