Marshall Good Life Magazine - Spring 2016 by The Good Life Magazine

MARSHALL COUNTY

A world of wildflowers grows in the Cofieldsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; garden in Boaz An Albertville man has the reins of the new lacrosse team at UAH A retired PhD scientist living in Union Grove is now a textile artist

SPRING 2016 COMPLIMENTARY

Fueling Your Life In Marshall County ... For Less

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gunterSville 2112 Henry Street 265-505-0646

arab 8640 U.S. Highway 231 N 256-931-9509

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albertville 9080 U.S. Highway 431 N 256-857-7092

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boaz 8930 U.S. Highway 431 N 256-840-9240 SardiS City 12230 U.S. Highway 431 256-593-2945 CroSSville 19575 AL Highway 68/168 256-561-3104

Small bank, big difference. And big on lake living! In Marshall County, we’re big on quality of life and quality banking. Here’s some big news: Smaller is better when it comes to banking. Citizens Bank & Trust combines the friendly service of a locally-owned bank with our range of big-time Kasasa products. Add the benefits of excellent online banking and you’ve got the perfect package – just the right size and big on satisfaction.

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Welcome

Three hot news flashes from us, just for you

e’re not a newspaper. But this issue of Marshall County Good Life Magazine does have a spattering of news. We’re excited, and think many of you will be, that we’re now selling subscriptions to Good Life Magazine. Don’t worry. We’ll continue to make the GLM available for free from our fine advertisers. But since our first publication, readers have consistently asked how to subscribe, how can they be sure of getting the magazine every three months. We take it as the humbling but ultimate compliment that so many of you don’t want to miss a single issue of GLM. So now you don’t have to.

There’s more subscription details on page 62, and there should be a subscription card inside. Just mail us your address and a check for $18, and we’ll mail you the magazine every February, May, August and November. Hope to hear from you! Since we love photography,and so does Patrick Oden, we’ve joined forces with the Guntersville Library for a local photography contest. Check page 61 for the scoop on that. Here’s another news flash ... we finally entered the world of social media. With the help of Patrick, we now have two Facebook pages, one at Marshall County Good Life Magazine, the other its sister publication, Cullman Good Life Magazine.

Our approach to Facebook is a bit different than most businesses in that we want it to be more about you and your lifestyle than what we’re up to. We’ll give sneak peeks into upcoming stories. But we really want to show off your photos, your recipes, your good life. GLM is also all about community, and we also invite you to share announcements from your church, school and other organizations important to you. In short, we want to be your Facebook page. And your magazine. David Moore Publisher/editor

Contributors Book reviewer Annette Haislip is embarrassed about sharing this, but we insisted. She got stopped recently by a male employee at the Arab Walmart. He’d picked up GLM at an auto place in Albertville, seen her photo, read her reviews. Now, he beamed, Walmart has a “celebrity” customer. She doesn’t agree. We do. Only one man in Marshall County has a job like Connor McGowen ... coaching the new lacrosse team at UAH. Through his images and words, Patrick Oden provides an inside look into Connor’s life. Also, our Out ‘n’ About feature on the back pages gives you a look at some of the fine work by folks in his photo group. Sheila McAnear’s artistic skills led to creating a giant snow dog in her yard in 2014 and a family of snow penguins last winter, cutting out dog ears and spots from paper, folding beaks from orange plastic school binders. Mad magazine deadlines during January’s snow didn’t stop her this year ... there just wasn’t enough darn snow. 6

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Instead of the dry and boring tone of some history books, Steve Maze enjoys writing about fascinating people who contribute to their local history. “Our county was made up of saints and sinners,” he says. “I enjoy writing about them both, especially since that’s what my ancestors and their friends were.” Marshall Extension Coordinator Eddie Wheeler got a break this issue, and Hunter McBrayer, the office’s urban regional agent, stepped in to coordinate the Good ‘n’ Green feature. He lives outside of Boaz on a micro farm where, he says in this order, he raises chickens, a goat, a garden, cats, a wife and dogs.

David Moore, publisher and editor of Good Life Magazine, hasn’t fired himself yet. There’s not a lot more to be said, other than it’s still his privilege to live in Marshall County and to be able to showcase what a cool place this is to live and just how many fascinating people and things there are to write about. Thanks.

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Inside

10 Good Fun

Spring brings art shows, exhibits and plays

16 Good People

Dr. Randy Stewart takes a few roundabout routes

22 Good Reads

A remarkable woman, a remarkable musician

24 Good ’n’ Green

Master Gardeners offers tips for growing veggies

29 Good Cooking

Angie Moore has ingredients of old-school cooking and nutrition ... and lots of recipes to share

36 A world of wildflowers

Betty and Gerald Cofield have an amazing garden at their home in Boaz that explodes in the spring

Pictured here: Grace Wever of Union Grove created this collage using freemotion stitching and cut out pieces of hand-dyed textile. On the cover: A double columbine Aquilegia, known as a Winky Rose, blooms in late April in Betty and Gerald’s wonderful garden in Boaz. Photo by David Moore.

44 Good Eats

Crystal McKones’ Old Town Stock House would fit fine in Atlanta, but it really stands out here

46 Coins for a car

When Lonzie and John L. Mann bought their Chevy in Guntersville, they paid cold, hard “cash” for it

49 On, two, three ... jump!

Brenda and Dyane Charles talk about their pool and might put a few good ideas in your mind

54 New sport, new coach

Spend a day with the Albertville man who has the reins of the new Chargers lacrosse team at UAH

63 Grace Wever

She doesn’t weave, but this retired PhD scientist creates amazing images from hand-dyed textiles

70 Out ’n’ About

The new group, Marshall County Photography, shares great pictures they took while out ‘n’ about

David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

Sheila T. McAnear Advertising/art Director 256-640-3973 sheila.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Al 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net

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This year’s logo was a collaborative effort by art students at Guntersville middle and high schools. Several submitted ideas were compiled into a single concept that underwent a series of tweaks.

Art on the Lake has done it right for 55 years now

ou are doing something right when it’s been successful for 55 years. The Twenty-First Century Club in Guntersville is doing something right, because this year marks the 55th anniversary of its Art on the Lake. Rain or shine, the popular show is set for 10- a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17. Admission is $2 for those 13 and up. Set alongside Lake Guntersville at the rec center on Sunset Drive, expect to find 130 fine artists and craftsmen from throughout the Southeast and beyond. In addition, there will be food vendors, outdoor games and rides and a bake sale. Last year, the two-day show drew about 5,000, enabling the club to fund five rotating art scholarships and contribute to Christmas Coalition and Blessing in a Backpack. “We give back about $7,000 yearly,” says show chairman Julie Patton. Artists and craft vendors can apply through April 1 of each year. For applications, visit: www. artonthelake-guntersville.com; or contact Julie: julespp@aol.com. 10

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

At last year’s show, Guntersville artist Michael Banks won a purchase award presented by the Marshall County Foundation for Fine Arts. Below, artist Gurley Martin, also of Guntersville, shows Texas transplants Sarah and Bill Ostermiller his lighthouse painting based on a photo in the first issue of Good Life Magazine.

Art, theatre, food and even gambling mean it’s time to ...

Good Fun

Spring Forward!

• Now through Feb. 26 – Primary Colors “Primary Colors” at the Mountain Valley Art Council gallery features inspired work created by the children of the Crain Court Youth Center. With the help of MVAC board members and donated supplies, they were asked to express who they are through an array of media, including paint, crayon and photography. Visitors are asked to donate scrapbook paper, children’s scissors, glue sticks, markers, paint brushes, bottled paints, modeling clay, small canvases, etc., which will be provided to children through Crain Court, Child Advocacy Center and other local agencies. MVAC gallery is located at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville and is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday – Friday and 10 a.m.2p.m. Saturday. For more information: 256-571-7199.

• Now through April 31 – The Evolving Universe The young and curious as well as the technically savvy can learn about the “The Evolving Universe” through this truly cosmic exhibit hosted by the Guntersville Museum. It includes fullcolor images, backlit light boxes, text panels with images and sidebar panels and a stunning introductory video. The exhibit was developed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Admission is free. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. on weekends. (NOTE: Dates

for this exhibit changed since a story on it ran in the winter issue of GLM.) • Feb. 25 – Taste of Albertville Get a ton (well, at least a lot) of tasty samples from about 20 eating and

catering establishments in Albertville. The sixth annual serving of the popular restaurant awareness and fundraising event (this year benefiting Room In the Inn, a homeless ministry), is at 5-7:30 p.m. at RainAir Aircraft Services at Albertville Regional Airport. Tickets are $12 and available at Sebastien’s, Giovanni’s, Vantage Bank, Whitten’s Town and Country Clothes, Albertville City Hall and Albertville Chamber of Commerce. • Feb. 27 – Casino Night Place your bet. Draw your card. Wear your best poker face. And bring Lady – or Esquire – Luck with you. It’s the Guntersville Sunrise Rotary Club’s annual Casino Night at Guntersville Town Hall. Doors open at 6 p.m. to a buffet by The Pointe at Val

Monte, an open bar and play money to gamble with. Try your luck at blackjack, poker, craps, roulette and more. Cash in your winnings for tickets to win fun prizes and bid on silent auction items. Proceeds benefit Kelley’s Rainbow shelter operated by the Marshall County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Tickets are $65 and available at Total Dental Care in Guntersville, Clinic for Vision in Albertville or from any Sunrise Rotarian. • March-April – Fabulous Fifties auditions Relive the “Music of a Lifetime” and be a star, too. Auditions for this Whole Backstage show are 6:30 p.m. March 3-4 and 10 a.m. March 5. An audition workshop is set for 2 p.m. Feb. 28 and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 29. Directed by Johnny Brewer with choreography by Kate Griffith, this show has been cast and performed by the WBS to sellout performances dating to 2005. The original production includes selections by Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline, Elvis and more. For more info: 256-582-7469; or www.wholebackstage.com. • March 2 – Kennamer and Head photography Two talented Marshall County photographers – Judy Vest Kennamer and Danny Head – will exhibit their work this month at the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery. A reception will be held there 5-7 p.m. March 3. One of Judy’s photos can be seen on page 70 of this magazine. Since retiring as an engineer in 2007, the Guntersville native’s work has been published in FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Whether it’s scene, light or subject, Danny Head feels he does his best work when he makes an “emotional connection” to the subject. magazines, books, calendars and cards. Her photos grace covers of books by John Irvin, Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Michael Connelly, Cormac

McCarthy and Guntersville’s own Kathryn Lang. A graduate of Boaz High and Auburn University, Danny’s subject matter varies

widely, but perhaps his favorites are of travel and rural scenes. Published in the U.S., Canada and Australia, his work is widely used in the home décor

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industry and can be found in furniture showrooms worldwide. His photos are also the subject scene of jigsaw puzzles. The MVAC gallery is located at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville and is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday–Friday and 10 a.m.2p.m. Saturday. For more information: 256-571-7199. • March 17-19 – Annie Jr. This 7 p.m. production by The Whole Backstage Children’s Theatre features everyone’s favorite little redhead in her very first adventure. Directed by Kelleybrooke Brown with choreography by Jane Harvey, it’s based on the popular comic strip and adapted from the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, with a beloved book and score by Tony Award-winners Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. Little Orphan Annie charms everyone’s hearts despite a nextto-nothing start in 1930s New York City. Determined to find her parents who abandoned her years ago on an orphanage doorstep, she finds a new

home and family with billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Amongst a huge cast are Lily Kate Logan/Mari Jones, Jessalyn Charles/ Harley Tandy, Mia Galloway/Ava Owens, Elizabeth Skidmore/Gina Bess Carr, Alison Thornton/Grania Sullivan, Mallory Emmanuel/Shelby Boggus and Savannah Reece/Alli Fisher as Annie. Tickets are $10 at the door or prepurchased through the WBS office. • March 31-April 9 – AMT’s Tarzan The nationally recognized Arab Musical Theatre is off to the jungle this spring. Based on Disney’s epic animated musical adventure of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan features heart-pumping music by rock legend Phil Collins. Washed ashore in West Africa, an infant is raised by gorillas who name him Tarzan. Apart from striving for acceptance from his ape father, his life is mostly monkey business until a human expedition treks into his tribe’s territory. Shows are at 7 p.m. March 31-April 2 with 2 p.m. matinees April 2-3; shows

will also be at 7 p.m. April 7- 9. Tickets are $7-$14 and available online: www. amtshows.org. • April – Mason Holcomb exhibit The work of emerging, 20-year-old artist Mason Holcomb will be on exhibit this month at the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery. Details were incomplete at press time. The 2014 graduate of Guntersville High studied under Val Jones, learning to explore concepts of art rather than just technique. During school he won competitions such as the Alabama State Fish Art, National Duck Stamp Contest and The Congressional District Art Competition. He’ll continue his studies of art and business at Snead State Community College with a scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The MVAC – which he helps oversee – is located at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville and is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday – Friday and 10 a.m.-2p.m. Saturday. For more information: 256571-7199.

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• April 8-9 – Alabama Farm and Poultry Expo Now in its third year, the expo has grown into a two-day event. Set for 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Saturday at Boaz Outlet Center on Ala. 168, the expo salutes the local poultry industry with anything to do with farms, chickens and eggs Sign up for the chicken BBQ cook-off for prizes and ribbons, or the chicken eating contest for a full stomach. There will be farm and poultry equipment, exhibits, educational farm sessions and live farm life demonstrations by the Marshall County Extension. There also will be arts and crafts, food vendors, free children’s inflatables and other entertainment. For information on sponsorships and booths, call the Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce: 256-593-8154. • April 15-24 – The Dixie Swim Club This Whole Backstage production explores just four of the annual weekends spanning the 33 years in which five Southern women convene at the Outer Banks to laugh and talk about men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce and aging. When fate throws one of them a bad curve, this comedy turns in a poignant and surprising direction. Directed by Diane DuBoise, assisted by Kate Griffith, the play stars Nina Soden, Gena Rawdon, Laura Ellen Lewis, Chellee Bailey and Valerie MacMurdy. Performances are April 15-17 and 21- 24 at 7 p.m. except Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for students, $18 for seniors and go on sale April 1 online at: www. wholebackstage.com.

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Snapshot: Dr. Randy Stewart

Early life: Born 1956 in Louisville, Ky., to Clarence and Mary Lou Stewart. Graduated 1974 from Giles County High School in Pulaski, Tenn. Family: Met Cathy Dozier in 1975; he was a freshman at Samford University and minister of music at Carbon Hill Baptist Church; she was a high school senior in the youth group. Married in August 1977, the week after Elvis Presley died; heard Elvis songs non-stop driving to Orlando for their honeymoon. Daughters: Dr. Mary Catherine Laney, completing her residency in radiology at Baptist Medical Centers, married to Scott Laney, commercial lender at Cadence Bank in Birmingham; Allison Cease, nurse practitioner, married to Dr. Alan Cease, ER physician in Jackson, Miss. Grandchildren: Anna Scott, 4, and Will,1 in June; and Caroline Cease, 1 in March, and her new baby brother, expected in mid July. Education/career: BA, Samford University, 1974-78; premedical, at UAB, ’78-’80; University of Alabama School of Medicine, 1984; completed residency at Caraway Methodist in Birmingham, 1987. Went into private practice in Winfield four years before moving to the Arab area and taking a position as an ER physician and later a hospitalist at Marshall Medical Center North. He’s also the collaborating physician at clinics in Guntersville and Grant. Other pursuits: Writing, golf and church, singing in the choir and teaching Sunday school. 16

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Dr. Randy Stewart The roundabout way into the ministry through medical schools ... and Jalapa Story and photo By David Moore

t’s roughly 2,800 miles round trip as the crow flies from Marshall County to Guatemala. Doctors don’t usually make house calls these days, but four times this year Dr. Randy Stewart plans to make that medical call from here to Jalapa, Guatemala. It won’t exactly be a house call, but it is a calling. It won’t be a straight crow flight, not the way airlines take roundabout routes to reach their journey’s end. But it’s certainly not the first time Dr. Stewart took a roundabout route. The doctor, who lives at Cherokee Ridge in Union Grove, took a roundabout route to ministry work. Most of Randy’s medical work these days is as a hospitalist at Marshall Medical Center North, a position he and Dr. B.C. Maze started there in 2008. Hospitalists, simply put, treat people in the hospital, a situation brought on by fewer and fewer general physicians treating patients beyond the office. “It’s pure internal medicine, primary care for adults,” Randy says of his job. “It’s what I am trained to do.” He claims to know just enough music theory to fool people, but he’s well-known on Brindley Mountain as the former minister of music at his church, Arab First Baptist. He loved the creativity involved, as well as the worship side of it. He’s also founder of Four Friends International. It’s a medical mission group named for the four friends in the Bible story who tear a hole in a roof and lower a paralyzed man, each taking a corner of his pallet, down to be healed by Jesus, who was preaching below.

Randy and his group have not ripped a hole in a roof; rather they’ve built a roof with a clinic under it that is working to heal the poor people in a city of about 300,000 located 90 miles from Guatemala City – and a long distance from Marshall County.

How did your roundabout route to the ministry come about? You have to go back to my upbringing. My father, maternal grandfather and two uncles were all ministers. I went to college at Sanford to become the fifth minister to dot the family tree. In the midst of my studies I came across a lot of things that made me question my beliefs and made me realize my beliefs were tied to my upbringing. So my beliefs were not as secure as I had thought they were. The future scientific, analytic side of me was coming out. I needed reasons to believe and not just subjective feelings. I had a period of ... well, the best way to describe it is doubt. I never disbelieved. Is this really true or not? That was the question. If it was not, I did not want to play a charade and do the Sunday thing for no reason at all. So I could not see myself standing before a congregation. The reason I went into medicine was noble, but it was against my undercurrent of doubt. Medicine was the most appropriate avenue of ministry for me given my spiritual stage at the time. I graduated with a major in religion and history and two science courses to my name. After medical school, I had a private practice for four years in Winfield. It was a little boring to me. I did some ER work on the side and liked it.

Good People

5questions In 1991, Marshall Medical Center North had just formed, and I came here and worked with Dr. Paul Christian. Even my entrance into medicine was a little of the road less traveled. It’s a noble profession, but it was an escape from the traditional ministry. I have never regretted being a physician. It’s a wonderful, challenging field. But I never would have pursued it had it not been for the enormous doubt that came upon me in my college years. In my early 30s, I began to get some answers to my questions. I had some musical tools, and it was natural for me to apply them to a ministry at that point. I served as a bi-vocational minister of music at Gilliam Springs Baptist Church in Arab and later on as the interim. That segued into being minister of music at Arab First Baptist for eight years and a year as interim. During that time, starting in 2004-2005, I began putting my little journey of doubts into book form. Writing became a hobby. I had a vision of writing a six-book series that answers my doubt. The books became part of my ministry. In late 1990s, I established TESA (Temporary Emergency Services of Arab) with Dr. John Crider. We gave it over to Christian Women’s Job Corps of Marshall County. At that point, none of my ministries were tied to my medicine. That changed in 2011 when Dr. Paul Murphy, our pastor at First Baptist, invited me on a medical mission trip to Jalapa, Guatemala. I had done a few little missions but this was my first medical mission. The best way I can say it is that it was a life-changing thing. It was as much of a call as I have ever had to FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Above, a little girl wades through the dump near the clinic with a blanket a visiting medical mission team gave her. Arab builder Randy Parker, upper right, and Edgar, a Guatemalan worker, pause during sweaty construction work on the clinic in 2015. At right, Dr. Victor Sparks, head of the ER at Marshall Medical Center North, consults with two women during a 2014 trip to Jalapa. Photos supplied by Dr. Randy Stewart. reach out to people for their medical needs and to attach it to helping them spiritually as well.

How did the mission get started, and where has it advanced to today? Jalapa is a poor city. We ministered to an area 400 yards from the city dump, one of Jalapaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poorest housing 18

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areas. We saw the poorest of the poor, including people who lived at the dump, got their food and shelter from there and any money they could make from things they gathered at the dump and sold. They had no access to medical care. There is a state run medical system, but it has economical challenges. The poor have learned not to go through that system for chronic

illnesses like high blood pressure and diabetes or for minor acute illness. If they went to the ER, they would be put at the end of the line perpetually. They canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford a doctor in town and are not sick enough to go to the ER. They had no option. The next year, in 2012, I asked permission from a church by the dump to build a medical clinic nearby and them to partner with us. We

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wanted the clinic to be something the church was responsible for. They were a team – church and clinic. So we started building a clinic in a country an ocean away from Marshall County. I was diving into the unknown. We purchased land in 2013, basically built the clinic in 2014 and used the building for the first time in an unfinished state in May 2015. We started daily operations last August. I was down in October and am going back in February (2016). It will be my ninth trip. I’ll make four, one-week trips this year. On two of the trips I will go by myself, or maybe with one other person. On the others, I will take a medical team. When we go with a group we will see 700-900 patients that week at the clinic. We have a nurse, Lilian, functioning as a practitioner, who lives in an apartment we built in the back of the clinic and sends me a report every day. She delivers care five and half days a week and usually sees 20 to 30 patients a day. Six is the least she’s seen; 62 is the most. Last week she saw 214 patients. The patients’ problems vary from acute to chronic. The ones I am really interested in helping have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and seizures. They have no options for getting medication, so we have a pharmacy there. Last month, 60 patients got blood pressure meds, nine got seizure meds and 25 got diabetes medication. That’s the group I am so interested in helping get medicine, but on top of them the clinic also sees colds, influenzas, diarrhea, minor trauma ... all of that.

What’s your vision and plan for the mission and clinic in the future? We want to increase what we can do at the clinic. We need other types of caregivers. I’m hoping to take a dentist with one of the groups this year. We need an orthopedist and have a need for hearing aids. We have a need for a prosthetic arm. I have a 20

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Help carry a corner of the cot Dr. Randy Stewart is the first to say Four Friends International Ministry doesn’t happen because of one person. And “four,” as the name implies, doesn’t even start to cover it. It’s more like 4,000. “We have multiple people from multiple churches in multiple states that partner with us,” Randy says. “From donations to packing up and going with us, there are so many ways people have chipped in to help.” Named for the story in Mark 2:1-12 of four friends carrying the sick man to Jesus, the idea behind the name, Randy says, is “Pick up your corner of the cot.” With help from his home church, Arab First Baptist, local health professionals and many others, the medical clinic in Jalapa, Guatemala is a reality. But with only a single nurse practitioner there full time, more help is needed. There’s also a need for a second clinic to help the poor in Jalapa. For more information on joining the effort, please see: www.fourfriendsinternational. blogspot.com. measurement for a guy who’s about 30 who had a traumatic amputation. The word is getting out. But all of these things can almost overwhelm you. All you can do is try to make a dent. Our goal, our vision is to have several clinics. On the other side of Jalapa the need there is perhaps even greater than the site at the dump.

How has the mission and clinic fit into the vision/drive/spirit you have for your life, into this roundabout road you traverse?

It fits into the basic call in high school to be minister … a call I sort of ran away from and detoured into medicine because of my doubts. It is amazing to me how it has come full circle. Medicine has become the main outlet. I love getting things started and running with them, so this mission and clinic is right in my wheelhouse.

What’s something about Dr. Randy Stewart that most people don’t know? I was one of the people present when Apollo 11 took off for the moon in 1969. I was 13, and Dad said let’s go down there and see that thing. I remember the traffic on the road from Titusville, Fla. I have never in my life been in a traffic jam like that, even in New York City. I remember being across a body of water from Cape Canaveral and seeing that rocket way in the distance going up. I was there and heard it and saw it and felt it. It was pretty powerful. Another thing … Dad is an extrovert’s extrovert. I’m more introverted, like Mom. I’ve learned how to function out of my comfort zone. Now I am very comfortable being in front of people, but back then I would be singing in the congregation, and Dad would say, “You’re singing pretty well. Come on up here and lead us.” He’s also a big Kentucky basketball fan. We used to go to SEC tournaments, and every time we would see somebody famous, he would introduce them to me like I was the famous person. “This is Randy!” I have shaken hands with Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Cawood Ledford – the most renowned play-byplay announcer in the history of Kentucky – Jerry Clower, governors of Kentucky and Tennessee and probably others. Not too bad for an introvert … but I made sure I did not do that to my kids. Good Life Magazine

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Good Reads

A remarkable woman’s life takes new flight in this novel

Albom ‘plays’ a different tune with Frankie’s magic strings

n “Circling the Sun,” Paula McLain novelizes the life of a remarkable woman, Beryl Markham, who in 1936, at age 28, became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic east to west. Born in England and brought to Britishcontrolled Kenya at age I felt a sense of 4, her mother abandoned anticipation of being on the family a year later. Her the verge of something father, a horse trainer, left Beryl to her own devices. interesting. She roamed freely with the local tribes and attended school infrequently. Financial difficulties forced her father to sell his farm and move to South Africa. Rather than joining him, she entered into a loveless marriage at age 16 with a much older man whom she soon left. Beryl took up horse training and soon became the youngest as well as the first female to become licensed in Kenya. A beautiful, independent, headstrong woman, she was involved in many affairs and adventures with wealthy, aristocratic colonials. Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote “Out of Africa,” became a friend, and both women were lovers of the legendary big game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton. He introduced Beryl to flying, and she became the first woman in Kenya to receive her pilot’s license. Her autobiography detailing her crossing of the Atlantic, “West with the Night,” first published in 1942, was republished successfully in 1983 allowing Beryl to live her last years in comfort. – Annette Snow Haislip

itch Albom, author of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” has decidedly written a decidedly different style of novel with “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto,” which could be categorized as fantasy fiction. Albom, who is also a member of a band, “Everyone joins a band has written a paean to in life, only some of them American music using a play music.” unique story telling device. The setting is a funeral in Spain for Frankie Presto, perhaps the world’s most talented guitarist, who also happens to be a once-famous rock star. The chapters shift from being narrated by the Voice of Music to that of contemporary musicians attending the funeral whose lives have been touched by the legendary guitarist. It’s through their memories that Albom reveals the life story of the man. Frankie was born during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. His mother was killed shortly after his birth. Through a series of unique circumstances and questionable coincidences, he finds a loving foster father, is taught to play the guitar from a once famous classical musician and then arrives alone in the United States at the age of 9 with his guitar and its six magical strings. Somewhat unbelievably, Frankie manages to become involved in every type of music from blues and jazz to swing, pop and rock and roll. He also was able to meet with famous musicians, including Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, Hank Williams and even Elvis Presley. A lovely little love story adds some emotional reality to all the musical settings. – Annette Snow Haislip

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Good ‘n’ Green

Sow Master Gardener tips this year for better veggies The expertise and sweat of the Marshall County Master Gardeners last year produced a beautiful garden on Cha-la-kee Road. But it wasn’t just pretty. They grew 8,021 pounds of veggies that were donated to CASA (Care and Assurance to the Aging and Homebound). Master Gardeners J.D and Annette Swartzlander spearheaded the ⅓-acre project about 12 years ago. The Marshall County Extension Office and the Marshall County Master Gardeners will start the next course to earn MG status and expertise this fall. For more information on joining, call the Extension: 256-582-2009. Until then, improve your veggie garden this season using these tips from some of the MG volunteers at the CASA garden …

Kathy Barnes of Albertville weeds around newly emerging peppers. She also side dresses crops with nitrogen. “It keeps them yielding heavily,” she says. “Too much, though, makes for big healthy green plants with no fruit.”

George Darling of Arab shows off a small but pretty part of the 4 tons of vegetables grown in the CASA garden last year. Successional planting prevents all of your crops from producing at once. Plant your squash, say, over a succession of weeks and you don’t have to harvest it all at once. George adds that planting cover crops, such as rye, sorghum or clover, during typical non-gardening seasons helps prevent erosion and improves the soil.

3 Carroll Nicholas of Arab suggests growing peas on upright structures. The Master Gardeners use cattle or stock panels

to increase yield, reduce pest and disease pressure and make harvesting easy. This sort of fencing can also be used to grow tomatoes and upright crops, and it usually lasts much longer than your garden.

Ingrid Gibson of Browns Valley pulls morning glories from rows of corn. “Weeding for a few minutes a day keeps you from getting behind and the garden from becoming a weed patch,” she says. Weeds rob nutrients and water from the plants.

Red plastic mulch covers the ground around the tomatoes. “We are always looking for new technology and techniques. We read about using plastic mulch around tomatoes to increase yield,” says Ray Barnes of Albertville. “We tried it this year, and it really worked! It conserved water and cut down on disease, insects and weeds.” Judy McMurry, who lives in Warrenton, says they also found that stringing mint-scented garbage sacks around the outside of the corn kept the raccoons out. 24

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Good Cooking To you From: Dessie, Lareu, a new sense of healthiness and ...

Angie’s Kitchen Pictures and photos By David Moore

hat do you say about a cook who’s only ho-hum about eating her own meals? If you’re talking about Angie Moore, you say, “She’s a great cook. She’s just eating healthy these days.” “I’m not a big eater,” says the administrative assistant for the Marshall County office of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. “I like to cook an array of things, and I like to switch it up. But if I am going to eat it, I will be health conscious.” Like many good cooks, her taste has evolved. “I’ve always been the homemaker type,” she grins. “When I was little, I got sewing machines and cooking utensils for Christmas. I still have my sewing machine.” Her grandmother, Dessie Vaughn of Guntersville, was an early influence on her cooking. It was on Dessie’s old black pot-bellied stove that Angie cooked her first meal – breakfast with bacon and eggs. “It was old-school cooking,” Angie says. “There was no recipe. You knew it in your head. I don’t have a recipe for collard greens, cornbread and fried chicken … these were things I grew up on.” “I learned from my grandmother, and when I got older I realized I had a knack for cooking.” Another early culinary influence on young Angie Russell was the late Guntersville homemaker Lareu Kennamer, and like Dessie, she was old school. “I still have her hand-written recipes and use them from time to time. They are family recipes,” Angie says.

1980 graduate of Guntersville High School, Angie went to Snead State Community College for a while. She put her sewing skills to work at the former Lee Apparel in

Angie Moore is a lot more likely to cook up a nice meal than she is to chow down on it herself. Guntersville until it closed, after which she went to business school. That, in turn, helped her land a job at the Extension office in 1991. “I found my niche with Extension,” Angie says. “It was all about cooking, farming, children, nutrition … “It was the perfect job for me. I was doing all of that before I came here, but I could add my services and learn, too.” The more Angie learned about cooking, the more nutrition conscious she became. Her culinary evolution – epiphany, if you will – was not necessarily hailed at home by Chris, her husband since 1988, or by Hannah Grace, their daughter, a student at Alabama A&M University. “Most of the stuff my family likes to eat is old school,” Angie grins. “Soul Food.” FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

“Chris is eating better, but not by choice. Every once in a while he’ll get a good Sunday meal.” Hannah, who started out studying business, is now in family and consumer sciences. She could be a nutritionist in a hospital or school system, but so far she’s shown little interest in cooking. “Not unless it’s a pizza you buy and put in the oven,” Angie laughs. While “chefs” are much more popular

SLOW-COOKED PORK SHOULDER 1 (3½-4-lb.) pork shoulder half, with skin 6 large garlic cloves 1 Tbsp. coarse kosher salt (or 1½ tsp. fine salt) 2 tsp. ground cumin 2 tsp. dried oregano ½ cup lime juice 1 cup water Mince garlic, then mash together with salt, cumin and oregano using the flat side of a large knife. Making incisions about two inches apart in pork through skin and meat, stuff incisions with some of garlic mixture. Put pork in slow-cooker pot. Combine the remaining garlic mixture with lime juice and water and pour around pork. Cover pot and set heat to high. Cook until pork is falling off the bone, about 6 hours. Preheat the broiler. Transfer the pork to a serving platter and pull off the skin, in one piece, if possible, with tongs (it will come off easily) and cover meat with foil to keep warm. Put the skin on a foil-lined broiler pan and broil 6-8 inches from heat until it is browned and crackly, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour some of sauce around pork and transfer remainder to a gravy boat. Lean skin against shoulder and serve. 28

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than they were, family cooking may be going by the wayside, Angie worries.

or her own cooking, Angie remains nutrition conscious. She still bakes some, but it’s now a special occasion when her specialty – pound cake – graces Chris’ dessert plate. “But I do like to cook,” she says. “I try new recipes, even elegant ones sometimes. And I will taste them.”

OK, she’s doesn’t want her or her family to have high blood pressure. And she’s just not a big eater. But sometimes … “Actually I do go on junk binges,” she confesses. “Sometimes I just have to have that big chocolate bar. That taste has to be fulfilled.” So, in the spirit of Dessie and Lareu and the new cooking, too, here are some recipes from Angie’s kitchen ...

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VEGETABLE TIAN 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1 medium yellow onion 1 tsp. minced garlic 1 medium zucchini 1 medium yellow squash 1 medium potato 1 medium tomato 1 tsp. dried thyme salt and pepper to taste 1 cup shredded Italian cheese Original recipe serves 6

FAMILY FAVORITE CROCK POT ROAST 1 (4-5 lb.) beef roast, any kind 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package brown gravy mix, dry 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package dried Italian salad dressing mix 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package ranch dressing mix, dry ½ cup water Place beef roast in Crock Pot. Mix the dried mixes together in a bowl and sprinkle over the roast. Pour the water around the roast and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Serves 8. 30

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Preheat the oven to 400. Finely dice onion and mince garlic. Sauté both in a skillet with olive oil until softened (about five minutes). While the onion and garlic are sautéing, thinly slice the rest of the vegetables. Coat the inside of an 8×8 square or round baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the softened onion and garlic in the dish.

Lean the thinly sliced vegetables vertically against the side of the baking dish, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and thyme. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with shredded cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

LIGHT CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS 1 3 lb. chicken 1 pkg. 8-inch flour tortillas 2 cans (10 oz. each) cream of chicken soup 2 tablespoons margarine 1 can chicken broth, plus broth from chicken Salt and pepper to taste Boil chicken in 2½ quarts of water. Add salt and pepper to boiling water. Cook for 45 minutes or until done. Remove chicken and debone. Add margarine, soup and broth to the broth from the chicken. Cut tortillas into 1-inch strips and add to boiling broth a few at a time. Stir continuously. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Return chicken to broth mixture and continue cooking for a few minutes until dumplings are tender. Add more salt if necessary and a lot of pepper.

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QUICHE LORRAINE AU FROMAGE 1 9-inch pie crust. 8 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled 1 cup shredded Colby/Monterey Jack cheese combo 3 eggs 2 cups half-and-half Heat oven to 425. Sprinkle bacon and cheese onto bottom of crust. Whisk eggs and half-and-half until blended; pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes Reduce oven temperature to 350. Bake 35-40 min. or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. NOTE: You can make your own pie crust, however I use a frozen one.

BREAKFAST OR BRUNCH CASSEROLE 1 lb. bulk pork sausage 1 can crescent dinner rolls 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded ¾ cup milk ¼ tsp. salt ⅛ tsp. pepper 4 eggs, beaten

Crumble sausage in a medium skillet; cook over medium heat until brown, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Line bottom of a 13x9 baking dish with crescent rolls, firmly pressing perforations to seal. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese. Combine remaining ingredients; beat well and

pour over sausage. Bake in oven at 425 for 15 minutes or until set. Let stand 5 minutes then cut into squares and serve immediately. NOTE: The recipe calls for mozzarella, but with so many cheese blends on the market I try different ones. I enjoy the ones with cheddar mixed in.

QUICK PEPPERONI SPAGHETTI 1 large onion, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 1 lb. ground beef 1 (3 oz.) package sliced pepperoni 1 (32 oz.) jar commercial spaghetti sauce (any flavor) 1 (12 oz.) package spaghetti 1 cup (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese* 1 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese 32

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Combine onion, green pepper, ground beef and pepperoni in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat until beef browns, stirring to crumble. Remove from heat; drain. Return to skillet. Add spaghetti sauce, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook spaghetti according to package directions, omitting salt. Drain. Arrange spaghetti on an ovenproof platter

(13x9x2); spoon meat sauce on top. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over sauce; bake at 400 for 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven; top with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. Yields: 6 servings. NOTE: *I like to use the new combination cheeses, like Italian blend (mozzarella/Parmesan) Monterey Jack/ Colby, etc. Or try your favorite cheese. There is a lot to choose from.

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QUICK BANANA PUDDING 8 bananas 2 boxes Vanilla Wafers 1 8 oz. container sour cream 1 can Eagle Brand milk 3 cups milk 1 large container Cool Whip 2 small boxes of vanilla pudding Gradually mix milk and pudding. Add sour cream, Cool Whip and Eagle Brand milk. Mix thoroughly. If it seems a little too thick, add more milk. In a serving bowl, layer Vanilla Wafers, bananas and pudding, ending with pudding. Repeat. NOTE: You can top as you like with whipped cream, strawberries, etc. Our favorite topping is to simply crumble Vanilla Wafers on top of the pudding. BLOND TEXAS SHEET CAKE 1 (18.25-oz.) package white cake mix 1 cup buttermilk ⅓ cup butter, melted 4 egg whites ¼ tsp. almond extract Beat together ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until blended. Pour batter into a greased 15x10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 2 hours. Prepare caramel-pecan frosting. Pour immediately over cooled cake in pan, and spread quickly to cover cake. STRAWBERRY CAKE

1 box white cake mix 1 small box strawberry Jell-O ¾ cup Wesson Oil 4 eggs 1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, crushed

Mix cake mix and Jell-O; add oil and eggs. Beat for 3 minutes. Add strawberries; beat for 1 minute. Bake at 350 in 3 layers in 8-inch pans for 25 minutes. Cool and ice. ICING 1 stick butter, room temperature 1 box powdered sugar ½ cup strawberries, crushed 1 cup chopped pecans Cream butter; add 1cup sugar and strawberries; then add remaining sugar. (If too much juice from strawberries and icing is too thin, add more sugar.) Stir in pecans. 34

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CARAMEL-PECAN FROSTING 1 cup chopped pecans ½ cup butter 1 cup light brown sugar ⅓ cup buttermilk 2 cups powdered sugar ½ tsp. vanilla extract ¼ tsp. almond extract Place chopped pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes or until lightly toasted. Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil in a 3½ qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat, and slowly whisk in buttermilk. Return mixture to heat and bring to a boil. Pour into bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla and almond extract, beating at medium-high speed until smooth (about 1 minute). Stir in pecans. Use immediately.

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Step into Betty and Gerald Cofieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

World of wildflowers

Where dirt under their fingernails produces a garden of ever-changing beauty

Story and photos By David Moore

y definition, wildflowers grow freely without cultivation. By extension, a wildflower garden should teem with beautiful perennial blooms that pop out of the earth on their own, that thrive with no fuss or muss, much less hard manual labor. Right? Wrong â&#x20AC;Ś at least when it comes to the manual labor part. Just ask Gerald and Betty Cofield, whose wildflower garden covers about a third of their five-acre home in Boaz. Any garden that size demands forehead sweat (at least), fingernail dirt, ibuprofen and an ointment or two. On the other hand, their garden is a paradise of ever-changing beauty that covers a large wooded lot set off from their yard proper by a weathered split rail fence. The main entrance, a few steps down from an outdoor living area, quickly forks into several inviting paths. Small statues stand guard here and there. Water sprays from a small pond. A wooden footbridge spans a creek. But the main attraction lies delicately down by your feet. Bloodroot, trout lilies and other early risers nose through still

In mid-March, Betty and Gerald Cofieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden looks like more work than beauty. Even then, out of the ground, toothwort, right, and other wildflowers are starting the show. 38

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Large patches of bloodroot, above, are in bloom by mid-March. Likewise with the interestinglooking grape hyacinth at left.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

wintery ground, nudging aside brown leaf carpet. As the weather warms, more and more wildflowers and native plants appear … trillium, spiderwort, wild ginger, ferns galore, exotic lady slippers and jacks in the pulpit. Native azaleas, followed by hydrangea in June, color the woods. Viburnum blooms and berry clusters linger through fall. The Cofields love it all. “I am thankful to the Lord for the garden,” Betty says. Nonetheless, she and Gerald are the ones with dirt under their fingernails.

he work started as soon as the Cofields bought their Fuller Road property in 1991. “It was a wooded area with briars, honeysuckle and poison oak,” Betty says. “It was a jungle, but it had a big oak tree out in it, and I was going to sit under it one day and read books.” By the time they built and moved into their house in ’96, a lot of the jungle had been cleared, a few azaleas planted. Thinking ahead, they laid out the paths so that Gerald could keep them cut with a lawnmower. To call it a garden yet would be a stretch, but they dug and raked, hoed and hewed and kept on planting more. Retirement in 1998 freed Gerald for more garden work … though once that got him in trouble. Betty, then a rural route mail carrier in Boaz, came home one evening to learn he’d been clearing in the garden with – a what? – a Bush Hog? The Cofields always planted irises and such wherever they lived, but now they focused mostly on native plants, though they grow numerous garden-variety flowers. “I’d come in from work and be planting, and Gerald was holding a flashlight,” she says. At a visit to the Cullman County Native Plant Society’s biennial wildflower sale Betty was introduced to trillium. Her love of the wildflower is reflected in the myriad varieties that flourish in her garden. A big factor in their success came in 2003 when Gerald and Betty took the Master Gardeners course through the Marshall County Extension office. Their love of wildflowers also led to new common-interest friends, and in 2005 the Cofields became charter members of the Blount County Wildflower Society. 40

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Betty loves them all, she’s proud of her yellow and pink, top left, lady slippers, a type of orchid. Continuing across the top is a non-native purple columbine, a jack-in-the-pulpit and red dianthus, a garden flower, blooming around a small statue. Elsewhere, other statues circle a small pond and fountain. Above, is one of the many clumps of blooms on a native Grancy gray beard tree.

Wildflower folks invite you to join Don’t worry about the “Blount County” part. Love wildflowers? Think you might? Either way, regardless of where you live, the Blount County Wildflower Society invites you to attend one of their informative meetings. (Plus, they’re nice people.) The thriving group of 25-30 wildflower enthusiasts includes Marshall County couples Tom and Joyce Davis and Betty and Gerald Cofield. Gerald is the president. The group meets at 10 a.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Frank Green Building on the right side of U.S. 231 at the bottom of the hill as you come into Oneonta. Many of the members also belong to the Alabama Wildflower Society and most are Master Gardeners. “That gives us friends and connections all over the state of Alabama,” says Betty Cofield. For more information call the Cofields: 256-486-7784. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

With a hundred or more different flowers, Betty and Gerald’s garden blooms in beautiful waves through the course of three seasons. Among the many spring bloomers are, clockwise from upper left, spiderworts, forget-me-nots, trillums and hybrid hyacinth.

erald’s career was in electrical maintenance and included a stint with Lockheed; work on power plants, the former Monsanto plant and Tocco industrial plants and other big facilities; subcontract work at Redstone Arsenal; and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Well-qualified, he built their house himself. In 2000 he decided to add a freestanding shop … at least it started that simple. “We had talked about making an outdoor living area, but it ballooned,” Betty says. Her mom, Ophie Peppers, piped in, pointing out a sunroom featured in Better Homes and Gardens. “While you’re building a shop,” she 42

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said, “why can’t you build a sunroom?” Along with his workshop, Gerald produced a feature-worthy creation. Highceilinged with expansive windows and a kitchenette, the sunroom is also where the Cofields store ferns, begonias and other potted plants for the winter. Toting them in and out is just part of the price required for life with the beauty of plants and gardens. “It’s year round really,” Betty says of the workload. “You have weeds that grow in summer,” Gerald grins dryly, “and weeds that grow in winter.” Which raises the question … What’s the difference between weeds and wildflowers? “I read a book that says a weed is a

wildflower out of place,” Gerald says. “But I read something in Readers Digest on how you tell the difference and it said: ‘If you pull it up and it comes back, it’s a weed.’”

owever you define the word, thanks to their efforts the Cofields live in the world of wildflowers. “I like to look at them, smell the different fragrances,” Gerald says. “There aren’t too many days I don’t go out there. But she walks through the garden nearly every day.” “I never had the time to sit under that tree and read any books,” Betty says, not sounding sad at all. “But I love doing the garden and friends we make doing it.” Good Life Magazine

Gerald Cofield built his and Bettyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sunroom, above, as well as their house, below. Born near Crossville, he went to school at Albertville, she at Boaz. They met at a party at the Double Bridges in 1953 and married the next year. Gerald studied electronics at Gadsden State; she later attended Snead State. They have three grown sons and a grown daughter: David and Teresa, Guntersville; Mark and Robin, Albertville, Joe and Rose, Boaz; and Teresa and Dan Nelson, Albertville. They also have five grandkids and six greats.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Long Beach, Miss. She returned in the second grade then moved again during her sophomore year at Albertville High, this time to Hoover. After graduating from The University of Alabama, Crystal went to New York City. Working as a server and bartender inspired

Good Eating Story and photos By David Moore

Crystal credits much of her early interest to her well-traveled grandmother, Lydia Waddell. “She grew up during the Depression and was good at throwing scraps together,” she laughs. “She would whip up some awesome dinner out of whatever she had.” The first big meal Crystal cooked was fried chicken, but it came with strings attached. Her mother didn’t want a mess made in her cast iron skillet. Only when Crystal agreed to clean up after herself – no small detail there – did her mom agree.

hen preparing innovative dishes and running her Guntersville restaurant, the devil’s in the details for Crystal McKone. On the other hand, diners at Old Town Stock House find unique delights to savor in those same details. It’s hard to say exactly when and where those devilish details begin. It’s easier to see they’re essential ingredients to creating a rystal says she still standout eating experience. appreciates the love and Mornings find Crystal flavor cooked into homey paying attention to freshness dishes, but Crystal knew by buying small quantities that market was covered at local markets. It’s the in this area. Likewise with same as she takes delivery wings and fried fish. of garden-fresh produce The restaurant she and meats from purveyors envisioned would fit well and farmers in Marshall and in Atlanta, but it would be nearby counties. one of many such eateries Either alone early, there. Bringing her vision to or after her staff arrives, Marshall County, however, attention to detail is paid to it would stand out. prepping vegetables, baking So Crystal opened Old desserts, butchering meats Town Stock House April and creating dressings. 30, 2015. It’s fittingly Tuesday is burger night named. Built across the at Old Town, and even that street from the courthouse requires hand-patted meat. in 1911 as a Rexall To meet her standards, it drugstore, the second floor takes two hours to prepare where Crystal is located Chef and owner Crystal McKone refuses to take the easy way out the potato gratin she serves was once a storage room. when it comes to buying, prepping and serving food to her customers. as a side to her steaks. And Most recently, the upstairs, all of those delicious soups accessed from Old Town and sauces start with Crystal Street, was KC’s Coyote her to earn a degree in culinary arts from Café and Table 6. making her own chicken and veal stock. “That’s not ground-breaking for most what is now The International Culinary The atmosphere is comfortable. The kitchens, but for this area I think it is,” Center. menu is small but changing at least From there she moved to Atlanta. Like seasonally. The food is creatively delicious. Crystal says. “If you start with a good stock, sharpening a good kitchen knife, she honed Details are attended to. the rest is kind of easy.” With Crystal at the helm – or stove, as her culinary skills working at Craft Atlanta, “I want people to know we are doing a the case might be – the attention to detail St. Regis Hotel, Buttermilk Kitchen and lot of labor-intensive things with a focus is evident when you sit down to eat at Old Tom Colicchio’s. She was general manager on freshness, sustainability and supporting at The Hungry Peach when she got the small businesses,” Crystal says. “I don’t Town Stock House. chance to bring her skills back home. know that it’s for my ego, but I feel like I While her skills came to fruition in am making a difference in our area.” aughter of Johnny and Linda “Nothing makes me happier than to see McKone of Guntersville and Sara Jane New York and Atlanta, they trace back McKone of Atlanta, Crystal has five siblings. to childhood days playing restaurant and people enjoying my food.” Good Life Magazine As a baby, she moved from Albertville to asking her mom to buy caviar.

Old Town Stock House

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Where the delight for the customer is in the details

The upstairs restaurant, overlooking Gunter Avenue, offers a deeply comfortable and casual atmosphere. Below, the chunky crab cake sits atop a patty of potato latke. Chef Crystal McKone serves amuse gueule with all entrées to “amuse” your taste buds. Never the same, amuse ranges from soup, below, to local goat cheese or smoked trout with dip. At left, her unique grouper dish is deliciously served with grapes capers and beurré rouge over cauliflower puree and roasted cauliflower. The lamb chops, she says, are probably coming back to the menu because of popular demand.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Don Fleming now owns the Manns’ ‘53 Chevy. Photo by Steve Maze; others are his copies from the Advertiser-Gleam. Coin graphic created by Sheila McAnear.

Coins for a car Story by Steve A. Maze

had heard the story all my life, but didn’t know if it was true. My curiosity got the best of me, so I did a little research in some old Guntersville newspapers to see if I could verify the unusual circumstances surrounding the purchase of a new car more than a half-century earlier. It turns out the story is indeed true. Lonzie Holaway and his wife, Ann, purchased a new Chevrolet Bel Air in July 1953 and mostly paid for it with half dollars. They were operating Holaway’s Store located south of Arab when Ann began saving the silver halves. They weren’t just any kind of half dollars, either. She only saved Benjamin Franklin coins that had come into circulation a few years earlier. She accumulated them over an 18-month period, partly from the store and partly from home. One day Lonzie and John L. Mann of Arab were driving by Brown Chevrolet Co. in Guntersville when the new car fever hit Lonzie. He spotted the brown Bel Air and asked Mr. Brown if 46

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he could take it home, adding that he would pay cash for it if a salesman would come to his store and pick up the money. Mr. Brown knew Lonzie was good for the money and let him take the car with him. Unfortunately, the bank had closed by the time Lonzie returned home. So, when the salesman arrived, Lonzie pulled out $1,490 – in silver halves. That’s 2,980 coins.

Lonzie and Ann Holaway with their car.

ll of those half dollars nearly filled a half-bushel basket. The shocked salesman loaded all the coins and hauled them back to Guntersville. Naturally, that many silver halves weigh a considerable amount, and in trying to lift the basket at the car dealership, the top was nearly torn off the basket as an old photo copied from the July 10, 1953, Advertiser-Gleam newspaper shows. Lonzie and Ann Holaway are now deceased, but the story doesn’t end there.

Don V. Fleming of Arab later bought the store the Holaways had owned. Not only was he the proprietor of the store for many years, he is still the proud owner of the 1953 Bel Air, which he purchased from Lonzie before his death. The car is basically in its original, purchase condition and has less than 48,000 miles on it. About the biggest difference is that Don didn’t pay for it in silver halves. Up until the end of his life, all those half David Henderson Jr. of Brown dollars were still on Chevrolet counts the halves. Lonzie’s mind. The day before he died, he went fishing with Don, who later remembered Lonzie saying, “I wonder how much those silver halves would be worth today …?” Good Life Magazine

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On the count of three, jump in. “February, March, April …” OK, maybe jump on four. Or five or six. But if you’ve been thinking about putting in a pool, spring is a good time to get started. Or if you’re like Brenda and Dyane Charles of Arab, who already have a backyard pool, spring is a good time to plan your landscaping and decorating projects.

A small ceramic frog lounges beside Brenda and Dyane Charles’ swimming pool. In addition to a “Good Life” flag, the pool area has an abundance of lilies, purslane, creeping Jenny, geranium, hosta, clematis, mandevillas and margarita sweet potato vine.

Dyane and Brenda’s pool invites great outdoor living ... and just a few projects Story and photos By David Moore

renda and Dyane Charles of Arab have enjoyed their backyard pool since 1986 … so much so that she’s one of those who’ll take the plunge in April. All she needs – besides Dyane removing the winter cover – is for the water thermometer to reach about 82. “I don’t get in until May, or more like June or July,” Dyane says. “I like 86. I can get in when it’s 84 – but I don’t stay long!” “I love the pool,” says Brenda, who’s retired from the Marshall County Probate Office. “That’s my happy place.” She finds the deck wonderful for wake-up coffee, having a quiet devotion, reading a book or entertaining family and friends. In 1985, the Charleses moved from Hulaco to their house in Arab, and built their pool the following year. They were inspired by the good times they had in and around the backyard pool her sister and brother-in-law had in Crossville. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

“We enjoyed theirs and thought that while we were still …” “Paying for the house,” Brenda laughs before Dyane says “young.” “Well, we have enjoyed it thoroughly,” he grins. The pool is a 24-foot wide octagon, four feet, nine inches deep all around except for the steps. It’s that deep for a reason. Standing on her tiptoes, Brenda – who Dyane calls “Shorty” – can just hold her face out of the water. “If I’m working in the yard and get hot, I get in the pool on 50

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a float,” she says. “And if I fall off, I won’t drown.” The depth, thank you, is great for water volleyball.

hile they won’t be building another pool this year, not a season passes without diving into a new landscaping project around the pool. Located only 12 feet from the house, the pool area automatically became an irresistible outdoor living space. Within two years, Dyane dug up the four-foot concrete deck

Red umbrellas and patio furniture add a lot to the outdoor living area Brenda and Dyane have created around their backyard pool. And tiki torches glowing in the evening create a festive atmosphere. The roses are coming out this year to make room for more oak leaf hydrangea. Brenda has whimsical fun decorating around the pool. And not everything, she says, has to be expensive. She bought the bug boots, above, at a Goodwill thrift store. around the pool and laid a new one that was eight feet wide on two sides. Because their backyard slopes down, a few years ago, Dyane used railroad ties to build a terrace on the backside of the pool. He filled in the space to deck level, creating a flowerbed for Brenda. It also provides a hiding place for the pool pump. Brenda has turned the entire area into something of a garden. Claiming sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a rose person, this spring she wants to replace the Knockouts at one end of the deck with oak leaf

hydrangea. Several huge oak leafs already grow between the carport and pool deck. Dyane, who works for B&G Supply in Albertville, wants to build a privacy fence or screen between the pool and his expanded shed in the far corner of the backyard. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not against the idea, just him being the one doing the heavy lifting.

nother big project would be redoing the concrete decking, which after 28 years is starting to flake and pit in places. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

BoWiggins, above, likes how Brenda decorated the deck area ... well, the padded seats at least. He’s the only one in the family of three, however, who doesn’t like the water. If he were to address that, Dyane says, for one thing he’d make the decking 12 feet wide. He says he’d replace it all around with concrete or perhaps brick-like pavers. He’d leave about a quarter-inch of space between each of the pavers and

sweep dry, unmixed concrete into the cracks. “It would get enough dew and moisture to set up,” he says. Besides, he suspects Brenda will buy enough new plants to keep him busy. “I just put them where she tells me,”

he grins. “But as long as I keep her happy ...” “He’s not making that up,” she says, giving him a little nudge. Even though it’s work, the pool has made them both happy for 30 years now. Good Life Magazine

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LEADING THE CHARGE Albertville’s Connor McGowan coaches UAH Chargers’ inaugural NCAA lacrosse team

FEBRUARY| MARCH | MARCH| APRIL | APRIL 54 FEBRUARY

Coach Connor McGowan stands on the frost-covered practice field awaiting his team on the first day of practice for the first lacrosse season ever at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Head Coach Connor McGowan, above, sets out into the cold on the first morning of practice for the UAH Chargers newest team. With a completely fresh squad of 24 players, McGowan runs drills, below, to help develop player dexterity and team cohesion.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Story and photos By Patrick Oden

t’s just past 4 a.m. when the alarm clock begins to scream. For many that sounds like madness, for Connor McGowan and his wife, Julie, it just sounds like Monday morning. For Julie it’s the first day back to her classroom at Albertville Elementary after Christmas break. Her fourth graders will be thrilled to see her. For Connor, it’s the beginning of a journey poised to surmount any of the adventures he and Julie have shared. It’s the first day of practice of the first season of the new NCAA men’s lacrosse program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Connor is the new head coach. He began playing youth hockey in his native Columbus, Ohio, when he was in first grade and continued to excel at hockey well into high school. But in his junior year he set the skates aside and focused his energy on lacrosse, a sport he picked up five years earlier. “I love hockey, but I could play lacrosse year round,” Connor says. That decision would end up setting the course of his career. After high school, Connor decided to stay close to home, attending Ohio Wesleyan University, where he played lacrosse for the Division III school. After graduation, he found a job coaching high school lacrosse. But when summer rolled around, he and some buddies decided they wanted a little scenery and adventure so Connor set out to spend the season in Wyoming. Little did he suspect that his trek out West would eventually lead to Albertville.

ulie had just finished her junior year at Auburn when an acquaintance told her about a summer camp in Wyoming. So Julie also packed a bag and headed west. They met that summer, but Julie went back to Auburn to finish school, and Connor stayed in Wyoming. She returned the following year, Connor was still there, and the two reconnected. The beauty of the Grand Tetons paled next to Julie in Connor’s eyes, and when she left Wyoming at the end of that second summer, Connor followed. For Julie it was grad school at The

McGowan describes lacrosse as a mix of hockey, soccer and basketball. A contact sport where all catching and passing is done with a small net on the end of a stick. Players fling the rubber balls 100 mph and faster.

Here’s the team’s home schedule for Charger Park Feb. 21 – Brevard College at 11 a.m. March 9 – Ohio Valley at 1 p.m. March 26 – CSU-Pueblo at 12 p.m. April 9 – Young Harris at 4 p.m. April 16 – Lees-MCRAE at 12 p.m. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

University of Alabama. Connor signed on as an assistant lacrosse coach at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham. Once Julie finished school, it opened up options for the young couple. An opportunity for Connor to coach at Transylvania University took them to Lexington, Ky., for two years, where the couple married in the summer of 2014. But family comes first, and Julie needed to return home to her native Albertville.

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ome may call it fate, others karma. Or maybe good things just happen to good people. At any rate, Connor was able to return to his coaching role at Birmingham-Southern. It was there he learned of UAH’s intent to add NCAA lacrosse to its athletic program. “I started that November and pretty much went straight out recruiting,” Connor says. “We didn’t have anyone on campus.”

Connor scoured the East, pulling his team together. Now he’s leading the Chargers. Luckily the young couple share a similar schedule and are still able to make time for the things they both enjoy; like hiking with their two dogs, Hamp and Moose, or cooking dinner together. “We like to travel. That’s what we really like to do,” Julie says. “We save our money and go places.”

Rightfully, that’s a biggie. If not for their mutual wanderlust, they may have never met in the first place. But for now it’s noses to the grindstone. Fourth graders need Julie. And the coach has a new team. Expectations run high. The season opens Feb. 21. As with any new program, it might take a while to develop its potential. But there is no question he’s up for the task. Connor is leading the charge. Good Life Magazine

McGowan tells his team that everything they

do should be at full speed, so, above, they sprint to the end of the practice field for another drill. McGowan’s work and attention to his players’ needs and the team overall doesn’t stop on the

field. Below, left to right, he gives a few words of encouragement in the locker room, oversees the

team’s strength and conditioning training and conducts meetings with his assistant coaches.

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At home after work, Connor and Julie pose with their “kids,” 8-year-old Hamp, left, and 8-month-old Moose. Below, Connor discusses dinner ingredients with Julie, the daughter of Albertville Mayor Tracy and Ellen Honea, who is the nurse at Sardis High School. Connor began cooking as an activity he shared with his mom. “Whenever I go visit, she signs us up for something (cooking class,)” he laughs.

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2016 L L A H S R A M Y EST

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Good Life Magazine&ODEN IMAGING P R E S E N T E D

MARSHALL COUNTY

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With support from The Guntersville Public Library

The county line and your imagination are your only limits. From sunsets to Aunt Tilly, it's all fair game. Grab your camera and go find something interesting. Awards Gala & Exhibit Opening August 6, 2016 · 5 pm

Hosted By Guntersville Public Library · Public Welcome Participation is open to all members of Marshall County Photography. If not already a member, simply go to www.facebook.com/groups/marshallcophotography and click join. All entries must be photographed in Marshall County between November 15, 2015 and June 30, 2016. Submission deadline is midnight, June 30, 2016. Limit of two submissions per photographer. Images submitted should be at full resolution. Please provide complete captions for each image submitted as well as photographer name and contact information. Winners will be selected by Patrick Oden of Oden Imaging and David Moore, editor and publisher of Good Life Magazine. Winning images will be featured in the Fall 2016 issue of Good Life Magazine · Marshall County. Photographers selected from entrants to participate in the MY MARSHALL exhibit at Guntersville Public Library will be required to provide a display quality print by July 21, 2016. More details will be provided to selected photographers. Printing assistance is available. The exhibit will kick off with an awards gala at 5 p.m., Aug. 6, 2016, hosted by Guntersville Public Library and Good Life Magazine. Photographer retains all rights. Entry in the contest will stand as photographer’s consent to have their images published in Good Life Magazine or to be used in promotion of future contests. Send questions and submissions to contact@odenimaging.com

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! d n a m e d r a By popul

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Grace Wever

Immersed in life, science and now her art

race Wever creates fine art collages, layer upon layer of sweeping, textured textiles, controlled explosions of passionate colors, sewn large with attention to fine, myriad details, an expression of her immersed soul as a gift to the viewer. A sit-down talk about her life is somewhat similar, only verbal. Seemingly in contrast to the artist that she is, Dr. Grace Harbin Wever holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from Temple University. Just tipping the iceberg of her career, she has conducted scientific research at Baylor and the University of Rochester medical centers. Sweetly petite in stature, while working for Eastman Kodak she founded the Council of Great Lakes Industries, riding herd over a public policy organization that included masters of industry, environmental groups and others. Impressed, academics powerhouse John Wiley & Sons published Grace’s 299-page “Strategic Environmental

Management” in 1996 to international recognition. Oh, and she earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do when she was 51. During this span she raised three kids – brilliant, she calls them – and maintained a deeply loving relationship with a prolific physicist, engineer and innovator, her husband, Albrecht Wever. “Al’s my sweetheart,” Grace twinkles, sitting at the table in their casual but bare-walled home in Union Grove. It feels naked because, at the time, 55 of her large creations are hanging in a solo exhibit at the Gadsden Museum of Art.

ot bad for someone who only immersed herself in art at age 60 after retiring in 2003. Grace’s life might appear to be a very mixed-media tapestry quilted of unlikely parts. But only at first glance. They all fit as beautifully as the many layers and pieces of hand-dyed textiles she chooses to create each piece of her unique art.

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In December and January, 55 of Grace Wever’s hand-dyed textile collages hung at the Gadsden Museum of Art, part of its ongoing series, “Alabama’s Finest,” celebrating outstanding state artists. Below, a detail from a piece titled “And the Path Made Broad” shows how she uses free-motion stitching to create texture, in this case for a tree and the background mountains. Story and photos By David Moore

all Grace Wever the Monet of textile art. Her form of impressionist images, both representative and abstract, start with a background layer of cloth, its color and texture – its “temperature” she calls it – inspired by the direction of her spiritual inspiration. Likewise with this conversation about her life. “I have wanted to be an artist for as long as I remember,” she says as a background layer. “I don’t draw. I don’t paint. It’s probably miraculous I can do what I do.” She dabbled in oil pastels but recognized early that drawing and painting 64

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would not happen. In graduate school she saw a woman’s head a professor’s daughter sculpted and instinctively felt she could work in clay – if not for the busy career path in which she’d

immersed herself. She thought of her mother, who after retiring as a housewife took art classes and painted seascapes. “I had so many things going on in my life, but in a small crevice in my mind I said when I retired I would go into art.” She actually tried sculpture sooner, taking classes with her youngest teen in Rochester, N.Y. She won’t tell what she sculpted, but she knew it wasn’t time, not yet. Verbal pieces of cloth in Al’s “temperature” are layered onto the conversation. “I think everybody in his family was artistic … that’s ‘art’ not ‘aut,’” Grace jokes. “Al draws a little bit. He also has lawyerly stuff in his family in Germany.” A niece is president of the Federal

Grace seldom works from a sketch, and even her representational pieces, like “Ascent” above, start from only rough mental images. Her palette is a closet of organized metal baskets in her home studio containing thousands of pieces of artisan, hand-dyed textiles of myriad textures and fabric. Picking just the right materials and starting with background pieces, she cuts out shapes and binds them to the substrate with fusible web heated by an iron. Besides free-motion stitching, Grace sometimes uses heated and pigmented beeswax and crinkled paper to enhance texture. While the pieces are jigsaw-puzzle in nature, they do not interlock, rather they are layered over the edge of lower pieces, creating at times a three-dimensional effect, which is apparent in the detailed portion of “Ascent” at left. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Below, Grace explains one of her several series of abstract collages inspired by a scripture or other sources. One of those series – “Within the Walls, Beyond the Gates” – will eventually include 20 pieces. Above ”Enter the Gates with Joy,” above, depicts the protective walls of the New Jerusalem and a gate in them, portrayed in a stylized manner. There is a feeling of a fiery furnace in the foreground where lingering souls await entry to the city, of which only the rooftops of many houses can be seen.

A card on Grace’s easel is inscribed with this verse: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This, she said, He has truly done. She was agnostic most of her life; interestingly her conversion happened about the time she retired and began her art. The piece at the left is titled “Wrapped in a Garment of Light,” inspired by a verse from Psalms. Onto a background “garment” hand-dyed in gradients of intense purples, oranges and reds, brilliant layers of lighter tones emanate with energy and changing shapes and color. In stark contrast, “Lockdown of the Lost” depicts death-masked figures looming against a background portraying prison cells. “Lost souls are they,” says Grace, “heirs to an after-life of total and overwhelming darkness.” Constitutional Court, the equivalence of chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. A nephew is a federal judge in Germany. “That gives you an idea that there are a few brains on Al’s side of the family,” Grace says of a pedigree dating back a millennium.

“W

ever,” an ironically fitting married name for Grace, is pronounced “Vay-fer” in Al’s native tongue. “I discovered his German accent in a general physics class in college.” Grace grins. “I wanted to get some of that accent, so I asked him to translate a German passage by some German embryologist …” Love at first sound bite.

The fabric of her Harbin family’s cloth adds a salty earth-toned layer nicely contrasting Al’s temperament. “Dad never graduated from high school due to the 1929 Depression,” Grace says. “But his school burned, and with it his records, and he went all his life with the story that he had a diploma.” He parlayed a civilian sheet metal job in the Philadelphia naval yards into a position with GE that eventually got him into missile and space planning. That led him to Huntsville in the ’60s and established a new geographical pull for the family. It’s also where he taught himself computer programming, took piano lessons at age 90, visited nursing homes to lead sing-alongs from

a wheelchair and died planning his 100th birthday. The Harbins encouraged their children to get good educations. Daughter Dr. Lois Pope complied and is CEO and director of the Alabama Psychological Services Center in Huntsville. “You can just use ‘psycho,’” laughs Grace, whose own compliance was less direct.

he and her father were prone to fight, and her decision to study music at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music produced anything but harmony. “What will you do with this music degree?” he demanded. Grace was FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

Grace gets a hug from her daughter, Ingrid Wever Felts, a singer/songwriter from Birmingham, while Al gets a hug from granddaughter Caleigh Felts. Ingrid performed at the reception the Gadsden Museum of Art held Dec.6 for Grace’s exhibit. Her “Luminescence,” the piece behind them, was the poster art for the 2013 Panoply Festival in Huntsville. At right is “Enraptured I,”inspired by the verse “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” As with many of Grace’s pieces inspired by scripture, the verse comes from the book of Psalms. Her works are not religious experiences, Grace says, rather she’s attentive to an inner voice that guides her art. 68

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unsure but would never admit it to him. She loved music but ... Bach plays softly in the background as she talks, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Arioso, quartets and trios. Grace still loves music, but she realized it wasn’t a path in which she could completely immerse herself, layer upon layer. Music therapy briefly interested her, and it required biology. “As soon as I got in biology class, click the lights went on,” Grace says. She transferred to Temple University, majored in biology and chemistry, added molecular biology in grad school, immersed herself in research and thrilled at the emerging understanding of DNA and RNA. “It was so fascinating, this field opening up in front of my eyes. I knew I would have to work hard at it, and it would be challenging. But I think people should do what they love.” And Grace loved science. “That is really where that idea of deep immersion comes in. I wanted to know more about the subject, not just side to side but orders of magnitude above. “The habits I learned in grad school are basically how I operate today,” she continues. “When I find something I think would be interesting, I start exploring it and gathering all of the scientific literature I can so I’m ready to take the next step.”

ifferent textures of similar colors emerge as Grace discusses her new immersion, layering public policy into the fabric of her life. It started after setting up bio-analytical labs for Kodak, which hired her in 1981. Addressing manufacturing problems in the lab, she recognized the importance of Great Lakes water quality to manufacturing. With Kodak backing she organized a regional symposium of scientists, industry and municipal groups to compare notes on Great Lakes water quality. Impressed, the Department of Commerce appointed Grace to chair its National Sea Grant Advisory Panel, overseeing university research in the Great Lake and coastal states. Lake pollution had already led to regulations,

and Grace found that Greenpeace and 650 other groups were focused on water quality. “But no industry groups were involved,” she says. “I convinced management at Kodak that we needed to get something going with industry, and they gave me the green light. Science in hand, big picture in sight, Grace delved in to find creative solutions. In 1988, she sold manufacturers on forming the Council of Great Lakes Industries to focus not on regs already enacted, but on new public policy and the need for industry to change its own behavior. Into this council Grace pulled Silas Keehn, president of the Federal Reserve branch in Chicago. That attracted Bob Stempel, retired CEO and chairman of General Motors, and Paul Tippett, former president of American Motors. “I pushed and sweated,” Grace says. “But we changed the way industry operates in the region.” Working with grassroot stakeholders they spent several years identifying key issues and developing a quality-based environmental management system to help bring environmental issues into the

mainstream of strategic planning. In ’94, they began benchmarking best practices. It led to Grace authoring her book, which became a guide for industry managers. She was honored as a woman in science at the White House.

race left Kodak in 1996, moving with Al to Colorado, where she was a senior manager and consultant with KPMG Peat Marwick. Finally retiring in 2003, she not only laid down a new spiritual layer of her life, she carefully placed her long-postponed layer of art. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would love the visual arts as much as science.” Here, the verbal fabric of her conversation takes on the color and texture of the stratum of western mountains depicted in many of the landscapes from that time. Her past use of electron microscopes influenced her choice of medium. “I see things in fabrics that others don’t,” Grace says. “Some people have special hearing. I am big on visual stuff.” For her first effort she paid $10 for a wall quilting kit with cutout patterns for

10 pieces she sewed together depicting a Tradescantia, a bluish-purple wildflower on which her PhD was based. A quick study, she ditched pattern kits and from memory created a seascape of the Oregon coast, using free-motion stitching to create texture.

fter 17 years in Colorado, to downsize and be closer to their extended family, Grace packed her art supplies and tools and, along with her sweetheart, moved to Marshall County. “Which,” she says, “my husband and I have discovered is also an unusually lovely place to live.” With all of the colors and textures at her disposal, Graces makes the following statement: “I continue to be enthralled by the incomparable beauty of the real world wherever I choose to live. But it is only when I link these physical stimuli to the intangibility of the spiritual realm that my soul permeates and transforms my work.” “Then, in turn, my art reaches out and powerfully embraces those who are open to receive these gifts.” Good Life Magazine

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Out ’n’ About

If you are out ‘n’ about this spring, you might want to take your camera. And

if you love taking photos and want to share and get better, you might also

check out the Marshall County Photography (MCP) group, started by local

photographer Patrick Oden. MCP is comprised of photographers of all ages and skill levels from across Marshall County. It meets at 6 p.m. the first and third

Thursday of each month at Jamoka’s in Guntersville, plus they organize group shoots on a regular basis. Though only a few months old, several contests and

events are already scheduled for the year, including Art on the Lake, the My

Marshall contest (please see page 61 for details) and a trip to the Birmingham

Zoo. Local interest in photography and the group led to the spin off of a stock

photo library where businesses can purchase local images for marketing,

and individuals can order prints. In addition, photography classes are now

being offered on select Saturdays at Baker’s on Main in Guntersville. MCP

membership is free and open to anyone in Marshall County who enjoys or is

interested in photography. To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/groups/ marshallcophotography or email marshallcophoto@gmail.com.

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Photos courtesy of MCP members: Double Rainbows, Judy Kennamer of Guntersville; Three Crosses, Carolyn Garrison of Arab; Grazing Cow, Karen Getchel of Boaz; Yacht Club, John Sharp of Claysville. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

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