Mud Factor Run • Leeds Business Growth Downtown Pell City • Best of St. Clair Winners • Rotary Serves
October & November 2021
RIM to RIM Pell City engineers ‘engineer’ a Grand Canyon adventure
Paranormal St. Clair Not everything is what it appears to be
Remembering Veterans
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Discover The Essence of St. Clair October & November 2021
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MUD FACTOR
RIM TO RIM
PARANORMAL
Athletic entertainment at Millcreek MX Park
Pell City engineers at the Grand Canyon
Not all in St. Clair is what it appears to be
Traveling the Backroads Name behind Maddox Farm Road
Page 40
Best of St. Clair
A complete list of all of 2021 winners
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Pell City Rotary
Veterans Home
Friend to those who serve
Step into the ring Professional boxing comes to town
Remembering Veterans
St. Clair Business Downtown Pell City Third Thursday Leeds businesses growing
Page 45
Defining service to community Page 48
Butts to Go moves Small Business St. Clair
Page 52 Page 58 Page 64 Page 67 Page 70 Page 78
Page 80 Writer wins national award Page 82
w w w . d i s co v e r stc l a i r . co m
Writers AND Photographers Graham Hadley
Carol Pappas
Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. She serves as president/CEO of Partners by Design, the multimedia group that publishes Discover.
Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia company. An Auburn journalism graduate, Hadley also served as the news editor for The Rome News Tribune in Rome, Ga.
Elaine Hobson Miller
Joe Whitten Joe Whitten was born in Bryant on Sand Mountain. When he arrived in Odenville in 1961 to teach at St. Clair County High School, he found a place to call home. He and his wife, Gail, taught across the hall from each other. He continues to live in Odenville in a 1904 house they called home for 36 years. Joe was active in the Alabama Writers’ Conclave and the Alabama State Poetry Society. The society named him Poet of the Year in 2000. Joe has also published a number of St. Clair County local history books.
Loyd McIntosh Loyd McIntosh is a freelance writer and former news reporter and sports writer for several newspapers throughout the Southeast, including The Daily Home. In over 10 years as a freelance writer, he has published work in a variety of magazines. He is a native of Trussville and now lives in Pell City.
Linda Long Linda Long has worked in communications for more than 25 years in print, broadcast, nonprofit promotion and special event planning and implementation. Her writing has appeared in Business Alabama Magazine, Technology Alabama, Mobile Bay Monthly, Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, Partners Magazine, Birmingham Magazine, Alabama Alive, Cahaba Talk, Hoover Outlook and Shelby Living. She served as news and special projects producer for NBC13 News, where her work won national, regional and state honors, including two Emmy Award nominations.
Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in journalism from Samford University. She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications. She is a member of Alabama Media Professionals and NFPW (the National Federation of Press Women). Follow her weekly blog about life with a dozen four-legged critters, life in the country and life in general at www.countrylife-elaine.blogspot.com.
Scottie Vickery Scottie Vickery is a writer with a degree in journalism from the University of Alabama and was a reporter for The Birmingham News. Her first assignment was covering St. Clair and Blount counties. She has more than 30 years of writing and editing experience and her work has appeared in a variety of publications. She also has worked in the nonprofit industry.
Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally was born in Birmingham. He graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1973, and went on to Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his B.A. in history and minors in German and education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college. Upon graduation, he entered his father’s business, National Woodworks, Inc. He and his wife, Nettie, an artist, own Gallery of Eden.
About THE Cover
Pell City structural engineers John Jones and Dennis Vandegrift designed their own adventure – hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim in two days. In the photo, Dennis is on the trail.
From the Editor
The heart of so many stories
It’s not planned, but so many times a common theme seems to emerge in a particular issue of Discover, and it’s a rare case that the theme doesn’t wind up as the centerpiece of this column. When I looked over our story list for this edition to determine what I would be writing about, a single word came quickly to mind: perseverance.. From story to story, person to person, event to event, it is evident that perseverance guided them. Whether it’s the big-time boxing matches that turned CEPA’s sports arena into a bona fide boxing ring or the turn-of-thecentury entrepreneur who overcame setbacks en route to a successful life’s story, there’s no mistaking perseverance was involved. The pair of structural engineers who went from whim to endurance challenges hiked the Grand Canyon – rim to rim – certainly know a thing or two about perseverance. And the retired veterans coordinator who continues to help veterans as if he were still on the job “because it brings me satisfaction” doggedly perseveres weekly to ensure St. Clair County veterans get the benefits they deserve. In Leeds and in Pell City, various groups are not content to let their once-thriving downtowns simply be a relic of days gone by. They are persevering, hoping to breathe new life into their cities’ downtown main streets through their efforts. Pell City Rotary Club is a prime example of perseverance. When it formed in 1974, its mission to serve others may have seemed a lofty goal. But generations of Rotarians persevered to make sure that their work on the community’s behalf would lead to service that changes lives now and for generations to come. When I look around St. Clair County, I generally do it with a reporter’s eye. It’s not just the building, a street or an event. It’s the story behind it that gets my attention. It’s the
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perseverance that made it happen. You can count on those stories and more to illustrate what makes this place so special. Turn the page and discover it all with us. Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher
The Essence of St. Clair
October & November 2021 • Vol. 62 • www.discoverstclair.com
Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Graphic Designer Brandon Wynn • Director Online Services
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BIRMINGHAM at MILLCREEK MX PARK
The final obstacle was a long, waterfilled pool.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Gathering at the starting line
Story, photos and video by Graham Hadley Mud Factor bills itself as a “seriously fun, 5K obstacle run,” and it delivered exactly that. Despite days of heavy rains leading up to the day before the race, organizers were able to put together a spectacular event at Pell City’s Millcreek MX Park just off the Eden Exit of I-20. David Carpenter, one of the event organizers, said their run is supposed to be more family oriented than many of the more hard-core obstacle runs and tries to draw a diverse crowd of people who otherwise might not tackle such a challenge. “We call ourselves a fitness-based entertainment event, very family oriented. Our obstacle course is more family friendly,” he said. The early runs are for mixed groups of children and adults – people of all ages and athletic abilities. One lap is half the run, and there are no penalties if you opt out of an obstacle. “One of our MCs says it best: ‘If you are staring up at an obstacle. And it is staring back at you, and you say, ‘Oh heck no.’ You can walk around it,’” Carpenter said. There are also no 1st-place awards – but everyone gets a medal for finishing. “The reality is that we are just trying to get people off the couch and have fun with their friends and family.
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Team Jamaica, Russ, Ronae, Sadike, and Sachell at the beginning
Sachell and Ronae at the finish in the water
Russ filming the finish, not in the water. 10
Participants often help each other over the obstacles. There is no 1st place or last place. We are a fun run. No times are kept,” he said. Don’t be fooled, though, this is still a challenging obstacle and mud run. And though one lap gets you through the entire course with all the obstacles, it takes two go-arounds to hit that 5K mark. Those runs are usually reserved for the afternoon. The course has the usual suspects of obstacles – mud holes, inclines and ladders, ropes and crawls, walls, and of course, water slides. All the extra rain this year made for some tricky spots – areas that are normally only a couple of feet deep required swimming in some spots. Like the rest of the obstacles, there were plenty of Mud Factor staff on hand, especially around the deep water, to help anyone who needed it. Safety was always at primary concern. In addition to the staff monitoring the obstacles, there were water stations, places to store you backpacks and gear – the Mud Factor employees had every contingency covered. For spectators and participants, there were food trucks, music, and the runners got bandannas and free stick-on tattoos. Despite the weeks of wet weather leading up to the run, the actual day of the event was perfect – clear skies and warm but not sweltering weather – the perfect combination for the perfect outdoors event. With the increase in COVID-19 cases, event organizers took extra precautions to keep everyone safe – there was plenty of room for everybody to social distance, but masks were required in the starting area where everyone was crowded together at the beginning of each run. Masks were encouraged, but not required, in any areas where people were close together. Nobody was required to run with a mask. “Mill Creek is the perfect venue right now,” Carpenter said. The park is a top MX competition bike track that is privately owned. Some of the other venues Mud Factor uses are in government-owned facilities and have to follow very strict COVID guidelines. Millcreek did not have such stringent requirements, which made the run much more fun for the participants. That’s not the only reason, though, that Carpenter likes the park so much. “It’s ideal. It has good entrance and exits, there is plenty of parking, the track and surrounding areas are dirt with some great terrain,” he said. But most important is the easy access to water. “At other parks, we are a national mud-run company, so especially out West, we have to often port in our own water for the obstacles and the mud. That is a lot of water, a lot of work. Millcreek had all of that right there,” he said. “We are celebrating 10 years this year, and the MX parks are ideal. The tracks are permitted for crowds, they have the parking … it makes it easy.” And true to the organizers’ intent, Mud Factor drew people from all walks of life and ages and from all over the region. One trio was there from Madison because of a
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Runners on the first leg of the course
Climbing obstacle
Mud Factor staff member lends a helping hand.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Cooling water slide
bet. Russ said with a smile that he was at the race because “Jamaicans run faster than Americans.” He had bet two of his friends from Jamaica, Ronae and Sachell, that America would win a track event they were watching on TV. “And there they went over the finish line, Jamaica, one, two, three, so here I am,” he said. One of the things that made the race attractive to that group, who also brought young Sadike with them, was that the course was designed for athletes and non-athletes alike and was just a fun way to get out and get some exercise. At the finish line, Team Jamaica Ronae and Sachell kept celebrating by throwing themselves back into the giant pool of water that served as the final obstacle, huge grins on their faces, as Russ filmed them from the shore with his phone, a grin plastered on his face as well. That was the overall feeling from the other runners – a fun, athletic day in the sun and a chance to get out after a long year cooped up at home. Nicole from Locust Fork said she had heard about the event on Facebook and that she liked the family-friendly atmosphere. “This is great for kids, a good family event. We can go around any obstacles that are too hard for them,” she said. A lot of the competitors were there in groups and said they often do these kinds of events together on a regular basis. Candice, Jason, Lauren and Niles were one such group from Birmingham. “We have done runs together before. We heard about it on Facebook and decided to come out,” Niles said. Lauren agreed, “We saw it online, and it just looked like a lot of fun.” The organizers enjoy the events almost as much as the runners, Carpenter said, and they have every intention of returning to St. Clair County for future mud runs. “We have been doing this for 10 years. It is a lot of work. If we did not love doing this, we would not still be doing it,” he said. “I definitely see us returning here in the future.” For people looking for additional Mud Factor races here, Carpenter did say that the events are usually named after the largest nearby metro area – so even though the race is held at Millcreek MX Park in Pell City, it is advertised as the Birmingham Mud Factor race. Editor’s Note: Additional video coverage of the event is available at discoverstclair.com.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Traveling the
BACKROADS
Maddox Farm Road Name reveals storied past of Odenville entrepreneur
J. L. Maddox’s store, early 1900’s
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted Photos Maddox Farm Road, named for John Luther Maddox Sr., lies off U.S. 411 about two eyeblinks north of Liberty Church. Who was this man? A July 16, 1908, an article in the St. Clair County News, published in Odenville, states, “John Luther Maddox ... moved to St. Clair County 21 years ago [c1887], where he … engaged in farming up to 1895. He then entered the mercantile business in a small scale but has been very successful…. Mr. Maddox is a self-made man and is successful in his undertakings … He is … interested in educational matters, good roads, the general upbuilding and development of Odenville and adjacent territory.” Maddox was founder, owner and editor of this newspaper. He was born March 23, 1869, in Benton (Calhoun) County, Ala., to Chesley Benton and Annie Majors Maddox. John Luther’s great-great-grandparents, John and Rebecca Teague Maddox, had settled in the Blue Mountain area of Benton, now Calhoun County, early in the 19th Century. According to family historian, Dorothy Maddox Bishop, John Maddox fought with Gen. Andrew Jackson “… at Horseshoe Bend,” and indicates that John settled in Alabama because of serving with Jackson. Just what prompted him to locate in St. Clair County isn’t part of family lore. However, rich farmland probably lured him here c1887. Also, the excitement of a new century lay ahead, and St. Clair stood ready to flourish. Springville, Ashville, Odenville and Ragland bustled with businesses. By 1905, the Seaboard Airline Railroad would connect Ragland and Odenville with Birmingham. Sumter Cogswell was developing Pell City, and by 1902, a railroad would connect that town with cities east and west. John Luther Maddox married Sarah Elizabeth Jones (18701927) on Feb. 24, 1895, in St. Clair County. She was the daughter of Joel Wheeler Jones, who was born in South Carolina to Steven and Polly Jones. According to Dorothy Bishop, Steven served in the American Revolution and is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Springville. Joel Wheeler Jones bought 40 acres in July 1854 near Harden’s Shop, today’s Odenville. Sixty years later, his acres would be called “Jones’s Cut” because of the cut for Seaboard Airline railroad tracks nearby. In 1858, Joel Wheeler Jones married Jane E. Simpson, and they had two children, James and Lorenna. In December 1861, Jones enlisted in the Confederate Army and fought in battles at Shiloh, Corinth, Tullahoma and Chickamauga. He was captured Nov. 25, 1863, at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, and imprisoned at Rock Island, Ill. At Rock Island, the Union offered him release from prison if he would fight for the Union. He agreed and was sent with Union forces to quell Native American uprisings in the “Northwestern Frontier.” Dorothy Bishop’s research showed he was sent there, “because General U.S. Grant, among others, did not believe that ex-Confederate troops should be assigned to areas where they might have to fight their former comrades in arms.” Discharged from the Union Army Nov. 7, 1865, Jones headed home to St. Clair County. According to Maddox’s oral history, Jones’ wife, Jane, not having heard from her husband for maybe three years, assumed him to be dead and married again. Working in the yard one day, she looked up, and Joel Wheeler Jones came walking down the lane toward her. Seeing him, she fled, leaving the children
J.L., Jr and Annie Lee Maddox behind and never returned. Jones’ mother helped him with the motherless children until her death in 1866. Joel Wheeler Jones married secondly Aug. 1, 1866, Mary Rebecca Bolton, daughter of Henry C. and Margaret Vandegrift Bolton. Joel and Rebecca had five children, one of whom was Sara Elizabeth Jones who was destined to combine both the Jones-Maddox genealogy and the Jones-Maddox farmlands which remain in the Maddox family today. John Luther Maddox added store business to farming c1895. His daughter, Myrtle Maddox Kenney, in a 1990 interview recounted, “When my father started out, his first store was up there at Friendship in Miss Nancy Mize’s old house. It was a log house with a lean-to.” A descendant of Nancy Mize relates that they believe Nancy’s house was near the foot of Beaver Mountain between today’s Prison Road off U.S. 411 and Friendship Baptist Church. About 1900, he moved his store a few miles north of Friendship to Julian, a late 19th Century community where today stand the “Rock Stores” landmark. Of this community, Gary Pool wrote in a Leeds News article, Sept. 26, 1985, “There were only a few wooden frame buildings and one small post office. Even as towns were rated back then, Julian was … no more than a wide place in the old gravelly road.” Maddox built a wood-frame store at Julian at today’s rock stores. His was on the right side going north. Will Dollar later bought that property. Maddox’s wooden building burned in 1926 and Will Dollar constructed the rock stores. The Julian store flourished and was noted frequently in the Springville newspaper. The “Odenville” column of the Springville News reported March 17, 1898, “J. L. Maddox passed through our town first of the week on his way to the Magic City to buy goods.” An April 3, 1902, Springville News ad reads: “All next week we will be pleased to show you the largest stock of ladies trimmed hats, misses trimmed hats, and children’s hats all sizes … J. L. Maddox, Julian, Alabama.” In 1902, excitement ran high in Odenville, for the Seaboard
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Traveling the
BACKROADS Airline had begun drilling the Hardwick Tunnel and laying train tracks that would run through Odenville and on to Birmingham. Always alert for business opportunities, Maddox now set his sights on Odenville and supplying the needs of railroad workers. Myrtle recollected, “He built a store over there at the Hardwick Tunnel, and then he started the one down there where the Chevron Station is.” The Ridgeline Roofing Company operates at that location in 2021. Wanting to move to Odenville, in 1904 Luther began construction of a family home there. “We moved in it in 1905,” Myrtle said. “It wasn’t finished on the inside. You see, everybody farmed back then, and the carpenters … stopped work when the crops came in.” After gathering crops, the carpenters finished the house. About the same time, Myrtle continued, “He built a four-room house” in Odenville for Dr. C.C. Brown, the first doctor to live in Odenville. Both these houses still stand today. This house may be earlier than 1904 because Dr. C.C. Brown is mentioned in a Springville Item, June 11, 1903 issue. The doctor’s house is sometimes referred to as “the house with two front doors.” Speculation is that one front door opened to Dr. Brown’s office and the other front door opened to his living quarters. Over the years, several rooms were added to the first four. The original roof was wood shingles and traces of forest green paint was discovered on old trim-work. The historic designation of the house is the Maddox-Whitten House since this writer and his wife bought it in 1974. In 1907, Alabama proposed building accredited high schools in counties that did not already have a state-supported high school. St. Clair County wanted a county high school, and Springville, Odenville and Pell City began to vie for location. Realizing the strength of a newspaper in campaigning for the school location, Luther Maddox founded the St. Clair County News, c1908, and built a newspaper office building. In his efforts for the school location, Maddox wrote editorials in favor of Odenville as the best spot in St. Clair County for the new school. Pell City had no newspaper in March 1908 and made no public response to Maddox’s comment that Pell City was good, “a cotton mill town,” but “nature never intended it for an educational site.” (St. Clair County News March 5, 1908) However, in May when Odenville was chosen for the school location, Pell City had a newspaper, The Pell City Progress, and the editor, McLane Tilton, wrote in the May 7, 1908, issue that he feared the state would come to regret having put a “Ten thousand dollar school building in a one thousand dollar town.” As a member of the St. Clair County High School Building Committee, Maddox worked tirelessly to raise funds for construction of the building. Completed in 1909, the school’s first seniors graduated in 1912. Maddox was among the first shareholders of the Bank of Odenville which opened in 1908. He was listed as vice president of the bank in a Southern Aegis ad May 6, 1909.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Anna Lee (White) Maddox - Across Old Springville Road
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Traveling the
BACKROADS John Luther Maddox’s house at the farm circa 1915
J.L., Sr., andSarah’s children, J.L., Jr., Myrtle, Jack, and Chesley Benton in front
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Civic responsibilities did not preclude Luther Maddox’s involvement in the church life of Odenville. The Methodist congregation had organized and met in the Odenville Elementary School from about 1906. Then in the April 19, 1909, edition of the St. Clair County News, the church announced the construction of their own Methodist sanctuary. Listed as a member of the building committee was J. L. Maddox. The article reported that the committee were obligated “for a generous donation of lumber to the new church.” The beautiful building, completed c1911, stands today and serves the Odenville United Methodist Church congregation. Maddox caused excitement and newspaper reports when he purchased Odenville’s first automobile. The St. Clair County News reported Sept. 9, 1909, “Mr. J. L. Maddox purchased a fine automobile last week and Odenville can now take her place with the other towns throughout the country who have passed the horse and buggy stage.… The auto is made to carry about six passengers and has good speed.” Two weeks later, the Sept. 23, 1909, issue of St. Clair County News reported, “A party of five went to Ashville Sunday in the automobile belonging to J. L. Maddox. Mr. Crow Harden, who knows more about the machines than anyone else in this area of the county, acted as chauffeur. The trip was made in record breaking time, one hour and ten minutes.” In 1990, when the interviewer asked Myrtle about these newspaper articles, she laughed and replied, “That was the surrey with the fringe on top! My daddy guided it with a stick – steered it with a stick.” She told another trip. “Coming home we got in Canoe Creek, and the old thing got wet and quit. Daddy had to pull off his shoes and roll up his pants and crank the thing to get it to start.” She remembers how the automobile’s “chug, chug, chugging,” scattered chickens near the road and frightened horses pulling wagons near Bethel. “The horses rared up and down. It scared me,” she laughed. Luther Maddox prospered, and in November 1909, he entered into a partnership with W.L. Steed in the Odenville Mercantile Company. St. Clair County News reported Nov. 11, 1909, that “Mr. J. L. Maddox is president of the new firm and Mr. W. L. Steed Secretary-Treasurer.” Economic downturns often swallow up the good, and Luther Maddox’s fortunes began to diminish. The July 12, 1911, Southern Aegis ran a legal ad announcing that on Aug. 7, 1911, the Sheriff, J.D. Love, would sell “at the courthouse door, Ashville, St. Clair County …” three tracts of J.L. Maddox’s land to satisfy a circuit court case in favor of J.L. Newton. The Southern Aegis of July 24, 1912, and Nov. 20, 1912, Sheriff Love advertised two more tracts of land to be sold on the Ashville Courthouse steps to satisfy J.L. Newton. Despite these setbacks, Maddox continued his business operations in Odenville for a while. However, the June 23, 1916, issue of the St. Clair County News, published in Ragland, noted in the “Odenville News” that “Luther Maddox is moving out to his farm near here. Maddox has gone into farming and cattle raising.” Then in the July 23, 1916, “Odenville News” reported, “J. T. Newburn has bought the Maddox store and will run the business at this place.” Myrtle recalled her father’s misfortunes: “In 1916, it rained, and they didn’t make any crops that year. That’s what put my
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Traveling the
BACKROADS daddy out of business. People just didn’t make anything, and he’d sold ‘em fertilizer on credit, and they didn’t even have corn to eat. They had to go in debt to keep themselves living. So, my daddy borrowed $1,200 and had to pay 6% interest on that. Yes, $72 a year…. That was 1917 that he’d borrowed to keep everything going.” Maddox stood on the brink of disaster – the possibility of losing more land and the houses he still owned. However, family loyalty rescued Maddox. Myrtle recalls, “My brothers joined the Navy. They made their money out of the Navy – their little bitty bit of money – and they’d send it to Daddy, and he paid it off that way.” She paused, then added, “It was terrible.” The brothers were Chesley Benton and J.L. Maddox, Jr. J.L.’s daughter, Mary Ann Maddox Moore, told how her father took none of his free time but instead did the laundry for his shipmates to earn extra money to send back home to help pay off the debt. Little by little, John Luther Maddox cleared his debt and saved his property. Since he no longer had business dealings in St. Clair County, the Maddox family moved to Florida. Myrtle recalled the move, “My father closed out everything, and he just went to Florida after we got everything paid out. Daddy didn’t have money to try to get back in business, so he went to Lakeland, Fla. The boys got out of the Navy, and that’s where the boys got jobs.” In Florida, Sarah Elizabeth Jones Maddox became ill with cancer and died May 1, 1927, and was buried in Liberty Cemetery, Odenville. Myrtle recalled the Great Depression and that in 1932, she along with her father and sister, John Luther and Tennie, returned to Odenville. Renters lived in the family home, so they all lived in the house built for Dr. Brown. Over the years four more rooms had been added to that house. “It was a great big place, and we were all there. After Mama died, Daddy took her insurance money and got back in business again. Store business was all he knew. He started again, and then he died in 1935.” John Luther Maddox, indominable entrepreneur of Odenville, was laid to rest next to his wife in Liberty Cemetery. Maddox’s last store stood where the Oakridge Outdoor Power Equipment conducts business today on U.S. 411. “My sister Tennie inherited the store,” Myrtle recalled, “but everybody was in debt to her, and my brother, J.L. Jr., just came up here and closed it out.” Tennie went with J.L. to Florida where she married and lived out her life. At John Luther’s death, Myrtle inherited the family home, Jack Maddox, the Dr. Brown house, and brothers Chesley Benton and J.L. Jr., inherited the farm. J.L. bought out his brother, and the farm remains in possession of J.L.’s children, Dorothy Maddox Bishop, Mary Ann Maddox Moore and deceased John Wesley “Jay” Maddox’s wife and children. Bert and Mary Ann Maddox Moore and their three
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John Luther Maddox, Sr. at office
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Traveling the
BACKROADS daughters moved from Mulberry, Fla., just outside of Lakeland in 1977 and built their home on the land in sight of where Joel Wheeler Jones built his home before the Civil War. Bert and Mary Ann’s daughter, Lee Ann Moore Clark, loved spending time at the farm during summer visits from Florida. “Prior to living here, we traveled from Florida to Odenville during the summer to visit my grandpa Maddox’s farm. “My sisters and I loved exploring the property and seeing the lightning bugs at dusk. We would catch and put them in a mason jar to light our room at night. A whippoorwill just outside my bedroom window would always lull me to sleep every night. Picking blackberries along the road was also the highlight of my summer except for the chigger bites. Licking the drop of nectar off a honeysuckle flower, was something our dad taught us, that we thought was the coolest thing ever! One time our mom found a perfect arrowhead on the farm which prompted a discussion about how it got there and how long it had been since Native Americans spent time on the property,” Clark said. “We played in the creek that flowed through the property, caught minnows in a jar and always stopped at the spring for a quick drink to quench our thirst. Conveniently, there was always a cup left hanging on a limb close by. From there we could hear the rushing water over the waterfall, which was our last stop before climbing back up to the shady road lined with large trees,” she said. “Names carved in the trees included my grandpa’s. Not only did we have fresh water to drink, but we also found a crabapple tree, something we had never seen or tasted before. “My Maddox grandparents would come up from Florida and stay for a month in the farmhouse during the summer after we moved here. Grandpa always worked hard to remodel the farmhouse he loved so much. We often had lunch there, and our Grandma cooked all kinds of delicious things for us like chicken and dumplings and rice pudding. She also made watermelon rind preserves. Unlike folks today, she didn’t waste anything,” she recalled. “These are just a few of my favorite childhood memories of a place that one day would become my home.” Life spans run out, and community leaders change from one generation to another. Without written records and recorded memories, people and names fade into forgottenness. Be thankful for St. Clair County road names like Maddox Farm Road that remind us of a man Odenville owes a great deal to, John Luther Maddox Sr. l
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Bert and Mary Ann Moore, Lee Ann More Clark, Cindy Moore Lewis (deceased), Donna Moore Glidewell
John L. Maddox, Jr. and sisters Tennie Barnes and Myrtle Kenney
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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RIM to RIM Story by Scottie Vickery Submitted photos
John Jones remembers reading a quote years ago that’s been on his mind quite a bit recently. The gist is that if you pick something to tackle, and it doesn’t seem impossible at the beginning, you didn’t choose something hard enough. Jones and Dennis Vandegrift, his friend and co-worker, don’t have to worry that they set their sights on something too easy. Their idea to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim in two days was a daunting one. Five months after achieving their goal, they’re still amazed at what they accomplished. “A little over a year ago, (we) hatched an insane idea” Jones said in a Facebook post after returning home. “We thought we should try to hike from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other and back over two days. 110,000ish steps, 45 miles, 20,000 feet of elevation change, and I’m not sure how many training hikes and runs later, we did it. I’m honestly more than a little surprised we pulled it off.” Not many people do. According to the National Park Foundation, a partner of the National Park Service, fewer than 1% of the Grand Canyon’s 5 million annual visitors even venture below the rim – and many of those just hike a few miles. The ones who hike rim to rim, typically over two days, are even fewer. Then there’s Jones and Vandegrift, who did it twice. They hiked from the North Rim of the canyon to the South Rim in 12 hours, spent the night in a hotel, and hiked back from the South Rim to the North the next day. “It was cool, but it was a little bit nuts,” Jones said. “The more it’s in the rearview mirror, the cooler it becomes.”
John Jones and Dennis Vandegrift
Pair of Pell City engineers ‘engineer’ a Grand Canyon adventure 24
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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From the North Rim lodge the night before the hike
South Kaibab Trail, overlooking the Kaibab Suspension Bridge and mule trail
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
John on a bridge crossing on the North Kaaibab Trail
North Rim Trailhead, morning of the first day’s hike
Takes On Life.
THE PLANNING STAGES Both Jones and Vandegrift, structural engineers with Barnett Jones Wilson in Pell City, are avid outdoorsmen. Jones, 49, is a hiking and backpacking enthusiast while Vandegrift, 41, competes in triathlons and owns Off-Road Multisport, which hosts swim/bike/run/paddle off-road race events in Alabama and Northwest Florida. The two are always up for a challenge, and Jones proposed this one. “I mentioned it to Dennis, and it took him five seconds to say, ‘We’re doing it,’” Jones recalled. They had to work quickly since lodging sells out a year in advance. “We hatched this plan 54 weeks before we could do the trip, so we had to make a lot of quick decisions,” Jones said. “The first day we were eligible, we booked everything.” Their goal was to hike rim-to-rim-to-rim, but they decided to arrange for a shuttle at the South Rim in case they got there and weren’t up to hiking back. “We thought it would be a cheap insurance plan,” Jones said. Because of COVID, though, there were fewer shuttle options than normal, and all were booked. “At that point, it was all or nothing,” he said. They began training in earnest. “I felt like I was the weak link,” Jones said. “He could have shown up ready to do it, but I definitely had a lot of conditioning to do. I was more worried about my general fitness level, and Dennis was more concerned about his feet and knees.” The Grand Canyon hike is different from most, Vandegrift said, and they kept that in mind while training. “It’s like a reverse mountain climb,” he said. “You’re doing the descent first and then the ascent at the end when you’re tired. Normally, you get to the top, and you have gravity to bring you home.” Another issue is temperature changes. The North Rim doesn’t open until May 15 because it’s got a much higher elevation than the South Rim, and ice and snow can be issues. “The first morning, it was 25 degrees when we left,” Vandegrift said. “By midday at the bottom, it was 90.” Training included lots of hikes at Mt. Cheaha, and Jones had a previously scheduled hike in Wyoming. He also headed to Clingmans Dome in the Smoky Mountains after planning a hike that mimicked the Grand Canyon one as closely as possible. “It was about 25 miles with 9-10,000 feet of elevation changes,” Jones said, adding that he started high, hiked down first and then back up. “I figured if I couldn’t do it in
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Dennis hiking along the North Kaibab Trail, Day 1
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the Smoky Mountains when it’s 50 or 60 degrees, I couldn’t do it in the Grand Canyon when it’s in the 90s.” HIKING THE CANYON The two headed to Arizona on May 22. They camped out the night before the first day of hiking, which Jones said was their only big mistake. “We should have stayed in a hotel,” he said. “We had to break camp that morning, which took a long time, and it was cold. We were shooting to leave at 5 a.m. but it was more like 6:30.” Each carried only the bare necessities in his pack – a toothbrush, water, change of clothes and two days’ worth of trail food, Vandegrift said. They planned to eat dinner at the hotel once they made it to the South Rim that evening, and there were water stations every three to five miles, so they never had to carry more than two quarts of water. “The packs probably weighed 18 or 20 pounds starting out, which is light for a pack,” he said. One of the first things they noticed before setting out was all the warning signs around the Grand Canyon. “Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon is optional. Hiking out is mandatory,” one read. Even still, they were determined. “I think where most people get in trouble is when they don’t respect it and understand it going into it,” Vandegrift said. “We knew it was going to be hard as hell.” By the time they reached the bottom of the canyon on the first day, they were feeling it. They stopped for lunch and a cold glass of lemonade at Phantom Ranch, which offers the only lodging below the rim of the canyon and is accessible only by foot, mule or by rafting the Colorado River. Although many hikers stay the night, Jones and Vandegrift still had the ascent to the South Rim ahead of them. “At one point we still had to hike nine more miles and gain 4,400 vertical feet to get to the hotel room,” Jones said, adding that the distance included a threeto four-mile section they later learned is nicknamed Heart Attack Hill. “We both had heart monitors on our watches, and they were beating pretty fast,” he said with a laugh. By the end of the first day, all they could think about was food and a hot shower. “Our hotel room had a claw-foot tub that you had to step into. When we walked in and saw it, we were like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” After a hot dinner and a load of ibuprofen, they went to sleep only to be awakened by horrible leg cramps. Getting up to catch the 5 a.m. shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead was painful, and they started the hike in the dark with headlamps. A few miles in, they were rewarded with an incredible sunrise. “There are 360-degree views, and the sun just illuminates everything,” Vandegrift said. “It was incredible.” Although they had seen some beautiful scenery and a full-size ram that jumped out of nearby brush the day before, they both agreed that the South Kaibab Trail,
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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South Kaibab Trail
Bright Angel Trail Bridge, midday, Day 1
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which is very steep, was their favorite. “In the really steep sections, you could look down and see as many as 10 switchbacks,” or zigzags of the trail, Jones said. “You could see someone down below, and they seemed so close, like you could throw a rock to them, but they were probably an hour ahead on the trail,” Vandegrift added. The views were spectacular. “If we had hiked that section and spent twice as much time there, it still wouldn’t have been enough; it was just so scenic,” Jones said. Vandegrift agreed. “You can take a million pictures and it doesn’t begin to capture it.” MISSION ACCOMPLISHED By the time they made it back to the North Rim about 5 p.m., they were hungry, tired and had a 3-hour drive to their hotel ahead of them. They got a bison burger at a drive-through, turned in early, headed home the next day, and were in the office the day after that. “I don’t think we had that ‘we did it’ feeling until that first day back in the office,” Vandegrift said. Although they were disappointed that they never saw a herd of bison, which are often spotted at the North Rim, Jones and Vandegrift said they loved the experience and the challenge. “The first three miles and the last three miles each day were the hardest,” Jones said. Although they pushed themselves, they never considered quitting. “At the end of the first day when we still had a few miles left to go, I was feeling apprehensive about the second day,” Vandegrift said. “But you settle in, get down to business and start walking. It was two really long days of hiking, and there are times we were hurting, but it was never, ‘We’re about to die.’ We never thought that we weren’t going to finish.” Jones said he was proud of their achievement and the determination that carried them through to the end. “My daughter runs cross country, and she would go to Cheaha with me and Dennis for some of our 13- to 14-mile training hikes,” he said. “She’d be running up the hills, and I was struggling to get up them. “She saw me struggling in November with something that shouldn’t be that hard if you’re going to do what I signed up to do,” he said. “Then she saw what I did and saw what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it. That’s a pretty good feeling.” l
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Paranormal St. Clair: Not everything is what it appears to be
Champion Drugs building in Ragland used to be an old hotel.
Story and photos by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos courtesy of Pam Falbo Photography Staff Photos Whisperings and the rustling of paper in a library when you know you’re alone. Screams and the smell of burning flesh in the woods at night. A mysterious face in an upstairs window. “We ask only to be reassured about the noises in the cellar and the window that should not have been open,” wrote the poet T.S. Eliot. Sometimes, though, we cannot be reassured. Sometimes there is no explanation outside the realm of the paranormal or the supernatural. Sometimes it’s best to take what you think you see at face value, without asking too many questions. Such is the case in many locations throughout St. Clair County. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, some stories make you wonder.
The Odenville Public Library and the Odenville Police Department have several unexplained visitors from time to time. The library stands on the site of the old Cahaba Hotel. It hosted passengers from the train station that was across the street for many years. “I’ll be in my office, the door will be open, and I can hear paper rustling at the circulation desk,” says Library Director Betty Corley. One day she was coming from the kitchen in the back and spotted a dark form sitting in the visitor’s chair in her office. She has seen a lady in white “walk” through, a man in a brown suit leaning against the circulation desk and a figure seated on a bench outside next to the front door. Then there are the voices. “One morning I came in early and heard a man talking in a normal tone of voice,” she says. “I couldn’t understand the words. I looked around and no one was visible. A little while later, I heard a man and a woman talking, again, in a normal tone of voice, but I couldn’t understand the words. And no one was there.” Ralph Compton (1934-1999) was a famous author of
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Paranormal St. Clair
Western fiction author and Odenville native son Ralph Compton display attracts some strange goings on.
Western fiction from Odenville. The library used to keep his photo, boots and hat on a shelf in the Western book section. “If we put his books around the photo, it was fine,” Corley says. “But if we put someone else’s books there, we would come in the next morning, and they would be on the floor. So, we moved the photo, along with his boots and hat and made a display behind glass nearby.” It was in the Western section that a paranormal investigator took a digital photo that appeared to show a man reclining on a bookshelf. When the investigator began to ask who he was, he led her to the bookcase, and after several false starts, she found a book that set off her instruments. Then she found the page that he indicated, again through her instruments, which had his grinning photo on it. “Pam and Fred Falbo and I took an evening out to do some night photography,” Corley says. “Pam is a professional photographer, and after looking at our digital images on my computer, we saw orbs of various colors in different places. There was a green orb and a clear orb between the back door and Third Avenue. There was a violet-colored orb on the power pole between the Masonic Building and Highway 411. There was a red orb between the fiction books and the kitchen. These are interesting and pretty.” On Halloween in 2019, Corley hosted a walking tour, called the Lantern Walk and sold tickets. Library patron Julia Paulitzky, who donated to the library Tim Scullion’s two photography books about orbs and ghostly faces in
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Williamsburg (see sidebar), collected a few paranormal stories about Odenville. The library printed these stories and had them spiral-bound, then handed them out to tour patrons. The tour included the orbs outside, which again showed up on the digital photos a professional photographer took. “We gave the spirits a party, and they have quieted down since then,” Corley says. An unseen little girl bounces her ball in the hallway of the Odenville Police Department, located in the old RobinsonSmith House on U.S. 411. According to an Oct. 3, 2017, post to the department’s Facebook page, some paranormal investigators said they talked with the ghost of a little girl and her mother, who seem to be tied to the house. The ghostly pair answered questions by turning on a flashlight. “We have had some strange things happen over the years with no explanation, such as windows (that) opened and closed, sounds of people walking through the house when there was no one there, chairs moving on their own — just spooky stuff,” said the writer of that post. Chief Glenn Walton, who has been with the department 15 years and chief about a year, has never heard the little girl or her bouncing ball. He admits, though, that one time they did have problems with locked windows in the evidence room opening on their own. After the second time, he had them screwed shut. “I remember two former night patrolmen who refused to enter the building at night, but did their paperwork in their cars,” Chief Walton says.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Paranormal St. Clair Even the sign at Flatwoods serves as a warning.
Over in Steele, a stretch of Flatwoods forest is said to have been used as a settlement for freed slaves after the Civil War. Before long, the Ku Klux Klan attacked and burned down the small village, killing many of the residents and chasing off the others. Those who died there are said to still haunt the land, appearing as strange lights after dusk. Some visitors have reported smelling burnt flesh. Hunters claim to have seen green glowing lights, heard strange sounds and smelled odors that can’t be explained. “Walk out anywhere in that area at night and your hair will stand up,” one man posted on hauntedplaces.org. The town of Ashville has its share of haunted places, too, including the courthouse, Kell Realty and Sew Nice Embroidery. “I can tell you with absolute certainty there’s a ghost in the courthouse in Ashville,” says Charlene Simpson, former director of the Ashville Museum and Archives. “Noises and things out of the ordinary would occur. If you were ever there after dark by yourself, it was a very strange feeling, like you weren’t alone.” Tradition has it that a brick mason working on the original building back in 1844 left his station for a while. When he came back, the jug of moonshine he was nursing had disappeared.
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That section of the project was finished while he was gone, so the mason started tapping along the wall, hoping for a hint of the location of his jug. He never found it and supposedly still taps on the wall in that area of the cellar on some dark nights. Simpson never heard the tapping, but she did have several strange experiences while the archives were located at the courthouse. “I went in one Saturday afternoon to pick up some books for the historical society to meet the next day,” she says. “I locked the outside door behind me. I went down the hall to the archives, which were located on the first floor in the former probate office. There were glass windows in some of the rooms all the way down the hall. It was real quiet in Ashville that night, no traffic, no wind blowing. The window in the clerk’s office started rattling, then the window in the next office down and then in the next office, just one room at a time. Then the rattling crossed the hall and about the time it got to my window I had the key in the door, and I said, ‘If y’all will just leave me alone, I’ll be gone soon.’ But the rattling got to my window, too.” Some folks claim to have seen the ghost of Mattie Lou Teague Crow, Ashville’s beloved historian and folk-tale collector, in the archives. Simpson never saw her, but one day
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Paranormal St. Clair when she reached for one of Crow’s books it flew off the shelf and hit her in the head. When the late Van Davis was district attorney, he came to work one day and told his clerk not to stay in the courthouse at night. “He never would tell us what he saw or heard,” Simpson says. When Jalene Peaspanen opened Sew Nice Embroidery 15 years ago in the old Jones and McBrayer Mercantile building on the Courthouse Square, random oddness would often occur. “Before I knew anything about it being haunted, we’d come in some mornings and something would be out of place,” she says. “Hats or socks would be on the floor (they normally hang from short racks), random stuff like that. It doesn’t happen so much now, although occasionally papers will float as if on a breeze, or a door might pop open, like somebody just walked in. Or I might be in the back and catch a glimpse of movement to the side.” Susan Kell says the late Wayne Dodd had a grocery store for many years in the Jones-McBrayer Building, and he would come into Kell Realty and talk about how a former owner, Susan’s great-great-grandfather, Green Taylor Jones, still haunted that store. “He would come in some mornings and find boxes turned over, stuff like that,” she says. The widow of Paul Kell, who founded Kell Realty in a building that was once a funeral home, Susan recalls the story of a little girl who may have fallen into a well that used to be on the same property. That property is also on the square. Although no one who works at Kell now has encountered her, other people have reported seeing her face in the upstairs, side window that overlooks the Shell service station. “Years ago, when we did the Tales and Trails tour of these (haunted) homes and businesses in Ashville, we had several younger kids talk about the little girl at Kell Realty,” says Nickie VanPelt. “One kept asking her mom if she could go play and finally the mom asked her, ‘What do you mean, go play?’ She replied, ‘The little girl keeps wanting me to go play with her.’ The mom asked, ‘What little girl?’ She replied, ‘The one by the window, she keeps tugging at my hand.’” According to Judy Douglas, the former St. Clair County Library had a ghost at one time. “We named her Mildred,” says Douglas, who was director of the library. “She would knock books off the shelves at times. Once I saw carpet markings like footsteps. She lived in the old house next door until they tore it down. Someone said it was once a doctor’s office.” At least one cemetery in Riverside is believed to be haunted, too, according to a woman who posted on the website, ghostsofamerica.com. She wrote that on two occasions she and some friends visited the graveyard “behind the old Chester’s,” as she described it. “You have to drive through the cemetery, which just makes a little loop, and then park under the big tree limb and turn your lights off and be totally quiet,” she said. “After you sit there for about five minutes or so, you drive out into the light, and you will see baby footprints and handprints all over the windows. This only works if your windows are fogged up.” Although she had not heard that story, Riverside City Clerk Candace Smith quickly identified the graveyard as Coleman Cemetery. “I think that building, which is on Highway 78, is where Occasions used to be,” she says. “I don’t recall a Chester’s, but it has been several things over the years.” When we think about haunted places, we usually think of old
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buildings with histories of foul deeds that occurred within their walls. Pell City’s Center for Education and Performing Arts (CEPA), a sports arena and theater under one roof next to the Pell City High School campus, doesn’t meet the age criteria. It was completed in 2007. No foul deeds are known to have occurred there, either. Yet strange, unexplained incidents have. “People in the performing arts claim to hear the crying of a little girl and get the reaction of a man who accidentally got hung when a play or any other event messes up,” a woman posted on hauntedplaces.org. Jeff Thompson, CEPA’s executive director, says there may be three ghosts haunting the building. “I’ve been in that building in the dark more than anyone else in the past few years, yet there were few occurrences where I thought it might be haunted,” Thompson says. “But there are stories upon stories from teachers and kids, and the stories line up.” He’s usually the last one there, locking up at night. One night, he was in the lobby, ready to leave, and the whole room started humming. “It was probably the AC, but it got so loud, I felt terrified. I yelled out, ‘Okay, I get it, I’m done, I’m leaving.’ I hit the bar that opens the back door and the humming stopped. Silence.” There are two ghosts in the theater, from what he has been told, although he claims no experience with either of them. He says most people who work on plays say there’s a ghost who affects the technology, and when something goes wrong, that ghost gets the blame. Others say he can be very helpful at times. When asked who the ghost might be, Thompson gets cagey. “We have our suspicions,” is all he’ll say. He has been told many stories about the ghost of a little girl. Performers will hear rustling in the orchestra pit, for example. But the creepiest story came from a group of students who suddenly heard a girl singing underneath them while they were on the stage. “This has happened more than once,” he says. Thompson knows about the rumor of a person who hung himself in the building. “That ghost is said to impact the central part of the lobby and gym side,” he says. In Ragland, the former Sonny Champion’s Drug Store building has been haunted by more than one ghost, according to Stacey Bean. “The old drug store was at one time the Lee Hotel,” says Bean, who works at Ragland Pharmacy. “There was a shooting there. A woman was leaving her husband, who was the owner. Evidently, he haunts that place. Then a little five-year-old girl who lived above the store when there were apartments there rode her tricycle up and down the halls. She had a mother who was beheaded. The little girl and I were in the same preschool class, but she was later killed in an automobile accident. People who worked at the old drug store reported hearing the sounds of a trike going down the hallway.” An entire article could be written about Bean’s personal experiences with a poltergeist that followed her from house to house. Melinda Lunsford, an Ashville resident, could talk about the female ghost who hung out at her house for several years until given permission to leave. In fact, dozens of St. Clair residents have had experiences with the paranormal world. But that’s fodder for next year’s Halloween story. Meanwhile, if you get nothing else from these stories, dear reader, at least remember this: The next time you hear something go bump in the night, you may not be alone. “Stare at the dark too long, and you will eventually see what isn’t there.” (Author Unknown) l
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Red orb inside library
Are they spirits or blips on a camera lens? By Elaine Hobson Miller Photo by Pam Falbo Photography In his book, Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, with Breakthrough Ghost Photography, Tom Scullion attempts a scientific explanation of orbs such as the ones photographed around the Odenville Public Library. His book contains many of the “colored light apparitions” he caught on digital camera hovering over churches and other historic buildings, or buildings recreated at their original sites. Scullion suggests, based on research by Polish physicist Janusz Slawinski, that living organisms have an electromagnetic consciousness that dwells within our bodies. At death, so the theory goes, this force separates from our bodies at the speed of light in what is called, “the death flash.” Based on his own photographic evidence, he theorizes that shapes and colors of so-called ghosts or whatever he has captured on camera are like electromagnetic “fingerprints” of these entities. Frank Lee, head of the Central Alabama Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research (C.A.S.P.I.R.), says orbs are dust particles and moisture that get between the camera lens and the glass. “I started this group before digital photography came along and rarely got orbs on film cameras,” he says. “Digital camera manuals tell you how to prevent these blurbs on your photos. It’s the prism effect, and it usually has color to it. Security cameras often will have strange things floating in their photos, too. Sometimes they turn out to be insects such as gnats that are so tiny, they appear translucent.”
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Anthony Stewart (right) stares down Jayvone Dafney (left) as referee Keith Hughes goes over the rules.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
STEP INTO THE RING Professional boxing finds new arena in Pell City Pell City native Nicholas Adams celebrates following his debut, knockout victory over Keith Criddell.
Story by Loyd McIntosh Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. On a sweltering hot Friday afternoon in late July, the parking lot of Total Body Fitness is so full, many cars have parked in the grass and mud in the vacant lot next door. Inside, the gym is just as packed as dozens of athletes, trainers and others mill about. There is excitement and even a little tension in the air. All of this activity isn’t for a hot, new exercise class. No, excitement builds for the weigh-in for a boxing event taking place in a little over 24 hours at, of all places, the CEPA Building in Pell City. Organized by the Alabama-based boxing promotion company, One One Six Boxing, Saturday’s event, Logan Martin Rumble 2, is the second boxing “show” One One Six has held in Pell City, the first coming in December 2020. One One Six is also notable for being the state’s first and only
boxing promotion owned and operated by a woman and St. Clair County native Brandi McClain. Since launching, One One Six has held close to 10 boxing events showcasing fighters from all over the country but with a concentration on boxers from the Southeast. Operating out of Gadsden, One One Six has hosted Money Powell IV, James De La Rosa and Michael Williams Jr., the undefeated prospect of Roy Jones Jr. This weekend, her focus is on a boxer named Anthony Stewart, who at age 40 is competing for the Alabama State Cruiserweight Title. “Anthony has a lot riding on him this weekend, but he’s a very talented fighter. He’s ready for this moment,” McCain says. “I think he has an opportunity to fight on TV, and I’m doing everything I can to make that happen for him. It’s my job to make my fighters’ dreams come true.” At the weigh-in, Stewart is sitting at a table with his trainer, Dave Godber, a boxing lifer with extensive experience as a fighter and trainer. Currently, Gober owns Round 1 Boxing For Health, a gym in Vestavia where Stewart trains while he’s
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BOXING Unleashing a flurry of punches, Anthony Stewart has Jayvone Dafney on the ropes.
not busy with his full-time job as a welder for Ox Bodies in Tuscaloosa. Since his last sparring session a little over a week ago, Stewart has geared down his activity to give his body the rest it needs for his title fight on Saturday. “My last week, really what I’m doing is I’m trying to focus my mind on rest, relaxation, how I can make my body 100 percent when I step in the ring,” says Stewart. His opponent is a little-known boxer named Jayvone Dafney, a 34-year-old cruiserweight fighting out of Los Angeles with a record of 2-3. Anthony and Godber have spent much of their preparation watching film and studying Gafney’s strengths and, more importantly, weaknesses. “Everybody has habits, and that’s what we want him to do. We want him to fight in his bad habits,” Godber says. “That’s what I’m really good at. In the first 30 seconds, I can tell you exactly how this man’s fighting.” Godber is of the mindset that boxing is a 50-50 sport – 50 percent physical, 50 percent psychological. He’s been working tirelessly on Stewart’s mental approach to boxing, helping his protégé to think on his feet and react to whatever his opponent does in the ring. “Everybody’s got skill,” Godber says. “You can be the best fighter in the world, but you have to have the mental attitude to know how to survive and how to make good decisions.
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“Everybody looks like a champion on the heavy bag,” he adds, “but when you get in that ring and the pressure’s on you, you have to overwhelm yourself with the mental aspect.” “When I’m in there, I don’t just react,” adds Stewart. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘when I do this, what does he do? When I throw this punch, where does he move? When I throw this punch, where does he drop his hand? If he drops that hand, we’ll I’m going to come here.’” Like many of today’s professional boxers, Stewart honed his fighting skills in the crazy world of ultimate fighting in what he calls “loosely organized” underground events in bars and joints in places like Jasper and Cullman. Stewart turned pro in June 2018, defeating a boxer named Andre Brewer. Leading into his title bout in Pell City, Stewart’s record stands at a healthy 5-1-2, four wins by knockout. Fit, mentally acute, and rested, Stewart is brimming with confidence just 24 hours before the bell rings in the biggest fight of his career in the heart of Pell City, the Main Event for Logan Martin Rumble 2. “I don’t like to say anything derogatory about anybody that I’m about to fight but ...” he stops himself before finishing the statement and collects his thoughts before continuing. “It’s like this right here. I’m coming to handle business. Anybody that’s in my way of that title is going to get broken down. I want to see what kind of man he is. This is mano a mano. I want to see
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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BOXING how he faces adversity because I’m going to touch him.” Still, at the age of 40, one question Stewart is asked often is how much longer can he continue boxing? How will he know when it’s time to hang up the gloves? “Through all my amateur fights and most of my pro fights, I didn’t take many punches. There will be a time when I got to hang it up, but right now I’ve got a five-year plan, which takes me to 45,” explains Stewart. “We’re going to stay in shape and keep this going.”
Anthony Stewart looks on as referee Keith Hughes attends to Jayvone Dafney.
Fight Night It’s now Saturday evening and the gymnasium at the CEPA Building has been transformed for professional boxing. The ring sits at the center of the court with professional lights placed in opposite corners. There are 11 fights on the card with the Stewart-Dafney fight bringing the night to a close. Most of the bouts are scheduled for four rounds, with three scheduled for six rounds, including the main event. The first three fights of the night ended in knockouts – two in the first round, one in the second round. However, one of the best fights of the night was the fourth on the card, the stunning debut of a young fighter named Nicholas Adams. A native of Pell City, Adams initially attended Pell City High School, transferred to Ashville High School, before eventually earning his GED. He worked as a corrections officer before recently devoting himself to boxing full time after deciding against pursuing mixed martial arts. He signed on with One One Six Boxing but found himself in need of a new trainer and coach less than a week before his professional debut. He hooked up with Martin Juarez, owner and operator of Juarez Boxing in Irondale, who has been impressed with Nick in the short time he’s worked with him. “I met Nick four days ago. He called me over the weekend and said he was without a trainer and needed some help,” Juarez explains. “Just the time we’ve spent in the gym, we’ve been able to build a rapport with one another, and I’ve taught him some stuff that he’s never known, this being his first professional fight. “Nick shows a lot of great attitude and great effort and has come a long way in four days,” he adds. “I’m expecting only great things from him.” Adams has a lot riding on this fight as well. He and his wife, Morganne, have a preschool-age daughter, Sophie. Not only is this Nick’s pro debut, but his primary source of income for his young family. At the weigh-in on Friday, Morganne was both excited and apprehensive about her husband’s bout. “I keep thinking I am ready for this, and we keep getting closer, and I don’t know. My stomach’s in a knot,” Morganne says. “I’m very nervous, but I know he’s going to win.” Adams’ opponent Saturday evening is 32-year-old Keith Criddell, boxing out of Atlanta in a Super Middleweight bout scheduled for four rounds. Despite his record of 0-3, Criddell has almost a year of experience as a pro boxer, having made his debut in August 2020. Adams’ path to victory is clearly uphill. From the opening bell brought through the end of the third round, the action was exciting and, to the general boxing fan, evenly matched. In reality, Adams was winded, having come out too hot in the first round throwing a flurry of punches and expending a lot of energy. By the end of the third round,
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Thanks for helping us Discover
THE BEST OF ST. CLAIR In our annual non-scientific polling from our readers, the 2021 “Discover the Best of St. Clair Awards” are now official. We thank each of our readers who took the time to cast their ballot and root for their favorite. Wait no longer, here are the 2021 winners: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• Church Group Calvary Baptist Odenville Eden Westside Mt. Pisgah Petros Youths Seddon Baptist • Library Odenville Pell City Hamburger -Charlie’s • Chamber of Commerce - Pell City Catfish – The Ark • Artist 4 Messie Monkies Cayce BBQ - Charlie’s Johnson Pie - Pell City Steak House • Photographer - Wallace Bromberg Jr. Cake – Bowling’s BBQ • Woodworking - 4 Messie Monkies Coffee - PC Coffee Billy Johnson Restaurant - Charlie’s • • Potter - Nettie Bean Fast Food - Jacks Odenville • Doctor - Dr. Rick Jotani Lunch spot – • • Dentist - Dr. Al Aultman Charlie’s • Pediatrician - Springville Pediatrics Pell City Steakhouse • Orthodontist - PT Ortho Onion Rings - Charlie’s • • Chiropractor - Dr. Chris Webber French Fries – Bowling’s BBQ • Pharmacist - Mark Ross Wings – Charlie’s Margaret Pharmacy Dinner Spot – Charlie’s • • Pharmacy - Margaret Pharmacy Seafood - The Ark • Antique Store - Springville Ribs - Charlie’s Antique Mall Pizza – Carpenettie’s • • Dock Builder - Tradesman Steak – • Lawyer Heart of Dixie Lance Bell Louie’s Laurie Henderson Asian food - Oishi • Jewler - Griffins Country cooking - Two Sisters • Florist - Jean’s Buffet - City Market • Hair Salon - Style Bar Pell City Sandwiches - Daily Bagel • • Hair Stylist - Emma Rodman Style Bar Salads - Heart of Dixie • Nail Salon - V Nails Odenville Meat n Three – • PC Steakhouse • Manicurist - Pam at V Nails Odenville Triple T’s • Massage Therapist - Patience • Breakfast spot - Bowling’s BBQ Bradford • Mexican Food - Blue Tequila • Physical Therapist - Matt A at Moody • and Cantina Benchmark • Historic site - Inzer House • Insurance Company - Cayce Wilson Kayak Canoeing - Yak the Creek State Farm • Scenic Spot - Ten Islands Park • Realty Company – Gift Shop - Magnolias Blue House Odenville • Park - Lakeside Park Realty Pros Pell City Splash Pad - Lakeside Park • Realtor – Non Profit Group - DAR Broken Arrow Theresa Harris • Chapter Pell City Caran Wilbanks Civic Club - Pell City Rotary Dana Ellison • • Mortgage Company - Coosa Valley Mortgage • Bank - Metro
Boat dealership - Rodney’s Marine Boat Sales Executive Mark Hilderbrand Rodney Humphries Boat Mechanic Paul Davis Rodney Humphries Automobile Dealership McSweeney Pell City Ford Auto Sales Executive Bronson Honeycutt Chris Cole Jamie Crump Logan Sweatt Pell City Norman Wilder Greg Buie Automotive Repair - Willie’s Garage Home Builder - A&W Construction Interior Designer - Renee Lilly Upholstery - Incredible Touch Plumber - Joiner Plumbing Heating AC - Pell City Heating and Cooling Clothing Store – Boutique - UG/Uptown Girls Caterer Charlie’s BBQ Polly Warren Grocery Store - Piggly Wiggly Odenville Best Veterinarian - Pell City Animal Hospital
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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BOXING Anthony Stewart celebrates his firstround knockout.
Adams was in danger of losing the fight should it go the distance. Adams’ new trainer and cornerman, Juarez, was there to encourage his fighter, but also to give him the unvarnished truth. “I was tired. He got in my face and told me ‘you can’t forget everything that we’ve done these last four days. You’ve been amazing. Don’t forget everything you’ve learned, and, oh, by the way, you’re losing this fight,’” Adams says. “That wasn’t something he didn’t have to tell me, I could tell. I was falling behind. But when he got up in my face, all the numbness that I had in my legs went away. I don’t know what that man said to me, but it was the way he said it. I knew I was going to lose the fight if I didn’t put him out in the fourth round.” Adams regained his stamina and focus in the fourth round, connecting on a vicious right hook that sent Criddell to the canvas once and for all. “I took everything (Juarez) gave me and applied it as best I could. It took me four rounds, but I did it,” Adams says. “I put him down and pulled out the win for my debut.” Back to the Main Event After 10 fights, all but one ending in a knockouts or technical knockout, the crowd is ready for the main event. Dafney makes his entrance into the ring first to little more than polite applause. It’s clear this crowd is here to see Stewart. He doesn’t disappoint. Following a light show and a short but loud pumpup performance by a Tuscaloosa-based hip-hop artist, Stewart makes his way into the arena. Wearing red and black trunks
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with his last name emblazoned across the front, Stewart enters the ring, his tattooed chest and arms already glistening with sweat, his jaw clenched, eyes staring straight at his opponent. Referee Keith Hughes goes over the rules and sends each man back to his corner to wait for the opening bell. One day prior at the weigh-in the question was posed to Godber, where does Stewart have the advantage over Dafney? “Anthony throws more punches,” says Godber. “We’ve been working weight on six and seven punch combinations. I don’t think that young man’s ready for Anthony because he doesn’t throw much more than three,” Godber continues. “You won’t see Anthony on the ropes. You’ll see him in the center of the ring. It’s hard to fight going backward, and if (Dafney) goes to the ropes, he’s going down.” The bell rings and the fight plays out exactly as Godber described. Stewart began the bout measured, even taking a couple of shots from the taller Dafney, before exploding into a fury of punches. As Round 1 progressed, Stewart continued his onslaught of punches, pushing Dafney back on his heels and into the ropes. Finally, Stewart broke down his opponent’s defenses before connecting with a fierce right hook and sending Dafney to the canvas. No 10-count. Hughes jumps in and immediately stops the fight at 2:55 in the first round. It’s over. Hughes lifts Stewart’s arm in the air. McCain enters the ring to place the belt around the victor’s waist. Anthony Stewart is the new Alabama State Cruiserweight Champion. l
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The Pell City Kids Matter Referendum
FOR the future of our kids & our COMMUNITY
When: TUES, NOV 16th Many core needs in the Pell City School System’s facilities have not been addressed in 30+ years. There are outdated facilities badly in need of attention. There are safety issues as well as improvements that need to be made to enable us to better serve our students. The Pell City Kids Matter Referendum is a proposed plan for addressing these much needed renovations, maintenance issues, and repairs. With your help, we can make a difference in students’ lives for decades to come!
How do Pell City’s current school property taxes compare to surrounding school systems? With the passage of this referendum Pell City’s school property taxes will increase by 5 mills. This will make it 18.5, which is still very low in comparison to other systems in our area. 0
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Pell City Rotary Defining service to the communtiy
Rotarians, from left: Melanie Housh, Blair Goodgame, Serge Brazzolotto, Emily Norris, Meg Clements, Matthew Pope and Caran Wilbanks.
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To Pell City Rotary Club, “Serve to Change Lives” is more than Rotary International’s theme for 2021. It’s the standard for this club this year and every year. Not even a pandemic could stop Pell City Rotary from its mission. In big ways and small ways, the club leaves a lasting impact that does indeed change lives. For years, it has been bringing daddies and daughters together for a special evening of dancing, fun and making memories that will last a lifetime. The annual FatherDaughter Dance is one of the most anticipated events in the community each year, serving as a catalyst for strengthening the bonds only a father and daughter can share. But when the pandemic hit yet another surge, the dance was cancelled. Enterprising Rotary members had a better idea. They prepared hundreds of boxes full of surprises and goodies and an idea list of ways fathers and daughters could spend time together. One idea was to watch a movie together and nestled in the midst of all the coupons for ice cream cones and meals they also could share, was the starring attraction – popcorn. Father + daughter + popcorn + movie. Now, that’s a winning formula for making relationships stronger. Always the epitome of a communitywide event where everyone pitches in, under ordinary circumstances, Southland Golf Carts that shuttled fathers and daughters to and from the dance would have been a leading participant. This year, the community still came together despite no dance. For the boxes: • Dairy Queen gave coupons for free ice cream cones. • Chick-fil-A provided coupons for free kids’ meals. • DJ Carson Bruce put together a playlist with a QR code for families to scan to listen to at home together. • Main Street Memories added the popcorn as the box’s centerpiece. • City of Pell City stored items at the municipal complex and loaned the space to assemble boxes and distribute. • The Pell City Fire Department set up tents for distribution. • Rotary volunteers assembled and distributed boxes. And the end result were hundreds of fathers and daughters making new memories courtesy of Pell City Rotary Club.
Jon Clements and daughter Amelia enjoy quality time together – as intended.
A box full of surprises guaranteed to make memories
Giving so Rotary can give Rotary has two major fundraisers per year besides the Father-Daughter Dance – Ray Cox Memorial Golf Tournament and the annual Rotary Tennis Tournament. Through these fundraisers, Rotary is able to do what it does best giving in service to others. Again, it is more than just raising money. It is about community in its truest sense, bringing people together for a good cause. From those who sponsor the tournaments to those who play in them and the countless volunteers that make these successful events happen, the community rallies in support, knowing that their investment of time and funding brings sizable returns for good works throughout the city and beyond year after year.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Rotary
Enjoying the “Monster Smash” tennis tournament
Benefitting from grants given this year alone are: Lakeside Park, Pell City Center for Education and the Performing Arts, Easterseals Community Clinic, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Children’s Place Child Advocacy Center, Christian Love Pantry, Boy Scouts, St. Clair Literacy Council, Toys for Kids, Library Guild, YWCA, Mustard Seed Society, Ann’s New Life Center, Logan Martin Tennis Association, PCHS Show Choir, Kennedy Elementary School and the Pell City Education Foundation. With a boost from Pell City Rotary and a district grant, the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home now has an impressively designed, professional putting green, a small tribute to their service and sacrifice. Weekly Mission Each Tuesday, Rotarians gather together for lunch. Beyond a time of networking and fellowship, it is a time to learn more about their community and ways Rotary can help. The club hosts expert speakers in their fields and leaders with a cause – all aimed at enlightening and inspiring Rotarians as they seek to make their community a better place for all. Forty-seven years ago, 25 businessmen founded the club that has grown more than three-fold and continues to thrive. Their focus was service above self. Today, that vision never wavers, it has only strengthened in time by serving to change lives. l
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On the course for Rotary fundraising
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Because you give, we can give... Pell City Rotary Club says thanks to our sponsors of the Ray Cox Memorial Golf Tournament, Rotary Tennis Tournament and Father-Daughter Dance! Express Oil Change Union Sate Bank McSweeney Motors ERA King Dr. James W. Bedsole Eye Care Brentwood Child Care Wood Appraisal Services Leeds Stained Glass Technical Consulting Services LLC Royal Foods Bob Noble Davis Worley Stone and Son Electrical BSE Industrial Contractors Metro Bank Chad Richey and Merrill Lynch Lovejoy Realty
Goodgame Company Blair & Parsons Southland Golf Cart Sales Henderson’s Builders Supply Fields & Gossett Realty Usrey Funeral Home Adam Bain Coosa Valley Mortgage
Johnny’s Electric Kilgroe Funeral Home Tradesman Co. Dairy Queen Chik-fil-A Carson Bruce Main Street Memories City of Pell City
ASC Allen Service Company
Discover St. Clair Magazine
Jim Hill Paul Manning Trotter Foundation Barnett Jones Wilson, LLC Griffins Jewelers Bain & Co. Eden Family Dentistry The Bline Agency
Joe Sawyer Caran Wilbanks Wendell Bedsole Janet Mueller Serge and Sarah Brazzolotto Meg Williamson Clements Dot Wood Bill Hereford
Joe Paul Abbott, Union State Insurance Hill, Gossett, Kemp & Hufford Patricia Couch Randy Wood James McClendon Byron Woods Municipal Consultants Ford Meter Box Eddie King Woods Surfside Marina
Club of Pell City The Rotary Club of Pell City meets at noon every Tuesday at the Pell City Municipal Complex, 1000 Bruce Etheredge Parkway in Pell City, AL. For more information, please visit our website at pellcityrotary.com.
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Still going strong
Entrance to the Veterans Home
Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home still a standout almost a decade later Story by Carol Pappas Staff photos When the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home opened in 2012, officials knew it would usher in a new era for the region. The state and nation, really. After all, this cutting-edge concept in state veterans homes was the pioneer, leading others to fall in line and follow suit. It wasn’t just the breathtaking design – more like an exclusive mountain lodge and resort town than a nursing, assisted living and memory care facility. It was the realization that finally, veterans had a home worthy of their service to the country. In the years that have followed, others saw it as a model, an idea that has grown and thrived around the country. Here at home in Alabama, the state is getting ready to open its fifth
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state veterans home in Enterprise. And it’s no surprise that the model in Pell City became the inspiration. “If you ask veterans where they would rather be, their answer would be, ‘I’d rather be at home,’” said Rear Adm. Clyde Marsh, commissioner of the Alabama Veterans Administration just before it opened. “We tried to create a home they would like to go to and enjoy. We think the veterans will be happy here.” He was right. Inside its massive corridors is like strolling through a downtown main street. Glass storefronts reveal what’s housed inside – a beauty shop, barber shop, pharmacy, library, chapel and a café. The town center is an immense room anchored by a floor-to-cathedral-ceiling fireplace, sitting areas and nooks, a gathering place for residents and visitors alike. Courtyards and covered patios with rocking chairs add to the welcoming atmosphere. Residences aren’t hospital-style rooms, they are neighborhoods with private rooms, a central kitchen, dining room and living room – just like the admiral said nine years ago, a home. The $50-million project did not miss its target, providing homes for 891 veterans to date, giving them access from assisted living to Alzheimer’s/dementia and skilled nursing services. Hiliary Hardwick, director of the veterans home, has served there since the opening. She has played a role in every one of those 891 admissions, she said. In return, the rewards have been many over the years, she said. “I get to know them and their families and take care of them. I get to know their stories.” She knows the personal remembrances of D-Day, women who served in World War II, the liberation of Paris, landing on Omaha Beach or the fighting in Korea and Vietnam. They are eyewitnesses to history. As World War II veterans have aged and passed away over the past nine years, the veterans home staff are seeing rapid changes. “We are having more and more Vietnam veterans,” Hardwick said. Veterans of the Gulf War are beginning to come there to live as well. “They’re a lot younger – in their 60s and 70s – instead of late 80s and 90s,” and the staff are adapting to their needs. “It’s a different mindset on how to take care of them,” she explained. “They’re more tech savvy. They know about Wi-Fi,” and the changing needs are being met. They’re more active, she noted, and consequently, activities for them are changing. As an example, she said there are a lot of golfers, so they partnered with the Alabama Golf Superintendent’s Association to design and build a putting green on the grounds. The community joined the effort as well with donations from Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and Pell City Rotary Club. Community involvement like the putting green project is not unusual at the veterans home over the years, although activity has been significantly limited in the past year due to pandemic concerns. But in years past, the community has ‘adopted’ the
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The ribbon cutting
The home boasts several places to eat and relax. veterans home and its residents, making sure needs are fulfilled – from special events to visits to decorating for Christmas to entertaining or just being a friend. Just like Rear Adm. Marsh said, it’s their home, and it should befit their service. Hardwick agreed, talking about the sacrifices they made and the history they’ve experienced and are willing to share. “They’ve lived history, it’s not just something you read in a book.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Real People. Real Life Stories. “When my mother had the beginnings of dementia, she was in Birmingham, and I was in Pell City. Working full time, I couldn’t be there. But Always There could, and they helped her with the things she needed to remain independent -- taking her grocery shopping, making sure she got the right medications at the right time, being a companion. Always There allowed her to stay in her own home and took the worries away from my siblings and I when we couldn’t be there for her.” -- Carol P.
• Companionship • Care Management • Errands • Laundry • Light Housekeeping
• Bathing and Grooming • Dressing • Escorts for shopping and appointments • Meal Preparation
When you can’t be there, Always There can.
30 Comer Avenue Suite 1 Pell City, AL 35125 Visit AlwaysThereInc.com
205-824-0224
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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A friend to those who serve
Tom Kelly and Frank Veal sit outside the Col. Robert Howard Veterans Home with Wayne Johnson, center
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Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wayne Johnson has thought a lot about his legacy and what he will leave behind when he has departed this earthly life. He wants it to be his work with veterans. Considering what he does for and with them every week, that shouldn’t be a problem. Although he recently retired after five-and-ahalf years as veterans outreach coordinator for the St. Clair County Extension office, Johnson still takes veterans to medical appointments, helps them access their government benefits and makes regular visits to the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City. “I never considered it work because I enjoyed it so much,” he says of his time with the extension office. Johnson was one of the first people Frank Veal met after moving into the veterans home, and the pair have been friends ever since. A Korean War vet who served in the Air Force for 26 years, Veal is a native of Troy. He owns a van with a ramp that he lets Johnson use to ferry other vets to various appointments. The veterans home takes care of its residents’ medical trips. “Wayne was here to help Frank celebrate his 91st birthday in August,” says Reshina Pratt, administrative support assistant at the veterans home. “They are very close.” Johnson also is close to Veal’s next-doorneighbor, Tom Kelly, who is originally from Maryland but raised his family in Alabama. Another Korean War veteran, Kelly has been at the home since 2014. “Wayne visits us weekly, more if we have a need,” says Kelly. “Sometimes he brings us lunch, like barbecued ribs, and he has made trips to Montgomery with us.” “He’s a good guy, and we appreciate him,” says Veal. “He’s a handy man to have around.”
Wayne Johnson
It’s Personal
One of the reasons Johnson has such an affinity for veterans is that he’s a veteran himself. He grew up in Portsmouth, Va., and joined the Air Force right out of high school. He retired after serving for 20 years, then worked for a government contractor 14 years. Later, he was employed as activities director at the veterans home. He retired from his job with the Extension Service in April to help take care of his one-year-old grandson, Jaxson, and as of late August, ACES still had not found a replacement. From the beginning, Johnson’s vision was to get out into the community to find veterans and widows of veterans who needed assistance, according to Lee Ann Clark, the St. Clair County Extension Service coordinator. “He worked hard and successfully accomplished
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Frank Veal 59
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his goal of making veterans aware of the benefits that are available to them and helped many obtain these benefits,” Clark says. “Not only did he reach the elderly and middle-aged veterans, but he also assisted younger ones.” Although his retirement plans originally included relaxation, fishing and spending time with his grandson, he continues to be an asset to the veterans in the community in some capacity. Johnson estimates that he probably takes vets to appointments and helps them run other errands three times a week. “Some live in their own homes but can’t get out and get their groceries by themselves,” Johnson says. That’s where Veal’s van comes in handy. “I let him keep it at his house,” Veal says. Johnson met his wife, Cheryl, when both were in the military and stationed in Kansas. She spent 10 years in the Air Force in accounting. When he retired, they decided to come back to Pell City because it was her hometown. They have two daughters and three grandchildren. One daughter, Jaxson’s mother, lives in Pell City. The other daughter, who has two children, lives in the Netherlands, where Johnson was once stationed while in the Air Force. “Wayne does an awesome job with local veterans,” says Cheryl Johnson, who has been married to Wayne for 30 years. “We need more people like him because there’s a huge need with veterans in this county. So many are here alone, with their children in different states. He works well with people, and he’s still helping with some he was attached to. He picks up people as needed for appointments for a few who still reach out to him, and Lee Ann still refers people to him from time to time. He tries to direct them to the right resources if he can’t help them.” His motivation, she says, is that he just loves reaching out to veterans. “When the St. Clair Extension Office had that opening, they wanted a veteran, and he was in a position to take the job,” she says. “It was part time, and he took it to have something to do. Then it got bigger and bigger because there was so much need out there. A news article would post, and the calls would continue to come in.” Cheryl says her husband connects with people. “He loves war movies and the history of wars, and loves the stories the veterans tell him,” she says. Prior to its recent COVID-19 lockdown, the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home saw Johnson drop by at least once a week to participate in activities with residents. “He’s a great resource for us,” says Reshina Pratt. “One day a homeless vet from out of town stopped by and we called Wayne, and he helped him get the assistance he needed. He’s a kind, caring, helpful man. Even though he has retired (from the county extension office), we still call on him for assistance. I know he’ll be back here after the restrictions are lifted.” The Rev. Willie E. Crook met Johnson about 20 years ago when Crook was a contractor building community
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Tom Kelly
Frank Veal lends his van to help Johnson.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
churches. Johnson helped get Rocky Zion Baptist Church in Pell City built, according to Crook. “When I worked with him then, he had another job but came by and checked on the construction twice a day, before and after work,” says Crook. “He’s a dedicated man. The Lord led me to build a ranch for underprivileged, inner-city kids. I talked to Wayne about helping me, and we started Gateway to Life Youth Ranch in Ohatchee 12 years ago. He’s president of the ranch, which hosts at-risk kids on weekends so they can enjoy the outdoors, fishing, woodworking and the animals at the ranch. We also mentor fourth- and fifthgrade boys’ classes at Saks Middle School in Anniston.” Crook vouches for the fact that Johnson has befriended many veterans through the years. “Many times, he has come to the ranch to pick up or drop something, and he has had a vet with him,” Crook says. “He cares about them and would do anything in the world for them. He’s a giving man. We didn’t have any funds when we started that ranch, and he has gone into his pocket several times.” A modest man, when asked why he continues to work with veterans, Johnson has a quick and simple reply: “It gives me a sense of satisfaction.”
Even after retirement, Johnson is on hand to help veterans.
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NEELY HENRY
LIVING LAKELIFE
AT ITS FINEST A breathtaking home on a pristine lake
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The minute you step foot on the Neely Henry lakefront property at 3100 Waldrop Road, you know you’ve arrived at a special place. It’s more than a lake home, it’s experiencing lake life at its finest. From the 290+ feet of waterfront with 200 feet of boardwalk — 8 feet wide — to the covered pavilion on the water and the perfectly landscaped acreage, it’s a paradise all its own. Don and Terri Uptain have lived there for 11 years, and they agree, “There’s nothing else like it on the lake,” he said. “You can’t beat it, particularly this location,” on the main channel near Ten Islands. With so much waterfront and property, there seems to be a perfect spot for everyone, Don said. The view is good on all sides. It’s shallow on one side, where people can swim. It’s deep water facing the main channel, ideal for watersports. And the fishing is good all around. Neely Henry’s one of the best kept secrets in Alabama for fishing. The water’s pristine, and “the fishing’s just great,” he added, pointing out that one of the pro anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series fished there every day during the national tournament. He strikes up conversation with other fishermen while he’s outside, and “they all talk about the different spots” that are good for fishing. “It’s a hotspot.” The enclosed boathouse is grandfathered in and one of the few remaining on the lake. With two lifts, metal siding and roof, “it’s a real plus,” said Don. The property surrounding the home is large enough to accommodate large groups, and the Uptains have enjoyed entertaining family, friends and extended church family over the years. And that’s just on the outside. Step inside and the amenities for optimum enjoyment – from entertaining family and friends to just plain relaxing – are countless. The Uptains say they treasure the memories they have made at their home. Terri talks of the nearly 360-degree view. “It’s just breathtaking. Every day, you look out at that view and think you’re on vacation. Our family has just loves it here.” With five bedrooms, three full baths and two half baths in this 5,000-square-foot home with a full basement used as a garage and Don’s woodworking shop, it’s easy to see that this is indeed a special place. “We don’t want to leave,” said Don, but he and Terri are approaching an age where they want to downsize and be closer to their health facilities. “It’s a great place to live.” This Neely Henry Home has been listed by Lovejoy Realty, LovejoyRealty.com and NeelyHenryLake.com. A special promotion
St. Clair, Alabama
Business Review
Traffic is busy in Pell City’s historic downtown district.
64 • DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • Business Review • October & November 2021
Story by Linda Long Staff photos
Downtown Pell City Historic business district thriving once again
Lively music streams from speakers at Ron Partain’s World of Music, spilling out onto Pell City’s Cogswell Avenue. A little, pigtailed girl can’t let that beat go to waste. Her braids swing to the tune, and her feet move to the rhythm in an impromptu dance. Inside, the store’s owner, Ron Partain, gives a hearty laugh, enjoying the little girl’s antics. She gives him a big smile before turning to wave goodbye. “This is what I love to see,” smiled Partain, “watching children and young people as they learn to love and appreciate music. Music has been my life. I knew from the time I was 15 years old that this is what it was meant for me to do.” That’s a claim that can’t be challenged. Partain has owned The World of Music at its present location since 1978. “If I haven’t been here on Cogswell longer than anybody else, I come in second,” he laughed. “I’m very proud of the longevity of the business and very proud of what we’ve offered the people of Pell City, which is quality musical instruction in every area of musical pursuit we sell. “This is the thing that keeps us alive and keeps us pushing,” said Partain. “We teach 75 to 85 students a week to play. That’s really the focus of my music store. That’s where my heart is — people, especially young people learning to love music.” Partain says he became “full time” in the store eight years ago when he retired from a career in church youth and music ministry, in which he served for 54 years before retiring to devote full time to his store. Now, for over four decades, he has been a patient observer of life on Cogswell Avenue. “I’ve seen “businesses come and businesses go,” he said. “We’re beginning now to see a resurgence on this particular block that I’m in. We’re beginning to see a lot more retail moving in. For a while, this was beginning to become lawyer row in the sense that a lot of buildings had been purchased by attorneys because it’s so close to the courthouse. Well, in my opinion, that stifled the potential of retail outlets,” he explained. “We still have a good number of those attorney offices downtown, and they are very good friends of mine. I’m not saying there’s a problem with their offices downtown, I’m just saying I wish we had room for more retail. Businesses feed off
New businesses are opening up in historic buildings. other businesses. If one business has a customer, another business has a shot at him also.” Carol Pappas, president and CEO of Partners by Design, a boutique marketing firm downtown agrees with that sentiment. “About three or so years ago, we noticed an upward trend in business in the downtown area. We already had our office for our magazine, Discover St. Clair, and our marketing firm, Partners by Design, located in an historic building. We loved the building with its exposed brick wall and thought it would make a perfect creative space for our company.” Logan Martin LakeLife™, a division of the company, was just a sideline then. “We designed a logo and built a website as an online resource for Logan Martin Lake 10 years ago. From there, it grew into a cottage industry with stickers, apparel and gift items,
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • Business Review • October & November 2021 • 65
Business Review
Downtown Pell City
and we had to turn our front office into a pop-up store to meet demand for an array of LakeLife™ products.” The decision to open a retail storefront downtown was an easy one, Pappas said. “We own the trademark for LakeLife™ in Alabama and LakeLife 24/7® nationally, and the brick-andmortar store to go locally with our national e-commerce site, LakeLife247.com, seemed the next natural step.” What has been the net effect? “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and the retail business grows year over year. In May, we launched a magazine to go with it, LakeLife 24/7® for Logan Martin and Neely Henry lakes, and it is growing right out the gate – all from our little office on Cogswell Avenue. We’re ecstatic.” Sweet Sue’s Ice Cream Parlor, just a short walk away also seems to be growing right from the first scoop. A visit to Sweet Sue’s is almost a trip back in time. Formica booths in robin’s egg blue form a row against an old, exposed brick wall. One of those you-used-to-see-them-everywhere gumball machines decorates a corner next to the ice cream counter. Hand-printed chalkboards announce the flavors and specials of the day. Those chalk lines aren’t always straight, but their message is clear: Old fashioned banana splits, sundaes and shakes served here. While these items clearly say 1950s, others are unmistakably 2021. Like shaved ice in more than 20 flavors topped with gummy bears if you so choose. Sweet Sue’s owner, Jenny Alverson, opened her sweet treat shop around the first of June and already has a steady repeat business. “We see some as many as three times a week,” she laughed. Alverson says her shop is truly a family affair, including her husband, Richard, daughters Shannon, Kaylan and Mayli, and son Thomas. A native of St. Clair County, Alverson says locating her business in old town Pell City feels “a lot like coming home. I knew the minute I saw this building it was the right place for me to be.” That’s the kind of response Pell City’s City Manager Brian Muenger likes to hear. “The downtown area offers residents and visitors a chance to “The downtown area offers residents and visitors a chance to connect with the history of the town and to enjoy supporting some great businesses,” he said. “There have been several new businesses open in recent months, and others have continued to expand their offerings and operating hours.” That sounds like Jeremy Gossett, owner and operator of The Daily Bagel, which is about to celebrate its second anniversary. Gossett is no stranger to historic downtown Pell City. His family has owned the Daily Bagel building since the 1980s The building has gone through several incarnations during that time. “My father ran it as a hardware store for many years,” said Gossett. “Our family has been doing business in downtown Pell City since the 1940s. This building was at one time a sandwich shop. We’ve actually reinvented the whole concept of the building.” Gossett said the Bagel “does a fairly good breakfast business, but lunchtime is when we’re really busy. We serve more than 300 people every day.” For those who haven’t yet visited The Daily Bagel, you might think only bagels are on the menu. Wrong!
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Jeremy Gossett making dough at Daily Bagel
Choices include soups, pies, cinnamon rolls, and of course, bagels – the cheddar roast beef bagel, the sticky turkey bagel, the Buffalo bagel and much more. A wide assortment of other fresh breads, cheeses and meats complement the perfect sandwich creations. With choices like this on the menu, it’s little wonder that business is good. Another popular downtown eatery, that’s a bit of a non sequitur, is El Cazador, a Mexican restaurant housed in a 120-year-old building that once housed Pell City Rexall. Diners stream in and out of the restaurant for lunch and dinner, making it one of the busier destination points on a regular day. Being located across the street from the county courthouse makes it an ideal lunch spot on ‘court days’ when foot traffic is at its highest. During the height of the pandemic, El Cazador’s curbside delivery made it a ‘go-to’ choice for lunch and dinner as well. Business is also good just down the street at Merle Norman owned by April Willis. “My mother owned the Merle Norman business for about 40 years, and I never had any intention of doing this,” said Willis. “Mother eventually moved the business downtown. When she got sick, I stepped in to help out just until she was able to get back on her feet. Unfortunately, that never happened.” By then, Willis said, she had come to love the business. “I love my customers and the relationships I have with them.” Willis said she welcomed Sweet Sue’s moving into the neighborhood. “They’re increasing the walking traffic, and I love my new next-door neighbor at Sanctuary Art. If Robin can’t do it, nobody can,” she laughed. The Robin she’s talking about is Robin Henry, owner of one of downtown’s newest businesses and possibly one of the most unique, Sanctuary Art Furniture, Etc. “When we paint a piece of furniture, it actually becomes art,” said Henry. “We’re not just furniture flippers. We actually put art on furniture.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Third Thursday strengthens downtown comeback Story by Linda Long Submitted photos Third Thursday is a celebration. Its purpose? To revitalize, highlight and showcase the downtown area of Pell City. According to Denise Olivastri, vice president of the Greater Pell City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and chairperson of the 3rd Thursday Committee, the intent is to make downtown Pell City a destination spot, and in turn, to bring more shoppers downtown. Olivastri says it got its start with “a small group of friends who shared a common goal. More shoppers mean more revenue growth and traffic to the downtown core which can translate into more new businesses openings,” she said. “We started to see an increase in incremental footsteps with new and first-time customers to our city. We pushed the aspect that shopping locally at an independent business means a more enhanced shopping experience and a much more personalized one. Spending locally also ensures sales taxes are reinvested where they belong – in our community. “ Olivastri said most downtown business owners were instantly engaged, embracing the new idea and were receptive to the vision. “We started a Facebook page called Downtown Pell City’s 3rd Thursday Shopping Galas, erected two stationary banners in high traffic areas in the city and proceeded to do weekly business spotlights with participating stores and restaurants. This created heightened community awareness with products and services offered downtown.” As Olivastri explained, we put a new theme in place, placing fliers in downtown windows and advertising on social media. We had Sidewalk Sales, Customer Appreciation Day, Girls Night Out, Meet the Manager Day, Christmas in July, No Tax Day, a Back-to-School Event, Holiday Open House and many more theme ideas came to fruition.” More events geared toward the customers included infomercials, special savings, percentage off discounts, gift basket draws, no purchase necessary draws, silent auction and free gift card giveaways. Other customer incentives included refreshments, massages, musical entertainment and even the jolly old man himself – Santa Claus. “This ongoing initiative is now in its third year this October,” said Olivastri. “We have only missed one month and that was due to adverse weather. It’s important to show consistency, even in the slow sales months. Monthly events run all day long and twice a year, we do one in the evening. We couldn’t do this event without the engagement and buy-in of the wonderful business owners.” Underscoring its support, the chamber board voted that this monthly event be placed under its umbrella of responsibilities, guiding its promotion and bolstering its success. According to Olivastri “business visibility has greatly increased in the community over the past three years and Pell City’s 3rd Thursday is now a household name.”
Julie Funderburg entertains at Third Thursday
Robin Henry at Sanctuary Art during Valentine’s Third Thursday
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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A piano lesson at Ron Partain’s World of Music
They also put art on canvas, wood or glass, even velvet pumpkins. “There’s not much we haven’t painted,” she laughed. Henry said she chose her downtown location because “I just felt at home in this building when I looked at it. It just felt right from the minute I walked in.” Built in 1893, it’s to be expected that the 128-year-old building “had some surprises for us,” she said. Surprises like the 46-year-old air conditioner and a wood floor that had to be replaced with concrete.” “But it all worked out,” said Henry. “With the new ice cream shop down the street, foot traffic has really picked up. We plan to be here for a really long time.” Despite their satisfaction in their choice of downtown Pell City for their businesses, all store owners have the same three items on their wish lists: more foot traffic, better sidewalks and more parking. Muenger knows the problem all too well and has plans in place to do something about it. “As far as the downtown improvements (streetscape), it will definitely bring an enhanced aesthetic to downtown,” said Muenger, “and make it significantly more pedestrian friendly.” Improvements include new sidewalks, crosswalks, landscaping and lighting. And perhaps most welcome news to store owners, “the county’s construction of the new parking area behind the courthouse, which will be open to the public,” said Muenger, “adding 90 spaces for public use, just a block away from the core of the downtown. The effect of these two improvements will be significant for the merchants and will help provide them with the infrastructure they need to grow.” As far as the timeline, Muenger said, “I am expecting
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The LakeLife Store has seen an upswing in downtown business. preliminary design drawings within two weeks, after which we will release them for public comment. My hope is to bid the project out by the end of 2021 and to complete construction in late 2022 or early 2023. Generally, these projects take three years from beginning to end.” While the streetscape project is indeed welcome news, Pappas pointed out that the success of her company’s physical retail store has been due in great part to the camaraderie found among the downtown merchants sending business each other’s way and a spillover effect of what’s good for one is good for all. “It’s not unusual for our customers to have just finished lunch at Daily Bagel across the street or El Cazador a few doors up and head into our store because it’s the first time they’ve seen it. Likewise, customers from our store head to Sweet Sue’s for ice cream, Merle Norman for cosmetics, Griffins for jewelry and so on.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Business Review
Leeds business community growing Neva Reardon shows off handbag collection at Mum & Me
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Story by Carol Pappas Staff photos It’s hard to miss the excitement building all around Leeds these days. From a flurry of business activity around the Interstate 20 interchanges to the commercial district on Ashville Road to the resurrection of downtown as a thriving center, the enthusiasm surrounding the growth is evident. One of the best examples is found in historic downtown, where specialty shops, popular eateries, old favorites and professional services have found a home. Leeds is a quaint, little city nestled just minutes from Birmingham and Anniston. Its historic downtown lends much charm with local shops, boutiques and architecture reminiscent of days gone by. Visit the iconic Pants Store for clothing and shoe brands you know and love, a store that has been in business since 1950. For the past seven decades, shoppers from miles around have made it their destination point because of the selection, customer service and pricing. This family-owned endeavor – still in the same family today – has expanded to Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Trussville, crediting its longevity to founder Taylor Gee’s philosophy – “always put the customer first and make sure of their satisfaction.” Then stroll over to Merch Boutique for boutique women’s clothing in sizes XS-3X along with baby up to tween sizes for the kiddos as well as accessories, home décor and more. Head next door to Mum & Me Boutique for a shopping experience you won’t soon forget. Celebrating four years in business as a boutique specializing in local, Southern and American gifts and crafts, Mum & Me has a little something for anyone special in your life. Gifts range from baby and infant wear, baby shower gifts and registry, to bath products made in Texas and Virginia, Sorrelli dazzling jewels and a wide selection of jewelry made by American hands. An expanded boutique features beautiful, “wearable” ladies clothing. “We have jeans that fit a lady’s body like she was still 18,” said owner Neva Reardon. Mum’s Unique Consignment Boutique is the latest sister store to mum & me mercantile. A quaint shop specializing in finer consignments of jewelry, purses, shoes, children’s clothing birth to tween, adult women and menswear – all sporting finer boutique brands. Are you going to a formal or getting married? Mum’s Unique is a first-stop must. And their collectibles are quite a draw. Hungry or need to satisfy a sweet tooth craving? Stop in at the Three Earred Rabbit
Pants Store, a downtown tradition
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Leeds Growth
for a delicious meal with choices of homemade soups and sandwiches made from scratch, salads and fresh baked goodies that will make your taste buds go wild. One-of-a-kind cakes and other tasty desserts are made fresh every day. Mills Pharmacies is your next stop with that hometown pharmacy feel, where everyone knows your name. But the features don’t end there. Mills carries a diverse collection of gift items and greeting cards in addition to filling all your pharmacy needs. Altogether, it’s just what the doctor ordered. Overstock Mattress is growing in popularity, boasting the best prices around on quality bedding. Your visit is not complete without a trip to Livery Square and the shop at LA Salon, Flowers & Boutique. This little shop has beautiful women’s clothing, accessories, home décor and gift items as well as offering tanning to keep you looking like you just returned from a well-earned vacation. You can also order floral arrangements for any occasion. As you stroll these sidewalks throughout the downtown area, you will also find service organizations, a theater and art center, a dental center and all types of services needed in day-to-day life. Nightlife is growing, too. Rails and Ales is fairly new to the roster, offering food and spirits at this craft beer and wine bar, featuring live music and games as part of its allure. Its entertainment line-up includes a number of local entertainers, and it hosts food trucks in its backyard on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Besides being voted one of the top suburbs for young professionals, Leeds has countless amenities to attract from near and far. “We have things happening on all sides of Leeds, and we want to keep people coming downtown,” said Dona Bonnett, past president of the Leeds Area Chamber of Commerce and a business owner herself. That’s why all sorts of activities are centered downtown, making Leeds more than a destination point at the interstate where Outlet Shops of Grand River, Bucee’s, Bass Pro Shops and Barber Motorsports naturally draw crowds. “We want to introduce them to all Leeds has to offer,” said Sandra McGuire, executive director of the chamber. “We do that by offering all kinds of activities to generate the foot traffic needed to support our downtown businesses.” She noted that every Monday is Food Truck Monday, attracting food trucks at the gazebo park that offer menus fit for any taste and rivaling traditional restaurant fare. Every Thursday during harvest season, you’ll find 6th Street block just outside the chamber making way for fresh fruits, vegetables and homemade treats at the Leeds Farmers Market, a venue for local farmers and makers from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. In October, thousands come out for the trick or treat event for Halloween with games and candy for the kids, a movie and food trucks cooking up something special. And there’s a popular carnival in the fall, too. On Nov. 13, thousands more are expected to turn out for a major car cruise-in by C&C Motor Co., “Cruising for Toys.” Admission is a toy for the cruise-in, which will provide Christmas gifts for kids in Leeds. Two hundred to 400 cars are expected. Food trucks, street vendors as well as a Christmas Open House with downtown retailers and other businesses open to
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Three Earred Rabbit Rails and Ales with food truck
LA Salon adds to downtown allure
greet visitors and shoppers to kick off the holiday season. A parade of cars is planned with Santa and the city’s tree lighting to round out the festivities. It’s all aimed at bringing people and businesses together, Bonnett said. The chamber’s Retail Development Committee meets regularly to generate ideas and create projects that can cross promote and help one another. “We’re all in it together,” she said, noting that they can pool advertising dollars and resources. “If we work together, we can achieve more. It’s about how we can move forward and grow. We have a wonderful little town. There is a lot going on. We invite everyone to visit Leeds and see for yourself what people are talking about.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Business Review
Butts to Go moves to new, expanded location
Iconic Butts to Go moves to former location of Domino’s Pizza
Butts to Go, which has become a local favorite around Pell City with national headlines to its credit, has expanded to a larger location – the former Domino’s Pizza building in Cropwell. Owner Wade Reich moved to and renovated the building to accommodate the growing business that has been featured in everything from cookbooks to regional magazines and ‘must see’ articles. It was formerly on property with The Kitchen restaurant. Now located at 2600 Mays Drive, Butts to Go features barbecued Boston butts, ribs, wings and more, including smoked hams and turkeys for the holidays. It also serves daily lunch specials Tuesday through Friday, and catering for events – large and small – is a specialty. Every night steak specials are available Tuesday through Saturday.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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Business Review
Helping small businesses EDC creates Small Business Week, online resource center Story by Carol Pappas Staff photos Continuing to build on the foundation it put in place more than a decade ago, the St. Clair Economic Development Council has
added another building block – the Small Business St. Clair initiative – and will launch its first ever Small Business Week Nov. 1-6. The week raises awareness about the importance of small business in communities throughout St. Clair County and will feature free, virtual programming on a variety of subjects integral to starting, growing and strengthening a small business. Experts in their fields, presenters will address one or two topics in one or two videos per day throughout the week, touching on issues relevant to small business. The plan is to highlight topics small business representatives have expressed as needs: Accounting Practices, Human Resource Tips, Insurance, Soft Skills, How to Build Processes, Social Media and Online Platforms for Business Efficiency. Ten- to 20-minute presentations will be given throughout the week on EDC’s Facebook platform, and videos will be archived on a specially designed website for the initiative as a resource center for small business. The website, filled with resource information, links and guidance on starting a business, marketing it, growing and expanding it, may be found at SmallBusinessSt.Clair.com and is accessible on the EDC site as well as in standalone form as an online resource center that will continue to evolve to meet needs. As part of its strategic plan, the EDC, in addition to its work with industry and large commercial concerns, has been focusing efforts on small business, which makes up 99% of all businesses in St. Clair County. EDC work began about two years ago with chambers of commerce throughout the county, providing assistance to bolster the services they offer their small-business-dominated memberships. Candice Hill, retail specialist for EDC, has been the liaison between the chambers and EDC, tailoring programs and efforts to meet their needs. “The Small Business St. Clair Initiative is the next cycle,” she said. “We realize that the majority of business in St. Clair County is small business, and we want to provide resources that are relevant to ensuring success,” Hill said. “A lot of people and entities have played a part in making this come together – the St. Clair County Commission, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Jacksonville State University Small Business Development Center, Jefferson State Community College and our chambers of commerce.” Local business groups have been “valuable partners critical to the success of this effort,” Hill noted, citing groundwork
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Small Business Week, online resource center to become ‘go to’ for business.
done by Springville, Pell City, Moody, Odenville, Leeds and Ashville chambers of commerce and the Argo Business Club. A steering committee from all the groups involved have been guiding the process. Together with EDC, these partners have “created a way to help small business in St. Clair County, welcoming new business and giving them the help they need.” Through Small Business St. Clair and Small Business Week, “it gives us the opportunity to expand our reach to small business in general, going beyond chamber membership and startups,” Hill said. “We want to all work together toward a similar goal of helping all the county’s small businesses, no matter what stage they are in. We want to help them meet the challenges and struggles facing them, arming them with tools they need to succeed and strengthening the backbone of our communities.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia • We create compelling websites to attract shoppers. dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar • Make it easy for customers to shop with you. • Connect your social media marketing platforms. Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. • Develop effective email marketing strategies. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia • Help you manage your day-to-day operation more effectively. dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking Profits. Internet Mar • Connect Point of Sale with Online Sales. • Transform your retail store into an online store. Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. • Make shipping easier and cheaper. ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia Lori Junkins dia. Margins. Publications. Tracking E-Commerce Profits. Consultant Internet Mar ljunkins@partnersmultimedia.com Marketing. Budgets. Social Media. Margins. Publications. (205) 566-4575 ng Profits. Internet Marketing. Marketing. Budgets. Socia
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Discover writer wins national award for Chandler Mountain tomatoes story Elaine Hobson Miller, a regular contributor to Discover St. Clair and LakeLife 24/7 magazines, earned 1st place in the Specialty Articles, Agriculture category of the NFPW 2021 Communications Contest, for Tomato Time. It appeared in the August 2020 issue of Discover. NFPW is the National Federation of Press Women, an 84-year-old media organization that represents professionals and students working across the communications spectrum in the United States. It offers community and connections to other professionals in 32 state affiliates and welcomes at-large members from areas without affiliates. NFPW holds an annual communications conference, where these awards are presented. In 2020, it was supposed to be in Little Rock, Ark., but was postponed due to Elaine COVID. While Hobson Arkansas Press Miller Women, an affiliate of NFPW, hosted the 2021 conference, it was held virtually rather than in person. Miller is a veteran journalist, having served in reporting and editing capacities at such publications as Birmingham Post Herald, Birmingham Home & Garden and Birmingham Magazine. She also has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications. She lives in Ashville. Follow her weekly blog about life with a dozen, four-legged critters, like in the country and life in general at: countrylife-elaine.blogspot. com.
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SPECIAL MEDICAL EDITION Tractor Man • Champion Dog Breeder • Jim Nunnally • Business Growth
August & September 2020
Tomato Time! Chandler Mountain’s bounty
Elaine won for her cover story from August 2020.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2021
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