Every year, millions of bright-eyed, mystified children are tucked into their beds on Christmas Eve, too excited to sleep, for it is the night that unites children across the globe.
It’s the night Santa Claus takes flight, his sleigh guided by nine reindeer who will be visiting their homes, bringing toys and treats, and on Christmas morning, children across the world rush to see what St. Nick has brought them.
Santa Claus is pure magic, and his visits create memories that last well into adulthood.
Santa and his helpers reenact Beatles’ Abbey Road cover in downtown Pell City.
For St. Clair County native Michael Gaither, his heart for St. Nick never left him after childhood, and he finds passion, purpose and joy each year embodying Santa for St. Clair County and the region.
Gaither will put on his red suit, black boots, belt complete with intricate embellishments for the third year this Christmas season and will be quite busy visiting children and adults alike – making his list and checking it twice.
Gaither is not only jolly St. Nick during the holidays, but a registered nurse for over 26 years, a paramedic and firefighter starting with the Lincoln Fire Department, and his desire to serve others as a paramedic and firefighter has spanned many stops over 34 years, including the Talladega Paramedic Department. He was a pioneer in opening the first ambulance service in St. Clair County. He is still a volunteer firefighter the New London Fire Department today.
When asked how the idea to become Santa first crossed his mind, he said it was from an old friend from his fire department days who also had experienced playing Santa. “Why do you look like Santa?” Gaither asked. The friend simply replied, “Because I am.” On that day, a spark ignited in Gaither’s heart. “The more and more I thought about it and after listening to how much (the friend) loved it, and all the joy it created, I was sold,” Gaither explained. “There was no turning back.”
The preparations that go into becoming Santa each year are no easy feat. “Growing a Santa beard happens during the hottest months of the year, and I have to add Santa pounds which is a perk I enjoy, putting on my Santa body,” Gather jokingly explained.
Gaither also expounded on the intricacies of creating and caring for his iconic Santa suit. He recalled that the benchmark Santa suit is the Coca-Cola Suit. The suit comes with an upwards of $4,000 price tag.
He explained that becoming Santa is an expensive endeavor if it is to be done correctly. A good, professional-grade suit costs in the neighborhood of $1,000. “That’s just the suit,” he explained. “When you add real boots, glasses, gloves and belt trim and accessories, the total cost is well over $2,000,” Gaither noted. He also said most people do not realize that it takes more than one suit to make it through a holiday season. In addition, the suits have to be specially dry-cleaned.
Santa goes ‘toonin’
Reminiscing over fond memories of his own childhood and experiences with St. Nick, joy quickly took over his face as he recalled those emotions and fond memories of Christmases past. “The excited feeling of rushing to bed on Christmas Eve is one that a child cherishes for a lifetime, and I vividly remember we always read Twas The Night Before Christmas, and the fun of setting up the cookies and milk,” Gaither recalled. “I also remember standing in line to see Santa and thinking hard about what I was going to say and what I wanted. Visiting Santa is serious business when you’re a kid,” Gaither said.
Gaither recalled some of the funniest and quirkiest requests he has received from children over the years. These range from stop signs, ice cream trucks, cheese fries and a bag of concrete and chicken wire. “Once I had a young boy ask me to get his Dad out of jail because all he was doing was growing plants in the backyard,” Gaither recalled, laughing. “That was a good one – definitely caught me off guard.”
Children are full of imagination and should be completely innocent to the bad things that go on in the world. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Gaither said he has also had some heart wrenching requests. “Once a little girl asked me if I could make her sister be able to see the presents I brought her because her eyes don’t work. I also have many, many requests to make a parent come home from a deployment.”
Santa also admitted that out of all nine reindeer, all of whom he loves dearly loves – he does, in fact, have a favorite. “Rudolph takes the crown, hands down,” he said. “He is quite clearly the captain of the ship and the rest of the crew would be dysfunctional without his leadership. He loves traveling, he is a little shy, he loves to help others, and he is most definitely a natural born leader,” Gaither said.
Last year, Santa’s visits and getting to see children in hospital, nursing home and other settings looked quite different. “I did get to be Santa, of course, but it was hard last year,” Gaither said. “Santa had a mask just like you do, and I did visit a lot of healthcare facilities to say ‘Thank You.’”
Over the course of his career, Gaither said it has been one of the greatest blessings of his life. He has delivered babies, held the hands of people as they took their last breath. “Sometimes it’s as simple as offering a smile to someone in their darkest hours,” Gaither said. “To do healthcare you must have a servant’s heart, and it is not for the faint of heart.”
When asked about working on the front lines during the age of COVID, Gaither took a moment before humbly stating, “COVID really took some of the personal touch out of healthcare. In some cases, families could not be together in their darkest and last moments. This is something I would have never would have dreamed of happening,” Gaither said.
He has served as the director of Emergency Services for Grandview Medical Center. “Not many people get to say they have opened and moved a hospital,” Gaither joked. The year Grandview opened, Gaither was awarded Clinical Manager of the Year for his role in opening the Emergency Department and along with moving all the patients from the hospital at Montclair to Grandview.
Today, Gaither works for Brookwood Baptist Medical Center, the Tenet Corporation, as a patient safety officer and risk manager. He also holds a juris doctor from the Birmingham School of Law.
From health care to Santa care
Stepping out of his scrubs and into his Santa suit is one of Gaither’s greatest joys. “You can empower kids to spread love, joy and peace – and the true meaning of Santa by simply telling them ‘Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness.’” Santa Claus, he explained, is a symbol of the true meaning of Christmas – the reason for the season. His names come from the source of Christmas – Christ himself. Jesus Christ was a man who gave freely and represents the best that there is in mankind. “Santa is a symbol of the greatest gifts of Heaven and Earth,” Gaither said.
Although his schedule is quickly filling up, Santa is offering “new traditions” this year. These include in-home Christmas “tuck in” service – complete with story time, photos and cookie making.
He is also available for live video chats in addition to traditional holiday parties, photo sessions and retail events.
Editor’s Note:To find out more about these services, Gaither may be reached at (205) 329-3570 or via email, SantaMG@mail.com.
Artist turns old Ragland bank building, own creations into works of art
Story by Scottie Vickery Photos by Meghan Frondorf
Ragland artist Mary Ann Sampson is perhaps best known as a book artist whose handmade creations “are a personal stage and a memory stick for a life lived.” Dig a little deeper, and you soon discover that her portfolio, much like her life, is diverse, rich and ever-changing.
In addition to creating hundreds of one-of-a-kind books that are featured in national and international collections, she counts sculptures, drawings, paintings, etchings and photographs among her work. A former nurse, Sampson changed course and followed her passion for art after she married and had a child.
Samples of compelling work and photos of stories that inspire her to create more
Today, at 80 years old, Sampson is still finding new ways to express herself, whether through new art mediums, singing or most recently, tap dancing. “I’ll try almost anything,” she said. “I’ve been real fortunate to have lots of ways to self-express.”
Many of those forms of self-expression were on display this past spring at the Gadsden Museum of Art, which hosted a retrospective exhibit of Sampson’s work. “I put together a lot of things I’d never shown before – drawings, etchings, as well as books,” she said. “My studio is filled with stuff now that I don’t know what to do with.”
Ray Wetzel, director of the art museum and curator of the collection, praised her unique works. “Her artwork is full of complicated simplicity in the way of the labor and craftsmanship of these delicate paper constructions that oftentimes look machine made,” he said. “It is the same passion that goes into her work that gives me a sense of calm that within the chaos hidden in her work she is also telling the viewer everything will be all right.”
Childhood influences
Born in a small town in North Carolina, young Mary Ann spent a lot of time on her grandparents’ farm, which laid the foundation for her love for rural life. “I loved the freedom of barefoot days and playing until sunset with my cousins,” she said.
She also remembers creating masterpieces at the kitchen table with her two sisters. The young artists were inspired by their mother’s cousin, Ruth Faison Shaw, the originator of finger painting. A teacher in Rome during World War II, Shaw was inspired when she saw a child with a cut finger smearing iodine on the walls. She later developed finger paints and had them patented in 1931.
“We would just get in the kitchen and paint that way, and I loved playing in the paint,” Sampson said, adding that she enjoyed smearing the different colors together on the paper to see what took shape. She also loved drawing and making scrapbooks, and she remembers being encouraged by her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Woodard. “I always loved my teachers who had artwork plastered all around the walls,” she said. “She was very instrumental in instilling a love of art in me.”
Sampson’s father worked at a hardware store, and her mother later became a seamstress to bring in some extra money. “She had a treadle sewing machine,” which was powered by a foot pedal, Sampson said. “Mom taught us to sew long before we took it in high school.”
Today, Sampson has two sewing machines, including her mother’s, and she uses the skills she learned as a child to bind many of the books she creates. “She was very methodical, and I think I get a lot of that pickiness and attention to detail from her,” Sampson said. “Of course, I can be very messy in my painting, too.”
Despite a lifelong love of art and the desire to pursue it in college, Sampson took the more practical route and went to nursing school at Wake Forest University. A nurse for 10 years, she fell in love with a medical student she met at the hospital. She and Larry Sampson were married in 1964, just before he joined the Army and was stationed in Texas and Vietnam.
Upon his return in 1966, they moved to Birmingham where he did his residency at UAB, and she was a cardiac nurse at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He later opened his dermatology practice in Birmingham’s eastern area and practiced medicine for more than 30 years.
Through it all, Sampson’s passion for art never wavered, and when daughter Anna was 2, she returned to school to study art. She attended both Birmingham-Southern College and Samford University, eventually earning a double major in art and Spanish. “It took a long time because I was married and had a family, but I finally graduated in 1982,” she said.
After graduation, she rented studio space in Birmingham from an artist friend who owned a printing press, which intrigued Sampson. “I loved printmaking,” she said. “I love the surprises you get when you run something through the ink. You’re never quite sure how the etching and scratching will turn out.”
A simpler life
After a few years of renting a space, Sampson knew it was time to find a permanent home for her studio. “I had looked in Birmingham, but I couldn’t find anything I could afford,” she said. “Mostly lawyers could afford what I was looking at, and I knew my income wasn’t going to be anything like that.”
Ragland Bank, built in 1910
She and her husband owned a tract of land in St. Clair County, and she realized a return to the rural lifestyle she loved as a child was beckoning. She eventually bought the old two-story Ragland Bank, built in 1910, and renovated it for her studio.
“We were driving through Ragland one day, and I saw this turn-of-the-century building,” she said. “The roof had fallen in, it was boarded up in places, and there was a big faded ‘For Sale’ sign on it. It was just the kind of structure I was in the market for. I said, ‘Larry, stop! That’s it, that’s it!’”
Just as she does with her art, Sampson poured her heart into renovating the building. “It didn’t cost a lot of money to buy it, but it took a pile of it to get it up to snuff,” she said. After calling in a friend who had helped restore Sloss Furnaces, she replaced the roof – twice – during the renovation process. Since the mortar between the bricks had literally turned to sand, workers had to remove each brick by hand and rebuild and mortar the entire structure. “I was working in there throughout all of this,” Sampson said.
By the book
After participating in a book arts workshop at the University of Alabama, Sampson’s interest was piqued. When she attended a show of artists’ books in Richmond, Va., her future path was set. “I fell in love with them,” she said, of the handmade books. “I just loved the way you could express yourself in an artistic way through books.”
She began to experiment with using books as an art form and was intrigued by the possibilities. “If you’re a painter, you use a brush and paint. In book arts, you don’t have the canvas. You take the quality or essence of what a book is and make it into a place where you put your art,” she said.
She took workshops with some of the greats in the book arts world, including Keith Smith and Tim Ely, and she began creating and showing some of her own works of art. She bought a letterpress for her studio, and she also began experimenting with binding techniques. Inspired to learn all she could, she eventually earned a master’s in book arts at the University of Alabama.
“When I started doing books, I just stuck with it and kept going until I had enough to do a show. When the first piece sold, it just happened,” Sampson said, seemingly still amazed by the good fortune. “I just kept exploring, and it just happened.”
Sampson said she has always been interested in the human form, and much of her work reflects that. “My subject matter is usually puppets, string people and articulated figures,” she said. “I have a real interest in how the human figure wiggles about.”
Many of Sampson’s books are letterpress, one of the oldest forms of printing, and she painstakingly creates them letter-by-letter in her studio using a variety of beautiful papers. Letterpress “has this beautiful history that dates back hundreds of years. I can get excited about different kinds of type, but I’m sure the world couldn’t care less,” she said with a laugh.
In addition to painting covers, printing the words – many of the books feature poetry – and illustrating with pencils or paints, Sampson uses a variety of materials, including cloth and leather. She binds her own books, sewing some and using paste, linen thread or wire for others. “I just love to explore new mediums.”
Inspired by the Mona Lisa, she has a wall filled with references to her – even a modern day obituary with Mona Lisa listed as a survivor.
As one show led to another and then another, Sampson began making a name for herself. She met Bill and Vicky Stewart, owners of Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, who traveled the country selling artwork and books. “They carried some of my first books with them and sold every book I had,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have someone take the time and their good, hard-earned money to invest in what you’ve done.”
Sampson named her studio the One-Eye Opera Company, a nod to some of her early book creations that focused on music themes. She founded the OEOCO Press (using the initials of her studio’s name) with the mission of creating limited-edition, letterpress and one-of-a-kind books. In addition to creating her own, she has collaborated with other artists and poets on unique art pieces.
Although she has some individual book collectors who own her work, “the public doesn’t know what to do with artists’ books, by and large,” she said. Many of her pieces, which range from hundreds of dollars to thousands, are in library collections, and Vanderbilt University boasts one of the largest collections of her works. Her books have found homes and been exhibited all over the world – from Tennessee, North Carolina and New York City to Canada, Mexico City and Germany.
A quieter life
Although she is still creating, Sampson, who has macular degeneration in one eye, is no longer setting the type for her books. Her artwork temporarily took a backseat for about six years after their Shoal Creek Valley home was destroyed by a tornado in 2011 and while her husband, who passed away in 2017, battled Parkinson’s disease. She now lives just next door to their original home in an old house made from lumber from the Moundville train depot. “Everyone calls it Railroad House,” she said. “It’s an interesting home. It’s small, but it’s all I need.”
She spends her days enjoying the quiet and visiting with friends and family, including her daughter, son-in-law and grandsons, who live nearby. She also enjoys gardening and discovering new talents. For the past year, she’s been taking voice lessons and learning to tap dance. “I sing in the choir, and I’d been wanting to take voice lessons to learn more about singing and projecting,” she said.
After enrolling in a voice class at Shalita Clark’s studio in Springville, Sampson was persuaded to take a tap class, as well. “I’m learning a lot, and I got to dance onstage at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center,” Sampson said. “I’m having a lot of fun.”
She’s also enjoying being back in the studio and playing around with new techniques. Most recently, she experimented with a painting technique that uses oils and cold wax, relying on YouTube videos for instruction. “I don’t have much hope for this, but I still enjoy experimenting with new mediums,” she said.
That’s because, as an artist, she can’t stop creating. “It’s a passion,” she said. “You just love it and are so grateful that you can do it.”
Story by Loyd McIntosh Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
On a sweltering hot Friday afternoon in late July, the parking lot of Total Body Fitness is so full, many cars have parked in the grass and mud in the vacant lot next door. Inside, the gym is just as packed as dozens of athletes, trainers and others mill about.
There is excitement and even a little tension in the air. All of this activity isn’t for a hot, new exercise class. No, excitement builds for the weigh-in for a boxing event taking place in a little over 24 hours at, of all places, the CEPA Building in Pell City.
Organized by the Alabama-based boxing promotion company, One One Six Boxing, Saturday’s event, Logan Martin Rumble 2, is the second boxing “show” One One Six has held in Pell City, the first coming in December 2020. One One Six is also notable for being the state’s first and only boxing promotion owned and operated by a woman and St. Clair County native Brandi McClain.
Anthony Stewart (right) stares down Jayvone Dafney (left) as referee Keith Hughes goes over the rules.
Since launching, One One Six has held close to 10 boxing events showcasing fighters from all over the country but with a concentration on boxers from the Southeast. Operating out of Gadsden, One One Six has hosted Money Powell IV, James De La Rosa and Michael Williams Jr., the undefeated prospect of Roy Jones Jr. This weekend, her focus is on a boxer named Anthony Stewart, who at age 40 is competing for the Alabama State Cruiserweight Title.
“Anthony has a lot riding on him this weekend, but he’s a very talented fighter. He’s ready for this moment,” McCain says. “I think he has an opportunity to fight on TV, and I’m doing everything I can to make that happen for him. It’s my job to make my fighters’ dreams come true.”
At the weigh-in, Stewart is sitting at a table with his trainer, Dave Godber, a boxing lifer with extensive experience as a fighter and trainer. Currently, Gober owns Round 1 Boxing For Health, a gym in Vestavia where Stewart trains while he’s not busy with his full-time job as a welder for Ox Bodies in Tuscaloosa.
Since his last sparring session a little over a week ago, Stewart has geared down his activity to give his body the rest it needs for his title fight on Saturday. “My last week, really what I’m doing is I’m trying to focus my mind on rest, relaxation, how I can make my body 100 percent when I step in the ring,” says Stewart.
His opponent is a little-known boxer named Jayvone Dafney, a 34-year-old cruiserweight fighting out of Los Angeles with a record of 2-3. Anthony and Godber have spent much of their preparation watching film and studying Gafney’s strengths and, more importantly, weaknesses. “Everybody has habits, and that’s what we want him to do. We want him to fight in his bad habits,” Godber says. “That’s what I’m really good at. In the first 30 seconds, I can tell you exactly how this man’s fighting.”
Godber is of the mindset that boxing is a 50-50 sport – 50 percent physical, 50 percent psychological. He’s been working tirelessly on Stewart’s mental approach to boxing, helping his protégé to think on his feet and react to whatever his opponent does in the ring. “Everybody’s got skill,” Godber says. “You can be the best fighter in the world, but you have to have the mental attitude to know how to survive and how to make good decisions.
“Everybody looks like a champion on the heavy bag,” he adds, “but when you get in that ring and the pressure’s on you, you have to overwhelm yourself with the mental aspect.”
“When I’m in there, I don’t just react,” adds Stewart. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘when I do this, what does he do? When I throw this punch, where does he move? When I throw this punch, where does he drop his hand? If he drops that hand, we’ll I’m going to come here.’”
Like many of today’s professional boxers, Stewart honed his fighting skills in the crazy world of ultimate fighting in what he calls “loosely organized” underground events in bars and joints in places like Jasper and Cullman. Stewart turned pro in June 2018, defeating a boxer named Andre Brewer. Leading into his title bout in Pell City, Stewart’s record stands at a healthy 5-1-2, four wins by knockout. Fit, mentally acute, and rested, Stewart is brimming with confidence just 24 hours before the bell rings in the biggest fight of his career in the heart of Pell City, the Main Event for Logan Martin Rumble 2.
“I don’t like to say anything derogatory about anybody that I’m about to fight but …” he stops himself before finishing the statement and collects his thoughts before continuing. “It’s like this right here. I’m coming to handle business. Anybody that’s in my way of that title is going to get broken down. I want to see what kind of man he is. This is mano a mano. I want to see how he faces adversity because I’m going totouch him.”
Still, at the age of 40, one question Stewart is asked often is how much longer can he continue boxing? How will he know when it’s time to hang up the gloves? “Through all my amateur fights and most of my pro fights, I didn’t take many punches. There will be a time when I got to hang it up, but right now I’ve got a five-year plan, which takes me to 45,” explains Stewart. “We’re going to stay in shape and keep this going.”
Fight Night
It’s now Saturday evening and the gymnasium at the CEPA Building has been transformed for professional boxing. The ring sits at the center of the court with professional lights placed in opposite corners. There are 11 fights on the card with the Stewart-Dafney fight bringing the night to a close.
Most of the bouts are scheduled for four rounds, with three scheduled for six rounds, including the main event. The first three fights of the night ended in knockouts – two in the first round, one in the second round. However, one of the best fights of the night was the fourth on the card, the stunning debut of a young fighter named Nicholas Adams.
A native of Pell City, Adams initially attended Pell City High School, transferred to Ashville High School, before eventually earning his GED. He worked as a corrections officer before recently devoting himself to boxing full time after deciding against pursuing mixed martial arts.
He signed on with One One Six Boxing but found himself in need of a new trainer and coach less than a week before his professional debut. He hooked up with Martin Juarez, owner and operator of Juarez Boxing in Irondale, who has been impressed with Nick in the short time he’s worked with him.
“I met Nick four days ago. He called me over the weekend and said he was without a trainer and needed some help,” Juarez explains. “Just the time we’ve spent in the gym, we’ve been able to build a rapport with one another, and I’ve taught him some stuff that he’s never known, this being his first professional fight.
“Nick shows a lot of great attitude and great effort and has come a long way in four days,” he adds. “I’m expecting only great things from him.”
Adams has a lot riding on this fight as well. He and his wife, Morganne, have a preschool-age daughter, Sophie. Not only is this Nick’s pro debut, but his primary source of income for his young family. At the weigh-in on Friday, Morganne was both excited and apprehensive about her husband’s bout. “I keep thinking I am ready for this, and we keep getting closer, and I don’t know. My stomach’s in a knot,” Morganne says. “I’m very nervous, but I know he’s going to win.”
Adams’ opponent Saturday evening is 32-year-old Keith Criddell, boxing out of Atlanta in a Super Middleweight bout scheduled for four rounds. Despite his record of 0-3, Criddell has almost a year of experience as a pro boxer, having made his debut in August 2020. Adams’ path to victory is clearly uphill.
From the opening bell brought through the end of the third round, the action was exciting and, to the general boxing fan, evenly matched. In reality, Adams was winded, having come out too hot in the first round throwing a flurry of punches and expending a lot of energy. By the end of the third round, Adams was in danger of losing the fight should it go the distance. Adams’ new trainer and cornerman, Juarez, was there to encourage his fighter, but also to give him the unvarnished truth.
“I was tired. He got in my face and told me ‘you can’t forget everything that we’ve done these last four days. You’ve been amazing. Don’t forget everything you’ve learned, and, oh, by the way, you’re losing this fight,’” Adams says. “That wasn’t something he didn’t have to tell me, I could tell. I was falling behind. But when he got up in my face, all the numbness that I had in my legs went away. I don’t know what that man said to me, but it was the way he said it. I knew I was going to lose the fight if I didn’t put him out in the fourth round.”
Adams regained his stamina and focus in the fourth round, connecting on a vicious right hook that sent Criddell to the canvas once and for all. “I took everything (Juarez) gave me and applied it as best I could. It took me four rounds, but I did it,” Adams says. “I put him down and pulled out the win for my debut.”
Back to the Main Event
After 10 fights, all but one ending in a knockouts or technical knockout, the crowd is ready for the main event. Dafney makes his entrance into the ring first to little more than polite applause.
It’s clear this crowd is here to see Stewart. He doesn’t disappoint. Following a light show and a short but loud pump-up performance by a Tuscaloosa-based hip-hop artist, Stewart makes his way into the arena. Wearing red and black trunks with his last name emblazoned across the front, Stewart enters the ring, his tattooed chest and arms already glistening with sweat, his jaw clenched, eyes staring straight at his opponent. Referee Keith Hughes goes over the rules and sends each man back to his corner to wait for the opening bell.
One day prior at the weigh-in the question was posed to Godber, where does Stewart have the advantage over Dafney? “Anthony throws more punches,” says Godber.
“We’ve been working weight on six and seven punch combinations. I don’t think that young man’s ready for Anthony because he doesn’t throw much more than three,” Godber continues. “You won’t see Anthony on the ropes. You’ll see him in the center of the ring. It’s hard to fight going backward, and if (Dafney) goes to the ropes, he’s going down.”
The bell rings and the fight plays out exactly as Godber described. Stewart began the bout measured, even taking a couple of shots from the taller Dafney, before exploding into a fury of punches.
As Round 1 progressed, Stewart continued his onslaught of punches, pushing Dafney back on his heels and into the ropes. Finally, Stewart broke down his opponent’s defenses before connecting with a fierce right hook and sending Dafney to the canvas. No 10-count. Hughes jumps in and immediately stops the fight at 2:55 in the first round. It’s over. Hughes lifts Stewart’s arm in the air. McCain enters the ring to place the belt around the victor’s waist.
Anthony Stewart is the new Alabama State Cruiserweight Champion.
To Pell City Rotary Club, “Serve to Change Lives” is more than Rotary International’s theme for 2021. It’s the standard for this club this year and every year.
Jon Clements and daughter Amelia enjoy quality time together – as intended.
Not even a pandemic could stop Pell City Rotary from its mission. In big ways and small ways, the club leaves a lasting impact that does indeed change lives.
For years, it has been bringing daddies and daughters together for a special evening of dancing, fun and making memories that will last a lifetime. The annual Father-Daughter Dance is one of the most anticipated events in the community each year, serving as a catalyst for strengthening the bonds only a father and daughter can share.
But when the pandemic hit yet another surge, the dance was cancelled. Enterprising Rotary members had a better idea. They prepared hundreds of boxes full of surprises and goodies and an idea list of ways fathers and daughters could spend time together.
One idea was to watch a movie together and nestled in the midst of all the coupons for ice cream cones and meals they also could share, was the starring attraction – popcorn. Father + daughter + popcorn + movie. Now, that’s a winning formula for making relationships stronger.
Always the epitome of a communitywide event where everyone pitches in, under ordinary circumstances, Southland Golf Carts that shuttled fathers and daughters to and from the dance would have been a leading participant.
This year, the community still came together despite no dance.
For the boxes:
Dairy Queen gave coupons for free ice cream cones. Chick-fil-A provided coupons for free kids’ meals. DJ Carson Bruce put together a playlist with a QR code for families to scan to listen to at home together. Main Street Memories added the popcorn as the box’s centerpiece. City of Pell City stored items at the municipal complex and loaned the space to assemble boxes and distribute. The Pell City Fire Department set up tents for distribution. Rotary volunteers assembled and distributed boxes.
And the end result were hundreds of fathers and daughters making new memories courtesy of Pell City Rotary Club.
Giving so Rotary can give
Rotary has two major fundraisers per year besides the Father-Daughter Dance – Ray Cox Memorial Golf Tournament and the annual Rotary Tennis Tournament.
Enjoying the “Monster Smash” tennis tournament
Through these fundraisers, Rotary is able to do what it does best giving in service to others. Again, it is more than just raising money. It is about community in its truest sense, bringing people together for a good cause.
From those who sponsor the tournaments to those who play in them and the countless volunteers that make these successful events happen, the community rallies in support, knowing that their investment of time and funding brings sizable returns for good works throughout the city and beyond year after year.
Benefitting from grants given this year alone are: Lakeside Park, Pell City Center for Education and the Performing Arts, Easterseals Community Clinic, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Children’s Place Child Advocacy Center, Christian Love Pantry, Boy Scouts, St. Clair Literacy Council, Toys for Kids, Library Guild, YWCA, Mustard Seed Society, Ann’s New Life Center, Logan Martin Tennis Association, PCHS Show Choir, Kennedy Elementary School and the Pell City Education Foundation.
With a boost from Pell City Rotary and a district grant, the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home now has an impressively designed, professional putting green, a small tribute to their service and sacrifice.
Weekly Mission
Each Tuesday, Rotarians gather together for lunch. Beyond a time of networking and fellowship, it is a time to learn more about their community and ways Rotary can help.
The club hosts expert speakers in their fields and leaders with a cause – all aimed at enlightening and inspiring Rotarians as they seek to make their community a better place for all.
Forty-seven years ago, 25 businessmen founded the club that has grown more than three-fold and continues to thrive. Their focus was service above self.
Today, that vision never wavers, it has only strengthened in time by serving to change lives. l
Name reveals storied past of Odenville entrepreneur
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted Photos
Maddox Farm Road, named for John Luther Maddox Sr., lies off U.S. 411 about two eyeblinks north of Liberty Church. Who was this man?
A July 16, 1908, an article in the St. Clair County News, published in Odenville, states, “John Luther Maddox … moved to St. Clair County 21 years ago [c1887], where he … engaged in farming up to 1895. He then entered the mercantile business in a small scale but has been very successful…. Mr. Maddox is a self-made man and is successful in his undertakings … He is … interested in educational matters, good roads, the general upbuilding and development of Odenville and adjacent territory.” Maddox was founder, owner and editor of this newspaper.
He was born March 23, 1869, in Benton (Calhoun) County, Ala., to Chesley Benton and Annie Majors Maddox. John Luther’s great-great-grandparents, John and Rebecca Teague Maddox, had settled in the Blue Mountain area of Benton, now Calhoun County, early in the 19th Century. According to family historian, Dorothy Maddox Bishop, John Maddox fought with Gen. Andrew Jackson “… at Horseshoe Bend,” and indicates that John settled in Alabama because of serving with Jackson.
Just what prompted him to locate in St. Clair County isn’t part of family lore. However, rich farmland probably lured him here c1887. Also, the excitement of a new century lay ahead, and St. Clair stood ready to flourish. Springville, Ashville, Odenville and Ragland bustled with businesses. By 1905, the Seaboard Airline Railroad would connect Ragland and Odenville with Birmingham. Sumter Cogswell was developing Pell City, and by 1902, a railroad would connect that town with cities east and west.
John Luther Maddox married Sarah Elizabeth Jones (1870-1927) on Feb. 24, 1895, in St. Clair County. She was the daughter of Joel Wheeler Jones, who was born in South Carolina to Steven and Polly Jones. According to Dorothy Bishop, Steven served in the American Revolution and is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Springville.
Joel Wheeler Jones bought 40 acres in July 1854 near Harden’s Shop, today’s Odenville. Sixty years later, his acres would be called “Jones’s Cut” because of the cut for Seaboard Airline railroad tracks nearby.
In 1858, Joel Wheeler Jones married Jane E. Simpson, and they had two children, James and Lorenna. In December 1861, Jones enlisted in the Confederate Army and fought in battles at Shiloh, Corinth, Tullahoma and Chickamauga. He was captured Nov. 25, 1863, at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, and imprisoned at Rock Island, Ill.
At Rock Island, the Union offered him release from prison if he would fight for the Union. He agreed and was sent with Union forces to quell Native American uprisings in the “Northwestern Frontier.” Dorothy Bishop’s research showed he was sent there, “because General U.S. Grant, among others, did not believe that ex-Confederate troops should be assigned to areas where they might have to fight their former comrades in arms.” Discharged from the Union Army Nov. 7, 1865, Jones headed home to St. Clair County.
According to Maddox’s oral history, Jones’ wife, Jane, not having heard from her husband for maybe three years, assumed him to be dead and married again. Working in the yard one day, she looked up, and Joel Wheeler Jones came walking down the lane toward her. Seeing him, she fled, leaving the children behind and never returned. Jones’ mother helped him with the motherless children until her death in 1866.
Joel Wheeler Jones married secondly Aug. 1, 1866, Mary Rebecca Bolton, daughter of Henry C. and Margaret Vandegrift Bolton. Joel and Rebecca had five children, one of whom was Sara Elizabeth Jones who was destined to combine both the Jones-Maddox genealogy and the Jones-Maddox farmlands which remain in the Maddox family today.
John Luther Maddox added store business to farming c1895. His daughter, Myrtle Maddox Kenney, in a 1990 interview recounted, “When my father started out, his first store was up there at Friendship in Miss Nancy Mize’s old house. It was a log house with a lean-to.” A descendant of Nancy Mize relates that they believe Nancy’s house was near the foot of Beaver Mountain between today’s Prison Road off U.S. 411 and Friendship Baptist Church.
John L. Maddox, Jr. and sisters Tennie Barnes and Myrtle Kenney
About 1900, he moved his store a few miles north of Friendship to Julian, a late 19th Century community where today stand the “Rock Stores” landmark. Of this community, Gary Pool wrote in a Leeds News article, Sept. 26, 1985, “There were only a few wooden frame buildings and one small post office. Even as towns were rated back then, Julian was … no more than a wide place in the old gravelly road.”
Maddox built a wood-frame store at Julian at today’s rock stores. His was on the right side going north. Will Dollar later bought that property. Maddox’s wooden building burned in 1926 and Will Dollar constructed the rock stores.
The Julian store flourished and was noted frequently in the Springville newspaper. The “Odenville” column of the Springville News reported March 17, 1898, “J. L. Maddox passed through our town first of the week on his way to the Magic City to buy goods.” An April 3, 1902, Springville News ad reads: “All next week we will be pleased to show you the largest stock of ladies trimmed hats, misses trimmed hats, and children’s hats all sizes … J. L. Maddox, Julian, Alabama.”
In 1902, excitement ran high in Odenville, for the Seaboard Airline had begun drilling the Hardwick Tunnel and laying train tracks that would run through Odenville and on to Birmingham. Always alert for business opportunities, Maddox now set his sights on Odenville and supplying the needs of railroad workers.
Myrtle recollected, “He built a store over there at the Hardwick Tunnel, and then he started the one down there where the Chevron Station is.” The Ridgeline Roofing Company operates at that location in 2021.
Wanting to move to Odenville, in 1904 Luther began construction of a family home there. “We moved in it in 1905,” Myrtle said. “It wasn’t finished on the inside. You see, everybody farmed back then, and the carpenters … stopped work when the crops came in.” After gathering crops, the carpenters finished the house.
About the same time, Myrtle continued, “He built a four-room house” in Odenville for Dr. C.C. Brown, the first doctor to live in Odenville. Both these houses still stand today. This house may be earlier than 1904 because Dr. C.C. Brown is mentioned in a Springville Item, June 11, 1903 issue.
The doctor’s house is sometimes referred to as “the house with two front doors.” Speculation is that one front door opened to Dr. Brown’s office and the other front door opened to his living quarters.
Over the years, several rooms were added to the first four. The original roof was wood shingles and traces of forest green paint was discovered on old trim-work. The historic designation of the house is the Maddox-Whitten House since this writer and his wife bought it in 1974.
In 1907, Alabama proposed building accredited high schools in counties that did not already have a state-supported high school. St. Clair County wanted a county high school, and Springville, Odenville and Pell City began to vie for location. Realizing the strength of a newspaper in campaigning for the school location, Luther Maddox founded the St. Clair County News, c1908, and built a newspaper office building.
In his efforts for the school location, Maddox wrote editorials in favor of Odenville as the best spot in St. Clair County for the new school. Pell City had no newspaper in March 1908 and made no public response to Maddox’s comment that Pell City was good, “a cotton mill town,” but “nature never intended it for an educational site.” (St. Clair County News March 5, 1908)
However, in May when Odenville was chosen for the school location, Pell City had a newspaper, The Pell City Progress, and the editor, McLane Tilton, wrote in the May 7, 1908, issue that he feared the state would come to regret having put a “Ten thousand dollar school building in a one thousand dollar town.”
As a member of the St. Clair County High School Building Committee, Maddox worked tirelessly to raise funds for construction of the building. Completed in 1909, the school’s first seniors graduated in 1912.
Maddox was among the first shareholders of the Bank of Odenville which opened in 1908. He was listed as vice president of the bank in a Southern Aegis ad May 6, 1909.
Civic responsibilities did not preclude Luther Maddox’s involvement in the church life of Odenville. The Methodist congregation had organized and met in the Odenville Elementary School from about 1906. Then in the April 19, 1909, edition of the St. Clair County News, the church announced the construction of their own Methodist sanctuary. Listed as a member of the building committee was J. L. Maddox. The article reported that the committee were obligated “for a generous donation of lumber to the new church.” The beautiful building, completed c1911, stands today and serves the Odenville United Methodist Church congregation.
Anna Lee (White) Maddox – Across Old Springville Road
Maddox caused excitement and newspaper reports when he purchased Odenville’s first automobile. The St. Clair County News reported Sept. 9, 1909, “Mr. J. L. Maddox purchased a fine automobile last week and Odenville can now take her place with the other towns throughout the country who have passed the horse and buggy stage.… The auto is made to carry about six passengers and has good speed.”
Two weeks later, the Sept. 23, 1909, issue of St. Clair County News reported, “A party of five went to Ashville Sunday in the automobile belonging to J. L. Maddox. Mr. Crow Harden, who knows more about the machines than anyone else in this area of the county, acted as chauffeur. The trip was made in record breaking time, one hour and ten minutes.”
In 1990, when the interviewer asked Myrtle about these newspaper articles, she laughed and replied, “That was the surrey with the fringe on top! My daddy guided it with a stick – steered it with a stick.”
She told another trip. “Coming home we got in Canoe Creek, and the old thing got wet and quit. Daddy had to pull off his shoes and roll up his pants and crank the thing to get it to start.” She remembers how the automobile’s “chug, chug, chugging,” scattered chickens near the road and frightened horses pulling wagons near Bethel. “The horses rared up and down. It scared me,” she laughed.
Luther Maddox prospered, and in November 1909, he entered into a partnership with W.L. Steed in the Odenville Mercantile Company. St. Clair County News reported Nov. 11, 1909, that “Mr. J. L. Maddox is president of the new firm and Mr. W. L. Steed Secretary-Treasurer.”
Economic downturns often swallow up the good, and Luther Maddox’s fortunes began to diminish. The July 12, 1911, Southern Aegis ran a legal ad announcing that on Aug. 7, 1911, the Sheriff, J.D. Love, would sell “at the courthouse door, Ashville, St. Clair County …” three tracts of J.L. Maddox’s land to satisfy a circuit court case in favor of J.L. Newton. The Southern Aegis of July 24, 1912, and Nov. 20, 1912, Sheriff Love advertised two more tracts of land to be sold on the Ashville Courthouse steps to satisfy J.L. Newton.
Despite these setbacks, Maddox continued his business operations in Odenville for a while. However, the June 23, 1916, issue of the St. Clair County News, published in Ragland, noted in the “Odenville News” that “Luther Maddox is moving out to his farm near here. Maddox has gone into farming and cattle raising.” Then in the July 23, 1916, “Odenville News” reported, “J. T. Newburn has bought the Maddox store and will run the business at this place.”
Myrtle recalled her father’s misfortunes: “In 1916, it rained, and they didn’t make any crops that year. That’s what put my daddy out of business. People just didn’t make anything, and he’d sold ‘em fertilizer on credit, and they didn’t even have corn to eat. They had to go in debt to keep themselves living. So, my daddy borrowed $1,200 and had to pay 6% interest on that. Yes, $72 a year…. That was 1917 that he’d borrowed to keep everything going.”
Maddox stood on the brink of disaster – the possibility of losing more land and the houses he still owned. However, family loyalty rescued Maddox. Myrtle recalls, “My brothers joined the Navy. They made their money out of the Navy – their little bitty bit of money – and they’d send it to Daddy, and he paid it off that way.” She paused, then added, “It was terrible.” The brothers were Chesley Benton and J.L. Maddox, Jr.
J.L.’s daughter, Mary Ann Maddox Moore, told how her father took none of his free time but instead did the laundry for his shipmates to earn extra money to send back home to help pay off the debt. Little by little, John Luther Maddox cleared his debt and saved his property. Since he no longer had business dealings in St. Clair County, the Maddox family moved to Florida.
Myrtle recalled the move, “My father closed out everything, and he just went to Florida after we got everything paid out. Daddy didn’t have money to try to get back in business, so he went to Lakeland, Fla. The boys got out of the Navy, and that’s where the boys got jobs.”
In Florida, Sarah Elizabeth Jones Maddox became ill with cancer and died May 1, 1927, and was buried in Liberty Cemetery, Odenville.
Myrtle recalled the Great Depression and that in 1932, she along with her father and sister, John Luther and Tennie, returned to Odenville. Renters lived in the family home, so they all lived in the house built for Dr. Brown.
Over the years four more rooms had been added to that house. “It was a great big place, and we were all there. After Mama died, Daddy took her insurance money and got back in business again. Store business was all he knew. He started again, and then he died in 1935.” John Luther Maddox, indominable entrepreneur of Odenville, was laid to rest next to his wife in Liberty Cemetery.
Maddox’s last store stood where the Oakridge Outdoor Power Equipment conducts business today on U.S. 411. “My sister Tennie inherited the store,” Myrtle recalled, “but everybody was in debt to her, and my brother, J.L. Jr., just came up here and closed it out.” Tennie went with J.L. to Florida where she married and lived out her life.
At John Luther’s death, Myrtle inherited the family home, Jack Maddox, the Dr. Brown house, and brothers Chesley Benton and J.L. Jr., inherited the farm. J.L. bought out his brother, and the farm remains in possession of J.L.’s children, Dorothy Maddox Bishop, Mary Ann Maddox Moore and deceased John Wesley “Jay” Maddox’s wife and children.
Bert and Mary Ann Maddox Moore and their three daughters moved from Mulberry, Fla., just outside of Lakeland in 1977 and built their home on the land in sight of where Joel Wheeler Jones built his home before the Civil War.
Bert and Mary Ann’s daughter, Lee Ann Moore Clark, loved spending time at the farm during summer visits from Florida. “Prior to living here, we traveled from Florida to Odenville during the summer to visit my grandpa Maddox’s farm.
“My sisters and I loved exploring the property and seeing the lightning bugs at dusk. We would catch and put them in a mason jar to light our room at night. A whippoorwill just outside my bedroom window would always lull me to sleep every night. Picking blackberries along the road was also the highlight of my summer except for the chigger bites. Licking the drop of nectar off a honeysuckle flower, was something our dad taught us, that we thought was the coolest thing ever! One time our mom found a perfect arrowhead on the farm which prompted a discussion about how it got there and how long it had been since Native Americans spent time on the property,” Clark said.
“We played in the creek that flowed through the property, caught minnows in a jar and always stopped at the spring for a quick drink to quench our thirst. Conveniently, there was always a cup left hanging on a limb close by. From there we could hear the rushing water over the waterfall, which was our last stop before climbing back up to the shady road lined with large trees,” she said.
“Names carved in the trees included my grandpa’s. Not only did we have fresh water to drink, but we also found a crabapple tree, something we had never seen or tasted before.
“My Maddox grandparents would come up from Florida and stay for a month in the farmhouse during the summer after we moved here. Grandpa always worked hard to remodel the farmhouse he loved so much. We often had lunch there, and our Grandma cooked all kinds of delicious things for us like chicken and dumplings and rice pudding. She also made watermelon rind preserves. Unlike folks today, she didn’t waste anything,” she recalled.
“These are just a few of my favorite childhood memories of a place that one day would become my home.”
Life spans run out, and community leaders change from one generation to another. Without written records and recorded memories, people and names fade into forgottenness. Be thankful for St. Clair County road names like Maddox Farm Road that remind us of a man Odenville owes a great deal to, John Luther Maddox Sr.
Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
Wayne Johnson has thought a lot about his legacy and what he will leave behind when he has departed this earthly life. He wants it to be his work with veterans. Considering what he does for and with them every week, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Although he recently retired after five-and-a-half years as veterans outreach coordinator for the St. Clair County Extension office, Johnson still takes veterans to medical appointments, helps them access their government benefits and makes regular visits to the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City. “I never considered it work because I enjoyed it so much,” he says of his time with the extension office.
Johnson was one of the first people Frank Veal met after moving into the veterans home, and the pair have been friends ever since. A Korean War vet who served in the Air Force for 26 years, Veal is a native of Troy. He owns a van with a ramp that he lets Johnson use to ferry other vets to various appointments. The veterans home takes care of its residents’ medical trips.
“Wayne was here to help Frank celebrate his 91st birthday in August,” says Reshina Pratt, administrative support assistant at the veterans home. “They are very close.”
Johnson also is close to Veal’s next-door-neighbor, Tom Kelly, who is originally from Maryland but raised his family in Alabama. Another Korean War veteran, Kelly has been at the home since 2014. “Wayne visits us weekly, more if we have a need,” says Kelly. “Sometimes he brings us lunch, like barbecued ribs, and he has made trips to Montgomery with us.”
“He’s a good guy, and we appreciate him,” says Veal. “He’s a handy man to have around.”
It’s Personal
One of the reasons Johnson has such an affinity for veterans is that he’s a veteran himself. He grew up in Portsmouth, Va., and joined the Air Force right out of high school. He retired after serving for 20 years, then worked for a government contractor 14 years. Later, he was employed as activities director at the veterans home. He retired from his job with the Extension Service in April to help take care of his one-year-old grandson, Jaxson, and as of late August, ACES still had not found a replacement.
From the beginning, Johnson’s vision was to get out into the community to find veterans and widows of veterans who needed assistance, according to Lee Ann Clark, the St. Clair County Extension Service coordinator. “He worked hard and successfully accomplished his goal of making veterans aware of the benefits that are available to them and helped many obtain these benefits,” Clark says. “Not only did he reach the elderly and middle-aged veterans, but he also assisted younger ones.”
Although his retirement plans originally included relaxation, fishing and spending time with his grandson, he continues to be an asset to the veterans in the community in some capacity.
Wayne Johnson
Johnson estimates that he probably takes vets to appointments and helps them run other errands three times a week. “Some live in their own homes but can’t get out and get their groceries by themselves,” Johnson says. That’s where Veal’s van comes in handy. “I let him keep it at his house,” Veal says.
Johnson met his wife, Cheryl, when both were in the military and stationed in Kansas. She spent 10 years in the Air Force in accounting. When he retired, they decided to come back to Pell City because it was her hometown. They have two daughters and three grandchildren. One daughter, Jaxson’s mother, lives in Pell City. The other daughter, who has two children, lives in the Netherlands, where Johnson was once stationed while in the Air Force.
“Wayne does an awesome job with local veterans,” says Cheryl Johnson, who has been married to Wayne for 30 years. “We need more people like him because there’s a huge need with veterans in this county. So many are here alone, with their children in different states. He works well with people, and he’s still helping with some he was attached to. He picks up people as needed for appointments for a few who still reach out to him, and Lee Ann still refers people to him from time to time. He tries to direct them to the right resources if he can’t help them.”
His motivation, she says, is that he just loves reaching out to veterans. “When the St. Clair Extension Office had that opening, they wanted a veteran, and he was in a position to take the job,” she says. “It was part time, and he took it to have something to do. Then it got bigger and bigger because there was so much need out there. A news article would post, and the calls would continue to come in.” Cheryl says her husband connects with people. “He loves war movies and the history of wars, and loves the stories the veterans tell him,” she says.
Prior to its recent COVID-19 lockdown, the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home saw Johnson drop by at least once a week to participate in activities with residents. “He’s a great resource for us,” says Reshina Pratt. “One day a homeless vet from out of town stopped by and we called Wayne, and he helped him get the assistance he needed. He’s a kind, caring, helpful man. Even though he has retired (from the county extension office), we still call on him for assistance. I know he’ll be back here after the restrictions are lifted.”
The Rev. Willie E. Crook met Johnson about 20 years ago when Crook was a contractor building community churches. Johnson helped get Rocky Zion Baptist Church in Pell City built, according to Crook.
“When I worked with him then, he had another job but came by and checked on the construction twice a day, before and after work,” says Crook.
“He’s a dedicated man. The Lord led me to build a ranch for underprivileged, inner-city kids. I talked to Wayne about helping me, and we started Gateway to Life Youth Ranch in Ohatchee 12 years ago. He’s president of the ranch, which hosts at-risk kids on weekends so they can enjoy the outdoors, fishing, woodworking and the animals at the ranch. We also mentor fourth- and fifth-grade boys’ classes at Saks Middle School in Anniston.”
Crook vouches for the fact that Johnson has befriended many veterans through the years. “Many times, he has come to the ranch to pick up or drop something, and he has had a vet with him,” Crook says. “He cares about them and would do anything in the world for them. He’s a giving man. We didn’t have any funds when we started that ranch, and he has gone into his pocket several times.”
A modest man, when asked why he continues to work with veterans, Johnson has a quick and simple reply: “It gives me a sense of satisfaction.”
