Tombstone Tourism Is Still Alive Time Travel In Dekalb County

unknown man was exhumed for DNA analysis.

DNA tests failed to establish the unknown man as the alleged killer. The wanted man has never been apprehended.

By Marla Ballard Reporter

SCOTTSBORO

- For centuries people have made pilgrimages to the burial sites of well-known individuals.

In modern times tombstone tourism has continued to be a phenomenon. This is evident from the fact that each year, 600,000 people visit the mausoleum of Elvis Presley. In addition to Elvis the most visited gravesites in the U.S. are of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Bruce Lee, Leonardo da Vinci, Bob Marley, Marilyn Monroe, and William Shakespeare.

While the saying is “dead men tell no tales,” that has not stopped the remarkable stories of some of those buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Scottsboro. Take for example Lucille Benson who had roles in a number of movies between 1960 and 1983, several under director Steven Spielberg, including The Fugitive Kind (with Marlon Brando and Maureen Stapleton), Silver Streak (with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor), Big Fauss and Little Halsey (with Robert Redford and Lauren Hutton), and Mame (with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur).

Benson appeared in many television series, including Alice, Simon and Simon, The Ropers, Wonder Woman, Eight is Enough, Little House on the Prairie, Mannix, Cannon, Love Boat, The Waltons, and Bonanza. She was a cast member of the Bosom Buddies sitcom in 1980 with Tom Hanks. She died on February 17, 1984, in Scottsboro.

Some of the lure of tombstone tourism is the mystery behind the grave. For example, on October 18, 1981, an unidentified man was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Scottsboro. His burial was delayed for five weeks while his picture was circulated nationally and his body was viewed by numerous people searching for lost family members.

Thirty-three years after he was buried in Cedar Hill, the FBI placed an alleged murderer, William Bradford Bishop, on its Ten Most Wanted list. He was charged by the FBI with murdering his wife, mother, and three children in 1976. After watching a “cold case” program, a Scottsboro Funeral Home employee informed the FBI that there was a strong resemblance between William Bradford Bishop and Scottsboro’s unknown

Collinsville Drugs

“Caring for you like family”

February 17 & 18, Children’s Advocacy Center

Eddie McPherson

Memorial Dinner Theatre - Children’s Advocacy Center presents their annual Eddie McPherson memorial dinner theatre. “The Play That Goes Wrong”. The play will be held at the First United Methodist Church Life Center. Ticket prices vary and are by reservation only.

For more information or tickets, 256-9979700. First United Methodist Church 206 Grand Ave NW.

Learn to Make a Pop-UP Valentine Card - The Ider HCL

Club is presenting “Learn to Make a PopUP Valentine Card”. This class is another in a series of teacvhing/ learning sessions presented by the Ider Homemakers Club. Time will be 12:30 to 2:00. The class is FREE. Everyone is Welcome. If you have plans to attend, please contact 1-423-800-1215 or 256-632-2037, or leave your name at the Ider Library.

February 21, Fort Payne City CouncilThe Fort Payne City Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 12:30

Among the graves, the site of Matt Wann brings history alive from the 1931 case in which nine black youths were accused of assaulting two white women in Scottsboro.

Wann was the Jackson County Sherriff who faced down a 100-plus man lynch mob in front of the county jail in order to protect the Scottsboro boys. Wann pulled the nine young men from a train just yards from the edge of his jurisdiction. “A little further and they’d have been known as ‘The Huntsville Boys’,” Wann is credited with saying.

Wann’s actions that night are commonly believed to have inspired the scene where Atticus Finch makes a similar stand in “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Many also speculate that Matt Wann’s jailhouse defense cost him his life. He was murdered one year later under unusual circumstances involving fake warrants.

For more information on other notable grave sites at Cedar Hill Cemetery (located next to Unclaimed Baggage) go to www.jchaweb. org. A cemetery stroll with a tour guide may be taking place in the future, follow Jackson County Historical Association on Facebook or email jcha@scottsboro.org.

By Marla Ballard Reporter

DEKALB COUNTY

-- Locals might want to save this article for the next time out-of-town guests come to visit and take their visitors on a trip into the past. While every town has a history not every town tells a tale that includes The Trail of Tears or has a multitude of easily accessible historical markers and landmarks. Visiting the past is easy when a plan and information are readily available. Self-proclaimed tour guides might want to start their tour at 324 Gault Ave. N. at the Sawyer building. Take your guests back 144 years to 1879. While the building currently houses Boomtown Makers Market it has been the home to the Post Office, Alabama Power Company, the Water Office, Whaley and Burt Store, and Myrtle Bigley’s Hat Shop. It is an interesting place to pick up some local artwork or take a photo of Pete the Cat before traveling north one block and ten years back toward the future.

At 510 Gault Ave. N. visitors will find the oldest theater in Alabama, the Fort Payne Opera House. This time-honored theater is the only one in the State of Alabama still in use. The structure was built in 1889, to put that in perspective, it was the same year Washington, Montana, and the Dakotas were admitted to statehood. It was also the same year the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated. The building has been used as a movie house and live theater, these days yoga classes are taught and annual events such as the Fiddler’s Convention can be found keeping the place lively. Crossover to the Northeast side of the street to the Fort Payne Depot Museum and land two years later in time in 1891.

Architectural enthusiasts will enjoy the Richardsonian Romanesque style with its thick walls made from locally quarried pink and white sandstone. For 85 years the depot served the Alabama-Great Southern Railroad. The Museum is on the National Register of Historic places and serves upwards of 3,000 visitors annually. History buffs will enjoy the exhibits and artifacts on display. Take a drive up Lookout Mountain and jump forward in time to the Depression years at DeSoto State Park when visiting the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum (CCC) and the Lodge. The small but informative cabin-sized museum can be accessed by appointment during the off-season. The CCC was a government-made work program during the Great Depression. The CCC was developed as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to bring relief to millions of unemployed. Few work programs during this time matched the success of the CCC as it contributed to the preservation of county, state, and national parks. p.m. in the Council Chambers, located on the second floor of the Fort Payne City Hall.

Planning a tour to visit the Trail of Tears, Historic Wills Valley School, Willstown Mission & Cemetery, Council Bluff School and more can be researched by visiting landmarksdekalbal.org.

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future,” - Robert Heinlein, American Author (1907-1988).

February 22, The Rainsville City Council - The Rainsville City Council will hold its scheduled meeting. A work session will begin at 4:00 p.m. The regular meeting of the Rainsville City Council will start at 4:30 p.m.

February 25, The Scottsboro Tree Commission - The Scottsboro Tree Commission will have its Alabama Arbor Day tree seedling giveaway at the Veterans

Fairgrounds on Cecil Street in Scottsboro from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.

April 15, 1st Annual Charli’s RunCome out and join us as we work together to promote awareness and raise money to support the American Autism Association! Walkers, Runners, teams of all ages - Join us for the First Annual Charli’s Run. PreRegistration through March 15 is $25. After March 15 the fee will be $35. Located at Fort Payne VFW.

Registration starts at 8:00am. Kids fun run begins at 8:30am. 5K race to follow!

February 25-

Johnny Cash’s 91st Birthday Tribute featuring JC Cole at The DeKalb Theater in Fort Payne. Tickets are General Admission $25. Tickets are available at www. onfireconcerts.

February

Legals Legals

OF DEKALB COUNTY, ALABAMA

IN RE: A.F.V.

CASE NO. 2023-31

NOTICE OF PROCEEDINGS

NOTICE TO:

UNKNOWN FATHER/ RESPONDENT

RE: Petition for Name Change Order for A.F.V.

Please take notice that a Petition for minor child name change has been filed in said Court by Candelaria Elizabeth Velasquez Reynoso. Please be advised that if you intend to contest said.

Petition for Name

Change you must file a written response with the attorney named below and with the Clerk of the Probate Court, 300 Grand Avenue SW, Suite 100, Fort Payne, AL 35967 as soon as possible but no later than 30 days from the last date of this publication.

Said notice to be published February 3, 10, & 17

Hiring

Alltemp Windows by Kudzu is now Hiring

First shift, 15.00 ph, Mon-Thurs. 5-3:30 Bonus plus benefits, Apply in person.

1201 Echols Drive W. Fort Payne

Legals

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF DEKALB COUNTY, ALABAMA

CASE NO.: CS-2023900014

SUSY ALEJANDRA RAMOS ALVARADO, Plaintiff, vs.

UNKNOWN

UNKOWN, Defendant.

NOTICE OF CUSTODY PROCEEDINGS

NOTICE TO:

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN, whose whereabouts are unknown, must answer the Petition for Custody and other relief filed by Plaintiff/Mother, Susy Alejandra Ramos Alvarado, by the 27th day of March, 2023, or, thereafter, a judgment by default may be rendered against him in Case No.: CS-2023-900014, in the District Court of DeKalb County, Alabama.

Said notice to be published February 3, 10, 17, & 24

State Of Alabama County Of Dekalb

Mortgage Foreclosure Notice

DEFAULT HAVING BEEN MADE in the payment of the indebtedness secured by that certain real estate Mortgage executed to First State Bank of DeKalb County by TABATHA MCKAIG, an unmarried person, which mortgage is dated August 23, 2019, and which mortgage was recorded in Mortgage Book 2233, Page 12208 in the Office of the Judge of Probate of DeKalb County, Alabama; And default continuing, notice hereby is given that under the power of sale contained in said mortgage, I will, on behalf of First State Bank of DeKalb County proceed to sell on March 21, 2023, during the legal hours of sale, to-wit: 11:00 o’clock a.m. to 4:00 o’clock p.m., in front of the main entrance to the DeKalb County Courthouse in Fort Payne, Alabama, to the highest, best, and last bidder for cash, the following described real estate situated in DeKalb County, Alabama, and described as follows:

Beginning at an iron pin marking the NW corner of the SW ¼ of the NW ¼ of Section 35, Township

6 S, Range 6 E of the Huntsville Meridian and run S 00 deg. 11 minutes E 230.00 feet to an iron pin; thence run S 89 deg. 41 minutes E 169.62 feet to an iron pin located on the W ROW of DeKalb County Road No. 538 (60 foot ROW); thence run along the ROW N 10 deg. 09 minutes E 128.33 feet to an pin; thence run N 09 deg. 18 minutes E 104.84 feet to an iron pin; thence leaving said ROW run N 89 deg. 41 minutes W 209.92 feet to the point of beginning. Lying in and being a part of the SW ¼ of the NW ¼ of Section 35, Township 6 S, Range 6 E, in DeKalb County, Alabama. Containing 1.0 acres, mor or less.

Said sale is for the purpose of securing payment of the indebtedness secured by said mortgage, together with the costs of foreclosure.

***Alabama law gives some persons who have an interest in property the right to redeem the property under certain circumstances.

Programs may also exist that help persons avoid or delay the foreclosure process. An attorney should be consulted to help you understand these rights and programs as a part of the foreclosure process.

***This sale was postponed from February 10, 2023, and is rescheduled, and will be held on March 21, 2023 during the legal hours of sale at the location listed above.