Faulkner Farms • Battle for St. Clair High School Riverside • Veterans Home Anniversary • Northside Medical Home
October & November 2017
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS Saluting those who have served our country
Features and Articles Discover
The Essence of St. Clair
HEROES St. Clair County remembers those who serve
Page 24
New life for Faulkner Farms
Traveling the Backroads
Page 8
Lady soldiers
St. Clair High School Page 16
HEROES
Their stories
Heroes of Vietnam Those who serve today
A look at Riverside, Alabama Page 56 A business with a story Page 88
Page 25 Page 30 Page 36
Page 40 Veterans Home Anniversary Page 44 Community that cares Page 48 Letters home Page 52
Business Review
Northside Medical Home Page 74 Pell City Growth Page 78 Callahan Eye Hospital Page 86 Springville Farmers Market Page 89 Central Supply Page 90
October & November 2017
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Writers AND Photographers
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. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, design and web services for companies and nonprofits, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for chambers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publication of Alabama Humanities Foundation.
Jerry C. Smith Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests.
Leigh Pritchett
Leigh Pritchett has been in the publishing field 30 years. Early in her career, she worked for a New York Times Regional Newspaper. Since the 1990s, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in local, state and national publications in print and digital form. Mrs. Pritchett received the Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montevallo.
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.
Paul South Paul South, a native of Fairfield, Ala., is an Auburn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, South had a remarkably versatile career as a reporter, columnist and editor. Before transitioning to newspapers, South was the first full-time sports information director at Samford University in Birmingham.
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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 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.
Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally graduated from Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college.After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.
Susan Wall Susan Wall moved to Logan Martin Lake from Birmingham, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Alongside the nursing career, she owned Dreamscapes Photography, a portrait and wedding studio. Winner of the 2010 August Moore award at the Bluff Park Art Show, with numerous publications in magazines and the Kodak Instructional Magazine, her passion now is digital painting and portraits.
Mike Callahan Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.
From the Editor
Heroes: More than just a word
As I drive along Veterans Parkway in Pell City, the Blue Star Memorial monument always catches my eye. It’s not just how compelling it is, it is because of what it means to our county and our nation. The blue star dominates the bronze memorial with bright gold letters that proclaim: “A tribute to the Armed Forces that have defended the United State of America.” It was a gift from Pell City Garden Club, Leadership St. Clair Class of 2013 and City of Pell City, and it sits proudly at the entrance to Veterans Parkway leading to one of only four veterans’ homes in the state. It seems to evoke that same feeling in me as when I put hand over heart and sing the national anthem at the opening of public events, or see the American flag majestically waving in a gentle breeze or hear the somber echo of a 21-gun salute as another of our heroes is laid to rest. This issue of Discover is dedicated to heroes – the brave men and women who sacrifice it all so that we may live in peace. Many of them live right here in St. Clair County. Our county has one of the highest veteran populations in the state. I like to think it is because country comes above all else. Five years ago, the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home opened in St. Clair County to much fanfare, not only because of the state-of-the-art facilities and levels of care it provided for our veterans, but because it was a place they deserved. A place to call their own. Just like the Blue Star Memorial, this special section is If those walls could talk, the stories they would tell of their tribute. In the pages that follow, come along with us and bravery, of camaraderie, of sheer heroism would be endless. In discover their stories for yourself. this edition of Discover, we will bring you a sampling of those They will make you proud. Just like them. Just like their stories from the heroes who lived them. home. We also will bring you letters from the battlefield found at the Springville Museum – first-hand accounts from St. Clair County Carol Pappas soldiers serving their country. Editor and Publisher
Discover The Essence of St. Clair
October & November 2017 • Vol. 38 • www.discoverstclair.com
Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Brandon Wynn • Vice President of Online Services Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Susan Wall • Photography Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Executive Assistant
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Faulkner Farms
The future looks bright
From tomatoes to cattle, Cash brothers eyeing success Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Susan Wall
Among the numerous farms along St. Clair County Road 33 is one reminiscent of Wyoming’s countryside. Its great expanse of grazing land is bordered by gently sloping, tree-lined hills. Artesian-fed Beaver Creek winds through the 471 acres, tumbling over a rock ford at one point. “It’s a little piece of heaven,” said Andrew Smith, who gets to enjoy the view every day in his job as farm manager. “It’s gorgeous,” said Joey Cash of Ashville. From 1972 until recently, this property belonged to Dr. Jim Faulkner. It was called Faulkner Farms. Not only was it known for its beauty, but also for the registered Simmental cattle from Europe that Faulkner raised right there in St. Clair’s Beaver Valley. The annual cattle sales at Faulkner Farms were popular events that drew people from as far away as Montana and Canada. They came to buy livestock, of course, but also to delight in the barbecue and fellowship those occasions offered. Joey and his brother Brian purchased Faulkner Farms early in 2017. The two had admired the farm from the time they were lads. “I always recognized it more for the
9
Faulkner Farms
The Cash families are, from left, Corbin, Brian, Paige, Cylas, Jaci, Tracy and Joey.
View of pasture through one of the barns 10
abundant wildlife,” Brian said. “There were always turkeys and deer out in the front hay field. I never dreamed we would actually own a piece of this beautiful place.” When the Cashes purchased it, the farm already had a well-established infrastructure that included a tack room and office, four barns, a farmhouse, where Andrew and his family now live, and a twostory log cabin with an incredible view. The Faulkner Farms property possessed something else of importance, namely its previous reputation as a purebred operation. All of these made it the “perfect” place for the Cash brothers to establish their cattle enterprise. “We pretty much want to carry on Dr. Faulkner’s legacy of being a well-known cattle business,” Joey said. He and Brian want to raise “the best Angus cattle in the business.” They plan to construct a large barn and roping area for holding sales similar to the ones Dr. Faulkner hosted for many years, Brian said. This cattle venture is an entrepreneurial detour for Joey and Brian. For many years, they have been farming tomatoes on 400 acres the family owns atop St. Clair’s Chandler Mountain. Their
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tomato business currently under the name Cash Cattle Co. – previously was called Burton Farm and has spanned 85-100 years. The Cash brothers represent the fourth generation of tomato farming in the family. Burton Farm was the largest tomato farm in the state for a time, Brian said. Joey added that, through the years, it also was an innovator in the business. “The tomato business has been great to our family,” Brian said. It allowed the brothers to be financially able to purchase Faulkner Farms and the prime Black Angus stock to put on it, Brian said. They sold two tracts of their tomatofarming land and put the resources into the cattle farm, Joey said. They acquired the last line of toppedigree embryo-transplant heifers from Bobo Angus Farm in Huntsville, “one of the biggest and best purebred businesses in the country,” the brothers said. “It would have taken us 10 years to breed up to the kind of animals we bought
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Faulkner Farms
These beautiful creatures have an important role on the farm, such as at roundup time.
Artesian-fed Beaver Creek winds its way through the property.
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off the bat,” Joey said. “... We bought our way into the (cattle) business as big as we could, and tomato farming allowed us to do that.” Currently, the herd has about 300 head. Two hundred are brood cows, while calves and bulls account for the other 100. One bull – at 2,600 pounds – thinks he is a pet. For two years, the Cash brothers have been acquiring female cows and keeping them on leased property on Chandler Mountain. Ultimately, the Cashes plan to limit the brood population to 250 and the total herd size to about 500 to avoid overworking the land. Joey noted theirs is a purebred seedstock business. In other words, their cattle are for breeding purposes, not for consumption. Added Brian, “With the genetics we have acquired, the females will pretty much sell themselves. Our emphasis has to be on selling quality, sound bulls to commercial operations. We are going to offer a lot of ‘value added’ options with the sale of our bulls.” Among the options Brian listed are providing Angus Source perks for buyers seeking to market cattle sired by a Cash Cattle bull, guaranteeing bulls sold by Cash Cattle, and offering free delivery in certain instances. “We want to be an asset to commercial cattlemen in the area” by providing stock and services that allow Cash Cattle customers to market their own animals at a higher price, Joey said. The transition out of tomato farming into cattle farming has been exciting, but came about through “a lot of praying,” said the brothers. “We are thankful for the help, support and prayers of our families and many others in this venture,” Brian said. This family cattle business also involves the efforts of Joey’s wife, Tracy; and daughter Jacie, 12; as well as Brian’s wife, Paige; and sons Corbin, 9; and Cylas, 4. Already, the dads are teaching the younger generation of Cashes to round up, deworm, rope and vaccinate the cows, record pertinent information and search the fields for new calves. “We want to instill … in our kids … work ethic and pride for the animals and the land that God has blessed us with,” Brian said. “I want to build a business that my children, one day if they so choose, will be able to carry on and be successful in.” l
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Traveling the
BACKROADS
St. Clair High School 1908 battle for location of county high school lands in Odenville
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Graham Hadley Submitted Photos When Braxton Bragg Comer was elected governor in 1906, among his goals was upgrading Alabama schools. In 1907, legislation passed to establish county high schools in counties where there was not already a state-supported high school — for white students. It would be 60 years before integration of schools in the county. Most of St. Clair County was excited about a stateaccredited high school being established in one of its towns. Location committees were appointed by the
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state to review the towns and their resources. A review of local newspapers of the day shows that Pell City, Odenville and Springville wanted the school. Ashville was not interested, and their newspaper, The Southern Aegis, consistently at odds with Gov. Comer, commented in its Feb. 26, 1908, issue that it seemed Comer was “… making a vigorous campaign for his future aspirations” and that “… he is taking advantage of the high school appropriation at the public expense.” The writer concluded, “He may fool some people all the time, but not all the people every time.” Odenville published a newspaper, The St. Clair County News, and its editor, J.L. Maddox, set to work composing florid prose in praise of his town. Pell City had no paper, but was in the process of
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
The old St. Clair High School building
Traveling the
BACKROADS
establishing The Pell City Progress, but it would not come into production until March 1908. So, it was Odenville’s newspaper that announced in February that the Governor’s Location Committee would come to Odenville on Saturday, March 7.
Location, location, location
An Odenville editorial of March 5 boasted reasons why Odenville was the perfect location for a state high school. It had: • A central location. • A prosperous agricultural community. • Sixteen wells in the area. • Ideally suited with good public roads leading to all areas of the county. • On the Seaboard Airline railroad (making it convenient for boarding students). Maddox’s final point was that “Pell City has every advantage for cotton mills, but nature never intended it to be an educational site for the St. Clair County High School” — an incautious observation that could not go unnoticed by Pell City. The date arrived for the governor and his Location Committee’s visit, and the day dawned clear and bright. Folks began trickling into Odenville before seven o’clock. By 9:30 the crowd was reported to be “a multitude,” for a special train had picked up and delivered citizens from Ragland, Coal City and Pell City. The papers estimated the day’s crowd to be between 2,500 and 3,000. The meeting with the governor and committee took place at the elementary school in Odenville. Watt Brown of Ragland
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made a talk expressing his faith in Odenville’s future. Brown’s Odenville Land and Development Company had laid out Odenville’s town limits in a circle with a 1-mile radius from the center of the bridge over Beaver Creek on today’s Third Avenue. As a businessman dealing in real estate, Brown would not have been investing in the town had he not believed he would get a good return on his money. After a lunch with Dr. and Mrs. C.C. Brown, the governor and committee journeyed to Pell City to hear their presentation of Pell City as the better location for the new high school. Governor Comer’s comments to Pell City were not recorded in print, but it is clear that Pell City was offended by Comer’s observations. On April 23, under the headline, “What’s Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth?,” the Progress reported its assessment of the governor’s attitude. Pell City had presented their town and the Coosa Valley area as the logical choice for St. Clair County High School. Their stated points were: • 30 percent of the county’s voters lived within 5 miles of Pell City. • 40 percent of the county’s cotton grew in Coosa Valley. • 30 percent of the cotton was ginned here. • 50 percent of the county’s industrial wage was paid there. They offered these facts to the governor and committee “… to fortify the figures of the county superintendent of education that over 30 percent of the county white school children lived within this same area.” Pell City saw these figures as logical reasons why Pell City was a better location than Odenville for St. Clair County High School.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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St. Clair students from 1909 The Progress observed that “Mr. Comer did not accept the argument” as presented. Rather, “He took it as proving that we were selfish in the Coosa Valley, that we had no concept of what this high school was to be, and that we were making political threats.” The editor continued, “If it so happens that Mr. Comer himself believes in his accusations, we wish, taking advantage of the last word, to enlighten him. “The Coosa Valley is not selfish, howsoever much individuals may say. The Coosa Valley does know what a High School is, and she knows it well enough to welcome every child who comes to it. … A High School is not a boarding school, [for] the large majority of its pupils will come from that territory within which the boys and girls may attend school and eat both breakfast and supper at home. … Pell City has more school children than Springville, Ashville and Odenville combined. … On the principle that Mahomet went to the mountain, Pell City claims the school and so here endeth the last word.”
And the winner is …
Having presented their best, Odenville and Pell City entered a busy waiting period as they anticipated the state’s decision. It was the county high school, and the state expected the entire county’s financial help with construction, therefore towns formed committees to collect pledges and funds. In April, Progress reported that folks in Ashville and Springville claimed “inside information,” and were of the opinion Pell City had “no chance” of being selected. But rather than losing heart, Pell City published that they had “the best chance” based upon the facts submitted in connection with the
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state’s proposal for location. In hopes of winning, they continued collecting funds. Then on Friday, May 1, 1908, the state announced Odenville as winner of St. Clair County High School. Whereupon, the town fathers set about to accomplish the awarded task — constructing a high school building. Pell City Progress reported their loss in the May 7 issue, saying their loss showed “what comes from organized effort and what can be lost for lack of it.” They offered this opinion: “It is feared that our friends at Odenville have bitten off more than they can chew with comfort.” Then, perhaps still chaffing over Odenville’s “mill town” assessment, Tilton prophesied that the state would come to regret having “put a ten-thousand-dollar school building in a one-thousand-dollar town.” With that parting zinger, Pell City turned her singular attention toward establishing their own high school and having it ready for occupation by September. The chairman of the Pell City school committee, McLane Tilton, announced in the Progress that “Coosa Valley may rest assured that a High School is going to be located at Pell City, and accomplished with or without the help of the state.” Tilton announced that “Donations to the [county] High School are hereby declared void.” Anyone wanting signed pledges returned should call at the Bank of St. Clair County (became Union State Bank in 1918), where he served as president, before May 15. After that date, notes would be destroyed. Tilton expressed faith that the town could raise “not less than four thousand dollars” to build a high school and that Pell City would “have the satisfaction of owning our own school, built and maintained by ourselves.” In Odenville, Mr. and Mrs. John Newton, Mr. and Mrs. W.C. Hardin, and Watt Brown had donated land for the school. Now,
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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BACKROADS St. Clair Girls Soccer Team from 1915-1916
the school committee set about collecting funds and redeeming pledges. This proved to be a slow process, for some outside Odenville were not forthcoming on pledges. However, one elderly woman, Nancy Turrentine, deeded 20 acres of her farm to the new high school. The Odenville paper noted that she offered to give 20 more if they were needed to raise the required amount. On Saturday, July 18, 1908, Judge John W. Inzer laid the cornerston for St. Clair County High School. The St. Clair County News reported that “a crowd” from across the county was present for the event. Watt Brown was master of ceremonies. Gov. Comer and other state dignitaries made speeches. Judge Inzer, in laying the cornerstone, expressed his hope that wounded feelings would be laid aside and that every community would “stand united to advance the interest of our county.” In the fall of 1908, the high school met in the Odenville Elementary School, for a new building would take months to construct. But despite setbacks and delays, in 1909, St. Clair County High School would occupy a two-story brick building. The citizens of Pell City also coalesced to establish a high school. On May 7, 1908, the editor of the Progress reported that “the Town of Pell City has two thousand dollars which it contributed to the [County] High School fund and now goes back into the [Pell City] treasure.” Tilton suggested that the money should be used for the construction of the Pell City High School, which he speculated would cost about $3,000. To spur on the town and surrounding area, he wrote, “The same arguments used to locate the County School here now demand of us that we show what we can do alone and unassisted.” The editor issued a trumpet call by saying, “Progress demands of the Council and School Board to hold a called meeting,” and concludes that city fathers could “… create a public sentiment that will result in the action desired without delay. … We must have this school by September 1st.” The City Council and School Board accepted the call, met together, and in the June 4, Progress could report that “The Council and School Board each appropriated one thousand
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dollars” and that the “two thousand in all…will be at once utilized to build the high school addition to our present building.” As the months progressed, meetings, suggestions and decisions were regularly reported in the newspaper. Just as in Odenville, there were setbacks and delays, but a Pell City High School was assured. An Aug. 13 article reports: “The new addition to the school is rapidly nearing completion and will be ready by the first day of the term. This addition will cost in the neighborhood of $3,500, including furnishings, and will give us a ten-thousand-dollar modern structure second to none in the State.” The new addition would add four rooms and an auditorium “fitted out with orchestra chairs.” The auditorium would “hold about 400,” and the stage would have dressing rooms and be “electric lighted.” Exciting days! For the completion of the brick addition with a metal roof would give “… Pell City and south St. Clair a primary and high school sufficient for our needs for several years to come.” Thus, Pell City High School was born, and the Progress’ headline on Sept. 17 proclaimed: “OUR SCHOOL BEGINS,” noting, “The high school is open to all the children of the county, several having already entered from Seddon and Eden.”
A win-win situation
As years have waxed and waned since 1908, student numbers have increased in each school, validating the work of both towns over 100 years ago. In the 2016 school year, St. Clair County High School served 587 students, and Pell City High School, 1,105 students. Most of the time, battles end with only one winner. In the battle for the location of St. Clair County High School, both Odenville and Pell City won. The loss of the county high school proved to be the impetus needed for Pell City to organize its own high school. Pell City High School and St. Clair County High School today cherish the past, yet each looks to the future and the challenges of their second century. l
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Vietnam War Memorial
HEROES ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Epic tales from the men and women who went to war Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley Contributed Photos
It may be cliché, but if the walls of the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home could talk, my, oh my, the stories they could tell. But short of talking walls and such, Discover writers and photographers visited the veterans home just weeks before its fifth anniversary in Pell City to record those stories. The 254-veteran capacity home is full now, and stories abound from different wars, different perspectives and different walks of life. The common thread of this band of brothers and sisters is service to country first. These are real veterans, and these are their stories.
World War II seaman went to ‘save the country’
Leo “Cotton” Crawford was only 17 when he boarded the USS Storm King as a seaman in World War II. He was 19 when he came home. While today’s teens might lean more toward cars, careers or college, Crawford enlisted – like his two brothers – to, as he put it, “keep the Japanese from whooping us and take care of our country.” Before he reached the age of 20, he knew all he needed to know: “We went to save our country, and we did.” Crawford served in the Philippines. His two brothers – Herbie and Harold – had joined the Navy as well. “All three of us came out alive,”
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS Crawford said, a hint of pride showing in his wide grin. He doesn’t talk much about the war. Soldiers and sailors of his time rarely do. “We were in war,” he said. “It was expected” that you would serve. “They will take you if you’re a young kid ready to go. They took me. I enjoyed my time.” When he returned home to Alabama, he was hired by the telephone company and stayed there until retirement as a cable repairman. “Ma Bell hired all of us,” he said of him and his brothers. Now living at the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, he dons his USS Storm King cap most of the time, covering up the locks of grey he has rightly earned. It’s not quite clear how he got the nickname, Cotton. It could have been the blondeness of his hair as a youngster or that he was partial to picking cotton at the farm of his “kinfolks” in Cullman, he said. They would see him coming and say, “ ‘Here comes ole Cotton,’ and it stuck with me.”
Flag carried on D-Day invasion boat by James Majors
World War II memorial
Teen joins Navy, stays for career
It would be 25 years before Bill Waldon would leave the US Navy after bidding farewell to his native home near Carbon Hill. The son of a miner, he left the service as an officer. “I’ve been around the world twice,” he said. He married at 17, and he remembers his brother-in-law coming home on leave from World War II. Inquisitive, he asked him what it was like to serve. The brother-in-law put it this way: “ ‘The Army is doing the fighting. The Navy is getting the pay. And the Marines are getting the credit.’ So, when I joined, I wanted to fight in the Navy. We were old country boys. We got the best deal we could.” He worked in the communications section aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Valley Forge. “I was very fortunate. I didn’t hear a bullet.” Later, as he rose through the ranks, he began to give the orders. “If they were shot at, I’d tell them what to do,” he mused. “If they’re shooting at the ship, stay pretty close together.” He talked of his own good fortunes taking orders through the years. “I had good people telling me what to do.”
Bill Waldon 26
Leo Crawford
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
James Majors and his medals, right.
Dyer Honeycutt
World War II vet dodges bullets as messenger
“They called me a messenger,” said Dyer Honeycutt, who served in the US Army in World War II in France and Belgium. “I called myself a runner.” It was his job to get messages from one camp to another. So, run he did. “Bullets sounded like a whip, a pop” as they raced past him. “I was shot at a lot of times,” but he was never struck. “I’d get about the length of a football field, and they started shooting at me. I had a lot of good buddies get killed. I still believe the Lord above was taking care of me.” He was the son of farmers in Attalla and joined the service after high school. His method of carrying messages without getting hurt? “I’d go one time to the left and two times to the right. Then I’m hitting the deck. They’re shooting at me.” The dominant thought throughout was, “If the Lord wanted me to die, I would. If He didn’t, I wouldn’t.”
D-Day an ‘awesome’ experience
For James Majors, D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, could only be described as “awesome.” From his vantage point on a troop carrier ship, “the sky was like a swarm of blackbirds. It was full of everything that could fly.” His ship was on the first wave. Rockets were shot onto the beach. “The ocean behind me was full of ships. The sky was black with airplanes.” There was a church on top of the cliffs being used as a lookout by the enemy. “Our job was to knock it out, which we did.”
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Ahead, he could see the cliffs up from the beach. Germans stood at the top shooting down at American soldiers as they climbed. “They were shot down, but our boys kept going. It was heartbreaking. They just kept going. I still have bad thoughts.” After the initial invasion, it was Majors’ job to be a diver and clear the entanglements of barbed wire and wood the enemy had left to block the beach. “We cleared pathways for the big ships to come in.” Majors was a motor machinist mate, running the diesel engines – “everything mechanical on the ship except the refrigeration.” It was the farthest away from his Gadsden home he had ever been. He jokes about his trip from England to Normandy, which could be measured in the space of 48 hours. “I aged a year,” he mused. “I was 19 when I left England, and I was 20 when I got to Normandy. His birthday was June 4, 1945. D-Day was June 6. “I don’t know how many Germans we took out, but we dug a lot of foxholes,” he said. “If there is anything that will break your heart, it is remembering what went on that day.” At the same time, Majors says he has “a sense of pride I was able to be part of the crew. We carried the mission out with pride. I would go back again if it was under the same circumstances. I would not go back in the mess our boys are in now. In Normandy and Southern France, we knew who the enemy was. They don’t know who our friends are.” He has talked to his younger counterparts at the veterans home. “The people they’re training are killing the trainers.” But as for his own experience that fateful day in June 1945, “I was proud to have served in the greatest battle ever fought, and I was right out front. That was something.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Lady HEROES Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Graham Hadley They could be seen in almost any town – those posters declaring, “Uncle Sam wants you!” Millions answered that call to defend the United States and to preserve freedom. They donned the uniform of the Armed Forces and proudly served America; they were heroes. Hundreds of thousands of them were women who left their homes, families and jobs to aid their country in wartime and peacetime. Their roles gave assistance and support to others in uniform. Among them were Ruth Geiger, Helen Henley and Helen Sue Teague. Now living at the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City, they talk about their service. And they recount some of the adventures they had along the way.
Women in military share stories, adventures in service Ruth Geiger and Helen Henley
Ruth Geiger
Right after high school, Ruth Geiger entered a program to become a nurse. A year into it, she was encouraged by a recruiter friend to join the Women’s Army Corps (W.A.C.). Serving the nation was a desire and commitment that ran deep in her family. Her brothers were in the military. In fact, when Pearl Harbor was bombed Dec. 7, 1941, one of her brothers was already there serving ... as a 17-year-old. After basic training, Ruth Geiger was given direct assignment to the 5th Army Post Hospital at Fort Jackson, S.C., because of the education she had received as a student nurse. Fort Jackson was instrumental in preparing troops for deployment in the Korean War, Geiger said. A “tent city” was erected at the fort to accommodate the large number of troops present there. Inoculations, of course, were
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS an important part of that preparation. Geiger was tapped to give inoculations rapid fire to a multitude of men. Geiger, now 84, said she liked the military and had planned to make it a career. But two years into her service, her first child was born and she opted for civilian motherhood. Nonetheless, her legacy of military service passed to a son, who was in the US Air Force, and to a grandson, who did two tours in Afghanistan in the War on Terrorism.
Helen Henley
Helen Henley, who turns 91 in October, started her military career in 1951, whitewashing coal bins and pulling kitchen detail at Fort Lee, Va. She retired in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel. On Christmas Day 1951, she left for a threeyear assignment in Germany during the U.S. occupation. She recalls those Cold War years as being tense at times with the demilitarized zone (DMZ) – and the Russians – so near to Germany. For safety reasons, certain places were off-limits to people in American military uniforms. She had to be especially careful because of her level of security clearance. The enemy seemed to know who was privy to classified information, she said. “You never knew when someone was going to grab you and hold you hostage,” she said. Henley, who was a W.A.C., instructed females in discipline, military subjects, Geneva Conventions, chemical and field training. Although she could not be a chaplain herself at that time, she worked with them while off duty. She helped to start Bible studies for military personnel and establish a Youth for Christ chapter in a school. A pianist and organist, Henley also assisted with military choirs and organized a male quintet. “I had a lot of fun in Europe,” she said. “... When I left in ‘54, (the U.S. forces) were just beginning to give the buildings to the Germans.” For the Korean War years of 1957-58, she trained troops stateside at Fort McClellan near Anniston. She served as platoon officer, executive officer and commander. During part of the Vietnam War, she was executive officer at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. Her final assignment – from 1968 to 1974 – was as administrative officer at the chaplain school at Fort Hamilton in New York. Originally, Henley had planned to become a medical missionary in Burma-Tibet-China. But before she could complete her education for it, that area of the world closed to missionary activity. It was then that Henley joined the military.
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Helen Henley along with military chaplains
WAC went through their own military training.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS Her service in the military allowed her to meet and marry James Oliver Henley Jr., who had been on more than 35 combat missions in World War II and another 35-plus in the Korean War. (At the time of his death, the Henleys had been married 41 years.) “I loved the military,” she said. “I would be back in it if I were young enough.”
Helen Sue Teague
Helen Sue Teague was working at Russell Manufacturing in Alexander City when she and a friend decided to go into the military. Teague joined the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (W.A.V.E.S.), but her friend “chickened out.” Teague saw it as her chance for adventure and travel. “At 19 or 20, adventure sounded good for a poor ole girl,” Teague said. After boot camp in the Bronx and yeomans’ school in Stillwater, Okla., she was stationed at Treasure Island in California. She handled typing and secretarial responsibilities for Lt. Nash Higgins in a recreation center. The W.A.V.E.S., she explained, were volunteers who assumed certain duties to allow the men filling those positions to be deployed. She took the place of a man named Peter Lopez. She claims her service was not as exciting as what other women experienced, but some may beg to differ with her: • She got to be around bodybuilders in her work at the recreation center. • Her supervisor would tell Teague to put on her swimsuit and jump from a catwalk into the pool to encourage any sailors who were afraid of water. • She saw Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan on the big screen, and actress Joan Blondell at socials for the sailors. • She went on a blind date with a young serviceman named Frank Ostman and later married him. (He died in the 1950s.) And then, there was the time that Lt. Higgins abruptly told Teague to take the rest of the day off and to leave the building immediately. Apparently, the swim trunks of the sailors had returned from the laundry minus their drawstrings. This rendered the trunks useless, which meant the sailors would have to do their water training that day in the buff. Teague laughs and says she was sent home early on what would have been the most adventurous day of her military career. For 14 months, Teague served in the military, attaining the rank of yeoman second class. She left the W.A.V.E.S. in 1945 at a time when World War II was not too far from ending and motherhood for her was only a few months from beginning. Even though her physical presence in the military ceased, there is no mistaking where her heart lies. The large American Flag banner hanging over her bed says it all. And in May, the 93-year-old was named “veteran of the month” at the veterans home.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
Helen Sue Teague
Saluting our veterans for their sacrifice and service to country!
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BILLY R. WEATHINGTON, JR. CIRCUIT JUDGE THIRTIETH JUDICAL COURT ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ALABAMA Bill.Weathington@alacourt.gov ST. CLAIR COUNTY COURTHOUSE 1815 COGSWELL AVENUE SUITE 307 PELL CITY, AL 35125 (205) 338-9491
ST. CLAIR COUNTY COURTHOUSE 100 6TH AVENUE SUITE 400 ASHVILLE, AL 35953 (205) 594-2189
We honor our veterans for their service to our country and our citizens. Because of their sacrifice, we live in the land of the free.
PHILIP K. SEAY
CIRCUIT JUDGE ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ALABAMA PHIL.SEAY@ALACOURT.GOV ST. CLAIR COUNTY COURTHOUSE 1815 COGSWELL AVENUE SUITE 308 PELL CITY, ALABAMA 35125 (205) 338-7156
ST. CLAIR COUNTY COURTHOUSE 100 6th AVE., SUITE 400 ASHVILLE, ALABAMA 35953 (205) 594-2581
Thank you, veterans, for your service -- Today and Always!
We salute our veterans for their sacrifice and service.
HILL, HILL & GOSSETT, P.C. James E. Hill Matthew E. Gossett Candace B.Crenshaw Joel P. Watson Brandi Williams Judge James E. Hill, Jr. of Counsel
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
HEROES of Vietnam Decades of conflict left their mark on our nation and those who served Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley and Carol Pappas Submitted photos World War II era soldiers are known as The Greatest Generation. When their country needed them, they went to war, sacrificing it all in service to their nation. The Vietnam Generation did likewise, only to come home — if they did — to a many-times ungrateful nation. There were no ticker-tape parades, no bands heralding their arrival and celebrating their homecoming. It is the tale of two starkly different times in US history that continues to be studied, to be pondered, to be filled with deep regret. Politicians made the decisions. Vietnam soldiers bore the weight of them. Rick Clisson departed his Huntsville home at 21 to follow in his father’s fighting footsteps. His father was retired military, a colonel in the infantry in World War II and Korea. Unlike many his age, he didn’t wait for his number to be called in the draft. He volunteered. “It was pretty cool. I felt like serving,” he said. He spent a year in Saigon but is reluctant to talk about his experience other than to say he was “scared during rocket attacks.” Clisson is not unlike many Vietnam veterans who share their stories only with fellow vets. Perhaps it is because when they tell their story, they want to tell it to someone who can relate, who can truly understand. Vietnam is that generation not easily understood like those who came before it or after. It is the outlier in America’s military history. The war came at a heavy cost, lasting from 1955 until 1975. In that war, 58,220 U.S. service members lost their lives, and 1,626 are still missing in action. Springville’s Frank Waid was one of the lucky ones. He made it back home safely to his beloved Springville, where he serves as president of the Springville Historic Preservation Society. He not only shares his story, he helps preserve it. The museum’s military section contains the rotor blade from the Huey helicopter he flew signed by the crew. Photos of Huey helicopters line a top shelf.
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Rick Clisson
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
Brooke Tollison 2206 Martin St. S. Pell City, AL 35128 Bus: (205) 884-3470 BTollison@alfains.com
He was commissioned at Auburn in 1966 and after a career in the military, retired as colonel in the US Air Force in 1997. He went to Vietnam in June 1971 and flew Huey helicopters in the thick of the war. Service wasn’t new to Waid. He came from a military family. He had several uncles who fought in World War II and the Korean War, and he always wanted to be a pilot. His two brothers also retired from the Air Force. Waid was a pilot in the 20th Special Operations Squadron as part of the Pentagon’s Studies and Observation Group. Throughout his year in Vietnam, from southeast of Da Nang to east northeast of Saigon, “we had a pretty big area we worked in,” he said. His main base was Cam Ranh Bay, which was “beautiful, just gorgeous” he said. If there is one experience that sticks with him, it is being able to pick up members of the team who were on the run. He would have to maneuver the helicopter down through what he called “triple canopy” – towering trees with thick growth – “a dense jungle.” He flew what he called a “Slick” working his way down until it was dark from the growth now overhead – without destroying the rotor blades. “It’s like a game. You’re working this puzzle,” he explained. Up, down, back and forth, focused on nothing else but getting down and picking up the team without incident. “It stuck with me. It was highly tasking. You’re oblivious to everything else,” he said. While never wounded, it wasn’t exactly without incident, taking ground-to-air
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS Another Bell UH-1 Iroquois Huey tail rotor decorates the wall along with pictures of differeni versions of the iconic helicopter.
fire in hostile areas. A bullet came through the door of the helicopter, but “luckily, it hit the armored seat. That’s as close as I wanted to get.” When he came home, the American influence in Vietnam was winding down. “We left Cam Ranh Bay Bay on a charter, a DC Stretch 8. It could probably hold 200 people, and it was full. We all got on in uniform. When we lifted off, it was the loudest roar with everybody screaming and yelling ‘yea!’ ” After a stop in Hawaii, they landed in California, where many of the anti-war demonstrations were taking place. “We took a bus to San Francisco … changed clothes into our civies.” San Francisco, Dallas and finally Birmingham were his stops along the way to finally reach home. His wife and one of his sons along with his brother were there. “We went home” to Springville, he said. “It was great being home.” These days, he spends his time working tirelessly for the preservation society. “I’ve always loved history. Quoting the philosopher, George Santayana, he said, ‘If you don’t learn history, you’re doomed to repeat it.’ A lot of people in this area don’t know how much history is in this county and this city. I love it and love being a part of it. I love reaching out to young kids, teaching them our history and how they should be proud of the sacrifice.”
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For his grandsons, Frank Waid pinpoints the areas of Vietnam where he had been in combat. He gave them special pins to remember those places.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
The St. Clair County Commissioners proudly honor our veterans. They are what makes St. Clair County second to none. L to R: Jeff Brown, District 1 Commissioner; Ken Crowe, District 2 Commissioner; Paul Manning, Chairman; Tommy Bowers, District 3 Commissioner; Jimmy Roberts, District 4 Commissioner.
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Today’s HEROES New millennium brings new conflicts for our soldiers
Lyle Harmon in front of his helicopter
Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley Submitted photos When St. Clair Chief Assistant District Attorney Lyle Harmon joined the National Guard barely in his 20s, it was an opportunity and a yearning for discipline all in one. He got the idea while holding a summer job at the St. Clair County Airport, where a National Guard unit was once housed. The reservists there took Harmon under their wing – literally – and “had a big influence on a young guy’s life. I enlisted in that unit,” he recalled, the pride evident in his expression. “It changed my life,” he said. “In part of me, it was always there, I just didn’t know it. The good thing about the military is it helps you find the confidence in yourself. It challenges you to meet a level of discipline. They are not going to lower the bar.”
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He glances toward legal files, apparently cases he’s about to try as a prosecutor, and he notes that if some of those young men and women had the same opportunity and influences he had early on, they wouldn’t be a case file at all. “I didn’t know what I was doing with my life when I joined,” he said. “I liked team sports, and I knew I wanted to be a part of something better, and I wanted to fly.” He checked both those boxes in the National Guard, and eventually became part of the 101st Airborne Division, 217th Calvary. In 2003, he and 22 other pilots from the division were on their way to Iraq for the invasion in the second Iraq War, where he flew a Kiowa Warrior helicopter for reconnaissance attacks. When he was activated, “In a weird sense, you’re excited about some things you trained for and anxious at the same time,” Harmon said, recounting those first days. “It’s a weird feeling because you never have anything alive on the other side
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS when you’re training. I guess it became real.” He was in Kuwait in February and March, getting acclimated to the climate. And then, they pushed on to Iraq. “We crossed the border on March 23,” following the lead infantry. Harmon stayed in the combat theater for six months, ending his tour of duty in August. His missions were mainly at night. “I slept on the ground during the day, a lot of times under the helicopter.” He and his unit escaped the ultimate sacrifice during that period, but he lost two friends after he left – Mike Blaise and Patrick Dorf. “They are the true heroes,” he said. “Those are the real heroes.” Leaving was a bittersweet moment for him. “You’re going home to see your family, but some of your friends are staying.” Harmon had a wife and two small children at the time, so homecoming was a day he will never forget. The birth of all three of his sons – “If coming home didn’t top all three, it’s right up there with it. I can’t imagine the Vietnam vets not having the same welcome. If I could give to them a lot of what I received, it would be nice.” Wife Shelly, a kindergarten teacher at Eden Elementary, 6-year-old Will and 3-year-old Sloan and his whole family were at Ft. Campbell, Ky., to welcome him home. Shelly was “a trooper” throughout his tour of duty, he said. If she cried, he never saw it. “She knew what had to be done.” Will, now 21, is in the military, following in his father’s footsteps. Sloan was so young at the time, now 17, it took him a while to figure out who that man in the Calvary hat was and what the fuss was all about during the huge welcome celebration. A third son, Brodie Lyle, came along after Harmon’s return. Iraq seems a lifetime away now, but reminders are all around – the photo album he keeps on his credenza, the Calvary hat that hangs nearby. He is still an active Reservist, flying Lakota helicopters, one of the Army’s newest. He reflects on his time in Iraq, saying he saw “just about every inch” of it during his deployment. He spent most of his time in Mosul, but stayed three weeks in Baghdad and saw Biblical places like, Babylon. He flew over the Tigris, Euphrates and Karbala. Harmon displays a broad, but pensive smile throughout his remembrances of that time in his life. “It was an honor and a privilege to serve my country,” he said. “It shapes my life, how I approach things, decisions I make.” As a youngster in Pell City, he never dreamed of growing up and going to war. But he did, he said. And he became a better man because he chose to serve. Today, he fights a battle of a different sort – ensuring the law is followed, and citizens are protected. Maybe it’s not such a different battle at all.
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Lyle Harmon greets his son upon returning home.
Harmon points out this is the second time he has lost a windscreen to a bird impact.
Harmon pauses to touch a holy relic
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Fifth anniversary of veterans home same as first:
Fulfilling a vision
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley and Carol Pappas It’s mid-morning at the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, and a flurry of activity surrounds all who walk down the grand corridor leading to the “town center.” That’s what it’s called – town center. After all, this is a community, just as it was intended five years ago when it opened its doors for the first time. Men and women sit side by side playing Bingo. A couple of men gather in the sports lounge to swap a story or two. Others sit in front of the fireplace as if they are in their own living room, reading a newspaper. Nearby in the barber shop, a haircut is being delivered. And across the way, residents are getting an early start on lunch in the café. It’s not much different from most communities, only this one is only for veterans. It’s the state-of-the-art, model for the country veterans home that started as a vision and evolved into a reality most states could only dream of. When it opened Nov. 1, 2011, unparalleled fanfare followed. And rightly so. This Pell City-based facility has few rivals across the country. “We still see ourselves as a model for the rest of the country,” said Director Hiliary Hardwick. “We have had multiple states in to tour our home. Federal planners have featured our home for future veterans homes to be built,” she said. “We are still considered that state-of-the-art facility for the whole country, not just the state, but the whole country.” HMR of Alabama partners with the Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs to
The home is decorated with military images and art.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Sign in the lobby of the Veterans Home. operate the facility, and the partnership has been a good one. “We are honored and delighted for the opportunity to serve the veterans and their families at Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home,” HMR Director Derrick Williams said. “Over the past five years it’s been an incredible journey to see a plot of land transform into a fully functioning facility. Most noteworthy is the sustained support from the community. Today our veterans receive superior services in a world-class facility. We look forward for the continued opportunity to serve the veterans in this community.” When Rear Adm. Clyde Marsh, serving as State Commissioner and Director of the Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs, saw the planning and construction, he knew he wanted it to be a place worthy of the veterans who gave so much in service to their country. Today, “when you walk through those doors, you appreciate where you are,” Hardwick said. “We wanted to create a true, homelike environment.” Take a look around, and that’s exactly what you see. “It is warm and inviting, not just for the veterans but for their friends and families.” Each veteran in the 254-capacity facility has their own private room. Throughout, there are plenty of areas to socialize, and they are as comfortable and inviting as a favorite chair at home. “It is a place you come to live, engage, socialize. It has a good atmosphere and a good quality of life,” she said. “We know it’s home, so we want to provide as much as homelike and routine as we can. “First impression is really a good one when you walk through those doors,” Hardwick said. Some might call it the Wow-factor. These veterans simply call it what it is — home. And five years later, that’s still the case.
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Col. Robert L. Howard’s Medal of Honor on display
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
A welcoming community makes its presence known
Blue Star Memorial Marker near the entrance to the Veterans Home, Jeff State and St. Vincent’s
Story and photos by Carol Pappas Submitted Photos When the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home opened its doors in Pell City five years ago, the community was there to welcome the first veterans. In the days since, the community has found myriad ways to not only get involved in the veterans home but to ensure that the veterans feel welcome in the community. From special guests at performances at the Center for Education and Performing Arts to honorees at LakeFest to special boat rides on Logan Martin Lake, the community has certainly rolled out the welcome mat.
A legacy of love
For the late Jerry Woods of Woods Surfside Marina, it was a labor of love and respect for all who serve. Woods was a US Army veteran himself, and his brother, Ray,
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was killed in Vietnam at the age of 20. He never missed an opportunity to show his patriotism and to show his respect to those who served their country. Woods, along with other organizers of LakeFest, the Southeast’s largest in water boat show, always made sure that veterans were front and center at the outdoor festival each year. Not only were they VIP guests of LakeFest, they had a fireworks show over the lake dedicated to them and their service. Every year, Woods would invite veterans to enjoy boat rides on the lake and serve lunch in their honor, always a special treat for all involved. Woods unexpectedly passed away earlier this year, but his family and friends are making sure the legacy lives on. In late September, the legacy expanded. Phil Boozer, senior vice president of America’s First Credit Union, and Lee Holmes, owner of Sylacauga Marine, joined the effort to make it bigger and better.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Jerry Woods (green shirt) in center of veterans he treated to boat rides and lunch
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“It was a way to continue Jerry’s legacy,” said Mark Hildebrandt, Woods’ son-in-law and sales manager of the marina. “We wanted to make that day bigger for the vets – not for us, but for them.” With partners joining the effort, more veterans can be served. And not only will they get those boat rides and special lunch, some will get to fish with the Nitro professional team. And America’s First is donating a special gift they can take home – a specially made bag they can use on walkers, rollers or wheelchairs – that thanks them for their service. “Jerry was very passionate about veterans and as a family, we wanted to make sure it continues on for years to come,” Hildebrandt said. “We are blessed to be able to continue Jerry’s legacy by honoring the veterans. We know he’ll be smiling down that day.”
Welcome home!
It would be hard to mistake just how welcome the veterans are in the community. Schools, churches, companies and volunteers have all made sure of that. When you walk in the front doors, a handmade banner from Mt. Pisgah Child Development proclaims: “Thank you for your service!” Specially made quilts for each of the vets who were among the original 254 residents were donated to them. A replica of the veterans home, handmade by a student, sits in the library, and books donated by the community line its shelves. At Christmas, there is a tree in “every nook and cranny” donated and decorated by community volunteers. And a variety of programs and personal, one-on-one visits are aimed at making each veteran feel special. Just about everywhere you look, you see community. You see family. “Once they come through those doors, they’re family,” said Director Hiliary Hardwick. “We’re the veterans home, but we’re not only taking care of the veterans, we are taking care of the families, too. When we have celebrations, we want the family and the community to be a part of it – to feel a part of their life.” Judging by the first five years, that feeling is exactly what they get.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
Letters from battlefield tell inner thoughts of yearning for home Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Michael Callahan and Carol Pappas In times of war, millions of young men and women have left their homes, their families and the life they knew behind. Forced to live in conditions civilians can hardly imagine, letters from home and letters from the battlefield serve as a lifeline, the link that binds the two together even in the worst of times. At the Springville Museum, organizers understand the importance of those letters and the key they actually hold to history – a rare look at thoughts and emotions in a time of great conflict. The museum features a special military section dedicated to the men and women from Springville who served their country, and at the center of it are letters from the battlefield. Nestled among the old photographs of young men in uniform, a soldier’s suitcase taken halfway around the world, a flag and countless pieces of
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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ST. CLAIR REMEMBERS
memorabilia, there they are – words on paper telling the story of war and offering comfort to those they have left behind. A Western Union telegram from J.B. Martin to his mother in World War II reassures her all will be OK. “All well and safe. Please don’t worry. Fondest Love.” From Marcus M. Pearson to his brother, Frank: “I am in the Philippine Islands. We were on the ship 47 days and that is a long time. We had some submarine alerts, and I think a torpedo was fired but it didn’t hit us. There is a lot of water between here and home.” He describes the natives and life on the island in casual terms, but the yearning for home is evident. “Life is not too bad here on the island. We have plenty to eat and can rest good at night. I would like to see you now but I guess it will be a long time. Write me all the news from the mill.” Other letters from Pearson give an inside look. “I pull guard every other night in a deep hole with a machine gun and rifle. It is safe enough there…I think this will soon be over here and we will go to a rest camp and have lights, showers and movies. We are getting a PX next week. I am telling you all these things
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so you won’t worry. I can hear the gunfire and the shells roaring overhead, but they are ours…” “Dear Momma,” he writes in another, “I was glad to get your letter today. I can imagine how things look at home now. I always liked the Spring very much. I guess I was always more ambitious in the Spring than any other time. It is neither like Spring nor Summer here, the vegetation is so much different… “I certainly wish I had a furlough to look forward to. Maybe the war over here will soon be over. There seems to be only two more places to go, China & Japan. Maybe things will end soon…” A letter signed by “Bub” to “Fellow Good-Bricker” dated June 10, 1945, France, talks of “local news” a world away from Springville, Alabama – his travels from Germany to France and perhaps heading to the Pacific after a furlough. Obviously, battle tested and battle weary, Bub writes: “It looks like we will get another star for East of the Rhine and maybe we will get one for the Bulge. Don’t know yet and don’t know about the Presidential Citation…No one knows what is in store for us. All I can do is hope we get home pretty soon.” l
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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A diamond in the rough Story by Paul South Photos by Graham Hadley “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” —Norman Maclean (cq), Author A story about this small, but growing St. Clair County town has an obvious beginning: The Coosa River. Across the millennia, civilizations have been drawn to water to quench thirsts and quell appetites, to clean bodies and purify souls, for transportation and for commerce and for joy and inspiration. And many have settled on the river to begin new lives, or to spend their last days near the peace and beauty of the water. Just like civilization, the river is always changing. Heraclitis, a Greek philosopher, had it right. “No man ever steps into the same river twice; for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.” As the Coosa has changed across the centuries, Riverside has changed. Like the rest of its incorporated neighbors, Riverside’s population has grown, drawing new residents from larger urban areas like Birmingham. While the real estate boom has not hit
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Historic train bridge still in use over the Coosa River in Riverside
Riverside ALABAMA
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Riverside
Riverside Landing park and boat ramp Riverside like Margaret, Odenville and other municipalities, the Coosa and Logan Martin Lake draw visitors like a powerful magnet. As it has throughout history, the water brings the promise of more people – and greater prosperity. Mayor Rusty Jessup believes the future is bright. Jessup is in his fourth term as mayor and serves as the chairman of the county mayors’ association and as a member of the Alabama League of Municipalities’ Executive Committee. “What a diamond in the rough (Riverside) is right here at this river,” Jessup said. Riverside’s roots Modern-day Riverside had its beginnings as Readmon when it was founded in 1882, but was later incorporated as Riverside in 1886. For years, it was the county’s industrial hub, a hotbed for logging, sawmills, milling and egg production. Barge traffic was common on the Coosa, moving commerce up and down the river. A ferry – known as the Coleman Ferry – also provided a key transportation link, helping people cross the river in the horse-and-buggy era. It remained in operation until the John Bankhead Bridge opened in 1937. Bankhead, a U.S. senator, was the patriarch of one of Alabama’s great political dynasties. His son, William Bankhead, served as speaker of the U.S. House of
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Representatives and his son, Walter Will Bankhead, also served in Congress. John Bankhead’s granddaughter, Tallulah, made her mark on stage and screen. “At that time, (Riverside) was a pretty unique crossroads because it had one of the very few ways to cross the Coosa River right here, so there was a lot of activity,” Jessup said. But Riverside’s history, inextricably tied to the Coosa, runs deeper than the 135 years of incorporation, or so goes archaeological speculation, Jessup said. From 500 to 1100 A.D., the northern part of what is now Riverside was home to one of the largest native settlements, perhaps among the largest in the Southeast, Jessup said. Now the town and its environs are a popular hunting ground for Indian artifacts, “There are citizens here in Riverside who have museumquality Indian artifacts in their homes,” Jessup said. “Spearheads, arrowheads, tomahawk heads and pottery, it’s very interesting.” Like most towns in St. Clair County, white settlers arrival in the area predates Alabama statehood in 1819. There is much historical speculation about the period before incorporation. And those wives’ tales, passed down through the generations, make for compelling stories. Jessup recounted one Civil-War-era story about Riverside and a Union contingent of 40,000 cavalry known as
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Streight’s Raiders under the command of Brigadier Gen. Abel Streight. According to Jessup, the story goes that Streight was ordered to destroy every county courthouse as his troopers slashed through Alabama. He burned the St. Clair County Courthouse in Ashville. “But a group of citizens – mostly elderly men, women and children – got all the records out of the courthouse and took them by wagon down through Riverside and hid them in the basement of the Blue Eye Baptist Church on Blue Eye Creek near Lincoln, Alabama,” Jessup said. The records were important for county families, including Riverside residents. “That’s one reason that a lot of people here in Riverside and here in St. Clair County got to keep their property (after the war) because they could still prove it was theirs.” One of Riverside’s businesses that has had international impact for years was Riverside Sand Co. on the banks of the Coosa. The company mined a clay that made bricks that were of a special quality that could stand up to the intense heat of furnaces used to melt steel, a valuable commodity for the steel mills of Birmingham and Pittsburgh. The Hamilton and Mercer families ran the mining operation from the late 1890s until the late 1930s. The town’s history was deeply influenced deep into the 20th century by river commerce, until Logan Martin Dam was completed in 1965 by Alabama Power Co., creating today’s Logan Martin Lake. According to the Almanac of Alabama, part of the original town of Riverside rests at the lake’s bottom. “The dam changed everything,” Jessup said. “Once
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View of Logan Martin from Riverside
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
Harris Rebar
hydroelectric power came in, the barge traffic stopped and changed the economic outlook. The river still drives the economy for this area, but not like it did. Now it drives it in a different way.” The river, the dam and Logan Martin Lake have transformed the river and the Riverside area from a commercial hub to a vacation destination. Jessup believes great days are on the horizon for Riverside, as a retirement and second-home community and a center for ecotourism. “The lake is a great draw,” said Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Authority. “Folks that want to live on the lake, that possibility is there, and it is affordable.” Smith added, “It’s a beautiful community that’s great on partnering with other entities in the county, such as Pell City, with police and fire protection and with Pell City schools.” The interstate interchange where US 78 crosses Interstate 20 is one of the last undeveloped interchanges in the county. “It’s very attractive for that reason,” Jessup said. There is a challenge. Available land for commercial and residential development has been hindered by the floodplains that had to be set aside when the dam was built. The arrival of the dam meant that Riverside’s infrastructure – highways, railroads, post offices, etc., — had to be elevated because of higher water levels that came with the dam. The dirt to build up that infrastructure came from the Riverside area, leaving some parts too low for development. However, the flood plain is important, because when rivers and lakes rise, it keeps flooding out of homes and businesses. The lake is used for hyrdorelectric generation and is a holding lake for others, so the water rises 5 feet in summer at its full pool and lowers 5 feet in winter. Heavy rains can cause it to top summer pool.
“We have a lot of that here,” Jessup said. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way it is. When it rises, the water has to go somewhere. It’s better that it goes into the flood plain than into our homes and businesses.” The flood plain and a rail line also pose challenges to development in Riverside’s piece of the I-20 corridor. But town officials are optimistic about the future. New development will come. After all, with miles along the Coosa riverfront and the lakefront property, people will be drawn to the water as they have been for centuries. “It’s not going to be long until the right people take interest and develop that,” Jessup said. Infrastructure expansion is also critical, especially sewerage capacity. “As that community continues to grow, investment in infrastructure is going to be needed,” Smith said. “And property owners interested in development in Riverside need to be empowered to bring in outside investment. But infrastructure growth is key.” Even with those hurdles, Riverside is growing. In the 2010 Census, Riverside’s population stood at 2,208, up from 1,564 a decade earlier. It has now topped the 2,300-mark. Planning will be critical long-term, Smith said. “Because of their location, Riverside is somewhat compact. So, planning for the future and having a vision of what they want the community to look like is very important. I’m not sure heavy industry is a good fit. Something more ecotourism and building more river-based activities would be a component of their future success going forward,” Smith said. Even with the challenges, the town is a good investment, in part because of the interstate interchange. But also as the state population ages, Riverside is a popular destination. Unlike other county communities, young families
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Riverside
Riverside municipal complex aren’t making Riverside part of the northeastern migration, but Baby Boomers, nearing retirement and drawn to the small-town atmosphere and the peace of the waterways, are coming. “We don’t see the suburban push,” Jessup said. “What we’re seeing is people retiring or near retirement moving out this way, because the commute to Birmingham or to the Honda plant (in Lincoln) is a snap,” Jessup said. “I made the commute to Birmingham for 25 years, and it was easy then. It’s even easier now.” There are also the common denominators that are part of the equation of St. Clair County – good schools, low crime and friendly atmosphere. Riverside’s household median income is above the national average. A story in the Birmingham Business Journal lists Riverside as the 18th most affluent municipality among Birmingham’s suburbs. But Riverside needs retail to boost its tax base and improve infrastructure. Development at the interchange could change the tax base overnight, “A nice truck plaza like a Pilot or Love’s could put $15,000 to $20,000 a month in the city in terms of our revenue,” he said. Riverside, like other St. Clair communities, does get an economic boost from the Talladega Superspeedway and Barber Motorsports Park, Jessup said. “I don’t know if the people of the county realize how international we have become known because of these tracks. We’re right in the middle of these venues, so they stay here,” he said. And with the Coosa as part of the Alabama Scenic River Trail
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system, Riverside could be prime to cash in on a piece of the booming ecotourism market. “We’re primed for everything, Jessup said. “We just haven’t had the right entity come along,” Jessup said. He borrowed from a country hit from a few years back to describe the Riverside he calls home. “Our vision is for Riverside to become a resort tourist destination, or have that feel about it,” he said. “The resources of this river are unlimited. It’s attractive, and it’s beautiful, and it’s clean, thank goodness. And it will stay clean, thank goodness. People are attracted to it. ... This town is the river. And the river is us.” And because of the river and its people, Riverside will grow into a special community. “It’s just an old chunk of coal right now, but it’s going to be a diamond someday,” he said, “because everything is here; everything is in place.” And while location is important. Remember, Riverside is 30 minutes from anywhere in Birmingham and less than two hours from the Atlanta’s Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport. But at its heart, Riverside is special because of its people – and the river. “The people here are just beautiful,” Jessup said. “There is something about the river, something about drinking good groundwater, there’s something about the way the sun and the moon hit the river and creeks around here that make people easier to get along with and laid back. There’s not a lot of drama here. It’s really, really a good place to live.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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The Ark
Still frying up catfish and a tale or two Story by Paul South Photos by Mike Callahan When Matt Coulter was a young sportscaster in nearby Birmingham, he was assigned to travel to Talladega to cover race week at the then Alabama International Motor Speedway, now Talladega Superspeedway. Coulter, who has been a track announcer at Talladega for a quarter century, heard about Riverside’s landmark restaurant called The Ark from NASCAR’s legendary “Alabama Gang” – the Allison brothers, Bobby and Donny, and the late Neal Bonnett and Red Farmer. But the man who helped the young broadcaster discover The Ark was the legendary media relations director at Talladega, the late Jim Freeman. “I asked him about it and he said, ‘We’re not going to talk about it. We’re just going to go down there.’ And we went down there and we ate. “It’s just a great country catfish and vegetable place. And when you walk in, there’s a picture of every Hall of Fame NASCAR driver in history. The first ones I saw were (David) Pearson, (Richard) Petty, (Dale) Earnhardt and Bobby (Allison),” Coulter said. “If you don’t want to eat in a place like that, you just need to go home.” Folks have traveled from near and far to eat at The Ark for generations, but the walls filled with photos of NASCAR racers, movie and TV stars, politicians and other famous folks are a bonus. The Ark is an iconic American place for fried catfish and the Alabama restaurant staple – “meat and three.” USA Today has listed it as one of America’s top catfish restaurants in the nation. And many online sites, as well as the Alabama Department of Tourism, have it listed as one of the places in the state where you must eat before you die. The Ark has also been pictured in the New York Times, as part of a story on the county’s changing political landscape. The tradition for great food and great service dates back almost a century, when E.O. “Red” Thompson opened it some 87 years ago. Thompson sold the eatery to former newspaper publisher Bob Cornett, who ran the restaurant for a half century. Current owner Shirley Abts has run the restaurant for four years with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy. “We’ve been using the same recipes that they’ve been using for 87 years,” Abts said. “It’s not fast food. People have to understand that when you walk in, it’s not going to come up three minutes later. Everything is homemade and cooked to
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order.” A short list of some of the palate-pleasing dishes, starting with the famous fried catfish, hushpuppies, hand-battered onion rings, homemade cobblers and the like, have kept folks flocking through the door for generations. There’s even a platter of sliced tomatoes, onions, pickles and such, called “the center plate,” a popular side. But make no mistake. It’s centerpiece worthy. Abts tells a story to illustrate the reach of the Riverside restaurant. Her grandson’s mother-in-law was eating at a restaurant in New York. She mentioned to the bartender that she was from Alabama. “The bartender said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to go to the Ark.’ We get people coming from out of town all the time. We get people from overseas who come to town and have heard of it. We’ve had people from Australia, from England, from South Korea and from China ... quite a few.” Governors, state Supreme Court justices, Hollywood directors, and a regular “Who’s Who” of racing have feasted at The Ark, like Indy 500 winner Mario Andretti, the legendary Richard Petty and of course, The Alabama Gang, led by Bobby Allison. NASCAR racing legend Bobby Allison has fond memories of dining at The Ark with his family and race team. He is one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers, a three-time winner at Daytona and the 1983 Winston Cup Champion. The Ark, he said, “was one of the places we always looked forward to.” It was part of a string of restaurants, mostly in the smaller NASCAR locales like Darlington, S.C., and Martinsville, Va., where hungry drivers and teams would eat after a hard day at the track. “We found those little spots that were especially good food with a family atmosphere, family — owned. It was just enjoyable to have a meal and visit with the local folks.” Drivers could find privacy at The Ark.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Patrons gather for food and good company in the famous Ark Restaurant. “You would meet people at these places who didn’t tie you up with a conversation. Somebody might want to get a picture or an autograph. But they were really great places for us,” Allison said. “The Ark had really, really good catfish. But also, they had really good steaks. I usually always got the catfish or a steak, but I saw other people really enjoying their meals,” he noted. “The restaurant was just really good.” EARLY DAYS While catfish has always been the big drawing card when it comes to food, Thompson anchored his restaurant, built on an old dredge barge, some 30 feet off the river bank and served beer with his catfish, steaks, frog legs and such. The original Ark was anchored off the bank so that during Prohibition in the 1920s, neither Talladega County nor St. Clair County lawmen had jurisdiction, and patrons could partake in a libation or two. The Ark later moved into a rustic, wood-paneled building on land. The new location burned down. But the tradition continued in a new location on the other side of U.S. 78. And it patrons can still indulge ... legally. SECRET TO SUCCESS For all the famous folks who have come through the door, the superstar of the restaurant remains the catfish, much of it farm raised in Eutaw, Ala.
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“The main secret is we don’t dip it (in homemade batter) until we are ready to cook it. We do not batter it until we’re ready to drop it. Otherwise it’s cornmeal and a little seasoning, and that’s it.” As much as The Ark is about food – catfish, hushpuppies, shrimp and hand-cut steaks – it’s also about family. And on the restaurant staff, some families have worked at The Ark for three generations. “We’ve got people who have worked here for 30 years,” Abts said. “My manager’s mother worked here. Right now, Tammy Truss has worked here for 30 years. Her sister works here, her mother worked here, and now Tammy’s daughter works here.” Abts loves her customers. Some have been restaurant regulars for nearly 50 years. And she loves Riverside. “I have people thanking me nearly every day for keeping it open. I love Riverside. The community is wonderful. Police officers come every night at closing time and wait until we’re out of the building.” She added, “We appreciate everyone that comes through the door. We know these people. They’re our neighbors.” And neighbors, like Riverside Mayor Rusty Jessup, love The Ark. The restaurant is one of the city’s largest sales tax generators, so the success of The Ark is tied to the success of Riverside. “You’re not going to get better fried catfish in America, period,” he said. “The Ark is the fabric of Riverside. And it says a lot about who we are as a people. It comes from the river, and the river is who we are.”
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Story by Paul South Photos by Michael Callahan For 135 years, this two-story home watches over a stretch of the Coosa River like an elegant dowager overseeing life’s comings and goings on the water. This beautiful belle of a structure is Roxanne Bukacek’s dream house. And beginning in 1913, when Bukacek’s grandfather, Joseph Sylvester Bukacek, bought the then four-bedroom home for $1,200 – with the exception of about a dozen years when it was owned outside the family – the Bukacek family has lived in the house. “It’s just gorgeous,” Roxanne Bukacek said. “It’s a money pit when something needs to be fixed. But it’s gorgeous.” It is indeed beautiful, with 12-inch baseboards, prickly pine and intricate woodwork throughout the home – great grandfather Aolis Bukacek was a university-educated master craftsman in woodwork and furniture craftsmanship. It all stands as a monument to a simpler age when life revolved around family and community and a spirit of self-reliance. “It’s like I tell everybody: ‘If we didn’t make it or grow it, we didn’t have it,’” Bucackek said. That spirit traveled a long journey to Alabama. In a real sense, the story of the Bukacek family is uniquely American. The Bukaceks – a great-grandfather and grandmother, Joe Bukacek and two of Roxanne’s great-uncles – immigrated to America in the early 20th century from Prague, the capital of the former Czechoslovakia. They came through Ellis Island, N.Y., as many in the European wave of immigrants did, with little more than a dream and the clothes on their backs. “I asked why they came over, and they wouldn’t say much, just that it was for religious purposes,” she recalled. They initially made their way to Chicago, where Roxanne’s great-grandfather designed Pullman rail cars, a symbol of elegant transportation for the wealthy in America’s Gilded Age. But the harsh winter weather was too much for one of the Bukacek children, and they headed South, where they had friends in a small Czech community in St. Clair County and settled here. The house that became the home for the Bukacek clan was originally crafted in 1872 by the LathropHatton Lumber Co., as a residence for the company physician, Dr. J.T. Brown and his wife, Hattie. Joe Bukacek, who became a merchant and the postmaster of Riverside, bought the home as a gift for his father after the lumber company closed. The house passed through the family for generations, undergoing some changes over the years. The house had a huge front porch that ran the width of the home. But when great uncles Emil and Jerome, two confirmed bachelors – inherited the home, they made a big change. “Before anyone could stop them, they tore down the porch. When they asked why they did it, they offered a humorous reason: “It was too big to sweep.” The two great uncles marched to their own drumbeat. Bukacek said they would only let her enter through the back of the house, not through the elegant parlors. And
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they seemed to save everything. “My great uncles were characters. We came across a box marked, ‘Strings too short to use.’ They made something out of everything. We still have the old plow they made out of a bicycle wheel. They were packrats. “I’ve got the same illness.” The brothers did add a den, dining room and an indoor kitchen. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were ages of innovation in America, and the Bukaceks did their share at the home. For example, just as an open refrigerator door triggers and inside light, cabinets in the Bukacek home were lit when the doors opened. An outside wash house had a built-in wash pot, with room to build a fire beneath. “I started that thing one time just to see if it would still draw and it sounded like a freight train going through,” Roxanne Bukacek said. The original well is still on the 7.5 acres, a greenhouse with a wine cellar underneath, the original smokehouse, an outdoor shower with a rain barrel and other outbuildings. A cottage Bukacek used as an art studio was virtually destroyed by a 2012 tornado but later rebuilt. And Roxanne still has an original map of the property, which shows where steamboats traveled down the Coosa and docked near the house. She remembers the river’s edge being so overrun with snakes, that they never went near the water, Sunflowers and wildflowers still grow on the property as they have for a century. When weather and health permit, she and
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PELL CITY STEAK HOUSE RESTAURANT 2401 Comer Avenue, Corner of Hwy 231 & Comer Avenue 1.3 miles south of I-20
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Riverside
her husband, Tom, still grow vegetables on the land. She crafts bouquets from the wildflowers. She also has stamps and some of the post office boxes from her great grandfather’s days as Riverside’s postmaster. She often ponders those glorious days for the close-knit family. “I just think of all the things that went on here. Christmases in the front and middle parlors. I think about how they lived through the Depression and made it through that,” she said. But perhaps more beautiful than the buildings and their features – like the hand-carved rosettes around the fireplace and the furniture her great grandfather built, are the memories. Roxanne remembers her great grandmother, who spoke only Czech, constantly telling her, ‘Nek to byt. Nek to byt.’ “Leave it alone.” Over time, the house fell out of family hands as a younger generation went off to college and set about the business of building their own lives. But later, Bukacek began to dream about bringing the house back into the family. “The house was gorgeous. It wasn’t Tara from Gone with the Wind, but it reminded me of it. And I just wanted it back. I really wanted it back. We’d ride up the river, and I’d just dream and dream and dream,” she said. With the help of an aunt, the dream came true. Bukacek is an artist in her own right, but thinks of herself
first as a teacher. She taught art for 25 years in St. Clair County schools. “I had students who were so much more talented than me. I just had to open their eyes to see just a little bit better. Leonardo DaVinci’s quote was that you had to be able to see before you could draw,” she said. “You really do have to see when you’re restoring and keeping up a 19th-century house.” Now, she keeps up the house as she thinks her family would have wanted. The woman who as a little girl was a selfdescribed tomboy and climbed every tree on the property now tends to the house and land with the help of her husband, retired dentist Tom Douyard. And earlier generations are still here, in big and small ways. One of the Bukacek boys who came from Czechoslovakia, Great Uncle Frank, was dropped on his head during the transoceanic passage and was “never quite right,” afterwards. “Anytime something goes wrong in the house, we say, ‘Frank did it.’” A scarecrow on the land is named for Uncle Frank. She calls the house “amazing.” And the reason behind it is simple, yet rooted deeply in the past. “Knowing that I still have trees and shrubs and flowers and Muscadines that my family planted, that I’m still taking care of it. I was just fortunate to make sure that it was back in the family.” l
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A new era begins at Northside
74 DISCOVER Essence St. Clair •••August & September 2013 of St. ClairThe •The Business Review 74 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 74• DISCOVER The Essence DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 & 2016 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair & September 2017 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June July 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER Essence The Essence of of St. Clair of St. • Clair Clair December June 2016 & January 2015 2017 74 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April & May
Story and Photos by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley
Northside Medical Home Expansion creating a special place in Pell City It is hard to imagine that from a small office on John Haynes Drive, a mere 3,000 square feet, that a sprawling medical home could rise a decade and a half later. But on Pell City’s north end, the construction seems endless as Northside Medical Associates continues expansion after expansion. Founded in 2001 by Dr. Rock Helms, Northside has evolved into 80,000 square feet of patientcentered facilities, the latest of which doubles its size and significantly enhances its scope. Northside Medical Home opened in October, fulfilling the next step in Helms’ vision of health care. Official grand opening and ribbon cutting are set for Oct. 24. At the center of what he envisions is always the patient – comprehensive care, access to cuttingedge diagnostic technology, expanded specialties and an atmosphere where doctors talk to one another for better outcomes for its patients. And all of it is conveniently located close to the patient on a single campus. “It has always been good to provide a place for patients where they can obtain a full range of medical services at one patient location. This is the next step toward that goal,” Helms said. “We encourage collaboration between primary and specialty care because it enables better quality care.” The two-story, 50,000-square-foot Northside Medical Home, fronting Interstate 20 on one side and the existing facilities on the other, represents a sizable next step – diverse specialties all under one roof. In the new wing will be Alacare Home Health and Hospice, VisionFirst Eye Center, Birmingham Heart Clinic, Alabama Oral & Facial Surgery, Southeast Gastro, Eastern Surgical Associates, an expanded Northside Apothecary, and Northside CARE Team with expanded Health & Wellness department. It even has a café coming in January. Northside Medical Home’s expansion also will include bone density and body composition, infusion suite, and health and wellness classes in its new training center. According to Chief Operating Officer Laura Gossett, the tenants have already expressed interest in hosting events for the public to educate and promote specific healthrelated topics. “Our training center will be the ideal venue for these types of events.” Doctors Helms, Michael Dupre and Hunter
Staff get a tour of the new section of Northside Medical Home. Russell, along with their nurse practitioners and clinical staff, will relocate to the new building. Doctors William McClanahan, Bob Whitmore and Steve Fortson, along with their nurse practitioners and clinical staff, will expand clinical services in buildings I and II. Also expected are new timeshare specialty physicians from Birmingham and surrounding areas joining the Northside campus Timeshare medical staff soon. “We want this to be a medical home for patients,” Helms said. “It’s exciting. It’s a more convenient, relaxed setting” than driving to larger, crowded metropolitan areas. And the end result is an unrivaled collaboration coming together to put the patient at the center of everything they do. Here’s what Northside Medical Home’s newest residents had to say about the new venture:
BIRMINGHAM HEART CLINIC
With the expansion from a time-share rotation space to a full-time 9,000+ square-foot clinic, it will give Birmingham Heart Clinic the capability of offering full service cardiology to the Pell City area. BHC will have anywhere from one to three physicians seeing patients in its new office every day starting in October. In addition, the new office space will give BHC the ability to perform a wide range of diagnostic testing in-house, such as nuclear and exercise stress tests, cardiac and vascular ultrasounds, Holter and event monitoring. “BHC responded to growth in the Pell City area more than eight years ago by opening a clinic, and initially, that volume of patients was served with clinic coverage roughly one day per week,” explained Dr. Jason B.
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Northside Medical Home
Employees treated to tours as construction end neared. Thompson. “The area has seen remarkable growth and has outstanding primary care with both fueling the development of the clinic space set to open. BHC Pell City will be able to accommodate three full-time providers and offer an array of diagnostic testing, allowing patients to keep their care locally.”
The interior main entrance and atrium at Northside
VISIONFIRST EYE CENTER
VisionFirst’s Dr. Sara Clark Cleghern is looking forward to quadrupling the amount of space her clinic now occupies. It will have its own waiting room, which features an area for children, complete with toys and an iPad bar. “More” is the operative word at Pell City’s VisionFirst – more examination rooms, more equipment and the ability to do more procedures in-house. With services from primary eye care to surgeons represented, “it will allow us to do more,” she said. And there will be an expanded, comprehensive line of glasses. Birmingham-based VisionFirst affiliated with Northside in January 2015, and Cleghern came on board in August 2015. “We love how it integrates patient care. So many of our patients have doctors there. We can talk things over with their doctors.” If there is a problem with eye care that is associated with their primary care, often the answer is just down the hall. In other communities oftentimes that kind of ease in communication between doctors isn’t the case. As an example, she pointed to a patient with an acute eye problem. The primary doctor referred the patient to Dr. Cleghern, the patient had an MRI in Northside’s Imaging Suite before seeing her, so they were able to have access to all they needed before the exam and diagnosis. No delays. “It’s really incredible,” she said. “There is a good community within the clinic, good relationships and the facilities are better,” she added. Outside the clinic, “we love the community of Pell City, it’s close-knit. I love getting to meet patients and see them year after year,”
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building better relationships and becoming more familiar with their history – medically and personally. This new clinic will have full vision care with access to comprehensive services – from ocular disease to surgical care.
ALABAMA ORAL SURGERY
Dr. Chris Rothman of Alabama Oral & Facial Surgery called the move to Northside Medical Home “a natural fit.” He has been practicing in Pell City for 15 years, but was having trouble with infrastructure. “We needed a new state-of-the-art building,” he said. They found it at Northside in a 2,000-square-foot suite the practice will occupy. “We like the people. It’s good for us. There is a pharmacy on-site, and patients can have their surgery, go through the drive through to pick up their prescriptions and be on their way home.” He talked of the strong relationships developed with Northside’s key people. “(Chief Operating Officer) Laura Gossett is fantastic to work with, and (CEO) Rock Helms is great, too.”
EASTERN SURGICAL ASSOCIATES
“Our relationship with Northside Medical is paramount in our quest to service patients in East Alabama,” said Robin Smith, practice manager of Eastern Surgical Associates, which is based in Trussville and expanded to Northside. “Our practice has continued to grow in East Alabama due to the patient, physician and staff relationships garnered while working in the Northside Medical Building. “We have been able to provide much-needed surgical assistance to patients that otherwise would have had to travel extensively for care.”
NORTHSIDE APOTHECARY
Northside Apothecary will be moving to the end cap of the new building with expanded room from its location in Phase II. “We are very excited about moving into our new space,” said Pharmacy Director Bradley Pate. The pharmacy will continue its hours of 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. “Being back on the end cap, we are able to offer drive-through services to our patients once again. We are adding a second pick-up window, so you definitely won’t be wasting time waiting in line to pick up your prescriptions or other needs.” Northside Apothecary will continue to be a full-service pharmacy with a full line of OTC, home-health and compression therapy products. “We will have more retail space and are going to introduce a gift section, which will include items from Willow Tree, Melissa and Doug, an array of gift and greeting cards, and many other boutique and seasonal offerings. We have a wide array of items coming in and changing often, so you are sure to find something for everyone on your list,” Pate said. Additional space in the pharmacy allows it to expand its compounding services to provide unique and individualized medication options for patients. “We can compound just about anything, from our popular arthritis cream to veterinary medications. Northside Apothecary has always been innovative and continues to integrate technology to better provide for our patients.”
Northside Apothecary has its own mobile app (currently available for Android users and will soon be added to the Apple App Store) that will allow patients to request prescription refills and transfers, set up refill reminders, and connect on Facebook and Instagram. Patients also have the option to sign up for free, weekly e-newsletters, which incorporate health-related articles and medication information. “Northside has become a destination for health care in St. Clair County, and Northside Apothecary wants to become the premiere pharmacy in the area,” Pate said. “Our relationship with the practitioners at Northside allow us to always provide exceptional care for our patients. We love our patients and will continue to be the pharmacy that fills all your needs.”
ALACARE HOME HEALTH & HOSPICE
Alacare Home Health & Hospice has been part of the St. Clair County health care community for more than 35 years. “The decision to move into the new Northside Medical Home complex was guided by a question we at Alacare ask ourselves each day, ‘How can we deliver the best care possible for our patients?’” according to Alacare CEO Susan B. Brouillette. “Alacare’s ability to work more closely with Northside Medical’s “Patient-Centered” care model allows us the opportunity to improve the continuity of care and communication with other healthcare providers. “The new Northside Medical Home complex that Dr. Helms has developed will facilitate a working collaborative healthcare environment enabling us to improve patient’s outcomes and reduce the likelihood of a patient having to return to the hospital unless absolutely necessary,” she said. “Across the nation and especially in Alabama, our aging population and increasing healthcare costs will make a person’s own home an important place for health care whenever possible. By coordinating with the patient’s physician, hospital or outpatient clinic, Alacare Home Health & Hospice can provide the necessary care in the best possible place, the patient’s own home.”
NORTHSIDE CARE TEAM
The newly created Northside CARE Team is a chronic-care management team of health care providers who treat patients at the clinic or at home if needed. It began with four patients in April and has already soared over the 200-mark. Its aim is to reduce hospitalizations and enhance quality of life by focusing on the relationship between the primary-care provider and the patient, identifying barriers to their patients’ health and executing a plan to navigate around those challenges. “We want them happy, healthy and out of the hospital,” said CARE Program Director Dianna McCain. The CARE Team offers assistance with medications on a weekly basis at patients’ homes or daily calls to remind patients to take their medications. Because of a growing shortage of primary-care physicians, Helms envisioned a program that could take the best care of patients, whether it is at Northside or in the patient’s home. Its new space will allow the program to grow and better serve its patients. Editor’s note: To learn more about Northside Medical Home, go to northsidemedicalhome.com.
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Business Review Property moving and spurring more growth in Pell City Story and photos by Carol Pappas Photos by Graham Hadley Driving around Pell City these days is like being on a tour of a boom town. Rooftops are going up. Steel framework for major businesses is being erected. Construction in various phases is under way in many parts of the city. And the benefits aren’t lost on people like Brian Muenger, city manager of Pell City. “We are now seeing through a combination of factors economic properties becoming available that are desirable. They’re coming onto the market, and we’re seeing a lot of focus on investment on US 231 and properties adjacent to I-20.” In just the northern tip of Pell City on US 231 and I-20 thoroughfares, Town & Country Ford, McSweeney Automotive and Northside Medical Home are looming large on the economic landscape. The old hospital property fronting I-20 is getting more than a second look of late. “Interested parties are looking that we didn’t have before. Now they’re showing interest.” Just across I-20, market movement is being seen in the Vaughn and Hazelwood Drive areas. “Property transactions are taking place. People are ready to develop those areas,” Muenger said. What once would have been a devastating blow – Kmart closing a little further south on US 231 – has the potential to rebound better and stronger than before. A trio of retailers is coming in – Tractor Supply Co., Martin’s Family Clothing and Bargain Hunt. Tractor Supply will occupy the end and outdoor portion of the 90,000-square-foot Kmart space, and Martin’s will bring its regional reputation and department store to 40,000 square feet of it. “Three retailers will almost exceed employment and sales of Kmart. It is a great thing for the community, and it says a lot about our retail community,” Muenger noted. He turned his attention to Bankhead Crossing, where a new theater, bowling alley and entertainment complex is expected to begin construction soon. The project was delayed due to design revisions, but it appears ready to deliver on its plans. With a burgeoning Walmart shopping
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McSweeney
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Property for sale on 231 in Cropwell DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Pell City Growth
Diagram of how Hazelwood Drive will be rerouted center and surrounding businesses, it is easy to see cause for excitement. I-20 Development President and CEO Bill Ellison, who developed those areas and is continuing to do so, predicted that “the Premiere Entertainment Center will trigger the next tier of retail development along Highway 231 and the I-20 Corridor. I think you will see the addition of more restaurants and retail box stores. It will help expand the tax revenue for the City of Pell City.” Already, businesses in that area are two of the top three revenue generators for the city, Muenger said. With the rerouting of Hazelwood Drive just across US 231 for improved access to St. Vincent’s St. Clair and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, development in that area is opening up new growth. That project is in the design phase and readying to enter the acquisition phase. Muenger points with particular pride to the city’s recent Standard and Poor rating of AA Stable. “That’s a top tier” for a city the size of Pell City, Muenger said, and it underscores a strong economy, budget, management, liquidity and weak debt.
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Big plans in the works for Hazelwood Drive.
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Tractor Supply, Martin’s Family Clothing and Bargain Hunt to anchor former Kmart space.
“We expect existing business to continue to grow with new business coming into the market,” Muenger said, a prospect that bodes well for the future. “St. Clair County is often one of the top five counties in Alabama in population growth and median household income. Pell City’s leaders have taken a very thoughtful approach to growth by focusing on job creation, quality of life and safety. When you create a safe community for young couples to start a family and career, it will then become the perfect environment for retailers. We are seeing this more as the Birmingham market continues to grow to the east,” he said. “Specifically, Pell City has understood that infrastructure is the key to future development and they have always invested wisely in water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure. Many people have already forgotten that at one point the bridge over the interstate had only two lanes. Pell City was willing to invest in its future. “We believe that, with continued strong leadership from the Mayor, Council Members, City Manager and the entire community, Pell City will continue to grow and prosper.” LAH Realtor Dana Ellison couldn’t agree more. She and LAH commercial broker Austin Blair have listed what has long been thought of as prime development property on the southern end of the city. What is known locally as the Cropwell intersection, where 19th Street, Alabama 34 and US 231 South intersect, sizable acreage is being marketed and is expected to fuel substantial growth in that area. Ellison talked about the potential in terms of convenience for anyone living south of the Kmart development. “It pulls
from several counties, like Talladega and Shelby, as well as the residential areas of Logan Martin Lake and southern St. Clair County.” She noted that when grocery giant Publix decided to locate nearby in what is now the South Park development, “they looked at the demographics of that area.” And decision-makers liked what they saw. “We have some key pieces of commercially zoned property on the market at that intersection, providing an opportunity for users needing from one acre up to parcels large enough for an entire shopping center,” Blair said. “It’s a real opportunity for growth.” Nearby Pell City’s Civic Center and Sports Complex and Lakeside Park draw substantial traffic. Lake residents like the convenience of shopping and doing business in the area, and Ellison sees the properties that are available now as prime spots for medical offices, hardware, convenience stores, restaurants and office space. “We’re seeing new rooftops,” she said, and demand is resurging. Household income is increasing, and interest in the lake is on an upward trajectory. All those signs point toward major growth on the southern end of the city, and coupled with the growth on the northern end, Pell City appears to be in just the right spot heading into the future. “You can get to Pell City from downtown Birmingham in just over 30 minutes most any time of day. Pell City is easy to access via free flowing I-20 compared to other growing areas near Birmingham,” Blair said. “That should continue to promote positive growth.”
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Business Directory
Business Cards
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Piers
Keith
Seawalls
205-473-5750
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Business Directory
Business Cards
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Business Review
Callahan Eye Hospital
Alabama’s only eye hospital opens clinic in St. Clair
Dr. Thomason examines a patient’s eyes.
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Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. To Birmingham’s Callahan Eye Hospital, the decision to locate a clinic in Pell City was like solving a simple math problem. In just 2017, Callahan had an estimated 85,000 clinic visits and 12,000 surgical cases performed at the UAB Callahan Eye Hospital. Over a two-year period, 17,000 patients hailed from the greater St. Clair area, which encompasses all of St. Clair County, Leeds, Lincoln and Talladega. Those statistics affirmed what officials already knew – Callahan needed to get its services closer to its patients. They have been working on the expansion for three years and found the ideal space at Physician’s Plaza next to St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital. “We wanted to give better access for our patients than downtown Birmingham,” said Chief Operating Officer Rett Grover. Traveling to Birmingham “doesn’t make economic sense for the patient.” As the state’s only eye hospital, its services are in great demand, already leading to the opening of 14 clinics in multiple counties in the state to give patients better access to its providers closer to home. Opened July 24, Pell City’s Callahan Eye Clinic is its newest. “Everybody is excited for us to be here,” said Dr. Kayla Thomason, who actually lives in Pell City and knows the area well. “We’ve seen quite a few people who were regularly in Birmingham.” Opening day is proof of the need. The clinic saw 43 patients come through its doors that first day. She, along with Dr. J. Waid Blackstone and Dr. Jason Swanner, see patients each week with Thomason working full time in Pell City and Dr. Blackstone and Dr. Swanner working one day a week in their specialties. Dr. Thomason’s practice focuses on ocular disease, primary eye care and contact lenses. Dr. Blackstone is a comprehensive ophthalmologist, who specializes in cataract surgery, but also treats a variety of complicated eye conditions and diseases, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Swanner’s clinical practice specializes in glaucoma, anterior segment surgery and cataract surgery, and he has been named one of “America’s Best Doctors.” The Pell City clinic features the latest in imaging technology and offers “cradle-to-grave” services. A patient can be seen locally up to the point of surgery, and post-surgery visits can also be scheduled at the Pell City clinic. “We are very well suited to meet all eye needs,” providing a continuum of care across the UAB Health System, said Grover. With the strength of the UAB Health System network behind it, Callahan is able to access records and images seamlessly, ensuring better and comprehensive care for its patients. The Pell City clinic has even integrated optical in its services, with a full line of glasses and contacts, and all patients receive a 15 percent discount. It is all about access and comprehensive services closer to its patients, Grover said. “This was a perfect fit for us and what we do.” Editor’s note: To schedule an appointment, call (205) 812-0445. The clinic is located at 7067 Veterans Parkway, Suite 240, Pell City, AL 35125. Learn more at uabmedicine.org/eyeclinics.
Callahan COO Rett Grover consults with Pell City staff, from left: Jennifer Cook, April Davis, Genella Prestridge and Kimberly Sparks.
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Business Review
Mum & Me
New Leeds start-up has story to tell Story by Linda Long Photos by Graham Hadley Neva Reardon will be the first to tell you, she’s “lost her mind.” Her website reads, “I have decided at 63 to open a retail space. With experience in retail, and none in startup I have … headed into the murky grounds of starting a business from the ground up.” That store is “Mum & Me Mercantile,” a somethingfor-everyone kind of shop which, as Reardon explains, features “Southern artists with a soul.” Located in Leeds, the business is operated by Reardon and two unpaid, part-time employees, daughters Marin and Erin. The ladies have been in business since August and despite being new to the world of ownership, Reardon admits, she’s having the time of her life. “I have always worked retail,” said Reardon. “I worked for women who were both great mentors, but always in the back of my mind was ‘what if,’ what if I had a store of my own? I guess it was kind of a bucket-list thing. When I found out this place was for sale, I borrowed the money and bought it.” Part of the stores’ attraction was its location in the former Monkey’s Uncle space. “I would drive through Leeds and get this tingly kind of feeling,” said Reardon. “I always felt there was something here for me.” The reason the store is called “mercantile,” explained Reardon, is “we really do a little bit of everything.” Her products range from handmade candles and bath balms to jewelry, purses, flowers, paintings, glass and pottery, clothes, and a children’s department. Reardon said almost everything is handcrafted or made by small businesses and about 95 percent comes from the United States. “We do business with companies that have a conscience. One candle company employs homeless people to pour their candles. Another teaches kids to make jewelry. Their thing is to help inner-city youths. Abused women are making the pottery. My mission is always to leave the Earth a little bit better than you found it, and that’s what we’re trying to do.” Reardon says she finds herself here “because I believe in America and American craftsmen and business people. I think we’re a unique group of people. We work hard, and when you have something that’s yours, you work even harder.” She knows “life is about to get exciting” but for her. “This is a dream come true. I get up every day excited. Each day is a blessing.”
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Mum & Me in Leeds has a little something for everyone, from beard-care products to purses.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
Springville Farmers Market
Livin’ the good life!
Story and photos by Jerry C. Smith Springville is a sidewalk community; a 1950s kind of place where folks love to stroll, visit a few shops, and catch up on the latest with their friends. There’s no better place for browsing and chatting than Springville Farmers Market, adjacent to the old spring lake on Main Street. It’s open from early spring to late fall, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. There’s no admission; just walk in and say ‘howdy.’ Frequent vendors are Anne Sargent, whose NewSouth Farm makes fine preserves; Don and Laura Berryhill and Jack Snow, sellers of delectable home-grown produce; Dottie and Tom Bennett, with a variety of cookies and other products from their Hollow Spring Farm; and faith decor craftsman Brandon Jaunarajs. “Fudge Man” Al Strickland is there as is Felicia’s Heart, featuring hand-drawn portraits from any digital image, including cellphone. Another stall displays a bewildering array of signs and humorous plaques, all made from recycled house and barn wood. For information, contact Anne Sargent at 205 914-8690, or visit her Facebook page at NewSouth Farm.
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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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Business Review Central Supply opens new location in Odenville Story by Linda Long Photos by Graham Hadley Twelve-hour workdays aren’t unusual for Mark Jones, co-owner of one of Odenville’s newest businesses, Central Supply, Co. The company deals in both residential and commercial wholesale plumbing supplies. “We sell to plumbing contractors,” explained Jones. “We sell stuff to build houses or prisons or to repair water treatment plants … anything that it takes to get water into the house or sewerage out of it.” Jones and his business partner, David Hereford, are both from Odenville, so when time came to open a new franchise, their St. Clair County hometown was the logical choice. “We bought some land from the Odenville Utility Board,” explained Jones, “and started building in February.” The new store, located at 10855 Alabama Highway 174, opened for business in August, marking the second business venture for the partners. They also own Central Supply on 4th Avenue North in Birmingham Now, to anybody who might think selling plumbing supplies may be dull and boring. “Not so,” said a mock-offended Jones. “We see something different every day. We had one customer who had ordered three heat pump water heaters and the manufacturer was late in delivering the product. Now this guy had already sold three houses and couldn’t close until the water heaters got installed. “You could say he was in hot water,” deadpanned Jones. “When the water heaters were trucked in, we met them at the truck line, loaded them up and delivered them personally to the houses. That’s the kind of stuff that makes our job exciting. We have to drop everything we’re doing to make sure the customers gets what they need, when they need it. If that means getting into a truck and driving it to them, we will.” Jones said customer service is one of the most important aspects in a successful business. “Every plumbing supplier out there says they’ve got great customer service, although many of them do not.” What makes Central Supply different is that “we’re working partners,” he said. “We’ve worked our way up. We started out unloading trucks, then driving trucks, selling the stuff and finally to where we are today.” In learning the business “from top to bottom,” Jones said the one truism stands out. “We treat every customer like they’re our biggest customer. Do that, and you can’t go wrong.” l
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Central Supply’s new location in Odenville.
DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2017
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