WHITE The Anniston Star • Sunday, September 26, 2010 • Page 1
PLAINS PLACES: Prof iles of the communities we call home
Photo of a pasture scene near Choccolocco in White Plains by Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 2
Featured in this section: ◆
History of White Plains
◆ Profiles of community members
Krymson Feazell Norman Murray Fred Nunnelly Debra Jones Tom Young Chris Randall Greg Morrow Georgia Calhoun Judy Stiefel
◆ Bains Gap Road ◆ White Plains Elementary
WHITE
PLAINS By Anthony Cook
◆ Youth sports
acook@annistonstar.com
◆ The Over the Hill Gang ◆ The growth
of White Plains
Contributors:
SHEA ZIRLOTT
CAITLIN BONNER
DANIEL GADDY
KIRI WALTON
These writers are graduates of the University of Alabama/ Anniston Star Masters in Community Journalism program.
Designed by: Jessica Stephens Photography by: Bill Wilson Stephen Gross Trent Penny Special thanks to: Star managing editor Anthony Cook and night metro editor Bill Edwards
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The Anniston Star
white plains
Wow ... Head down Choccolocco Road from Golden Springs and just before you get to Highway 9, take a left onto Bains Gap Road in White Plains. In just a hundred yards or so, it hits you. Wow … The swoops and dips of the rolling mountains surrounding White Plains are simply breathtaking and picturesque from every angle, and Bains Gap Road gives it to you in a wallop. The road is almost symbolic of the community it snakes through. White Plains has seen its share of ups and downs, ins and outs. But today this neighborhood is on an incline in population and in popularity, in students and in status. To some, it’s an acknowledgement of the potential they always knew was there. To others, it’s a departure from what once was. As a continuation of its PLACES: Profiles of the Communities We Call Home series, The Anniston Star, in a special section today, is profiling the White Plains community. As part of this project, students from the University of Alabama/Anniston Star Masters in Community Journalism program spent several weeks doing research and interviewing White Plains residents to learn about the community. The beauty of this patch of earth nestled at the foot of the Appalachians is not lost on White Plains resident Greg Morrow. “I live in this little mountainous valley in northeast Alabama that looks like a painting,” said Morrow, who grew up in the community. “It is quiet and serene and natural, and it backs up to a national forest. We have plenty of open space to do the things we like to do — hunting and fishing and being outdoors.” The twists and turns of the narrow Bains Gap Road are deep and frequent, so don’t look up for too long if you’re the one driving. Stately, red-brick homes with pristine yards intermingle with more modest log-cabin-type garden homes. Signs remind drivers that access to this road is limited to the hours between 4 a.m. and 10 p.m. The road climbs as it winds, and the view of the surrounding mountains begins to level off so that now instead of looking up, you’re looking out. Then abruptly, a discreet stop sign interrupts the drive, and you’re at the crest of Bains Gap. The sight is no less breathtaking. Thank God for someone having the foresight to preserve those beautiful longleaf pines. In the distance, you can see a dirt road briefly slip over a nearby peak. Perhaps it’s part of what will soon be the much-anticipated Eastern Parkway. Be careful! Bains Gap also winds as it descends, eventually depositing drivers onto McClellan, the former Army base. Calhoun County Schools superintendent Judy Stiefel was born and raised in White Plains’ Chosea Springs neighborhood and graduated from White Plains School in 1969, when it was a single K-12 school with 400 students. Today its three schools have a combined 1,406 students, with 347 of them at the high school. Stiefel still lives in White Plains, which she says is full of “typical American households” where parents want what’s best for their children. She said they want the necessities of life; they support their school, their churches and each other. Those qualities are proving to be attractive.
The community saw a resurgence early in the 20th century and has been growing steadily ever since. Today, the community has a smattering of businesses but is mostly residential. According to the Calhoun County tax appraiser’s office, the area of the White Plains school district has 2,945 homes, up from 845 homes in 2003. The growth has led to construction of new elementary and middle schools, talk of a new high school, an explosion in youth league sports and a new park where those teams can compete. Krista Young, who works with the White Plains Youth Athletic Organization, said everyone pitches in when it comes to the kids. “We look out for each other,” she said. “Most days, I feel like I have 50 or 60 kids, not just four.”
How it all started The Native American village once called Coosa Field became White Plains in 1860 when a settler renamed it for his hometown, White Plains, Ga. But even 30 years before that, the area already was bustling as the center of trade for then-Benton County. Things slowed down with a population shift after Jacksonville was made the county seat in 1833. The community saw a resurgence early in the 20th century and has been growing steadily ever since. Today, the community has a smattering of businesses — Big Daddy’s restaurant, Murray’s Country Store and others — but is mostly residential. Stiefel said that since there are not a lot of jobs in White Plains, the community is one “where you come home to in the afternoon and at night. It is where you spend your recreational time.” While the growth in White Plains is something many areas would love to have, some lifelong residents say White Plains, in the process of gaining property value, is losing things of intangible value. “When I graduated high school, everybody kind of knew everybody,” said White Plains Baptist Church pastor Eric Snider. “It just lost some of its closeness.” Billy Couch, a member of the Over the Hill Gang of community supporters, said talk of a new high school is not something the group members like hearing. “That’s when it’s going to break our hearts when they build a new high school,” he said, “because all our memories are right there at this school. Every time you walk the halls, you’ll see a memory.” Regardless, Couch said that any bad that might come with living in a growing White Plains is overwhelmed by its unchanging natural beauty. “You can look out your back door,” he said, “and see the prettiest sight God ever created.” Reach Star Managing Editor Anthony Cook at 256-235-3558.
worth the drive, worth the stay ◆
Photo of White Plains from Bains Gap Road by Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 3 Photo of old store along Choccolocco Road by Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
“One thing about people in Alabama ... We will not pull up our roots. Our heritage, our roots are here.” — Billy Couch
◆ The
simple pleasures
story behind its name and its growth ◆
By Kiri Lanice Walton Special to The Star
A settler from White Plains, Ga., selected the clever name once the White Plains area was incorporated as a town in the latter part of 1860. Although the history behind its name is not the most intriguing story, the history of the community that has become the fastest-growing area of the county is one of nearly constant growth, racial cooperation, hard work and simple pleasures. For many of the same reasons that people are flocking to White Plains today, the early settlers of the area staked the community as the new home for themselves and their families. Many white settlers came to the Native American village, Coosa Field, around 1834 to 1836 from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. However, there is evidence that James T. Williams and Thomas Cook, both of South Carolina, were in the area at least four years before the Creek Indian Removal, which is when Native Americans of the Creek tribe either voluntarily left the area or were forced to leave in 1832. Williams and Cook brought their families, their AfricanAmerican slaves and possessions in a covered wagon after being told on a rest stop in Ladiga that Choccolocco Valley had fertile land, rich natural resources and an ample water supply. There, Williams purchased land from Killo, a Native American woman of the Creek tribe. During the 1830s, White Plains was bustling as the center of trade for eastern Benton County. The community had 10 stores, and one of the main roads of travel went straight through the town. However, over the next few years, the population of White Plains sharply decreased after many moved to Jacksonville once it was named the county seat in 1833 and others moved to Montgomery once Native Americans began giving up their more desirable lands in that area. Only four stores remained. White Plains, however, climbed to its feet and dusted itself off and eventually more families moved into the area toward the end of the 19th century. During the first half of the 20th century, the area still had roughly the same number of main stores. There were a few stores, like the R.L. Hicks general merchandise store, which Robert Lawrence Hicks owned. Thompson’s Store sold everything but gas. Howell’s Store in Choccolocco sold gas, canned goods and tobacco products. The racial cooperation seen between the Native Americans and whites early on in White Plains continued throughout the 20th century between whites and African-Americans. In a state known for its harsh treatment of African-Americans and troubled struggle for civil rights, the Choccolocco/ White Plains area was unique. Choccolocco had more African-Americans than any other area in the county, said Billy Couch, 70, a lifelong resident of Choccolocco and White Plains. “I always joke that I was 10 years old before I knew I was white,” Couch said, chuckling. Whites and African-Americans swam together in Choccolocco Creek, ate dinner at each others’ houses, played sports and marbles together. “It was no big deal,” Couch said. “It was just another child next door.” Even though they grew up next door to each other, they went to different schools and churches. When Couch and his friends went to Anniston’s Noble Theater at 10th and Noble Streets, the white teens went through the main doors and the African-American teens went through a separate entrance to sit in a separate section. “It was separate, but it certainly wasn’t equal,” he said. “The blacks couldn’t vote, so they didn’t have a voice.”
er, a cotton gin. To earn extra money, people would come home after a full day of work in the fields or mills and milk their three to four cows in a cement block milking shack, built by Turner Dairy in Oxford. The shacks had about two to three stalls each and a concrete floor, and every day, employees of Turner Dairy would come by to pick up the milk. “It was our job to make sure the cows didn’t eat any bitterweed,” Couch said. “Bitterweed” was a yellow dime-sized flower with a seven-inch stem that made the milk bitter if consumed by cows. Ford Model Ts or Model As or even Bs were the only cars in town, Couch said, because they were the most affordable. Up and down the unpaved main roads of White Plains, wagons laden with ice blocks were driven to homes where people bought the product for their iceboxes where they stored food to prevent spoilage. They cooked their foods on stoves, where fires were built using kindling. The homes themselves were heated by burning wood or, for those who could afford it, coal. Kerosene lamps lit the homes when night fell, and everyone drank water from 50foot-deep wells. For fun, the children played football, softball, volleyball and tetherball. However, Couch’s favorite memory of growing up in White Plains and Choccolocco is swimming with friends in Choccolocco Creek, where they had their own diving board, a high dive and a swing. When they weren’t swimming there, they were usually fishing, he said.
Social Life in White Plains The pastors of the churches in the White Plains area had never attended a theology school or seminary. They simply “were called to preach,” Couch said. “A lot of times church would be the social center of society.” His church would have “dinner on the grounds” on Sunday evenings. Far away from church grounds, however, bootleggers in the area would make homemade liquor, which Couch called “homebrew” or “rot-gut liquor.” “It was dangerous. People would drink it and either get die or get sick,” he said.
Although drinking alcohol was not openly acceptable in the area, people would have honky-tonks on Highway 78 where there was dancing and drinking. However, the hottest ticket in town was usually a sporting event for White Plains High School or even a school play or program. Couch said not much has changed about his beloved White Plains except for the population. He thinks once people move to White Plains, they are there for life, just like he is. “One thing about people in Alabama,” he said. “We will not pull up our roots. Our heritage, our roots are here.”
You are invited to the A Youth Ministry of The First Baptist Church of White Plains Every Sunday Morning @ 9:45 & Every Wednesday @ 6 p.m.
Sunday Services
Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. • Worship: 11a.m. Sunday Evening Service: 6 p.m.
Wednesday Services
Evening Service: 6 p.m. AWANAS Program (kids up to 6th grade): 6-8 p.m. Teen Zone (7th to 12th grade): 6-8 p.m. Adults Bible Study with Pastor Snider: 6 p.m. www.firstbaptistwhiteplains.com
Life in Early 20th Century White Plains “We were all poor,” Couch said. “A lot of the parents were farmers, and a few of the parents had jobs in cotton fields of Jacksonville.” Couch’s father worked making concrete and bunks, then making tractor parts, and his last job was at Shelby Steel Co. One of the biggest employers of White Plains residents was Piedmont, Couch said. In the 1950s, White Plains finally had its own large employ-
Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star/file
The woods beside Bains Gap Road are dusted in snow.
PD. POL. AD BY ROBERT DOWNING FOR CALHOUN COUNTY COMMISSION, 1330 WOODSTOCK AVENUE, ANNISTON, AL 36207
Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 4
white plains
The Anniston Star
◆ 14-year-old hopes to recover from Lyme disease ◆
Photos by Daniel Gaddy/Special to The Star
ABOVE: Krymson Feazell rests as her mother checks in on her during a visit earlier this year to her hometown White Plains. Krymson lives in Kansas City, Mo., where she receives special treatment for Lyme disease. BELOW: Family and friends in White Plains show their support for Krymson with signs and lime green T-shirts.
‘I WEAR LYME GREEN FOR KRYMSON FEAZELL’ By Daniel Gaddy Special to The Star
Before her pain started, 14-year-old Krymson Feazell painted her nails to match her softball uniform. They also had to be just right for hunting trips with her father, Shane. Her mother, Candy, rushed her directly from games to beauty pageants. “We just thought that was life,” Candy said. She was 10 in 2006, when her family thought it was just the flu that caused her stomach, muscles and joints to ache. After seeing several doctors and being told she had everything from fibromyalgia to Lupus, the Feazells were relieved to hear she was suffering from Lyme disease. Candy believed the condition could be fixed by two or three months of treatment. “I thought, ‘My child is going to be cured,’” she said. “But it didn’t work out that way.” Today, Krymson can’t walk. Her infection moved to her nervous system. She suffers headaches, ear aches, constant nausea, loss of peripheral vision and sensitivity to light. “It hurts us just to touch her, even to give her a hug,” Candy said. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection usually caused from tick bites. It can spread to the brain, eyes, heart and joints if gone undiagnosed, but it is rarely fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Krymson takes more than 60 medications daily and receives care from a specialized clinic in Kansas City, Mo. Candy, her mother-in-law, Vickie Feazell, and her daughter, Scarlett, live in Kansas City with Krymson. Shane, a truck driver for Roadway, stays in White Plains to work. Both Scarlett and Krymson are home-schooled. However, because of her condition, there are periods when Krymson can’t complete her school work. Though her condition improved when she came to the clinic, Krymson’s infection caused a buildup of spinal fluid in her brain, which has slowed her recovery and prevents her from taking much of her medicine. Despite their hardships, the entire Feazell family refuses to be bitter, angry or pessimistic. “It’s frustrating because I know there’s so much Krymson wants to do, but the other part of the story is the blessings that have come along with it,” Candy said earlier this year, during a two-week visit to White Plains between trips to Kansas City. “It’s really hard to get down and to concentrate on the negative of it because God’s presence has been so strong the entire time.” Candy said the White Plains community has rallied around their family. There have been benefit tournaments and suppers, cards from strangers and donation jars at gas stations ever since the family’s ordeal began. In each one of them, the family sees God’s hand. “I can’t think of anything we’ve wanted that we didn’t have,” Shane said. Krymson’s health insurance met its yearly limit in October 2009. However, the Feazells’ home church, First Baptist Church of White Plains, made sure Krymson didn’t miss a single day of treatment, Candy said. She said so far the family has not seen any changes to their health insurance due to health care reform legislation. More parts of the federal legislation started this past week. Before she went to the treatment center in Kansas City in 2008, Krymson often flew to New York City and New Haven, Conn., to see specialists. Their home church arranged for purchase of their flight tickets. “We take care of our own,” said Eric Snider, pastor of First Baptist Church of White Plains. “We just want to invest our resources in people.” Though First Baptist has been the primary contributor, Candy said people all across Calhoun County have offered help and prayers. She said the family has received donations from the majority of churches in the area. While visiting White Plains, Candy said she feeds 15 to 20 people a day just to go through all the food that people bring for them.
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Several groups in White Plains have sold T-shirts with phrases like “I wear lyme green for Kryson Feazell” to raise money for her treatments. “I think God has blessed us to live in a community where everybody genuinely cares about each other,” Candy said. When Krymson returned to White Plains for two weeks, the Feazells’ home constantly had visitors. Though it often pains her to talk, she greets each one with a whispered thank you, always remembering to say ma’am or sir. Family members say they are amazed by Krymson’s outlook on her condition. “If it wasn’t for her strength, we couldn’t do it,” her grandmother, Vicki Feazell, said as her voice trembled. “There’s no complaining, no crying, and she does it with such a humble spirit.” Candy said Krymson once told her that her idea of a perfect day would be a barbecue in the backyard with all their family and with Krymson and her best friend, Anna Snider, tossing around a softball. “Until that happens, we’re not going to stop,” Candy said. Krymson said she plans to place pamphlets about Lyme disease in every school in Calhoun County when — not if — she gets better. “God is going to heal me in his own good time,” she whispered. “I’m going to have a great testimony when it’s all done, and maybe I’ll be able to help someone else.”
“I think God has blessed us to live in a community where everybody genuinely cares about each other.” — Candy Feazell +
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 5
closeness and growth define Wp schools
White Plains school district 21
9
By Caitlin Bonner Special to The Star
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When Judy Stiefel graduated from the White Plains district in 1969, it was a K-12 school with 400 students. Today its three schools have a combined 1,435 students. With an enrollment of 357, the high school alone has almost as many students as the entire system during Stiefel’s senior year. Cars line up on Highway 9 for PTO meetings, and nearly 300 kids participate in the ever-expanding White Plains Youth Athletic Organization, started almost 10 years ago. Andy Ward, who grew up in White Plains and is in his second year as principal at White Plains Elementary, has seen his neighborhood grow. His street had two houses when he was a White Plains student; now there are more than 50. Even as White Plains becomes more populated, Ward says the spirit of the community is still very important. “Once you’re a part of the White Plains community, it’s hard to stay away for long,” he said. “That’s why we see a lot of teachers that stay in the system and graduates that come back to their alma mater. Everyone seems to make their way back home.” With more families moving into the area, the school is learning how to adjust to growing pains. Adding two new buildings has helped, but every class is filled to capacity, said Ward. Until less than a decade ago, every student from kindergarten through 12th grade attended the White Plains school just off Alabama 9. As the population began to grow, the county opened an elementary school in August 2002 to house students through fourth grade. In 2008, it opened a building that mirrors the elementary school and is home to 512 students in fifth through eighth grades. Today, the elementary school has 568 students, and the high school has 357. Kassie Hollingsworth, a 1989 White Plains
graduate, teaches special education at White Plains Elementary. She graduated in a class of 45 students. Her daughter, now in fifth grade, is likely to graduate with 125 or more. “I went to school 12 years with the same 40 people,” she said. “Now when I ask my daughter if she knows a student walking down the hall and she says no, and I say why not, they’re in your class.” Hollingsworth said she remembers growing up in the K-12 school and how the older students were mentors to the younger ones. Those things, she said, are missed now that the school is on three campuses and “busting at the seams.” “Even though we’ve gone through growing pains, we’ve seen some wonderful things come out of it,” she said. “We’ve managed to maintain the closeness of a small-school setting because our teachers care so much about the students. We haven’t lost sight of the fact that we’re educating children.” The school sponsors events like Grandparents Day, Fall Festival, Christmas reading, Book-Making Day, and even a day where students dress in their favorite college gear. The school has a healthy dose of both Alabama and Auburn fans who show their spirit with painted faces. Ward had been an administrator at the middle school and high school levels before coming to the elementary school and enjoys the change of pace of working with this age group, he said. He explains that the people of the community continue to make it successful. This recipe includes great teachers and staff, involved parents, and a sense of pride for White Plains. “Even though we’ve gotten larger, everyone in this community is involved and willing to help each other out,” he said. “I know I can make one phone call, and within 30 minutes, someone will be here to do what needs to be done.” Hollingsworth agreed. “It’s the closeness of the community that makes us special,” she said. “I’m privileged to work here.”
LEGEND Talladega National Forest
“Once you’re a part of the White Plains community, it’s hard to stay away for long. That’s why we see a lot of teachers that stay in the system.” — Andy Ward
White Plains school district Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge Deirdre Long/The Anniston Star
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 6
Judy Stiefel By Shea Zirlott Special to The Star
The retiring superintendent of Calhoun County Schools calls White Plains the kind of place that gives you all the opportunities in the world while it nurtures your mind, body and spirit and becomes forever a part of you. Judy Stiefel was born and raised in White Plains’ Chosea Springs community and graduated from White Plains School in 1969, when it was a single K-12 school with 400 students. Today its three schools have a combined 1,406 students, 347 of which are at the high school. Her job involves looking out for students at 22 schools, and she says she works to be fair to them all. But her heart is in White Plains. She recalls from her school days that the area around White Plains School was the hub for the surrounding communities. One of her earliest memories is from a basketball game that her father took her to as a child. Basketball was the event that brought the whole community together before the Wildcats fielded a football team to rally around. Stiefel, who announced her retirement last week, said she began her career as a teacher after being inspired by Gloice Austin, her high school home economics teacher. She called Austin “the most neat person there ever was, the way she spoke, and conducted her classes, and she was a motivator in a very quiet way.” Stiefel received her bachelor’s degree at Jacksonville State University. Upon her December 1972 graduation, she went home to White Plains to teach second grade for a semester while looking for a job teaching home economics. Her first job teaching home economics was in Randolph County for three years. While working in Randolph County, she says, she doesn’t think she ever truly
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left White Plains. She went home almost every weekend and stayed in White Plains for summer breaks. “White Plains has that draw to come back because it is a great community to live in,” she said. In 1976, Austin retired and Stiefel took her mentor’s job as the home economics position at White Plains. She said she “felt a tremendous responsibility to be following” Austin. After working at White Plains, Stiefel went on to earn her doctorate at the University of Alabama and became the child nutrition specialist for Calhoun County Schools. In 2007, she was named superintendent of Calhoun County Schools. Her husband, Mike, is also an educator. She still lives in White Plains, which she says is full of “typical American households” that want what is best for their children. She said they want the necessities of life, they support their school, their churches and each other. She said that since there are not a lot of jobs in White Plains, the community is one “where you come home to in the afternoon and at night. It is where you spend your recreational time.” Stiefel said the same school building she started out going to school in is still there today with a few additions and alterations. But she has seen changes since she was a student there. She said that when she was in school, she knew every family in the school. When she returned to teach, she probably still knew about 90 percent of the families. There is almost no way to know every family in the school anymore. What has not changed, she said, is the caring in the community. “The school cares about the students and their academic progress, the relationship they grow with their students,” she said. “As you spread out into the community and think about the churches that are there, they care about the people. I think it is a caring community.”
Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
Calhoun County Schools Superintendent Judy Stiefel.
Greg Morrow By Shea Zirlott Special to The Star
Greg Morrow didn’t make the Vulcan in Birmingham, but his company made the surrounding displays it that make the attraction more enjoyable. Morrow and his late father, Malone Morrow, founded Southern Custom Exhibits in the late 1980s. Today, Morrow and his workers make displays in Anniston that are part of tourist attractions in 46 states. He said he never knows what the customer will ask to have made, but “we have never said ‘no.’” Visitors to the company’s warehouse will find workers welding metal frames into trees, carving a cave, building a larger-than-life diorama of a manatee, and working on various other signs and exhibits in various stages of completion. Morrow, 43, said people who see his company’s work usually don’t know that it was made in Anniston. Morrow says it’s difficult to describe what he and his employees do for a living because they meld different skills to make exhibits interesting and meaningful. He says each exhibit could include work in “design, drafting, cabinet making, model making, welding, engineering, audio-visuals, electronics, special effects, shipping and installation.” Their displays nearest Anniston include the Vulcan Park in Birmingham, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, The Tuskegee Airmen Site and Russell Cave in northeast Alabama. Greg’s dad, Malone Morrow, started the company in his backyard in White Plains. Malone had always been involved with making things and got his start making one-of-a-kind furniture. The furniture business was not the right fit, so he moved to Atlanta for a few years where he became involved in the exhibit industry. After his health forced him to return to White Plains, Malone decided to start building exhibits in his backyard. He called his son, Greg, home from college in Atlanta to help him in the late 1980s. In the business’ early years, Greg Morrow said, customers saw it as a novelty, commenting, “Oh, look, it is a real country store.” As the company grew, so did its reputation. Morrow says what started as a small business “has been rolling like a mad avalanche ever since.” Within four years, the business had to move because it ran out of space. Morrow says it was a sad day when they left the backyard for their current location near Golden Springs. He knows it was the right thing to do, but he loved to “get up and ride his bicycle to work every morning down a country road … or throw the door open at 3 on a pretty day and go fishing.” Southern Custom Exhibits has continued to thrive since moving. The workrooms are always bustling with activity bringing things to life or presenting entertaining and interesting information. Morrow said he tries to keep up with technology and to keep his company innovative. He recently started work on creating an interactive exhibit that lets tourists move along a display while using a touch screen to see interactive videos or diagrams. He says it could run a museum anywhere from $50,000 to more than $100,000 depending on what they wanted the exhibit to do. Morrow’s family was among the first to settle in White Plains and have been there ever since. Morrow says his mother went to White Plains High, he is a graduate and he hopes both of his children are able to graduate from there as well in the next few years. Morrow’s wife, Cindy, 41, was not born and raised in White Plains, but Morrow said she has come to love it. Morrow appreciates his roots in White Plains, saying
“White Plains has that draw to come back because it is a great community to live in.”
Georgia Calhoun By Kiri Lanice Walton Special to The Star
Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Greg Morrow of Southern Custom Exhibits. the entire time he spent in Atlanta he couldn’t wait to get back to White Plains. “I live in this little mountainous valley in northeast Alabama that looks like a painting,” he said. “It is quiet and serene and natural, and it backs up to a national forest. We have plenty of open space to do the things we like to do — hunting and fishing and being outdoors.” But it may be growing a bit too fast. Morrow likes White Plains the way it is, but understands that other people are starting to see the benefits he has enjoyed his entire life. Where White Plains used to be known as being country, Morrow says it has become the perfect example of urban sprawl. Still, he has no plans to move. Traveling has given him the chance to see a lot of the United States. He keeps coming home, thankful to be back to the place he loves so much. When he meets people who talk down on Alabama, he tells them, “Yeah, it is probably somewhere you don’t need to be. You wouldn’t like it.”
Southern Custom Exhibits’ closest displays include Vulcan Park, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Tuskegee Airmen site.
After living through segregation, two knee replacements and breast cancer, Georgia Calhoun isn’t slowing down. Georgia Calhoun, 80, is a well-known community figure throughout Choccolocco, White Plains and Anniston. She founded the Choccolocco Heritage Society in 1985 and initiated the Black Heritage Festival in Anniston in 1981. Calhoun attended a brick school that had been built by former slaves in 1876 with help from a white Vircalhoun ginian teacher since slaves did not have the money or rights to establish schools. The school still stands in Choccolocco and is now on the Alabama historical register. Calhoun and her classmates had one teacher who taught all six grades. A white teacher supplied some of her old materials for the children to use in school because African-Americans were unable to receive new teaching materials. When she remembers growing up in Choccolocco, which, like most of the South, was segregated at the time, she said, “We all had pride and we all had our own communities.” However, her neighborhood was diverse. On all sides of her were white families, including the town’s doctor who lived across the street. There were separate community concerts and Easter egg hunts, but ball games and churches were integrated, said Calhoun, who still goes to New Prospect Baptist Church, which is now 153 years old. Calhoun, like most in the community, spent a great deal of time in church. Because her family’s home was closest to the ponds, people would dress at her house before going to be baptized. Everyone would sing “Take Me To the Water.” Calhoun went off to college and earned a bachelor’s degree from Alabama State University at age 20. Then she married and lived in Birmingham. She
divorced a few years and two sons later, and left Birmingham to live with her brother in New York City. “But I always come back,” she said. Calhoun returned in the late 1950s to teach juniors and seniors at the all-black school in Jacksonville. Then she taught for eight years in West Point, Ga., before returning to Choccolocco. She got another teaching job in Calhoun County in 1965 and stayed with it until 1993. When integration began in Calhoun County, Calhoun said, they began with the teachers first. They brought African-American teachers into the all-white schools based on their skin tone and looks, she said. When they did begin the integration of the students, “needless to say, that’s when flight started,” Calhoun said. It was at this time that Calhoun went back to school at Jacksonville State University to get her master’s degree in library science. She then convinced the principal at her high school that she should become the librarian for the entire school. The principal was hesitant to lose one of her best classroom teachers. “I can reach all the students in the schools, and we know there’s going to be some problems now that the schools are integrated,” Calhoun told the principal. “And I can use books to teach tolerance.” And that’s just what she did. Calhoun continues to be active in her community despite retiring more than 15 years ago. She is a breast cancer survivor who is heavily involved in local Relay for Life groups, and she works out on the treadmill three days a week. “I am an 18-year survivor of breast cancer,” she said. “I’ve had two knee replacements and I don’t hop. I can do the electric slide.” As a woman who has successfully become an important figure in her community, which once was segregated, Calhoun has plenty of wisdom that she does not mind sharing. “Stay focused on the better things of life,” she said. “Be careful who you associate with and get as much education as you can get. Stay busy. Read all you can. Love yourself.”
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The Anniston Star
white plains
Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 7
Over the Hill Gang’s got a lot of swing left.
OVER THE HILL GANG Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
The Over the Hill Gang from left: Alvin Robertson, Stan Barnwell, Bill Couch, T.L. Moore, Randy Hubbard, Floyd Amos, Henry Barnwell, Richard ‘Coach’ Madden and Donnie Ford.
By Kiri Lanice Walton Special to The Star
Just over the mountain is the Over the Hill Gang, whose members might be a tad beyond their basketball-playing years but are still kicking when it comes to helping their White Plains community. The group, conceived in 2005 by White Plains High alumni Alvin Robertson, Billy Couch and others, grew from a poster created for a high school basketball game that read, “Over the Hill Gang Loves White Plains Basketball.” The name stuck. Stanley Barnwell was once the youngest of the group until his son joined. The age minimum was once 55. “We’ll change the age limit and say you’re over the hill and can be a member unless you can play basketball with the team down here or you can play football, and if you can’t play with them, then you’re over the hill,” Robertson said to a new member who pointed out that she was not yet 55. The gang is not affiliated with White Plains High School but works to help the school and its students. “We strive to make a difference,” is their slogan. “That’s the reason I joined,” Couch said. “I wanted to make a difference, and I had
the time because I was retired.” The Over the Hill Gang’s first major community endeavor was the Daniel Davenport Scholarship Fund and memorial tournament. Davenport was a White Plains High basketball player who had an accident on his four-wheeler two days before graduation in 2005. He was in the hospital for about a month before he died. Someone anonymously donated $800 to the Gang for the scholarship fund, and it grew to $1,000. Davenport’s family now handles the scholarship, which is given annually to a deserving student at White Plains High School. Since then, the Gang has helped the community by feeding athletes and funding scholarships. Members feed the varsity girls’ and boys’ basketball teams after each home game, and also provide food for the junior high basketball teams, the baseball teams and cheerleaders. The group also helps with food for Senior Night, and with sending athletes to basketball camp or with buying their athletic shoes or uniforms. The group gives two $1,000 scholarships to White Plains High seniors each year. One
scholarship is in honor of former White Plains coach Richard Madden, and the other is in memory of coach Eugene Williamon. The group’s annual golf tournament has become so popular that they usually have to turn away golfers after the 108 spots are filled. The group recently honored Madden and named the basketball gym floor the Richard Madden Basketball Court; 250 people attended the event. Madden is a member of the Gang. “No fees, nothing. Just tell us you want to be a member, and come help us do our thing,” Robertson said. “We don’t do anything without a vote. … We get approval on everything.” Almost every vote is unanimous.
The Gang of White Plains Gang members say they have plenty of reasons for staying in White Plains — or for coming home. For Couch, it’s “the people and the mountains. You can look out your back door and see the prettiest sight God ever created. We’re on the tail end of the Appalachian Mountains right here.” Robertson left White Plains for 44 years, but came back in 1995 and married his high
school sweetheart, Mary Elizabeth. Their home, where she and her father grew up, sits in the middle of 120 acres. Though Robertson found his way back to White Plains, some Gang members said they would never leave. “Our roots are here,” said Couch, who was born a mile from where he lives. His parents were born across Choccolocco Creek in White Plains. Couch worked for the railroad for four decades, which meant a 136-mile daily round trip to Birmingham. “I didn’t care,” he said. “I’d already made up my mind — and my wife had too — that this was God’s little acre to us, personally.” Members of the organization said they have seen major changes to their community over the decades, including the immense growth and development of new subdivisions and the building of new elementary and middle schools. However, talk of a new high school is not something the group members like hearing. “That’s when it’s going to break our hearts when they build a new high school,” Couch said, “because all our memories are right there at this school. Every time you walk the halls, you’ll see a memory. “It’s sad. I tell you, I hope I’m not alive when it happens.”
Youth leagues are bigger and stronger By Caitlin Bonner Special to The Star
On any Saturday this spring in White Plains, you could find hundreds of ballplayers, family members and friends gathered for a day packed with games at the Nances Creek Community Center. Across the chest of every player are the letters “WP” — not the name of team sponsors. Nearly 300 young athletes compete against themselves as their own White Plains baseball and softball leagues, thanks to the White Plains Youth Athletic Organization, started 10 years ago. Krista Young, who coaches softball and has served as an officer and commissioner for the organization, says it is important for the community to have its own league. “We all want to represent White Plains, whether it’s traveling to a different town or finally being able to host our own home games,” she said. “The kids understand that, too. Their goal is to play ball for White Plains High School when they grow up.” Until three years ago, the baseball and softball teams of White Plains played in the Heflin town league and didn’t have fields to call their own. Last springs, the teams played on the single field at the Nances Creek Community Center nearly halfway to Jacksonville, but next year, they play their first full season at a new sports complex with three fields. The new complex has been a dream of the White Plains Youth Athletic Organization since its start in 2002, said current treasurer, Bill Pohl. The organization has received thousands of dollars in donations along the way, as well as thousands of hours of labor, to turn this dream into a reality. “A lot of Cokes and Snickers bars have been sold to help make this complex possible,” Pohl said, adding that people were “coming out every weekend to help lay sod, clean up
and do whatever they can to get these fields done ...” The idea for the organization was brought about by parents such as Pohl and Greg Morrow, who wanted their children to have the same opportunities as other kids in the county. The organization started with basketball and baseball teams. It now has seven activities, including softball, football, soccer, dance line and cheerleading. Pohl, who remembers running the pitching machine on a generator and practicing in a field pocked by cow patties, said he believes it is important to give kids a place to play sports. “I really believe we’re getting to a kid early enough that they’re going to fall in love with sports,” he said. “We could be saving a kid’s life by introducing them to sports. If they’re out playing ball, they’re less likely to get into trouble.” Krista and Tom Young have worked in the organization the last seven years. In 2003, they cleared part of their yard to create a practice soccer field. Later, a baseball diamond was built. At any given time, eight White Plains youth teams can be practicing by their house. “It just evolved from us needing a place for our kids to practice,” Krista Young said. “Everyone helps, and everyone feels a part of it. “It’s like that saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ That’s how it is in White Plains. We all help out with each other’s kids. We look out for each other. Most days, I feel like I have 50 or 60 kids, not just four.” Today, the organization has about 30 active members who are involved in different sports seasons. In the final weekends of baseball, the group registers players for football and cheerleading. “This is a full-time job most days,” said Pohl, who owns a finance company. “It never stops; we go from one sport to the next.”
Photos by Caitlin Bonner/Special to The Star
ABOVE: White Plains residents man the entrance to the new three-field sports complex. LEFT: Youngsters play a game at the sports complex. More than 300 White Plains children participate in the community’s youth athletic organization.
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 8
white plains
By Shea Zirlott Special to The Star
BAINS GAP Based on the number of vehicles that drive through the gap in the mountain when the road is open, drivers have not given up on Bains Gap.
ONLINE EXTRA: Take a drive along Whites Gap Road at AnnistonStar.com.
◆ most
Nearly 500 vehicles a day drive through 9,000 acres of some of the most picturesque — and scary — parts of Calhoun County. Bains Gap Road, off Choccolocco Road in White Plains, connects eastern Calhoun County residents with Anniston through the old Fort McClellan property. Drivers pass a forest of longleaf pines, a rarity in Alabama. These were preserved because military training during the property’s fort days was conducted in a way as to allow the trees to flourish. “The refuge contains the last and best example of old-growth longleaf pine found in the Southeast,” said Steve Miller, refuge manager of the Mountain Longleaf Wildlife Refuge that the road bisects. Those exercises, however, left behind unknown amounts of unexploded ordnance and residue of chemical weapons, which means the road is closed from time to time for cleanup and is always closed after dark. Bains Gap Road has been open in recent weeks but at any time could be closed due to maintenance from unexploded ordnance recovery work, Miller said. Based on the number of vehicles that drive through the gap in the mountain when the road is open, drivers have not given up on Bains Gap. Locals and tourists use the road to get where they need to go when they can. Judy Steifel, superintendent for Calhoun County Schools, lives in White Plains and uses Bains Gap to get to her office in Anniston whenever it’s open. She said she’s not the only one, because she always encounters some light traffic during her commute. Bains Gap is just over seven miles long from Choccolocco Road to Baltzell Gate Road in Anniston, and the trip through the mountain pass takes less than half an hour. A trip from White Plains High School to the Anniston Wal-Mart is almost 14 miles and takes about 30 minutes. Bains Gap would not be the quickest way to get to the Wal-Mart in Jacksonville; Whites Gap would get you there about 10 minutes faster with almost three fewer miles to drive. The road was reopened in March 2007, at the
The Anniston Star
request of the public and politicians, after it had been closed eight years. Miller said it was assumed at the time the road would occasionally close for maintenance. Indeed, Bains Gap Road was closed for maintenance earlier this year while workers cleaned up ordnance and handled controlled burning needed to preserve the flora and fauna of the refuge, Miller said. The road closed for five consecutive days in February after an unexploded ordnance item was found with an unknown filler and required different treatment from the rounds normally found at McClellan. The road passes between mountains and even a waterfall in the reserve. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially proposed the reserve but were concerned about contamination from Army activities. Congress in 2003 ordered the agency to acquire the land and manage the property. Miller said the reserve was created “to protect the longleaf pine forests and associated wildlife and habitats of the area.” Contrary to popular belief, the Army’s presence actually helped the habitat. Miller says training exercises occasionally resulted in fires, which allowed longleaf pines to thrive. He says while most in the Southeast suppressed forest fires, the Army usually let them burn long enough to preserve the trees. Longleaf pines, along with many of the species that live around them, require fire to be maintained. Miller says the “training led to many negative impacts on habitats, but the resulting fires were beneficial to many of the longleaf pine areas.” Miller also said the road is closed from dusk until dawn for two reasons. The main reason is to benefit wildlife, he said. He also said that under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ agreement with the Army, the road is closed at night for the safety of drivers because of unexploded weapons. Signs alert the public to areas that are contaminated. Miller said the most recent problems with unexploded weapons were fixed on March 5, which means the road should remain open, for the most part, in the near future. He said closings will continue because of weapons and for planned burns. Miller said he considers the road to be safe as long as “folks go the speed limit” down the steep road that winds through the mountains. That speed limit is 25 mph.
scenic, challenging route to White Plains ◆
Photo of sunset over Bains Gap Road by Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
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The Anniston Star
white plains
Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 9
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
‘ ... looks like a painting.’
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
“You can look out your back door and see the prettiest sight God ever created.” — Billy Couch
Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 10
white plains
◆ Country store owner says he considers
White Plains to be a great place to raise kids ◆
The Anniston Star
Tom Young By Daniel Gaddy Special to The Star
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
Norman Murray waits on a customer at his store in White Plains. He owns and operates Murray’s Country Store.
Despite the changing economy, Murray doesn’t worry about the well-being of his business.
Norman Murray
By Shea Zirlott Special to The Star
Norman Murray has lived on the same piece of White Plains property all of his 70 years and won’t be leaving because he “ain’t got nowhere better to go.” “I’ve been here all my life,” he said. “I’ll stay here another 30 years until I croak.” The house where Murray grew up is next to his place of business, Murray’s Country Store, and it’s just a few yards from his newer house along Choccolocco Road. Murray, along with his brothers and sisters, all attended White Plains School. All stayed nearby except for his brother, Arthur, who moved to Anniston and spent 31 years as Calhoun County’s probate judge. Murray said his family has been in White Plains quite a while, “at least three or four generations,” he supposed. White Plains is different from his earlier memories, he said, because of all the growth. Thousands of new people have come into the community over the past decade because “they like the mountains and they like the looks of the place.” Murray said he considers White Plains to be a great place to raise kids. He said his first two children were products of White Plains High School and turned out great. His oldest daughter is a social worker, and his son is working to be a physician’s assistant. He also has high hopes for his youngest daughter, who graduated this year from White Plains High School. His first job was working on a farm, and then he worked
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at a store in Anniston for 17 years until it closed. Murray opened his store in 1978 with his wife, Judy, and they have owned and operated the convenience store for most of the time since. The store has three employees: Murray, his wife and Jim Bonds, who comes in every day to help while Murray tends to his cows and his farm. Murray says there were a few more country stores and gas stations when he first opened, but most have closed over the years. He said the store business has become a lot harder to get into, and a lot harder to make a profit out of. Murray estimates he sees between 100 and 200 customers a day. He knows most of the customers, but every once in a while he comes across a stranger who is either new to White Plains or just passing through. Despite the changing economy, Murray doesn’t worry about the well-being of his business. “People are always going to need a convenience store,” he said. “I don’t make a lot of money, but I don’t do it to get rich. I enjoy my work.” Murray decided it was time for him to retire in 2008, so he rented the store out. Over the next two years, the store went through two tenants, so Murray took the store back. He spends his days working at his store, tending to his cows and enjoying the three fishing ponds on his property. He’s trying to lease the store again because he says he needs to retire again. “A 70-year-old man,” he said, “is not supposed to have an alarm clock.”
When Tom Young moved to the Anniston area to practice law, he said he hoped to find a place with a lot of open space, similar to his hometown of Centreville in Bibb County. He found it just down Alabama 9 in White Plains. “This is a geographically monstrous area,” he said. “It covers a huge territory.” Young also said, like in his hometown, he had no trouble being accepted into White Plains after moving here in 2002. “The people here are always willing to help and to be friendly,” he said. “They’re my kind of folks.” He also said the quality of the school district was also a major selling point to the community. With three children, schools “played a big part in our decision,” he said. Young now serves as a board member for the Calhoun County school district. He said he ran for the office in 2006 because the White Plains area had not had a representative for several decades. “I thought that it couldn’t hurt having somebody there protecting White Plains’ interests, but once you get there, you can make a difference for everyone in the community,” he said. Young said he is proud to be serving on a school board that has accomplished so much for the county, particularly preventing cuts in teachers’ jobs, he said. Also, he said he is thrilled the board was able to put music teachers in the elementary schools. Young said Calhoun County schools, especially the White Plains district, are able to accomplish so much because of the level of involvement from parents. The Parent Teacher Organization meetings usually are standing-room-only, he said. “That makes a huge difference in what you’re able to do,” he said. Young has also been heavily involved in the White Plains Youth Athletic Organization, a volunteer nonprofit group that provides material and financial support to sports programs. “It’s a worthy project because you give something that gives kids an outlet,” he said. Young said the organization has done so much for local sports teams because of the outpouring of support from people in the community, many of whom have few ties to youth athletics. “The people here don’t mind working for something that doesn’t benefit them,” he said. Young said the people in the community are so caring because of the values instilled in them through the churches, schools and their parents. “The people are [the community’s] heart, and I don’t think many people like leaving once they’ve lived here,” he said.
Daniel Gaddy/Special to The Star
White Plains resident Tom Young has become very involved with the community since moving there in 2002.
Photo of Murray’s Country Store by Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
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The Anniston Star
white plains
Fred Nunnelly
Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 11
It’s all in a day’s work for this White Plains basketball coach.
By Shea Zirlott Special to The Star
Fred G. Nunnelly was memorialized as a ‘wellknown citizen’ and a ‘competent, honest public official’ after his death in 1950. Today, there’s a park named for him off of Cottaquilla Road in White Plains for his service to the county. Nunnelly was responsible for the road being built to Camp Cottaquilla Girl Scouts Camp in White Plains. He was the chairman of the Calhoun County Commission when he died, and he had served two terms on the commission for the eight years preceding his death. Nunnelly is best remembered Nunnelly for his knack for building. He spent his adult life in the building and construction industry. During World War II, when both men and materials for building were sparse, he led the Calhoun County Commission. Despite the obstacles that he faced, his years of leadership produced “improved conditions, no new debts and money in the bank.” Nunnelly is given credit for hundreds of miles of improved and paved roads in Calhoun County. During his two terms as chairman of the County Commission 325 miles of paved roads were completed, 125 miles of roads were improved and five bridges were built. One of Nunnelly’s final projects was the Calhoun County War Memorial Library across from Zinn Park in Anniston. He was one of the main fundraisers for the project, and when funds ran out, he made it possible for county funds to be used to complete the project. The opening was postponed in hopes that his health would improve and allow him to attend. Nunnelly died before the library was opened. Nunnelly died of a long-term illness on April 2, 1950. Nunnelly was born and raised in the Hebron community. He was a deacon in the Hebron Baptist Church, and a member of the F.O.P., Anniston City Council, Boy Scouts, American Legion, Masons, Civitan Club, Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Cottaquilla Council. Nunnelly was described in The Anniston Star as a man who “probably had more friends in this county than any other single individual citizen.” He was remembered as a man whose personal mantra was “serve the people.”
“ ... probably had more friends in this county than any other single individual citizen ...”
Debra Jones By Kiri Lanice Walton Special to The Star
The Wagon Wheel restaurant in White Plains is packed on Saturday mornings. Breakfast begins at 6, and the customers could stay for hours. It’s a gathering place for the people of White Plains. When they’re done, some may practice their backswing at the Pine Hill golf course, pausing on the way to let a deer cross the road. Others may go shopping at Big B’s grocery or fill their tanks at Faulkner’s gas, where you’ll eventually get a bill. “Who in this day and age trusts people to run a gas tab?” asked attorney Debra Jones, a White Plains dweller. “It’s really great.” Jones, who is originally from Talladega and is running against Joel Laird for circuit judge, moved to the area for schools that she jones says are comparable to private schools. She and her husband have five children, and at least one attends each of White Plains’ schools. Jones and her family “found a wonderful home” in 2005 where the deer and turkey walk through the driveway every day. “It’s a perfect location,” she said. There is the small-town feel, but it is also “very modern.” Jones said White Plains offers the best of both worlds because it has all the aspects of country living, yet it’s just 15 minutes from the county’s finest shopping, 30 minutes from Jacksonville State University and an hour or so to either Birmingham or Atlanta. She said it was easy to fit in as a newcomer because the people of White Plains are invested in their community. As a parent, it was easier to meet other parents, but also she began to get to know others in the area from visiting the Wagon Wheel, Big Daddy’s and other area gathering spots. “That little community really portrays family values and the fabric of society: faith, family and the American dream,” Jones said.
Talladega transplant finds ‘perfect location’ in White Plains
The Anniston Star/file
White Plains coach Chris Randall calls the shots during a game against Jacksonville Christian Academy.
CHRIS RANDALL By Caitlin Bonner Special to The Star
When White Plains High basketball coach Chris Randall says that nothing good ever comes from quitting, he means it. After graduating from Jacksonville State University in 1994, Randall was one of five men called back for a starting job with UPS. The pre-loading job started at 3:15 a.m. and lasted five hours. Within two weeks, the first four quit. Randall, the last man on the list to be hired, quickly understood why the previous four had left. He decided that he’d finish that day and never return. But then he thought of Larry Skinner, his mentor and basketball coach at Trinity Christian Academy in Oxford where he grew up. “I put the key in the ignition and thought, ‘You told Coach Skinner you got this job. If you quit, you have to face him and tell him it’s too tough.’ I slammed my hands on the steering wheel. I couldn’t do it. I went back the next day and pre-loaded those trucks for the next four years.” Randall, 40, tries to model himself after Skinner, as a coach who teaches more than a sport, but how to succeed in life. “He taught me more about how to be a good husband, a good father, a good man, than how to guard someone or shoot a 3-pointer. I watched how he interacted with his wife and how he raised his kids. I watched every move he made. He taught me how to coach kids, and how to turn those kids into men.” Skinner said he’d love to take credit for Randall, but instead gives credit to his parents. “Chris is a unique person,” he said. “He can discipline kids, and they’ll thank him for it when he’s through. He’s an amazing guy.” Skinner became Trinity’s varsity and B-team basketball coach in 1976 and first coached Randall as a sixthgrader in 1982. “I knew he was going to be successful from day one,” Skinner said of Randall. “He’s a great competitor and a great leader on the floor.” Following a couple of years away from Trinity, Skinner returned as just the varsity coach when Randall was a junior at the school, and Skinner was teaching at Anniston High. The “temporary” job became permanent, and he coached there until 1999. Randall took over the following year. “I saw those qualities in high school,” Skinner said of Randall. “He’s the kind of guy other guys looked up to. He was made to coach.” Randall says he still calls Skinner before every big decision he makes. That included Randall’s decision in 2001 to move to White Plains. “I cannot put into words what I learned from him,” Randall said. “When the going got tough, he got tougher.” As a high school coach, Randall is mindful of the impact he has on his students. The athletes are still deciding who they want to be. When he expects a lot from them, they live up to those expectations, he said.
◆ coach
“You get to be in the huddle or in the locker room, you get to be a part of the biggest part of these kid’s lives,” he said. “You see them fail and you get to pick them up. You get to tell them everything’s going to be OK the next day.” On the first day of practice, Randall and his coaches set a list of standards and expectations for players. One of those standards is that quitting is not an option. He also lets the players take ownership and set their own standards, and have input on punishment when those standards are not met. The fundamentals are only part of the curriculum in White Plains’ athletics. Coaches teach students to respect their school, their parents, their coaches and the games they play. The players learn the importance of being on a team, Randall said. “We breakdown ‘us.’ They learn it’s not about me, it’s about us. You’re a small part of something bigger than you.” Although Randall grew up in Oxford, he said he feels as though he’s always been in White Plains. And he certainly doesn’t see himself going anywhere soon. After nine years at the school, Randall looks back fondly on Davine Miller, the principal who hired him. “She gave me a shot and supported me like a member of her own family,” he said. “Ms. Miller and this community gave me a shot when no one else would. If nothing else, I’m loyal to a fault.” Miller said she has no regrets about hiring Randall. “He’s been a blessing for our school and our community,” she said. “I always think back to his genuine love for God, his family, and White Plains.” Randall’s office boasts memorabilia from his years of coaching. From his desk, he can relive memories from his family, past players, and moments from coaching that explain White Plains’ pride and dedication. Players diving on the floor for a loose ball, graduating seniors, and the “Rocky” stairs in Philadelphia remind him of the lessons he has both learned and taught. Also in his office are reminders of Brady Munroe, Daniel Davenport, and Matthew Faulkner, basketball players who died while at White Plains. “Winning isn’t more important than these kids,” he said. “Brady taught me to value those relationships. I saw the best and worst in one season.” Although basketball is his main sport, Randall is involved with football and baseball and even helps maintain the grounds. For Randall, it will always be about the relationships and the impact he is able to have on his players. “If you’re just coaching to win some games, shame on you,” he said. “At the end of the day, people are going to forget your record. What are your relationships? When someone asks me how I did this year, I tell them to ask me in 10 years, and we’ll see what kind of men they turn into down the road, see if they come back and visit.” This year, Randall has a former player who does more than just visit. Bart Smith is on the bench with Randall as an assistant coach, learning how to coach the way Randall coached him.
models himself after mentor ◆
Sunday, September 26, 2010 Page 12
white plains
The Anniston Star
Whoever said “if you build it, they will come,” wasn’t kidding.
STEADY GROWTH ◆ Outsiders By Kiri Lanice Walton Special to The Star
The subdivisions in White Plains keep coming and so do the people, bringing growth to White Plains at a faster rate than any other part of the county in recent years. According to the data from the tax appraiser’s office, the area of the White Plains school district currently has 2,945 homes with an average appraised value of $117,000. This is up from 2003, when the area had 845 homes, which had an average appraised value of $73,943. New homes mean new families, so the White Plains school district has also had its share of growth as well. The White Plains school district had 744 students enrolled for the 2000-2001 school year, said Mike Steifel, attendance and zoning officer for Calhoun County schools. For the 2009-2010 school year, 1,425 students were enrolled in the White Plains schools. “They have just about almost doubled in 10 years,” said Stiefel, who lives in White Plains. “The housing market was really booming back in that time,” he said. “Test scores were looking good and people wanted to move out of the city into the rural area. Subdivisions started popping up and people started moving.” Using the White Plains school district boundaries, the community of White Plains lies east of the Huntington Trace subdivision on Choccolocco Road and east of Highway 9, according to Stiefel. With a new elementary and middle school built within the last few years as well as a new youth sports complex, the area is becoming more popular than ever. Residents say it is easy to see why. White Plains is “a piece of Americana,” said Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing, with “good schools, low crime, friendly people and a beautiful countryside.” Just ask Gene Hubbard, a longtime resident who taught special education at White Plains for 25 years before becoming a developer. “It’s been a pretty good market out here for 10 years,” said Hubbard, who first began building homes in 1979. “The driving force out here really is the White Plains school district.” Like area schools, churches in the area have also experienced a growth spike. White Plains Baptist Church, which sits next to the high school, has seen the number of active members quadruple from 100 to 400 in the last 15 years, said Pastor Eric Snider. “For us, as far as our worship and all, it’s not changed anything,” Snider said. “The one thing that changed is that when you have that many people, it kind of changes how you have to minister to them.” Now WPBC has a full-time youth minister “to keep up with the needs of the city,” and many of the churches in White Plains have full-time pastors, which was not the case a decade ago, Snider said.
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see value in White Plains ◆
White Plains’ growth has also brought about another significant change, Snider said. “It’s lost a lot of its community,” he said. “When I graduated high school, everybody kind of knew everybody. It just lost some of its closeness.” Snider, who has lived in the Pine Hill subdivision for about five years, said although he knows his next-door neighbors, he “couldn’t tell you everybody that lives up and down my street. There’s just so many now and it’s just so hard to know everybody the way I did when I was a kid growing up.” The growth brings some other challenges, Hubbard said. One has been the difficulty to receive septic tank approval for new homes from the Calhoun County Health Department. However, Craig Hansen, a senior public health environmentalist for the county, said “There are a lot worse areas in the county than White Plains,” in terms of septic tank approval. Some areas have soil with high clay content so that water cannot pass through it, meaning the field lines or pipes that allow the disposal of the sewage cannot be installed there because the sewage would not be able to dissipate in the soil, Hansen explained. “But you don’t have that problem with White Plains,” he said. “The builder only makes money if all the lots are approved,” Hansen said. “That is unlikely. It’s just a law of averages. If you take a chunk of land and cut it into lots, some lots will have problems.” The builders lose money on the unapproved lots, Hansen said. Though those are lots which cannot have homes built on them, the builders must still have a road as well as a water line for these lots to reach the other homes in the subdivision. As more houses have been built in the area more people have come along, which inevitably brings more traffic and congestion, Downing said. Sprawl creates more demands for more services, he said. “It creates pressures on schools to keep up with the growth, and that’s expensive,” he said. “People move from the city to the country and they expect city services, and the tax base doesn’t support that.” The boom also has caused land prices to rise, which Hubbard said may limit growth in the area. “It’s gotten much harder to find property that’s reasonably priced,” he said. Hubbard is building homes in the Mountainview subdivision that are selling for $200,000 to $300,000, a couple of them more than that. The economy also has taken its toll. “The market has slowed down to a crawl, but it’s still better here than in a lot of places,” said Hubbard, whose wife, Denise, is a White Plains real estate agent. “We have all the things here to be a leader in the county when the market does come back,” he said. “We’re just going to weather the storm.”
Photos by Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
TOP AND ABOVE: This new housing development along Choccolocco Road is an example of the recent growth in White Plains. BELOW: White Plains Elementary School.
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