Progress 2012: A Story to Tell

Progress 2012

A

Story to

Tell

Advertiser The Clanton

TABLE OF CONTENTS DONNY STRONG

4

Jemison soldier makes miraculous recovery

GOLDEN YEARS

14

Littletons celebrate 75 years of marital bliss

DOWN ON THE FARM

20

Agriculture way of life for two young men

NIGHT OF TERROR

24

Chilton County bore brunt of 1932 tornadoes

BAND OF BROTHERS

32

CCA comes together to win state title in first year

HOPE AFTER HURT

38

Reece survives being shot by ex-husband

MUSIC MAN

44

Atcheson goes from Clanton to Carnegie Hall

HALL OF FAMER

48

Hand took over CCHS coaching job in 1970

LIFE OF TOTAL DEVOTION

52

Step inside the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude

CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

58

Marcus honored for work in the community

Progress 2012

The Clanton Advertiser P.O. Box 1379, Clanton, AL 35045 205.755.5747 clantonadvertiser.com

Progress 5

DONNY STRONG

Jemison soldier makes miraculous recovery WRITTEN BY EMILY BECKETT HOMECOMING PHOTOS BY JON GOERING

D

onny Eslinger looked like an ordinary 20-yearold walking along the concourse at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport on that rainy Thursday in December.

If not for the cheering crowd of family and friends awaiting his arrival with “Donny Strong” signs, he probably could have passed for another college student trying to get home for Christmas.

But if passersby had known where he was about six months ago, they might not have believed their eyes.

Spc. Donny Eslinger of the United States Army survived the catastrophic clutches of explosives in Afghanistan last year.

Although life-threatening injuries took him out of the fight, they failed to take the fight out of this beloved soldier from Jemison.

In high school, Donny was more affectionately known as “5” on the JHS baseball team.

He spent his childhood with his younger brother Daniel, and his outgoing personality and what his mother calls “that beautiful smile” earned him a coveted place in the hearts of many.

Mary Sazera, his mother, said it was Donny’s lifelong dream to join

Above: Donny Eslinger and his mother, Mary Sazera, embrace at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport as friends and family celebrate his long-awaited homecoming.

Left: Donny talks to his stepfather, Frank Sazera, at the airport on Dec. 17 2011. the Army, and when he turned 18, he enlisted and told her it was done.

Donny completed Infantry training at Ft. Benning, Ga. and was stationed in Ft. Wainwright, Alaska.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Bravo Company at

FOB Bullard.

Donny was deployed in April last year and was scheduled to remain overseas from one year to 15 months as a private first class of the Stryker Brigade.

“He did not join it for the money,” Mary said. “He felt the need to go fight for his country.”

6 Progress

Left: President Barack Obama presented Donny Eslinger with a Purple Heart at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on Oct. 10, 2011, for wounds he sustained in Afghanistan in September. Right: President Obama talks to Mary Sazera, Donny’s mother, after he pinned on Donny’s Purple Heart on Oct. 10. “President Obama was so personable,” Mary said. “He hugged us and joked with us. Wow ... it was an emotional moment.” The pinning was two weeks after his injury, and Donny didn’t want photos of his face and head published.

Progress 7 Donny had just returned to Afghanistan from leave when Afghan insurgents dropped rocket-propelled grenades on his base on Sept. 26, 2011.

Two weeks after being at home with his family, Donny was lying unconscious in an Afghan hospital, with broken bones and bits of shrapnel lodged in his flesh.

Two weeks after saying goodbye to their son, Mary Sazera, Donny’s mother, and Don Eslinger Sr., his father, received a phone call that turned their lives upside down.

Two months ago, against all odds, Donny gained health clearance and the Army’s permission to fly home for Christmas.

He is 20 years old and has endured more in the last six months than many people experience in a lifetime; however, his journey is far from over.

Donny Eslinger is on a mission, and his mission has just started.

SEPTEMBER: AFGHANISTAN Sept. 26 began as a typical day at the FOB, or Forward Operating Base, where Donny and his unit spent much of their time.

Donny had arrived back the day before from a brief leave, which he spent with his family in Jemison.

“I do not remember what I was doing before the mortars hit,” he said. “I know I was in P.T. clothes – shorts, Tshirt, tennis shoes – so we must have been on down time. Normally, we are in full gear with protection, but it is usually safe to relax in your own FOB.” He also has no memory of the chaos that ensued after the grenades detonated and relies on what others who were there tell him.

Of all the soldiers in his FOB that day, Donny suffered the worst injuries – in his mother’s words, “the brunt of it all.”

He was standing 4 four feet from a 75mm recoilless rifle round, according

8 Progress to his squad leader.

His Army brothers and fast-working medics are credited with saving his life.

“Several of them risked their life as rounds were still coming in to get me to safety and medical help,” he said. “I would do the same for any of them.”

Those who saw Donny after the attack did not think he would survive, and understandably so, considering he was unresponsive after the incident.

“Obviously, I thought he had died,” Don said. “It was one of the worst days of my life.”

Mary’s reaction to the news was no different. Her world crumbled as her husband and Donny’s stepfather, Frank Sazera, took the phone from her hands.

“When I heard the words, ‘Pfc. Eslinger is unresponsive at this time’ on that dreadful day four months ago, Frank took the phone from my screaming self to talk with the Army and slowly broke the news to me in bits and pieces as to Donny’s prognosis,” Mary said. “It stopped my world cold.”

Don said the Army diligently sent updates to the family, but Donny’s prognosis was not

good.

His injuries included a traumatic brain injury, punctured lungs, broken ribs, a broken leg, kidney damage and a severe chest wound exposing his heart. His spleen had to be removed, and he had fluid on his brain.

Doctors were forced to remove part of his skull to allow his brain to swell.

“His cranial pressure was so high, (doctors said) if he did survive, the prognosis wasn’t very good,” Don said.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, Don flew from the U.S. to Germany to see Donny; Mary only hours behind him.

OCTOBER: GERMANY TO D.C. Donny responded to Mary as soon as she arrived in Germany on Oct. 1 by opening his eyes.

“Germany is beautiful … and so is Donny,” Mary wrote in a Facebook post Oct. 2. “As you can imagine, seeing him took all the life out of me for just a moment.”

Doctors were still concerned about the fluid on his brain, but even small movements were

mile markers on the road to improvement.

“He moved his right arm, right leg and left leg,” she said. “We are very hopeful of just these simple things.”

On Oct. 3, Mary reported a slightly more active Donny who was tracking his parents more with his eyes and trying to kick with his broken right leg, despite his induced sedation.

Somehow, the mortar blasts in Afghanistan did not touch his right arm, which bears tattoos dedicated to his parents and country.

“I can’t begin to tell you how each and every prayer is working more ways than you know,” Mary said Oct. 3. “We are Donny Strong and headed to the United States of America tomorrow!”

Right before he and his dad boarded a C17 plane bound for the U.S., Donny gave them a “thumbs up” and lifted two more of his fingers.

Mary watched as his critical care team prepared him for flight with every piece of ICU equipment he needed in his hospital room.

“Watching him lift off was breathtaking and brought me to my knees again,” Mary

Progress 9

Left: Donny’s mother shows him a book report he did for Diane Calloway’s English class at Jemison High School in 2010.

Calloway found his report in her classroom and sent it to Mary in Washington, D.C. “I am so glad she found it,” Mary said.

Above: Ryan Cox, one of the soldiers credited with saving Donny’s life, visits him in Tampa on leave from Afghanistan.

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said.

Donny and his father landed at Andrews Air Force Base and were then transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

Less than a week later, Donny received several special visitors.

President Barack Obama awarded Donny the Purple Heart on Monday, Oct. 10 for being wounded in service.

“The president was very nice, and Donny was humbled by the experience,” Don said.

“Donny has volunteered to serve our nation and he’s humbled by the outpouring of support, but yet embarrassed as well. He’s an inspiration to me, I’ll tell you that.”

Eslinger’s Vice President Joe senior Biden and his wife, Dr. portrait Jill Biden, also visited Donny, as well as U.S. Army Association officers who presented him with a Soldier’s Creed plaque.

In a Facebook post Oct. 7, Mary wrote, “At 2:34 p.m. today, although mumbled, I received the best words in the world … ‘I love you, Mama.’”

Those were among the first words he spoke after being injured.

At noon on Oct. 31, Donny boarded a private medical jet for Tampa on the way to his sixth and final medical facility, where he started intense rehabilitation and treatment for his traumatic brain injury.

NOVEMBER: MOVE TO TAMPA Donny’s strength and determination that earned him the “Donny Strong” slogan surfaced again at the rehabilitation center in Tampa.

He faced up to seven different rehab sessions each day and never gave less than his best, Mary said.

“The training he received in the Army and his desire to walk out of here is pushing him to success,” Mary said in a Facebook post Nov. 7. “He will not give up … he challenges himself to push further.”

Donny progressed so well he earned

weekend passes granting him permission to stray from the facility for a few hours at a time.

His passes came in handy for visits with Don, who is sheriff and resident of Seminole County, Fla. “He did exceptionally well, beyond anyone’s expectations,” Don said.

As Donny powered through grueling rehab exercises, the Puppy Rescue Mission was working tirelessly to deliver Donny’s K9 friend, Smoke, to him from Afghanistan.

Donny found Smoke during an operation his platoon conducted in a Taliban insurgent safe haven located inside Afghanistan on Aug. 18.

Donny picked up 6-week-old Smoke and placed him in his assault pack, not knowing the stray puppy would become a source of comfort for the soldiers.

The next day, Doug Cordo, a soldier in Donny’s platoon, was killed outside the same village.

“Smoke was the only bit of morale that made these kids forget where they were and cope with the tragedy we just experienced,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Jarvis, Donny’s squad leader. “It is amazing how therapeutic a little creature can be.”

Jarvis said Donny loved Smoke and took care of him until he was injured in September.

“Many of us in his platoon would love nothing more than to see Smoke reunited with Donny,” Jarvis said. “It would be the only decent thing we would see come from this place.”

The long-awaited reunion finally happened in January. Smoke was 7 months old by then, but the two reconnected as if no time had passed.

“I was so happy to see Smoke. He has gotten so big since I left him at the FOB,” Donny said. “I can’t wait to be home and spend time with him. He has seen more than most humans will ever see. Thanks to everyone for helping to get him home to me, especially Sgt. Jarvis and the Puppy Rescue Mission.”

Donny celebrated Thanksgiving and his 20th birthday Nov. 24 with his family.

Top left: Donny bundles up with a blanket featuring the number “5,” the number he wore on the Jemison High School baseball team. Bottom left: Donny wears his Army uniform at his home in Jemison while on leave from Afghanistan in September 2011.

A few weeks later, he was critically wounded.

DECEMBER: HOME IN JEMISON The Sunshine State proved to be conducive to Donny’s recovery and TBI treatment.

By Dec. 3, he had improved so much that he was allowed to move to an apartmentstyle living space with monitored care.

Donny and his family waited to receive a surgery date in Washington, D.C. to replace his skull.

Then, a week before Christmas, Mary announced that she and Donny would be home for Christmas.

“The best ‘thank you’ I can give to all of you who have prayed for us and supported us along this journey will WALK off the plane with me next Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in Birmingham,” Mary said Dec. 17 on Facebook.

Not only did Donny have a sizable “fan club” waiting for him at the airport, but Jemison residents also braved heavy rains to line the roads leading into town to welcome him home.

“I was overwhelmed at first,” Donny said. “The people standing in the rain at the interstate and in Jemison made me feel very humble. It was good to finally see my friends and family in person.

“Being home for Christmas was something I knew would be impossible every year in the military. I never wanted to be home under these circumstances though.”

Their stay in Chilton County lasted through New Year’s until Donny’s cranial surgery at Walter Reed.

“One of the nurses mentioned tears coming to her eyes as she read his tattoo in the early critical days and how much those words – ‘I sacrifice for those I love’ – truly meant at that time,” Mary said. “The other tattoo – ‘Persevere’ – describes this journey perfectly.”

Donny’s tattoos include daisies, his mother’s favorite flowers, and his father’s sheriff ’s badge.

“The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, up and down,” Don said. “I can’t describe to you this experience. I’m very grateful for all the support.”

Mary frequently expressed similar feelings of gratitude to followers of “Prayers

for U.S. Army Private First Class Donny Eslinger,” a Facebook group she created for anyone interested in following Donny’s progress.

About 4,900 people currently follow the group.

“You are a testimony to the power of the human spirit and prayer,” she wrote on Dec. 24. “You, along with our son, are the best Christmas gifts we will ever receive.

We are one family among thousands who have suffered injuries in this war, and we can only hope that our story sheds some light on what these brave men and women endure every single day.”

According to Mary, Donny’s former baseball coach Jason Easterling, teachers Dwight Swindle, Robin Gray and Vickki Winslett and his friends Bronson Langston and Jill Vinzant are just a few people from Chilton County who have stayed close to the family for the past six months.

Along with numerous family members, friends, doctors, nurses and “prayer warriors,” Mary made note of four special people who took care of her when she put her life on hold to be with Donny.

Her husband, Frank, has stayed by her side since the moment she received the dreaded phone call in September.

“He and Donny are really close,” Mary said.

Her sister, Libby Ratliff, and best friend Christy Higgins both stayed up with her for almost three days straight after Donny was injured.

“My final, and most important one, is my other son Daniel,” Mary said. “I have seen him for about 15 days total the past four months. He and Donny are close.”

JANUARY: BACK IN WASHINGTON Donny and Mary left Jemison on Jan. 2 to return to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, where Donny has completed the bulk of his rehab.

They flew back to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 12 for more tests to determine when his cranioplasty would take place.

“It is good to be back and see all our nurses and doctors who we love,” Mary wrote Jan. 16. “They were so happy to see

Top right: Donny and Smoke, the stray dog he found and cared for in Afghanistan, were reunited in January after about four months of being apart. Bottom right: Sgt. Dan Jarvis pins on Donny’s Combat Infantryman Badge, one of the most treasured awards for soldiers. Jarvis helped Donny right after he was injured.

12 Progress

Top: Donny and Mary are filmed by a local news station as they talk about their journey since Donny was wounded in service last year.

Bottom: Donny hugs his brother Danny, left, and his stepfather Frank, right, after he arrives at the Birmingham Airport on Dec. 17, 2011.

Progress 13 Donny walking unassisted. Soldiers are still coming here three nights a week from the battlefield … it is a sad cycle to watch, but the military takes extreme care of these soldiers and their families here.”

The next day, Mary said Smoke was on his way to Florida for his reunion with Donny before going to his new home in Alabama.

“Reuniting Smoke and Donny was so sweet,” Mary said. “It has been a journey to get this dog to the U.S. We thank the Puppy Rescue Mission for making this a reality and the Washington Animal Rescue League for keeping Smoke here so Donny can visit him.”

Doctors removed the exterior fixture on Donny’s right leg after tests confirmed his bone had healed sufficiently, and they gave him the green light for his cranial surgery.

“My family, friends and prayers of many have helped me reach this point,” he said.

“It is hard to realize all that has happened to me because I don’t remember the times they thought I would not make it. I am determined to overcome this. It is a personal mission to not let those who did this think they got the

best of me.”

PRESENT AND OPTIMISTIC FUTURE The slogan “Donny Strong” that Mary coined after her son was injured holds a meaning much deeper than Donny’s wounds.

It inspires strength, stamina and faith in better days to come.

“I hope to come home after my surgery for 30 days,” Donny said. “I want to see my brother play baseball at JHS. I thought I would miss all of his games being deployed, so I really want to sit in the dugout, watching him like old times.”

Donny is non-deployable now because of his injuries, but he said he would join his fellow soldiers overseas again without a second thought if he could.

“I still belong to the Army,” he said. “I want to go back to Afghanistan to finish the mission or start a new one.

“We promised the ones that were killed in action to take care of business. I want to ful-

fill that promise, especially to Doug Cordo, who died a few weeks before this happened to me in the line of duty.”

Donny was promoted from private first class to specialist by his brigade commander while he was in ICU the day after his final surgery.

“It was a special moment as another member of his brigade who survived three gunshot wounds to the chest was promoted at the same time,” Mary said.

After he is released from rehab, Donny will report to the Warrior Transition Unit at Ft. Stewart in Georgia, where he will wait up to a year as the military medical board reviews his case and decides his future in the Army.

He plans to be in Alaska to see his unit arrive home in April.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “I miss all the guys in my platoon. I hope my story shows everyone that war is real, and I am one of the lucky ones that made it home.

“No matter if you are for or against the war itself, please support those who choose to sign up to defend our country.” n

www.peoplessouthern.com

WRITTEN BY EMILY BECKETT PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON GOERING

GOLDEN YEARS

Littletons celebrate 75 years of marriage

T

hey were just a couple of kids playing in their families’ neighborhood, going to grade school together and enjoying their childhood days before the Great Depression of the 1930s hit.

Progress 15 But on Aug. 1, 1936, Myrtle and Willie Littleton of Clanton went from being a couple of kids to a married couple, and they’ve been together ever since.

This year, the Littletons celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary, a milestone that few couples reach.

“Something about him attracted me,” Myrtle said of their first meeting. “He stood out to me. I don’t know if it’s because I was going to marry him one day or not.”

She stood out to him, too, and before long, they were standing in a pastor’s house on an unseasonably cold summer day, exchanging their wedding vows in front of family and friends.

“We couldn’t afford a church,” she said.

“We had to do it as cheap as we could.”

“We were very young when we got married,” Willie said. “I think anybody can get adjusted better while they’re young than they can old.”

Willie went to Southeastern Bible College in Lakeland, Fla. and served in the military from 1942 until 1947, when he joined the ministry.

He was in the medics and combat divisions,

and he earned two major battle stars, a good conduct medal, a medical badge and a rifleman’s badge.

He was also in Germany when World War II ended in 1945.

The couple did have to spend a large amount of time apart, however, when Willie was serving stateside. Myrtle said the distance made life tough at times for the two.

“It was pretty bad, but I visited him. He was stationed in North Carolina, and I would go every so often and stay like a month or two near the camp, and he’d come out at night,” she said. “During the war, a lot of times it was hard to get on the buses they were so crowded.”

The couple wrote to each other every day they were apart.

“We sure did. We didn’t have telephones down here then,” Myrtle said. “He couldn’t have called me anyway from overseas.”

They said their marriage hasn’t been perfect, but faith and forgiveness have carried them through the rough patches.

“You have to forgive and forget,” she said.

“It was a little hard at times because he had some wild oats to sow, but we made it.”

Willie and Myrtle Littleton married Aug. 1, 1936, on a cool summer’s day. the

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Stay far away — and keep others away — and call 911 for help. That’s the power of being safe. www.caec.coop

1-800-545-5735

16 Progress

Willie and Myrtle Littleton stand on the porch of their house, a 200-year-old log cabin in Clanton. The Littletons both grew up in Chilton County and have lived here ever since.

Myrtle was a Christian before they married, but Willie could not say the same.

“I give her a lot of credit for me being saved,” he said. “I’ll tell you, I’d have been dead a long time ago if I hadn’t turned to the Lord when I was 25. I was smoking a pack a day, Lucky Strikes.”

According to Myrtle, “he was smoking himself to death” until God called him to serve in the ministry.

“After he was converted, he wanted to do something for God, but he didn’t think he could preach,” she said. “God told him he could. He pastored for 47 years.”

Willie was a pastor at Victory Chapel in Clanton for 35 years, and although he considers himself retired, he occasionally delivers sermons at New Harmony Holiness Church up the road from their house.

“I didn’t ever ask for a place to preach,” he said. “I’ve always had to leave on my own.”

Although he doesn’t spend as many hours as he used to behind the pulpit, Willie commits several hours every day to reading his Bible.

“He’s a Bible scholar, I’m telling you,” Myrtle said. “And (he) reads a lot … reads books.”

The couple never had children, but they treat their nieces and nephews, and greatnieces and nephews, like their own.

The Littletons sold their original house to their nephew and his family years ago, and they now live in a 200-year-old log cabin, previously owned by Willie’s uncle, that is located behind the house.

If Willie’s hands aren’t holding a Bible, they are usually wrapped around pieces of firewood.

“He still goes to the woods and cuts firewood all the time,” Myrtle said. “He loves it.”

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Left: Myrtle stands next to her wood stove, by far her favorite piece in the couple’s kitchen. She still uses it regularly to make biscuits.

Above: Willie holds framed pictures of himself as he describes his days in the military and in the ministry. He became a pastor after World War II and has been a pastor at various churches for 47 years.

Willie reads his Bible daily and shares his faith whenever he can.

18 Progress And when Myrtle isn’t listening to sermons or Gospel music on the radio, she can be found in the kitchen making biscuits on her old-fashioned wood stove, or perhaps in her vegetable garden.

“She loves to garden better than anything else in the world,” Willie said.

Seventy-five years is a long time to live with another person, but the Littletons have never run out of love for each other or things to talk about.

“We don’t have any trouble,” she said.

“I think our faith in the Lord has kept us together.”

“I told her probably we’d both be dead if we’d got somebody else,” Willie said, chuckling. “I told her one time she had to be made for me—woman was made for man, not the man for the woman.”

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1986 with a vow renewal ceremony and a brief honeymoon in Montgomery.

“When I married, I married for keeps,” Myrtle said. “I said through thick or thin. The only way that he was going to get away from me was just leave me.” n

Left, Willie and Myrtle Littleton are shown from 1942, having already been married five years or so by then. Above, the Littletons celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1986 with a vow renewal ceremony and a brief honeymoon in Montgomery. Since then, the couple has celebrated another 25 years of marital bliss. Willie, a pastor for 35 years at Victory Chapel in Clanton, credits Myrtle for helping him find God.

2012

20 Progress

DOWN ON THE

Josh Smitherman, above, drives a tractor through an orchard on his family’s farm in the Fairview community. Bottom right, Smitherman prunes peach trees; top right, Slate Knight is another young farmer in the Enterprise community of Chilton County.

FARM

Progress 21

Agriculture way of life for two young men

F

armers—you depend on them every day, every time you partake of a meal or shop at your local supermarket.

But despite the ongoing need for farmers to farm the land that feeds Chilton County—and America—it seems that there are fewer and fewer young people going into the profession.

According to the Alabama Agricultural Statistics Bulletin, the number of farms in Chilton County decreased from 663 in 1997 to 645 in 2007. During that same time period, the acreage of farmland in Chilton increased from 98,746 to 100,217.

But there are still those who want to work on the family farm, and continue to do so, in the midst of pursuing a college education.

Meet Slate Knight, 22, of the Enterprise community. Knight says he has wanted to farm “ever since I could do anything about it.”

Knight, a 2008 graduate of Verbena High School, is attending Jefferson State Community College. He plans to transfer to Auburn University in the fall but expressed a desire to keep working on the farm as long as he could.

“I wish I could do that for a full-time job,” he said, pointing out the advantages of working outdoors and getting to be your own boss.

Knight and his parents, Seth and Shelida Knight, grow peach trees, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, okra, tomatoes and collards, among other crops.

“I hated them,” Slate Knight said of vegetables as a food, although it’s obvious he loves his job.

“There’s always something to do,” he said.

Knight also has a hand in Black Angus cattle; he first began showing cattle at the tender age of 8.

“I’ve been trying to build up my herd for several years now,” he said.

Meet Josh Smitherman, 26, of the Fairview community. He is a 2003 graduate of Isabella High School and a 2007 graduate of Auburn University with a degree in landscape design and nursery and greenhouse

WRITTEN BY SCOTT MIMS | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON GOERING

Progress 23 management, and a minor in agribusiness economics. He owns his own landscaping business, Dreamscapes, but continues to work on his great uncle Larry’s farm growing peaches and vegetable crops. He has lived next to his uncle and has farmed since he was 10.

“A lot of the educational material crosses over between landscaping and farming,” said Smitherman, who calls Chilton County peaches his “first love.”

“That’s definitely my first love,” he said. “The landscaping (business) is more of a financial support.”

What he enjoys most is seeing the results from his work, as well as the work schedule, although it can be hectic.

Like Knight, Smitherman comes from a long line of farmers. His dad, Gerald (mother Tammy) is a retired agriculture instructor who taught at Isabella. This family background gave him a “basic and realistic outlook on life,” as he put it, and with it came the natural love of farming.

“That’s what I wanted to do,” he said, adding that his uncle Larry had been “gracious and helpful.”

In the future, Smitherman hopes to expand his business and have more freedom to do what he loves—grow Chilton County peaches. n

Slate Knight is shown with his dad, Seth Knight. On their farm, the Knights grow peaches, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, okra, tomatoes, collards and other crops.

NIGHT OF

TERROR

Chilton bore brunt of 1932 tornadoes

S

ometimes in the evenings when the wind howls just right, Lucille McFarland can’t help but think back 80 years to that terrible night. Still today, a sudden storm from the southwest sends her thoughts swirling back to the day the twisters struck.

WRITTEN BY JUSTIN AVERETTE

Union-Banner and Chilton County News front pages recap the horror that hit 80 years ago this March.

26 Progress McFarland and her family survived the tornadoes that devastated Chilton County on March 21, 1932, but many weren’t so lucky.

A massive storm system hit the Deep South that day — most of the damage came in Alabama, and Chilton County suffered perhaps more than anyone.

Newspaper records from the time show that more than 300 died in what is still Alabama’s deadliest tornado outbreak. Across Chilton County at least 58 perished in the storms that injured hundreds, left even more homeless and wiped entire communities off the map.

It’s no surprise the day would stay with survivors like McFarland — those still around to share their storm stories today were just children then, grade-school students who witnessed things they will never forget.

‘DON’T YOU REALIZE HALF OF CHILTON COUNTY HAS JUST BEEN BLOWN AWAY?’ The day started without any signs of the horrible things on the horizon.

March 21 fell on a Monday that year. It was the week of Easter, and churches across the county were preparing for special pageants and programs. The temperatures hovered a few degrees above average. That afternoon, thermometers got close to 75 under a sunny, cloudless sky.

Weather forecasts in Monday’s edition of The Montgomery Advertiser called for a cool down in coming days and mentioned a chance of thunderstorms but nothing to the extent of what was about to happen.

But it’s likely that accurate forecasts would have made little to no difference in the hardest hit areas. In 1932, many families in rural Alabama didn’t have radios, and a daily newspaper was something you could only get during trips to town. Most of the storm’s victims had no idea what was coming until it was on top of them.

Another survivor of the storm, Anne Crowe Glass, lived with her parents, brother and sister in a house halfway between Jemison and Union Grove. Though only 5 years old then, she remembers how car after car seemed to be racing down her normally quiet country road that night.

Her father finally told her mother that he was going to go flag someone down to see what was happening. The first vehicle to pass by was an ambulance, one of many coming from Birmingham and Montgomery to help.

When her dad asked the ambulance driver

This photo shows three women sitting among the devestation in Union Grove, one of the hardest hit areas in the 1932 tornado. Almost every home there was destroyed. where all the cars were going, he got back a surprised look and then a chilling response…

“The ambulance driver says, ‘My God, man, don’t you realize half of Chilton County has just been blown away?’”

It’s a question the Glass family and so many other residents would soon discover the incomprehensible answer to.

According to the March 24 edition of the Union-Banner (what is today The Clanton Advertiser), two tornadoes raked their way across the county that evening.

The first twister came in from the southwest corner of the county near Plantersville.

The storm then plowed through the communities of Stanton, Pleasant Grove and Liberty Hill.

In describing the damage, a writer for the Union-Banner said, “every home of any kind in the narrow path was torn into kindling wood and scattered everywhere.”

The twister then continued on its path, hitting Lomax around 5:30 p.m. before doing more destruction in Cane Creek and along Lay Dam Highway.

Lives were snuffed out and property destroyed in each of those communities, but the storms were only beginning.

The second tornado followed about an hour behind the first one — Act II in a tragedy playing out across Chilton County. This twister entered the county around Randolph and tore through Pates Chapel, Macedonia and the northern part of Thorsby. Almost everything between Collins Chapel and Union Grove, two of the more densely populated areas in the county, was gone, carried away with the wind.

The tornado finally left Chilton County after crossing Smith Schoolhouse and Waxahatchee Creek and setting its sights on Columbiana.

With the sun now gone over the western sky and power transformers splintered like toothpicks, a permeating darkness descended. Heavy rains continued well into the night, but they weren’t enough to drown out the horrifying sounds, the moans of the injured and screams from the desperate.

THE GREATEST CALAMITY IN CHILTON COUNTY HISTORY In their first edition after the tornadoes, the Union-Banner writers tried to summarize what had just happened.

“Half a hundred dead — more than two hundred injured, more than a hundred homes destroyed — widespread destruction and devastation of property. This begins the story of the greatest calamity that has ever befallen the people of Chilton County…”

The simple words begin an account that attempts to relay the terror the tornadoes caused. A long list of the dead and injured runs prominently down two columns of the newspaper.

The authors acknowledge in some instances though that “words are not capable of describing the havoc that was wrought … homes and businesses of all kinds in the path of the storm were not only blown down; they were scattered everywhere and torn to bits.”

McFarland and her family lived in Thorsby at the time, not too far from where Thorsby High School and Helen Jenkins Chapel are today. She was just 10 years old, but she said she would never forget the sounds from that night.

“My family was not nervous people. They didn’t get upset about the weather, but I remember (that night), and it still affects the way I feel when the wind blows. I remember the wind — the thunder and lightning was not what got me — it was the wind.”

The wind, which broke a rose trestle away from her family’s front porch, otherwise spared her home.

“I distinctly remember hearing that frame tearing loose from the house,” McFarland said. “And, of course, I remember the morning after and all the devastation.”

While McFarland’s family home was mostly undamaged, a hitching post and water trough

still used for carriages a block away was destroyed.

The Union-Banner also recapped the critical hours after the storms passed when rescue workers were first responding: “People were found scattered all over the countryside. Children were found alone in the wreckage, dead, injured and suffering, separated and lost from their families. Roads were obstructed by every kind of debris, and the injured in many instances had to be carried in arms for two miles to be placed in automobiles. All of this horrible picture was enacted in a torrential rain that lasted for hours after the storm.”

Yet rescue crews kept responding from across the county and Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. They worked throughout the night using lanterns to search the wreckage as well as fields and nearby woods for the dead and injured. The only other light rescuers had was from homes that had caught fire and were burning.

The Clanton hospital soon reached capacity, and every doctor office in Chilton County was turned into a temporary one. Patients were also rushed to other regional hospitals.

McFarland remembers a particularly gruesome injury concerning a Littleton boy. “(A few days after the tornadoes) he had a swelling in his throat; they thought he had the mumps, but it was a wood splinter that had gone behind his ear and had become infected …

Imagine the wood blowing hard enough to do that,” McFarland said.

The next day nearly every business was closed as everyone came out to help, including the American Legion, members of various ladies clubs, school kids and merchants.

The Alabama National Guard went to work to provide tents, cots and blankets to people who lost their homes, and the American Red Cross started offering

Progress 29 The days that followed were hard for tornado victims, but the same resilience and determination they used to live off the land helped them get through the tough times.

The Chilton County News poignantly summed up the outlook of survivors when describing the people of Collins Chapel and Union Grove: “(They) are a God-fearing and hard working lot. Until now, they have known little suffering on account of the Depression. … Even now the visitors hear no appeal for help. Here is one group of people who are accustomed to helping themselves and caring for each other in times of need.

They do not know how to ask for help. And so they go along their way unsmiling, rummaging through the wreckage of their homes, attending their sick and wounded and burying their dead, asking nothing and grateful to an all-wise Providence that it wasn’t any worse.”

aid too. A grocery store in Thorsby was converted into a temporary treatment center, McFarland said.

ANOTHER TORNADO As Chilton County finally started to come to terms with what happened on Monday, a third tornado hit the county six days later on Easter. The storm closely followed the path of the second twister.

In fact, many people who had come from Birmingham to Montgomery to sightsee and gawk at the damage done earlier in the week found themselves having to take sudden shelter in road ditches as the storm blew over.

Undoubtedly still on edge from the Monday storms, the sight of more severe weather proved too much for some residents.

The Union-Banner recounts a story of Lurline Latham, a Lawley girl, who saw the tornado coming toward her and was “seized by a cramp and became unconscious at the appalling sight.” Dr. Dubouse of Maplesville later determined she had ruptured her appendix upon seeing the storm, the paper reported.

This storm proved weaker than the first two, but at least six people still died in it and more homes were destroyed. Tents set up for survivors were blown away too.

Both McFarland and Glass witnessed the Easter storm pass by from their front yards. Glass and her family took shelter in her grandmother’s flower pit, where potted plants were kept during winter.

GOD-FEARING AND HARD-WORKING LOT The days that followed were some of the saddest Chilton County has ever known as funeral after funeral took place. Storm victims ranged from infants just a few days old to 80-year-olds.

Entire families were killed. Jack Latham of Plantersville died as well as his wife and five children. Berney Chandler survived but lost his wife and two children.

Few families didn’t know someone killed in the storms. Easter services at Pleasant Grove were cancelled because one of the actors in the program died and two more were injured, according to a report in the Chilton County News.

Glass can remember attending her first funeral ever in the days following the storm. A 20-year-old cousin of hers, Hollie Mims, died while running to take refuge in a ditch as the

‘IT JUST HAS THAT SOUND’

This tombstone marks the grave of 20-yearold Hollie Mims, a cousin of Anne Crowe Glass who died in the tornado. twister approached. Both his mother and father survived.

“When they realized a storm was coming, they left their house, and they were going out to the road to get what shelter they could in a ditch. Just as they were in the middle of the road, the storm struck them,” Glass said. “It knocked them all down and just rolled them.

It killed Hollie. They never knew what hit him. They were three people together, and the youngest one was killed.”

A few days later, Glass attended the funeral of her cousin, the Chandlers and two members of another family.

“As I remember, there were six coffins of tornado victims,” Glass said.

Chandler and his brother were free masons and built the house Glass lives in today. One day when building the house, Chandler told Glass what happened to him that night.

“He had bought his children a rubber ball the day before, and they were playing with it in the house,” Glass said. “He told me the house suddenly seemed to explode, and his wife and two children were killed.”

Chandler would later go on to remarry and have another family, Glass said.

Storm pits were built across Chilton County in the months and years following the storms, McFarland and Glass both attest to.

“After that, storm pits sprung up like mushrooms all over Chilton County,” Glass said. “People weren’t bashful about getting in storm pits.”

Though McFarland’s family never built an underground shelter, the storm always had an effect on her family. She said her grandmother would come and wake her up during particularly bad storms and insist she get dressed.

She would tell her, “If we get blown away, it would be better to have your clothing (on).”

Glass said while she isn’t frightened by tornadoes, she still can’t pass by the property where her cousin was killed without being taken back to the night 80 years ago.

“I don’t pass that way often, but when I do I have vivid memories of that house,” Glass said.

McFarland said the wind still gets to her, if only every now and then.

“When the wind blows from a certain direction, it still gives me a little weary feeling,” McFarland said. “Certain things just stay with you. I have sat here in my kitchen many, many nights, and when the wind blows from the southwest — and I don’t know why it is — but it sounds almost like a woman crying.

And I have sat here in this kitchen and think I was about to be blown away. It just has that sound.” n

32 Progress

BAND OF BROTHERS

CCA comes together to win state title

I

t sounds like a Hollywood script — young football team wins state championship just 77 days after taking to the field for the first time ever.

But Chilton Christian Academy’s dramatic title run began more like a ragtag comedy, as the players tell it.

Though CCA has played other sports for years, 2011 marked the first time the school fielded a football team. The Patriots joined the Christian Football Association’s 6-man football league in the spring, leaving just weeks to build a program from the ground up.

The team didn’t have all of their pads until a day before the first game, which was against Trinity Christian on Aug. 19.

There was also last-minute confusion about the new rules.

“We thought that they couldn’t rush the quarterback, but it was that the quarterback can’t rush, can’t cross the line of scrimmage,” said Will Hamby, quarterback and the team’s only senior.

“They told me, ‘Hey, Will, they can hit you now.’”

The rule clarification forced the team to completely change its game plan, and they often had to just wing it in that first contest.

“I don’t see how we got some of the plays off. We got into a huddle and called a play and everyone is like, ‘What’s that?’” Hamby said.

“I wish we had recorded that

game and what was happening.

It was funny stuff.”

Funny in hindsight but frantic at the time, said sophomore Carl Mitchell.

“We had been practicing a spread offense, but when we found out the rule we didn’t know, it caused a bunch of chaos,” Mitchell said. “We moved guys around. We really couldn’t run the same plays out of the new formation, so we started making it up as we went.”

The team would lose the game to Trinity, 42-26, and go into an early-season and much-needed bye week.

The team used the extra days to revamp its offense before hosting its first home game Sept. 2 against Faith Christian Academy.

“We felt better about it because we had two weeks to change everything and learn what we needed to learn,” Mitchell said.

“During all the preparation, that’s when we really started to grow as a team. After all those hard practices, we realized something good was going to come out of this.”

But hosting the first football game in school history doesn’t come without distractions and a lot of pressure to perform.

“A lot more people showed up than I expected,” said junior Ryan Powell. “Everyone was excited about the first home game. It was pretty cool.”

Chilton Christian Academy players celebrate winning the Christian Football Association championship in November at R. Jerry Morris Memorial Ball Field in Hueytown.

The team managed to sideline all the hoopla and focus on the game, which resulted in an im-

pressive 58-12 win.

The offense clicked in a game that saw Hamby throw for 88

WRITTEN BY JUSTIN AVERETTE | TEAM PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON GOERING

Progress 33 yards and three touchdowns. Junior Chris Lassinger ran for 120 yards and four TDs. “We knew we were making history,” Mitchell said. “(Head Coach Todd Stephens) said we would be the first and only ‘first team’ to play football at Chilton Christian Academy, and I think that meant a lot to the team.”

The team found success quickly and reeled off five more wins, most of them in convincing fashion: 51-13 over Brooklane Baptist, 33-0 over Clay County Christian Academy and 43-19 over Conecuh Springs Christian.

The team really hit its stride with the Conecuh win, several of the players said.

“After we won that game, that’s when we got the mindset that we are one of the best teams in the state, and we kept going,” Mitchell said.

The Patriots’ next two wins were rematches against Faith Christian (87-42) and Conecuh Springs (46-40).

“The first Conecuh game, that was a big win for us,” said Hamby. “Beating them that first time was good for our schedule and mentality.”

But with the six-game winning streak came a complacency that Stephens had warned his

Though Chilton Christian Academy has fielded other sports for years, 2011 marked the first season the school has ever had a football team. The team ended up with 11 players from seventh graders to sole senior Will Hamby, who played quarterback. guys about.

“I’m not going to lie, I felt like we were unstoppable,” Lassinger said.

In the last game of the regular season, CCA hosted Marion Academy, a team that was shut out by Conecuh Springs.

CAA had already beaten Conecuh twice

and didn’t give the game the attention it deserved, the team said. The result was a 53-38 loss — the team’s first at home and second of the season.

As Lassinger put it bluntly: “We overlooked them.”

What the Patriots didn’t know was that

Progress 35 Marion was missing a star player in its 47-0 loss to Conecuh.

“It was like the coaches told us many times, we aren’t just going to walk out on the field, and they are going to give it to us,” Hamby said.

“I thought all we had to do was line up, snap the ball and score.”

The loss was a difficult one and an eye opener.

“All week we had the mindset that Marion is 2-5 … and we went in there and we were like, “Win No. 7, right here,’” Mitchell said. “We goofed off all day, especially in between school and the game. There was a lot of playing around and when we lost that game, we were all pretty emotional in the locker room. Nobody talked for 20 minutes straight. We just sat there.”

The loss caused the players to refocus and work harder than ever.

The next game would be the first round of the playoffs and Round 3 of a winner-takes-all series against Conecuh Springs.

“We worked 10 times harder. We worked 110 percent every day, and when we played Conecuh, that was the best game we played all year,” said Ashton Basler.

The Patriots won a thriller of a game, 46-40, to get them in the championship match.

But without the humbling experience the week before, players wondered if they would have beaten Conecuh a third time.

“I think if we had won (the Marion game), we wouldn’t have been able to win the state championship because our heads would have been just that much bigger. It was good for us to lose that game because it woke all of us up,” Mitchell said. “Every tackle against Conecuh and play that game was 110 percent by every Carl Mitchell, a sophomore, player. Whomever we played had was named MVP of the state it coming because we wanted re- championship game. demption. And when we won that game we were the most excited all year.”

The win set up a rematch with Marion Academy, the team CCA lost to just two weeks earlier, for a state title.

This time the Patriots would have the upper hand in a 58-50 contest that set the bar high for future CFA championship games.

Though Marion wouldn’t go away, CCA led the entire game. The game was 26-25 at halftime, but Lassinger spent much of the third quarter sidelined with leg cramps.

The loss was an unnerving one considering the Patriots changed their offense for the game, moving quarterback Hamby to a receiver position at times and letting Lassinger throw the ball.

“I was pretty nervous when I saw him go down,” said Hamby.

The team went back to the offense it ran for most of the year and was able to score two more touchdowns before Lassinger got back in the game.

“It was hard watching it (from the sideline). I really didn’t think I was going to be able to come back in, but somehow, I just poured water down my throat and kept going,” Lassinger said. “Eventually, I felt good enough and stretched out enough to come back in.”

A kickoff return for a touchdown by Mitchell late in the fourth quarter gave CCA a 14-point lead and put the game away. Marion add-

36 Progress ed a final TD with a minute to go, but it was too little too late.

Mitchell, who was honored as the game’s Most Valuable Player, said the win was the cumulative of a season of hard work and challenges both on and off the field.

“At the end of the game, when we won, we held up the trophy and just chanted, ‘Glory to God,’ and that was a good way to spread the Gospel,” Mitchell said. “Through the whole season, God had done so much for us, we just wanted to give it back to Him.” The players say the championship is sweet but that the team gained more than that through the course of the season.

“Before the state championship game, of course, I wanted to win, but that really wasn’t all that important to me because I had already got a bunch of friends and stuff,” Hamby said. “The ring is a bonus for sure though!”

The team finished the season with 11 members and became like a family, players said.

When they broke out of huddles, the team would yell, “One, Two, Three … Family!”

“That was the thing all year, we would say, ‘Glory to God,’ and say, ‘Family,’” Hamby

Ashton Basler runs the ball against Marion Academy’s defense in the championship game. Late in the third quarter, Basler had an interception and then scored a rushing touchdown.

Basler said the week before the title game CCA put forth its best effort of the season in a close win that gave them a chance at the crown. said.

The team will lose its quarterback to graduation, but everyone else should be back next year.

The pressure will definitely be on a team that overachieved in 2011, but if the Patriots can keep the same attitude they had going into the title game, they will come out on top

no matter what, Mitchell said.

“I just hope next year we can keep the same mindset we had in the championship game through the whole season,” he said. “If we can do that, I don’t care if we win a game, but if we keep God at the forefront of our minds, and we all grow spiritually, that would be the biggest win.” n

38 Progress

HOPE AFTER

HURT

Reece survives being shot by ex-husband

K

atherine Southard Reece swears she heard her father’s voice on one of the most horrific days of her life, calming her with words ingrained in her mind since childhood.

“I heard Daddy tell me, ‘Katherine, if you panic, you’re lost.’ I heard him so clearly I tried to turn my head.”

The memories are so vivid that, even years later, Reece reaches for a tissue as she recounts the morning she almost died at the hands of her ex-husband, Sid. Although Reece’s father had passed away two years prior, she clung to his familiar words like a starving man to his last piece of bread.

Reece fought for every breath as she tried to reason with her ex-husband as he pinned her to the ground and repeatedly shoved a gun into her mouth.

“I calmed down and I started talking to Sid and telling him that he didn’t want to do this,” she said. “Our son would basically be an orphan because he’d have one parent dead and one parent in jail … and

then he put the barrel of the revolver up to my forehead, and he pulled the trigger.”

WARNING SIGNS Reece can pinpoint the time when her first husband, Sid, began hitting her— right after their son was born in 1981— but the emotional abuse began almost immediately after they married in 1978.

“About the first two years in my marriage was just his conditioning me,” Reece said. “He doesn’t start out with hitting you. It starts out with little things, and it keeps getting worse and worse and worse until they’re standing there saying, ‘You are so ugly, you’re so stupid, you’re so fat, you can’t take care of the house.’ The first time they hit you, you actually think that you deserved to be hit.”

Reece met Sid when she was 17 and he was in his late 20s. He was divorced, and she was fresh from her parents’ house.

They married three months after they met.

“Getting rushed into a relationship is

also one of the warning signs,” she said.

“As a younger woman, you haven’t really got out and started making your mark in the world yet.”

Sid left his marks on Reece, but never where they would be visible in public.

“He never hit me in the face,” she said.

“He would back me up against the wall and hit me in the stomach because it didn’t show, and I remember there were times that he hit me hard enough that I threw up.”

The abuse manifested itself in different ways as the 19-year marriage dragged on.

Sid seemed to be a ticking time bomb, and Reece was constantly afraid of igniting his short fuse.

“You end up walking on eggshells because you’re afraid to do anything that’s going to set him off.”

The eggshells might as well have been shards of glass. Even something as small as Reece accidentally breaking an egg yolk she was frying for Sid would elicit painful punishment.

“If I broke the yolk, I was in tremen-

WRITTEN BY EMILY BECKETT | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON GOERING

dous trouble. You can do every single thing that they want you to do, and they’ll still find something,” she said. “If I am cooking an egg, I still get nervous. It stays with you.”

She began to see all the telltale traps of Sid’s abuse, from his micromanaging the couple’s finances to his frequent, unpredictable fits of rage.

“It’s very embarrassing to admit to somebody that he’s not a great husband. Abusive men are exceptional liars because they know that society does not approve of this,” she said.

“They have to present themselves to society as being an honest, upright, good husband. If you, as the abused woman, ever crack that public façade of his, he’ll go crazy on you.”

She said Sid occasionally brought other women to their house, even after their son, Ty, was born.

“After you’ve had their child, they now pretty rightly figure that they’ve got a lot of control over you, because you want to stay with the father of

your baby. You want to have the relationship. You want your child to have a father.”

Sid would follow Reece to make sure she went wherever she told him she was going.

He was convinced she had a boyfriend despite her futile attempts to tell him it wasn’t true—despite her frequent visits to the hospital to see her father who was in a coma in ICU, not visits to her nonexistent boyfriend’s house.

Eventually, he began threatening Ty and the rest of Reece’s family because he thought she was lying.

BREAKING POINT “As bad as everything was, it got worse when we realized that my dad

Katherine Reece was 17 when she met her ex-husband Sid. The couple married three months later.

40 Progress was dying,” Reece said. “My father had smoked for years.

When he was 63, it was obvious we weren’t going to keep him very much longer.”

Unlike many abused women, Reece had a non-abusive childhood, and her parents never separated or divorced.

“I’ve told people so many times, my parents made Ozzie and Harriet look dysfunctional,” she said. “They were just exceptional, and I had always told Sid that when the time came that I was going to lose my dad, I needed somebody there to catch me. He wasn’t there.”

Sid made everything about her situation worse, Reece said.

For 19 years, she felt inexplicably compelled to stay with a man who degraded her in order to feel better about himself.

“I don’t know why I still couldn’t leave. Unless you’ve

Unlike many women who find themselves in abusive relationships, Reece grew up in a stable home with two loving parents.

But like other domestic violence survivors, she lacked the confidence to leave her abuser. It took her 19 years to end the relationship with her ex-husband Sid and file for divorce.

Reece is open about her past, hoping it raises awareness about how common domestic violence is. She also often talks with women trying to get out of abusive relationships.

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been there, you don’t really fully understand. There’s this weird bond that gets formed in abusive relationships. Even as much as you want to be away from them, you don’t think you can.”

According to Reece, the average woman leaves an abusive man seven times before it sticks.

Reece finally mustered up the courage to file for divorce.

After the first divorce hearing, she took their son to Sid’s residence in Birmingham to see him.

“He was very nice to me,” she said. “He was very nice, he was very polite, and I thought, ‘Wow, maybe we can have a calm divorce after all.’”

With bright feelings about the future, Reece drove home and went to sleep.

The nightmare began a few hours later.

Progress 41 At about 2 a.m., Sid pulled Reece out of bed by her hair, held a 9 mm Beretta to her forehead and tried to stuff rags down her throat to stifle her screams.

As he held her at the foot of the bed, Sid noticed Reece’s own 22 mm long-barrel revolver resting on her bedside table.

He let go of her for a moment, but it was long enough for Reece to scramble off the bed and down the hall.

As Sid caught up with Reece in the living room, he shot her in the back.

“I heard the noise, I knew the gun had gone off but I really didn’t think that I had been shot,” she said. “I went down. It took a minute or two for the pain to start in.”

Sid rolled Reece onto her back, trying but failing to pull her across the room and to the door.

“I fully think, and so did the police, that his intention was to

shoot me and throw me someplace,” Reece said. “When he couldn’t pull me to the door, he got really frustrated.

“He sat down, straddling my chest. He pinned my arms with his knees, and he shoved the gun down my throat.”

Reece managed to wriggle her arms from underneath Sid’s knees and wrapped her hands around his hands holding the gun in her mouth.

“He would shove it in and I would pull it out, and his finger was on the trigger. I don’t know if we fought over the gun for five seconds or five years. You lose track of time a lot.”

As the two struggled with the gun, her father’s favorite saying from years of handling explosives in the United States Navy echoed in her ears.

“If you panic, you’re lost,” Reece’s father would say. She heard it that morning as clearly as if he

had been sitting next to her on the floor.

Reece managed to talk Sid into pulling the gun out of her mouth.

She then rolled onto her stomach and started spitting up blood.

“We both thought I had internal injuries,” she said, “But when he shoved the gun down my throat, it cut and gouged so much that I was bleeding. That’s where the blood was coming from.”

Sid beat and kicked Reece on and off for the next two hours.

Then he put the gun to her forehead and pulled the trigger.

It fell on an empty chamber, and Sid started to laugh.

“He thought that was the funniest thing he’d ever seen,” Reece said. “Then, with the hand holding the gun, he stroked my hair and said, ‘I love you, Katherine.’”

Sid held the gun up to her head again, but before he could pull the trigger, the phone rang.

It was Reece’s mother calling

to check on her, unaware of what was happening.

After ignoring the call, Sid gathered all the phones to take with him so Reece couldn’t call for help. He emptied the bullets out of the revolver and left as quickly as he had come.

Reece managed to get her car keys and roll down the steps, climb into her car and drive to a

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42 Progress neighbor’s house for help.

“I didn’t know how badly I was hurt,” she said. “I was a mess.

My lips were huge. I was bruised up all over the place.”

When Sid shot her, the bullet entered her back and broke her right hip, ricocheting to the left and lodging itself in the nerve bundle that controls her right leg.

Doctors decided not to remove the bullet because they were afraid of causing more nerve damage.

Reece has been diagnosed with traumatic hip arthritis, sciatica, interstitial cystitis, peripheral neuropathy and osteoarthritis in the knee.

“The whole right leg is messed up, from toe to hip,” she said.

“The nerves misfire. I could be sitting here talking to you just like normal, and then all of a sudden I’m bending over screaming.”

A blue and black lunchbox travels with Reece wherever she goes and holds a battery of medications, mostly painkillers and muscle relaxers.

But the intangible emotional pain sometimes eclipses the physical pain she must cope with day in and day out.

“Unless you’ve got a problem like mine where the physical abuse stayed with you, a lot of times the mental abuse is worse than the physical,” she said.

“Your bruises heal, scars fade,

but that mouth of his is still in your brain saying you’re stupid, you can’t do anything. The verbal abuse really is the hardest thing for most women to get over.”

ROAD TO RECOVERY Reece finally got away from Sid in 1997.

“I fought for four years to get him into the courtroom. They will abuse you as long as they can, even after you get divorced.

If you have a child with them, you get carted back into court a million times over child custody.”

Sid was eventually charged with attempted murder, felony assault and unlawful imprisonment and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Reece met her new husband, Jeff, online in 1998. She credits him with helping her through the difficult days of the trial.

“I was still terrified,” she said.

“He was wonderful.”

Reece could have completely shut out the idea of getting married again, but she found the partner in Jeff she never found in Sid. “It’s so easy to say never, ever again,” she said. “I knew what I wanted in a boyfriend, mate, partner.”

Katherine and Jeff still live in the house in Clanton where Sid shot her.

Although Jeff has helped her work through her phobias from

the years of abuse, she still avoids certain situations if they bring back bad memories.

She will not sit with her back to a door, even in a public place like a restaurant.

“She’d go for a table in the corner and sit with her back to the corner,” Jeff said.

The jingling sound keys make—like the jingling of Sid’s keys on his belt loop—would put her in a panic.

She couldn’t sleep with her back to the door or take naps in the afternoon until Sid died in prison a few years ago.

She cowered to everyone and avoided confrontation until Jeff renewed her confidence.

“You wouldn’t assert yourself for anything,” Jeff said, looking at Katherine and smiling. “I did too good of a job with that.”

Jeff and Katherine both said one of her worst mistakes was not going to a shelter.

“She thought, ‘He’s not going to come here and do anything to me,’” Jeff said.

A bullet imbedded in her hip is evidence to the contrary.

“I talk to women who are trying to get out,” Reece said. “I’m very open about my domestic abuse story because people do not realize how common it is.”

Reece and others provide online support and advice for women in abusive relationships. The closest shelter to Chilton County is the Sunshine Center in Montgomery.

“We talk to them about what they need to do to get out and to get out safely, so they don’t end up in this wheelchair,” she said. “You never, ever know what they’re capable of.

“It’s very difficult on us because we go in there and we talk to women who are going through what we used to go through. A lot of times, it gives us flashbacks

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Progress 43 where we have to sometimes sit and push back away from the table and breathe.”

Reece said one of the most important things she did during her darkest days was to keep a positive attitude.

“You can choose to live or die,” she said.

Day after day, she has chosen to live.

When she isn’t counseling, Reece manages a website she created called “The Hall of Ma’at,” an archaeology discussion forum and has written a chapter in a college textbook.

“She couldn’t tell you in 15 days how much she loves history,” Jeff said.

Her website has been featured in Archaeology Magazine.

“On the Internet, if I’m not using my real name, I use ‘history geek,’” she said.

If Reece isn’t using her name, her son is. Reece’s legal name before she married was ‘Anna Katherine Southard,’ and Ty named his daughter Anna.

“When my son turned 18, he changed his (last) name to my maiden name, and now, I have an incredibly gorgeous, fantastic granddaughter who is named after me.” n

The bullet that Reece was shot with broke her right hip and lodged in a bundle of nerves that controls her right leg, where it still remains. She suffers from arthritis and uses a cane to walk.

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MUSIC MAN

44 Progress

Atcheson goes from Clanton to Carnegie

O

ne would expect a man who went to the Juilliard School with Robin Williams, Christopher Reeve, Patti LuPone and Yo-Yo Ma to be talented, but Clanton native Randall Atcheson merits more than the usual praise.

The proof is in the beautiful strains of piano and organ music that flow from Atcheson’s agile fingers in concert halls, churches and his home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

And as if his school soirees with future celebrities in the Juilliard cafeteria weren’t impressive enough, Atcheson has another sizable feather to place in his cap.

He has played at Carnegie Hall 10 times and is slated for his 11th performance in 2012.

“My debut at Carnegie Hall … was in 1991, and I thought that was a life’s dream,” he said. “If I could play at Carnegie Hall, it would be like climbing Mount Everest maybe for somebody else.”

With a bit of encouragement from a sweet lady backstage, Atcheson conquered his “Everest” of concerts.

“She’s seen everybody, all the most famous people,” he said. “She said to me as I was going onstage, ‘Now honey, this is your first time at Carnegie Hall, but it won’t be your last.’ She was absolutely right.

“The minute I got through with that concert, I couldn’t wait to do it again.”

Atcheson is on the international list of Steinway artists, which is a privilege reserved for a select few worldwide.

Randall Atcheson is set for his 11th Carnegie Hall performance in 2012. At age 5, he started playing on his family’s upright piano and soon started taking lessons in Clanton.

Steinway & Sons pianos are handcrafted and used by some of the most prominent musicians of the 21st century.

Being a Steinway artist means Atcheson is provided with a Steinway piano to practice on wherever he goes.

WRITTEN BY EMILY BECKETT

The piano in his living room is a Steinway concert grand, so it’s no surprise he is partial to the brand.

“They will provide a Steinway piano for me anywhere I play in the world. It’s just a home away from home to go to a Steinway dealership,” he said. “They’ll do anything for you. I’m highly honored to be on that, and I love Steinway pianos.”

But before Juilliard, Carnegie Hall and the Steinway list, Atcheson was just a boy from Chilton County who loved making music.

He was born to the Rev. Hymon and Lora Deen Chambers Atcheson on Oct. 15, 1951 in Selma.

Atcheson and his siblings spent a lot of time in church, and at 5 years old, he started playing church songs on his family’s upright piano.

“I think music of the church was my first inspiration,” he said. “My father was a minister … and I just used to hear the music in his church and was inspired to come home and try to imitate what I had learned at church.”

His mother taught him several songs and hymns she knew, and at age 6 he started taking lessons from teachers in Clanton, including Mrs. Lamar Deloach.

“We knew when he was 7 or 8 years old what he would do the rest of his life,” said Randall’s brother Wayne Atcheson, who works at Billy Graham Ministry Relations in North Carolina. “He’s an entertainer and performer.”

Wayne said an entire chapter of his book,

Progress 45 “Our Family Was a Team,” is devoted to Randall’s music career.

When he was 12 years old, Randall Atcheson enrolled in Samford University Preparatory Music School for piano and organ instruction and continued the program through high school.

At Samford, Atcheson studied piano with Dr. Betty Sue Shepherd and organ with Dr. Edward Tibbs.

“I just felt so honored to be able to have

such professional, collegiate teachers,” he said. “I knew it was a tremendous advantage and a great opportunity that I had, and I was so thankful.”

When he was in the ninth grade, he was hired as the organist at First Baptist Church of Clanton, initially earning $25 a month and later $25 a week for playing at every service.

He also taught piano lessons at home after school. His mother would bring him a snack to eat in the car, and his students—often

older than he—were usually waiting in the driveway.

Atcheson was in the marching band at Chilton County High School and played the clarinet, saxophone and bassoon until he became drum major.

“That was a real important thing for me,” he said of his days in the CCHS band. “I loved doing that.”

He graduated from CCHS in 1970 and auditioned for Juilliard when he was 18.

46 Progress Atcheson said his childhood in Clanton paved the way for the life he lives now. He and his wife, Laurie, have made their home in Connecticut for 41 years.

“I still consider myself a Southerner and so proud of the fact that I was raised in a small town, Clanton, Alabama, and had a wonderful childhood and wonderful memories,” he said. “I think it gave me a great anchor for all the wonderful experiences I’ve had throughout my life, because I can always compare and say I never thought growing up in Clanton I would experience all the things that I have had the privilege of doing.”

He moved to Connecticut because he was offered the position of organist at Greenwich Baptist Church and the former cottage of Judy Garland on the church’s 10-acre estate. He lived in the cottage for the entire 10 years he attended Juilliard.

Since then, Atcheson has released

16 albums and played on five continents. He played at the U.S. Presidential Inauguration Dinner in 2005.

He has played at the American Embassy in Paris 17 times, and he has entertained audiences as far away as Sydney, Australia.

He will play a concert at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Sunday, March 25, 2012.

When he is not touring, Atcheson serves as the director of music and organist of Stanwich Congregational Church in Greenwich, and he teaches piano in his home.

“I’ve never had a job, but I’m a workaholic. I have 92 piano students a week, which means that I basically teach every day from 8 to 8 if I’m not playing a concert somewhere,” he said.

He enjoys running and runs six miles every night from 10:30 to 11:30, and he and his wife, who is a French antiques dealer, spend four weeks each year in Paris shopping for Eu-

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Progress 47 ropean treasures.

A chapel nestled next to their home holds many of their French finds, as well as the first grand piano Atcheson bought in Birmingham when he was 16 and a harpsichord he built from a kit in high school.

The chapel serves as a peaceful place for him to practice, but it is also the site of weddings, funerals and other events in the Greenwich community.

Atcheson’s success has not come without hard work, dedication and a deep passion for his craft.

“My advice to young, aspiring musicians is to enjoy your music and to try to make music stress-free and guilt-free. Music is to be enjoyed,” he said. “Unless you have a burning passion and desire, I would not advise you making it a profession, but it is certainly something to be enjoyed. If you have that burning desire, you’re going to make it a profession anyway, I feel.”

He said he admires Lady Gaga for her passion for music, so much so that he played her song “Bad Romance” at his most recent concert at Carnegie Hall.

‘My advice to young, aspiring musicians is to enjoy your music

and try to make music stress-free and guilt-free. Music is to be enjoyed.’

-Randall Atcheson Atcheson’s favorite Bible verse epitomizes his motives for sharing his talents with the masses: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” Ecclesiastes 9:10.

“My talent is a gift from God, and I owe him the best I can make of it,” he once told People

Magazine.

Atcheson said he couldn’t picture himself doing anything else.

“He just lives a fascinating life,” Wayne said of his younger brother. “He turned 60 on Oct. 15, but he’s got as much energy today as he’s ever had. He’s an extremely good pianist, but he also has a lot of fun with it.” n

HALL OF FAMER

Progress 49

Hand took over CCHS coaching job in 1970

D

on Hand has a story to tell you.

You’ll want to hear it. His stories are always good.

Hand and his wife of 44 years, Linda, were going down the road one night. The husband put one hand gently on his wife’s leg and pointed to the starry sky with the other hand.

“That full moon is making me feel kinda funny,” he said in his best romantic voice.

Linda turned toward him. “It’s making you look kinda funny, too.”

Don Hand laughs about that. His wife knows him and his sense of humor all too well.

Chilton County also knows Hand well. For his stories, yes, but more so for a legacy that centers around the Chilton County High School football program. The legacy is still growing today.

Here’s another story. When Hand was hired at CCHS in 1970, he had some of the cockiness to be expected from a 27-year-old football coach.

“If I ever have two losing seasons in a row, I’ll quit. You won’t have to fire me,” he recalls telling a local newspaper in a story that introduced him to the Clanton community. He almost had to make good on that promise.

With opinions still sensitive about integration and the treatment of black students in schools they hadn’t been allowed to attend just a decade earlier, black athletes boycotted the football program in 1979 because there weren’t any black cheerleaders.

The Tigers went 4-6 that season. They went 5-5 the next year. “I didn’t say I’d quit if we didn’t have a winning season. I said if we had two losing years in a row…”

Hand had high expectations, but so did the community, which grew more accustomed to winning the longer Hand roamed the sidelines.

Hand’s son, Donnie Hand, has stories, too.

One of them is about how the community demanded a winning football team. He remembers walking out of the front door one Saturday morning after the Tigers had lost a game the night before. He came back inside with the newspaper and a question: “Are we moving?” Donnie’s parents didn’t know why he would ask. “There’s a ‘For Sale’ sign in the yard.” Some overzealous fan had decided to

Like father, like son: Donnie Hand has followed in his father’s footsteps as head coach of Chilton County High School. Don Hand retired after 18 seasons and 125 wins and was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. help the Hands along with the process of getting out of town.

Don Hand’s career includes much more success than failure. Under his watch for 18 seasons, the Tigers won 125 games, more than twice as many as any other coach in CCHS history. They made the playoffs 13 times. And no, Hand never suffered two losing seasons in a row.

Hand was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He was nominated by the CCHS principal at that time, Larry Mahaffey. Now there’s an interesting story.

Mahaffey was a star running back on the 1968-70 Tigers football teams. He scored the team’s only touchdown in his first varsity game, a 7-6 win at Shelby County on Sept. 6, 1968. The very next game, at Prattville, Mahaffey was so impressive in a 25-21 win that a local newspaper gave him a nickname: “Freight Train.”

A Prattville newspaper also bragged on Mahaffey—but credited the performance to

“the Clanton tailback.” They didn’t mention Mahaffey by name because he was black.

Even if he was one of the first black students at CCHS and on the football team, Mahaffey said he has no negative memories about his school experience—except for maybe when that new coach came strolling into town.

“One of the things coach Hand told me was that a good athlete is a good listener,” Mahaffey said. “I didn’t want to listen. I go through integration, then get a new coach, and this white man is going to tell me about hard times?”

But the more Mahaffey matured, the more he appreciated what Hand told him. That’s why he was so eager to write a letter recommending Hand for the Hall of Fame: “His leadership and advice changed my way of thinking about what is possible in life,” Mahaffey wrote. “Coach Hand gave a 16-year-old black male hope, which is something I did not have due to not knowing my natural mother and only knowing my natu-

50 Progress

Don Hand worked with Chilton County’s defense this past season, which improved throughout the season. Senior Chase Brown, who was born 24 years after Hand came to CCHS, described the coach’s methods as “old school” but effective. ral father for 10 years. Coach Hand often told me of his own journey as a young man and the faith that carried him through his journey. Through him I learned that hope is the belief that joy will come. Now, 30 years later as principal of the school I integrated, this is possible because of coach Hand’s deeds,

words and example.”

Hand resigned as football coach after the 1987 season and a 24-0 loss to Greenville in the third round of the state playoffs, but he was far from finished making an impact on the community.

Hand rose in the education ranks all the

way to school superintendent. He served as a volunteer coach at CCHS for childhood friend Steve McCord, at Thorsby for former player Billy Jackson, and now back at Chilton for his son, Donnie, who was hired as head coach before the 2011 season.

Donnie was somewhat surprised he was of-

Progress 51 fered the opportunity after former coach Brian Carter left. Donnie Hand enjoyed several successful seasons as the school’s basketball coach but had retired to focus on his family and his math classes when the football post came open. His father was one of the first people he called.

“He told me that he wasn’t going to tell me yes or no, but he said he thought I could do a good job,” he said. “Then the conversation turned to, ‘Well, if I take it are you going to help me?’”

The Tigers went 3-7 in the younger Hand’s first season, but the defense improved steadily under the older Hand’s guidance. Defensive tackle Chase Brown said players started to realize that Don Hand’s “old school” approach would work if they trusted it.

“He helped us a lot,” Brown said. “We just had to get out there and do what we were supposed to do. I think we were excited to have him out there. It took us a little while, but I think everybody realized what kind of coach he was.”

Hand is still a good coach, but even he admits, “I ain’t as young as I used to be.” He’s

had both knees replaced, and the Tigers this season practiced defense first so he could slip away for the offense’s session. The late nights required for games wear on him, and losing even more so.

“I’m not used to losing,” he said. “It don’t feel right.”

Still, he knows it will take his son some time to turn things around. He points out that the Tigers have had only two winning records in their last 14 seasons. Reversing the habit of losing can’t be done with a snap of the fingers, and he knows that people want to win now, not tomorrow.

“People want to see a product on the field that they can feel like they got their money’s worth,” Hand said. “You’ve got to have people coming to the games. Mommas and daddies will always come, but their neighbors aren’t coming (if the team isn’t winning).”

Hand plans to help at least one more year.

If asked why he does it, he’ll say he just enjoys being around the kids, but there’s more to it than that. He knows he can still make a difference.

One last story. When the Tigers played at

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Wilcox-Central last season, Hand drove up to the game from Gulf Shores, where he and Linda had taken a trip. He detoured through Frisco City, where he coached before CCHS. Hand stopped at a hardware store that he remembered as being owned by the father of one of his former players. Inside, he found the player, running the business the same way his dad had. Hand told him he was on his way to coach a football game.

“You’re still coaching?” the man asked, exasperated. “Coach, how old are you?” Sixtyseven, Hand replied. The man was about to remark again about Hand’s age but caught himself and thought for a moment. “Hell, I’m 62!”

It’s a funny story, but Hand tells it also because he’s proud that former player turned out to be a successful businessman. There are a lot of stories like that Hand can tell— Mahaffey and Donnie Hand just to name a couple.

Don Hand won football games and won over the community, but his legacy will be how many other people he helped win in their own lives along the way. n

52 Progress

LIFE OF TOTAL

DEVOTION

S

tep inside the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude and you feel like you’ve stepped out of Marbury and into a different world.

Instead of locals living on their farms and attending Baptist churches, inside the monastery on County Road 20 are women from all over the country practicing the Catholic faith.

Five sisters live in the monastery: Mother Mary Joseph, Sister Mary Aimee, Sister Mary of the Precious Blood, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart and Sister Mary Jordan. There is also one novice.

The nuns are cloistered, meaning they come apart from the world in order to give themselves completely to Jesus. They spend all their time inside the monastery. Visitors are allowed in a parlor area, and even to enter the chapel to worship in the same room as the sisters, but even then the nuns are separated from those outside the cloister by a divider. Sisters and visitors can see each other, but there is no physical interaction and there is always the understanding that the nuns are inside the cloister while others are outside.

An important part of the monastery’s function is spending time in prayer for the world. The sisters rotate turns so that at least one can always be found praying the rosary in the chapel.

At most times throughout the day, the sisters keep monastic silence, but the monastery echoes at regular intervals with the sounds of the sisters singing in harmony, in Latin.

There is plenty of cooking, cleaning and sewing to be done, but time is made twice a day for recreation, when the sisters bring their own personalities to the community.

A sense of humor, in fact, is one of the requirements given for anyone considering joining the monastery, and it is so important because daily life inside the monastery is structured.

The sisters rise at 5 a.m., have morning prayer before breakfast at 6:45, perform household chores at 7:15 and have midmorning prayer, Holy Mass and a work period and midday prayer before dinner at noon. In the afternoon, there is recreation time, study and rest period, midafternoon prayer, another work period, evening prayer and supper before recreation at 7:30 p.m. Night prayer at 8:30 is the last thing scheduled before the sisters retire.

Though a lot to keep up with, it’s a routine they go through every day, and a series of bells helps keep them on schedule.

The sisters say the community life is a blessing itself. “You can’t think you’re perfect, so you have to keep working on that virtue,” Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart said.

The Dominican Monastery of St. Jude began as a vision had

by Mother Mary of Jesus, a Dominican sister in the monastery

WRITTEN BY STEPHEN DAWKINS | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON GOERING

Progress 53

The contemplative nuns at the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury have given their lives completely to worship. They are allowed visitors in the parlor (above), but even then are separated from those outside the cloister. The public is also allowed to see the nuns in the chapel (opposite page and below, right). Below left is the outside of the monastery.

54 Progress

Opposite page and above: The nuns gather in the chapel to pray. The sisters rotate turns so that at least one nun can always be found praying the rosary in the chapel.

56 Progress of Catonsville, Md., in 1936. She saw “a crowd of angry black people with clubs in hand engaged in a violent struggle,” according to a history provided by the monastery in Marbury. “A Dominican brother, whom she recognized as Saint Martin de Porres, passed among them. The crowd quieted. The clubs were replaced with rosaries. Martin pointed to a monastery on a hill. There she saw Dominican sisters of all races praying with arms outstretched…She felt God was indicating his desire that there should be an interracial community where any young woman who wished to live the cloistered, contemplative life would be welcome.”

There still was the question of where to build such a monastery. A break came in contacting Father Harold Purcell, who had established the city of St. Jude in Montgomery to give black people their own church, school, hospital and social service center. Purcell wanted to have contemplative sisters residing at St. Jude, so that their life of prayer would serve as a source of grace for his many works.

No monastery was available in St. Jude, but there was a house in Marbury, 30 miles to the

north, which was available for the purpose.

So, Marbury became home to Dominican sisters, something that no doubt would have come as a surprise to long time residents.

“At that time, to see a sister was quite an attraction,” said Mother Mary Joseph, a black woman who is proof that the monastery still holds to the ideal of an interracial community. The sisters come from all over, from as near as Auburn and from as far away as Syracuse, N.Y. They decide they want to enter the monastic life, find out about the monastery in Marbury and then take a visit.

They say they decide Marbury is the place for them because of the small, close-knit community. “I didn’t even look anywhere else—why would I?,” Sister Mary Jordan said

of the sense of belonging she had after hearing the sisters sing.

There are several stages to becoming a nun, but after six years from their first entrance into the cloister they take their solemn vows and give their lives to serving God. Then, they never leave the cloister except in cases of medical emergency, and wear a habit every day. “It’s like putting on Christ, to show we belong to Christ,” Sister Mary of the Precious Blood said.

“The purpose of the contemplative life is to give God glory or praise,” Sister Mary Aimee said. “The whole idea is that God deserves our best, so we give our whole lives to him.

We’re not here for ourselves. We’re here to give to God and all his people.” n

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Congratulations Peggy on your award!

58 Progress

2012 CITIZEN OF YEAR Marcus honored for work in community

P

eggy Marcus, a champion of causes like Habitat for Humanity and the United Way, is The Clanton Advertiser’s 2012 Citizen of the Year.

The annual award is given by a committee of past honorees for outstanding work in the community.

Marcus served as a Habitat for Humanity board member for many years and has stayed active with the organization since the Chilton and Autauga chapters merged a few years ago. She has done everything from publicity of Habitat events to helping soon-to-be homeowners scrub and clean their new house.

She took that same kind of whatever needs to be done mentality to her service with the United Way, where she has been a longtime board member. In the past year, she has helped with a benefit motorcycle ride and

Gospel music singing.

When they where active in Chilton County, she also volunteered with the American Red Cross and American Heart Association’s Heart Fund.

A graduate of Jemison High School, Marcus has lived in Chilton County her entire life except for a few years her husband, Glenn Marcus, was stationed away while in the Air Force. She worked in the banking industry for 47 years to the day. She started with First Bank of Thorsby on Dec. 6 1959, and retired on the same day in 2006 from Regions Bank.

She attends First Baptist Church of Thorsby and serves there on the budget and finance committee.

“When Ms. Peggy’s name came up on the list of candidates, committee members immediately cast their vote for her,” said Gay West, 2008 citizen of the year. “Several com-

mittee members have served with her on the United Way Board and know that she gives her all to support a cause. She may be small in stature, but she is mighty when working for something she believes in.”

Marcus is modest about her work in the community: “I want to help make my city and county a better place to live. If I had a goal in life, it would be to help other people.”

CHILTON COUNTY UNITED WAY

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