That's pretty much what I was going to say. In a large city, in the 80s or later, it wasn't that big a deal. But I actually know someone who had a hard time finding an apartment in Knoxville in the 1970s because so many landlords wouldn't rent to an unmarried couple. And there were a LOT of busybodies and gossips. If they set it anywhere in the Deep South in that era, I wouldn't have a bit of trouble buying the premise.