Metasequoia or Metasequoia Ogon, the latter being a bright yellow leafed cultivar. Neither is evergreen. They grow fast and none of your friends probably have them.

Dogwoods are a classic.

How much sun or shade or water does the spot get?

October Glory is somewhat fussy about doing well in Southeastern US. I would recommend the very similar but much better Red Sunset Red Maple. Here is a link to a description and photo. http://gibneyce.com/trees-from-seminar-21---30.html#Red

Im just curious, what are reasons people would not want an evergreen tree?

Toronado, it will be in the SE corner of the yard with a 6 foot privacy fence. In the winter when the sun is lower in the sky the fence casts a longer shadow. Once the canopy is over the fence it will be full sun, all day as there are no other trees anywhere near it. We are having a zone on our sprinkler system converted to drip line for all of the arborvitae so there will be sufficient water.

Rrle152, in reference to the watering schedule. I am in St Louis and on a 60 year old lot with real soil. For established trees I have only had to water one summer, 2012 I think it was and that sure enough was for my Metasequoia's benefit. Looking back at temp and precipitation records there were a couple dustbowl years in the 30's when I probably would have also.

When they're new you'll enjoy that system though.

The standard thereabouts is dogwood with azalea underneath, and with the green background the azalea will really pop. Your preferred ground cover that blooms at a different time will make a nice view.

.02

redbud, white fringetree, franklinia, american smoketree, serviceberry