Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Mackenzie Free
In January of 1969, a freight train derailed in Springville, hitting propane tanks and triggering massive explosions that created a fire that scared the heebie-jeebies out of local residents and destroyed the train depot.
In 2023, that explosion triggered the imagination of a local non-fiction author who loves to read mysteries and wondered whether he could write one. “What if that train wreck covered up a murder no one knew about,” Joel Dison’s thought process began. “And what if that murder was connected to a current murder and the investigator had to solve the old one to solve new one?”
That’s how the “conflict series” was born, and how Dison, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, went from daily technical writing and inspirational writing to the world of fiction. The series began in July 2024 with Conflict of Interest, followed by Moral Conflict (November 2024), Final Conflict (March 2025) and The Bookkeeper (July 2025). The latter was supposed to be the finale, but Dison says a fifth book is rolling around in his brain.
“When I finished the first book, I realized there was more to the story,” he says. “It stuck in my head and I had to get it out. I probably have one more to do only because I don’t like leaving certain things in the books unresolved.”
Raised in Chalkville, Dison is a 2011 graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Although he actually wrote his first novella in a long-lost notebook while in junior high, he started writing books a little after seminary graduation. “I did a lot of technical writing for work before that,” says Dison, a bivocational minister until 2023 when he moved to Springville to help take care of his ailing parents. By day, he’s an electrical engineer for PowerGem, LLC., having worked for Southern Company for 34 years before taking an early severance. He says hewas always good at tech writing. “There was a lot of writing in the seminary, too, and that re-ignited the spark that began in junior high,” he says.
All of his books are self-published. The first three were non-fiction, inspirational books. “The first was a study on the Book of James, and it was published on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles,” Dison says. “I didn’t get many bites on B&N, although I did sell some in the United Kingdom.”
Of the four murder mysteries, he has sold somewhere in the 600 range. “Not great but not bad,” he says. “The nonfiction books did okay, almost 2000 in the 2010-2014 time frame, but some of those may have been free giveaways. I was actually surprised to see the number that high when I checked it. I don’t do a lot of marketing.”
Dison holds up the book that started it all
Dison never thought he had the imagination for an entire book of fiction, much less four, but he surprised himself. “I really wanted to do fiction,” he says. “I love mysteries, and writing one became a personal challenge.”
At one point while writing that series, he asked himself why a pastor would write a murder mystery and whether he should.He came to a conclusion that satisfied him and enabled him to moved forward with the mysteries. “Evil is a reality in this world, and as believers (in Christ), how do we deal with that evil?,” he asked himself. “And how as believers do we approach it? I wanted this to be clean, without cursing or gratuitous sex and not too much grotesque violence.”
Book One ends and Book Two begins with a moral dilemma. The first dealt with a lot of internal doubts and overcoming one’s own failures. The second opens with the main character still dealing with some of those failures. The third deals with how all of those things create internal conflicts, although the story is about external ones.
Dison says he could have ended the murder mystery series at three books, but Book Four re-opens that over-arching theme of conflict between the main character and his nemesis. “It deals with concepts of justice, which does not always look like what you think it does,” Dison says. “There’s a possible fifth one in progress.”
His “conflict” books were written in the third-person. Then a prompt from his Springville writing group made him ask himself whether he could write sci-fi, and write it in the first person present. The latter proved to be more difficult than Dison thought it would be. “I kept switching to the past tense in the sci-fi book, the Cymbrian Protocol,” he says. “But some people think first-person is more engaging to the reader because it makes them feel they are present.”
His writing group, which has no name, often comes up with a topic, and each member writes 2,000 words in three weeks or more on that same topic. “Then we read, compare and critique,” he says. “In January, for example, the topic was a fairy tale.” The group is several years old, and Dison has been a member for about a year.
Dison self-publishes all of his books, a process that no longer carries the stigma it used to. “Self-publishing is becoming as viable and credible as traditional publishing,” he says. “But I would love to have an agent who could find me a publisher to edit and distribute my works. I’m not writing to be a best seller, but for the personal enjoyment and the hope that someone will read my books and enjoy them.”
Electronic publishing costs nothing, except for whatever an author decides to spend for editing and marketing. “So even with paperback it’s just my own printing costs,” Dison says. “It’s a low threshold, which is why so many people do it.”
He makes a couple of dollars on each book he sells, but says he’s not writing for money or fame. “I enjoy writing. It’s cathartic and calming, and exercises my brain. It’ a way of dealing with all the stress I’m going through, a coping mechanism. You lose yourself in your writing.”
Dison designed each of his covers himself, using a graphics editing tool called Canva, with a little help from ChatGPT. “Some images are AI generated,” he says, but he doesn’t use AI in writing his books. “That would be deplorable.” Readers can find his books by searching his name on Amazon, or by checking with Nichols Nook in Springville.
He hasn’t decided whether his sci-fi novel needs a follow-up. The first one came directly from one of his writing group’s prompts, which called for writing a short sci-fi scene. That led to the full book. “I want to find a good way to wrap up the Springville murders, then I’ll decide what’s next,” he says. He has thoroughly enjoyed the locally-set writing and would seriously consider that again in a different format, perhaps a historical fiction or maybe a ghost story.
Readers always wonder where a writer gets his inspiration. For Joel, who has always loved reading mysteries and sci-fi, it’s more about the challenge than the inspiration. “For the first book, the challenge was, ‘Can I write a murder mystery,’” he says. “For the sci-fi, it was, ‘Can I write a sci-fi and write it in the first person?’ I like to challenge myself.”
He has no aspirations of getting rich from his writing, but hopes people will read his books and enjoy them. “I want to provide the option of clean, enjoyable reading for those who like to read, but are bothered by the foul language, sex and violence in lot of popular literature,” he says.
Johnnie Mae Beavers Green may be 95 years old, but her dignified demeanor and perfect posture would make the biblical Queen Esther proud were she still around.
Having lived in the Pell City area for most of her life, Johnnie Mae’s memory is an encyclopedia of local Black history. Tonya Forman expresses loving gratitude for her help in assimilating local history for the Breaking Barriers section of the Museum of Pell City. “Mrs. Johnnie Mae is a treasured source of wisdom and history in our community,” Tonya said.
Johnnie Mae Green reading her Bible at Mt. Hillary Church
“Her memories and stories preserve the legacy of our families, churches and neighborhoods, helping to connect past generations with the present. She’s my personal historian. I can sit and listen to her talk and sing all day.”
Guided by faith
Known for her faith in God, Johnnie Mae’s life has been guided by the Holy Bible and her faith in the God of the Bible. She has a godly heritage reaching back 200 years in St. Clair County’s African American church history. In the 1895, A History of Colored Baptist in Alabama and North Carolina, Charles Octavius Boothe records a brief biography of her great-great grandfather, Rev. Jasper Beavers.
Born a slave in 1825 in Easonville, Beavers learned to read and to write and became a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to family history, Rev. Beavers preached the inaugural sermon at Blooming Light Missionary Baptist Church when it was organized on the first Sunday of July 1884.
Born July 18, 1930, to Herbert and Elizabeth Gibson Beavers, Johnnie Mae grew up in Tuscaloosa County until she was 13 years old. Her mother was native to Tuscaloosa County while her dad was native to St. Clair County. On Dec. 29, 1942, the family moved to the Crossroads community, south of Pell City.
‘Life was good’
“There were two boys and two girls in our family. I was the third child,” Johnnie Mae recounted recently. “We were share-croppers. We farmed. We raised pigs. We had a good milk cow. And life was good.”
A summer garden produced fresh vegetables as well as produce for canning for the winter months. “You know what we grew it with — fertilized it with? The manure from when they cleaned out the mule stables every year. And that’s how we fertilized the garden.” When a listening friend commented, “You had the best fertilizer in the world,” Johnnie Mae replied, “It grew a lot of grass! The animals ate the grass,” she laughed, “and we had to get it up.”
Charlie and Johnnie Mae Green
When asked about the best dish her mother cooked, she quickly replied, “apple cobbler. She could just naturally cook. No recipes.” Then she laughed and confessed, “And I’m gonna tell you the best thing she ever cooked, and that was opossum,” and she told how they prepared it.
“My dad would go hunting at night, and he would catch croaker sacks full. And he had a great big barrel he would put them in and keep them there about a week and feed them until they were fat enough. Then he would kill one. They burnt the hair off and then scraped it down so the skin was clean and pretty.”
After her mother had dressed all the innards out, she boiled it for a while before baking it in the oven with sweet potatoes.
Johnnie Mae declared her mother’s baked possum to be “Good eating,” then laughed and said, “One day me and my sister came home from school, and we ate the whole possum!”
She learned from her mom how to cook them, but by the time she had a home of her own, eating possum was out of style. “I don’t think any of my children ever tasted possum,” she said.
Continuing to reminisce about her mom’s cooking, she said, “Mom could cook almost anything because we had to make do with whatever they had.” One make-do vegetable growing wild in Alabama is the pokeweed that when cooked is called poke sallet. The Beavers family enjoyed it. “Poke sallet was a basic food,” Johnnie Mae recalled. “You could just go and gather that. Mom would clean it. Boil it good. Squeeze it out and rinse it, and then she put it in a skillet with onions. My daddy liked it with onions. Or you could mix it with turnips or other greens. That was a good dish.”
Quilting legacy
Mrs. Beavers also made quilts for winter warmth. And there was some make-do with that as well. When a garment was no longer wearable, Mrs. Beavers would use the garment areas that were still good. Nothing went to waste.
Mrs. Beavers made the girls’ clothes. Many dresses were sewn from colorful feed sack fabric. The girls would go with their dad when he bought feed and choose the sack they wanted for a dress. When enough feed sacks of the same pattern were accumulated, they would have a new dress.
Those vintage feed sacks from the 1940s today sell for between $20 and $45 per sack, depending on the design.
“Mom was a quilter,” Johnnie Mae reflected. “And she used every little scrap she could find. You know we had to find little strings of cloth about an inch or two wide. She would cut a newspaper square and sew the little strips. And when you made a block, you tore the paper off.” Those were called String Quilts and were quite colorful with a kaleidoscope of different fabrics.
Johnnie Mae quilted all her life until she was 90. Then other things took up her time, and “I filled my little quilting room up with junk,” she said. “And I just got it cleaned out so I’m quilting again, and I’m not stopping anymore until the Lord stops me. I can do one a week.”
Growing up
She still lives in the same community and has good memories of growing up there. “It’s a funny thing, but it’s true. All the Blacks were on the Mt. Hillary Church side of Blue Spring Road. And the white families were across over here in their neighborhood. And it was just like one big family. We borrowed, and we visited, and we played together. We didn’t have any problems. So, we named it the Black Crossroads and the White Crossroads,” she laughed, then added, “And the funny thing, we thought we had a little more than they did. And they thought they had more.”
The Crossroads children played games that are now memories to folk of Johnnie Mae’s generation. “We played Auntie Over—throw the ball over a building. We played hopscotch. And jump rope, but I never could jump rope. We played Dropping the Handkerchief. And the number one game was Hide and Go Seek.”
Crossroads was a peaceful community, but when feelings got hurt or a misunderstanding arose, there was a solution. “If you had a falling-out with your neighbor,” Johnnie Mae reflected, “before you went to bed, you had to go and beg pardon of that person. And I thank God for that.” This principle is based on the Bible verse Ephesians 4:26, “Do not let the sun go down upon your anger.”
Such a rule kept harmony among the members of the communities, and Johnnie Mae was oblivious of color differences until one day in Pell City. “Back in the day,” she reminisced, “my daddy would carry us up to town [Pell City] in the wagon. It was summertime, and I got thirsty. I said, ‘I want a drink of water.’ So, we went to where the fountains were, and it said White and Black. Daddy said, ‘Get over there and get you a drink,’ and pointed to the Black fountain. I said, ‘I don’t want no black water, I want clear water. I will never forget that,” she laughed. “I didn’t know anything about segregation until that day.”
After a pause, Johnnie Mae recalled a friend’s deprecating comment about another person’s ethnic background. Then she made a singular observation that deserves contemplation.
“I said, wait. Let’s talk for one minute. Do you think that when God spoke the earth into existence, and then he decided on making man, do you think He went and found brown dirt, red dirt and yellow dirt and made everybody?” Her speech tone was pulpit worthy. “No. He made every single one out of the same dirt. So, how can we put a separation between each other.”
There is silence as she ponders a few seconds and then she laughs, “I’m not gonna lie. There are some good people that are hard to deal with, but I love them … and love is what God teaches.” Again, she reasons from her knowledge of Scripture.
Education
When the Beavers family settled at Crossroads, the children attended The St. Clair County Training School in Pell City, and Johnnie Mae was in the 1947 graduating class. “It was the biggest class that had ever graduated from there,” she recalled. “There were 27 that graduated. What made our class big was that we had kids from Margaret and Acmar in our class.”
She was athletic and played on the Training School’s girls’ basketball team. “We had a great basketball team,” she recounted. “We won all of the little districts’ games. Maxine Jones was our coach. She was the principal’s wife.”
She remembered two of her principals. One was of short stature and without a strong personality. He could not control the students — especially the male students. If a student needed paddling, he would send for his wife who taught at Cropwell at the Greenfield school, and she would hitch up her one-horse wagon, come to the Training School, paddle the student and return to Cropwell.
To solve that problem, the Board of Education sent Professor Ruben Yancey to be principal of the Training School. “When Mr. Ruben Yancey came,” Johnnie Mae recounted, “he grabbed those boys by the collar, and it made a brand-new school. He taught them respect.”
Professor Ruben Yancey ended his career as principal of Ashville Colored High School. Professor Lloyd Newton and the Black community petitioned the St. Clair County Board of Education to rename the school Ruben Yancey High School, which they did in 1965. Sadly, Professor Yancey died shortly before the name change, but he lived and died well-respected by both races.
Life after high school
After graduating high school, Johnnie Mae attended Stillman College in Tuscaloosa for a year-and-a-half. However, she reflected, “The only reason I didn’t stay in college, I knew my parents were not able to send me. There were no student loans. I knew they didn’t have the money, and I came out.”
Determined and courageous young woman that she was, however, she enrolled at Ruth’s Poro School of Beauty in Birmingham and took the six-months course to become a licensed cosmetologist. “It was hard, but God knows I enjoyed it. Cutting and pressing and curling hair.” When she started, that process earned her about $3 per person.
When asked about the location of her shop, Johnnie Mae replied, “I went. I travelled. I did a lot of invalid people — the ones that couldn’t get around.” She paused a moment, then laughing, said, “A friend came to the house yesterday and said, ‘Well, you’re 95 years old, and you’ll soon be up there in heaven fixing mother’s hair.’ And I said, ‘I’m not gonna work when I get up there. I’m gonna sit down and praise the King.” Among the laughter, somebody said, “Amen!”
Kimberly Moore said of Johnnie Mae’s skillful work, “She was excellent with hairdressing. Just about everybody I knew growing up, she pressed and curled their hair!”
In addition to hairdressing, Johnnie Mae worked the looms in two cotton mills. She worked for two months at Avondale Mill in Pell City, then took a job in Talladega at Crown’s Textile. “I had about five less looms to run than I had at Avondale, and I made $5 more an hour. I retired from there.”
Then she explained why she retired. “I drove by myself for seven years. Just me. There wasn’t very much traffic on Highway 34 then. But one night I had a flat tire, and over here at what we call the Twin Bridges, there was an invalid white man lived right on the road. And he heard me out there with my flat tire. He was feeble and on a stick, and he had a big dog and came to where I was.
“Finally some Black folks stopped, and he said, ‘If you all will change the tire, I’m going back to the house.’ But he left his dog there, and he told the dog to lay by my door. Bless his heart! I’m telling you,” she said, with thanksgiving in her voice, “every time I went to work, I stopped and hollered at him. He was dynamic. And that’s why I quit work, cause I thought next time it might be worse.”
She retired from the cotton mill, but she didn’t retire from working. She worked in the kitchen at the Black and White Nursing Home for a while and then at the Rosewood Manor for about four years. She left Rosewood Manor and worked briefly at an assisted living facility on Dry Creek Road; however, that facility had a short life. “They closed down,” she said, “and after tha,t I came home. I stopped working.”
But not really, for she continued to go to women who were confined to their home and dress their hair beautifully. And in that ministry, she spread sunshine and the love of God to the women.
Marriage, family and faith
In 1950, Johnnie Mae married Charlie Darnelle Green from Perry County. They were parents to four children — three boys and one girl. The Greens also took sisters Linda and Wandra Beavers into their home when their mother went to New York to work. Jobs were scarce back in that day.
At home, Johnnie Mae taught her children about God and his love, and they grew up in Mt. Hillary being nurtured by godly ministers there. “I’m so thankful,” she testifies, “that I had good children. They may have fallen out, but they made up and got along.”
Celebrating 90th birthday with family
About rearing children, she commented, “I tell you, it don’t cost but just a little to train a child the way you should train ’em. And when they’re old, they won’t depart from it,” quoting from the Bible. Then, reflecting of current troublesome times, she added, “I don’t know about that now. But I don’t think they depart, they just were never trained. Maybe God will fix it one day.”
It is worth noting that the Perry County Green family knew Coretta Scott King, and Johnnie Mae knew her as well. Furthermore, Rev. T. D. Jakes has genealogical connections to the Green family.
Charlie Green was a miner. When he stopped working in the mines, he took a job at Anniston Army Depot, where he worked until he retired. “It’s been a good life,” Johnnie Mae reflected, “and I don’t regret any of it.”
Mt. Hillary Missionary Baptist Church became her home church about the same time the family moved to Crossroads. Having already been baptized in Tuscaloosa County, Johnnie Mae joined Mt. Hillary in 1944. She told of her baptism as a 7-year-old. “I was baptized in a creek. I was scared of the turtles, and there was a terrapin coming towards me. They had to catch me and put me back in the water!”
When asked if she had sung in the church choir, she replied, “Yes, I did. And we had a little quartet. A little group, The Rose of Sharron Gospel Singers. There were six of us — Mertis Truss — O’Neal was her maiden name — was our musician. Her sister Josie sang with us. I was one of them. Then we had Livi Threatt, Flora Threatt and Nellie Mae Threatt.”
The Rose of Sharron Singers would pray before they went somewhere to sing, for they felt like they were worshiping the Lord through singing.
As she approaches year 96, Johnnie Mae’s faith in God is strong. How has her faith sustained her all these years? “It’s the song I sing all the time, Amazing Grace.” Then she quotes in a strong voice, “Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come, God’s grace has brought me safe this far, and grace will lead me home.”
A quietness settles over the room as she comments on her faith. “I told my church the other Sunday, ‘I have one thing to work on.’ They say, ‘What?’ And I say,’ My faith.’ I said, ‘The Scripture says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can tell the mountain, ‘Be ye removed,’ well, I can’t move a stick. But I’m working on I,t and I trust Him. When I get up or when I go to the store, I say, ‘Lord carry me and bring me back.’ He is the only One I have.”
Although she may think her faith is small, her unwavering faith in God inspires many of her family members and friends. And the words of Andrae Crouch‘s hymn “Through It All,” fits her perfectly.
Through it all Through it all I’ve learned to trust in Jesus I’ve learned to trust in God Through it all Through it all I’ve learned to depend upon His word Oh, I’ve learned to depend upon His word.
Many lives have been blessed by Johnnie Mae’s life and faith and would say, “Amen!” to Kimberly Moore’s loving comments. “For as long as I can remember, my Aunt Johnnie Mae has always been a woman of faith and highly involved in the church. She is the rock of our extended family, and her strong belief in God is what I use as a model for my own life. She has taught me that no matter what happens God is in control … she often says that we have to lean and depend on Him and His word … her unwavering FAITH is a true testament of his AMAZING GRACE.”
Johnnie Mae Beavers Green. Keep on keeping on in your journey of faith. You are an inspiration to your family, your church and your hometown, for through it all you have learned to depend upon God’s Word.
In the very home where Dr. Robert A. Martin once lived while ministering to the medical needs of early Pell City residents, a doctor of another sort works on a prescription for the souls of today’s people well beyond the streets of Pell City.
The treatment plan calls for an infusion of discernment, acute wakefulness and a hunger for spiritual growth.
“The phrase, ‘Keep the cookies on the bottom shelf,’ is an old educational philosophy often utilized in contemporary Christianity,” says Dr. Ed Glasscock. “That is contrary to my philosophy of ministry. If first-grade-level classes are all that is taught to students, they cannot become mature and productive adults. Christians must be progressively stretched to greater levels of understanding.”
A minister and educator, Glasscock is also published author, specializing in books designed to help modern day readers make sense of the lessons and prophesies contained in the Bible, specifically relating to the end-times.
In his latest book, Olivet Discourse, Glasscock underscores the need to stay vigilant (awake) and to live spiritually productive lives. The 300-page book is a deep dive into two chapters of the Bible within the Book of Matthew.
Matthew chapters 24 and 25 specifically address the questions posed by four of Jesus’ disciples pertaining to the signs of the second coming of Christ, the timing of the end of the age, and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem as prophesied in the Old Testament.
Modern day Christians face the same confusion, Glasscock writes, as did those disciples who questioned Jesus on the Mount of Olives. Glasscock goes on to emphasize that while no specific day or date is given in answer to the timing, the admonition is given to Christians to not grow lazy or apathetic about displaying what he calls “kingdom character.”
“I wrote a separate book on those two chapters because they’re really often misunderstood,” adds Glasscock. “They’re critical, I think, for us in getting a perspective of what Christianity means and how it all works out in the end. They help us understand what’s happening in the world and how scripture makes us aware of the spiritual realities behind earthly events.”
This is Glasscock’s third book and second specific to the Book of Matthew. His first book, The Gospel According to Matthew, was first published in 1997, then reprinted in 2025. A second book, a work of fiction titled, Deadly Beast – a Case for Mr. Parks, was published in 2020.
Olivet Discourse took nearly five years to write, says Glasscock, “mostly because I didn’t work on it seriously at first. I put it aside and did other things. About a year and a half ago, I decided to get serious about it.”
Glasscock’s wife, Gail, is his sounding board and manuscript reader. She has experience working at a printing house and holds a degree in print media communication. “She doesn’t just correct my punctuation,” Glasscock emphasizes, smiling. “She’ll come in and offer suggestions so that readers might better understand the intent of the text.”
Dr. Ed Glasscock and his wife, Gail
The two have been in ministry together for most of their 60-year marriage. “She has been a great pastor’s wife,” says Glasscock. “And she was an incredibly great faculty member’s wife.” Glasscock has over 22 years of pastoral experience and 18 years of teaching as a seminary professor at Chicago’s Moody Graduate School and Virginia Beach Theological Seminary, including six years in Birmingham as academic dean at Southeastern Bible College. He earned his doctor of theology from Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.
This is all a far cry from the much younger Glasscock’s plan to be a professional musician. He was born in Sylacauga and raised in Leeds. He and Gail were high school sweethearts. A bass guitar player, he planned to make a living working in the music industry. But it was not to be.
It was the late 60s, and Glasscock and a drummer friend headed out west to find fame and fortune.
With the country entrenched in the Vietnam War, the draft was taking many young men, making it hard for them to find other band members. “I’d already been turned down by the army, so this last attempt to make a music career shattered my dreams,” remembers Glasscock. “I had to find a real job, which ended up being at a binding company in Birmingham.”
Inexperienced and headstrong, it wasn’t long before Glasscock faced another challenge, this time a physical one. He nearly lost one hand after it was crushed by a printing press. “When I got my hand caught in the printing press, that’s part of how I became a Christian,” says Glasscock. “I was setting up a machine. The boss checked on me, but I wanted to do it myself. So, I taped down a switch to allow me to feed the machine by myself. The doctors had to put my hand back together like a puzzle.”
Following the accident, Glasscock received a call from a younger cousin. “My cousin talked about how messed up I was and wanted me to talk to her pastor, so Gail and I hopped in our MGB and went to Tampa to see this pastor named Hank.”
The resulting discussions between the two men brought a complete turnaround in Glasscock, who says his life was forever changed. Glasscock says that from that moment, he knew he was called into the ministry.
An acoustic guitar sits among all the books as a reminder of Glasscock’s love of music
After retiring from seminary teaching, Glasscock started an independent ministry in 2009 called Xdoulos, the name meaning Christ’s Servant. The non-profit organization specializes in providing teaching resources and education, and publishing articles and books.
The focus of Xdoulos is to help churches equip Christians for ministry within their churches. His work is international, taking him to places like Uganda, Nigeria, Ukraine, Austria and the United Kingdom.
Christians often suffer persecution in those areas, and part of Glasscock’s message is that Christianity is not designed to “conquer the world with love and popularity.” We are called, he says, to have loving and respectful discussions about Christianity and the end of times.
At 80 years old, Glasscock still teaches three classes per week in his local church and has plans to open a Bible Institute in Pell City.
The author is not resting in his success. He says he has at least one more book in him and can’t wait to work out the details and get to work.
In the meantime, you’re invited to satisfy your hunger and grab Glasscock’s latest book, Olivet Discourse. It is a thought-provoking work and truly written with the end in mind..
Spend time talking with Tonya Forman, and you’ll soon realize you have found a person who loves Pell City, Alabama, and is focused on advancing the city and preserving the history of its citizens.
Born to Lesley Sr. and Fannie Forman were Tonya and her siblings, Sharod, Lesley Jr., and Diane. Tonya grew up in Pell City and was an active member of Rocky Zion Missionary Baptist Church. She graduated from Pell City High School in 1987. After graduation, she attended Central Alabama Community College in Childersburg.
Accepting a job with AT&T, she began commuting to Birmingham every workday. Before long, co-workers in the city began encouraging her to move to Birmingham rather than commute. Her response, she recently confided, was always, “There’s no place like Pell City! I can safely sit on my porch without a concern, and I’m not gonna leave that for a 30-minute drive down the interstate.”
Those conversations and her responses seem to be what urged her on to know her hometown better and to work for its upbuilding. “I realized what a blessing I had here in Pell city.”
CITIZENS IN ACTION
Forman at 2021 event with District 2 Councilwoman Ivi Wilson and Siri Truss
Tonya is a founding member of District 2 Citizens in Action, serving District 2 of Pell City. Established in 2021, the citizenship partnership is designed to achieve improved communication, understanding, and cooperation between citizens and city officials through increased personal contact between City Hall, neighborhoods and communities throughout the city. President of Citizens in Action is Bishop Donald Gover.
PELL CITY BLOCK PARTIES
One Pell City event Tonya devotes time to is the yearly Block Party. This event started in 1999 as an initiative to celebrate and bring the community together. For the past 26 years, it has brought citizens of Pell City and surrounding communities to the historic downtown for live music, kids’ rides, vendors, and food.
Tonya’s involvement in the Block Party began because at one event attendees began asking her questions to which they thought she should know the answers. Specifically, they asked about Greg White’s R&B Set which had occurred at 3:00 pm.
“A lot of people didn’t come to the Block Party until after the sun went down,” Tonya explained. “So, about 4:30 or 5:00 people were asking about Greg and Keith White.”
When they asked Tonya, she had to tell them his set was over. “It was amazing,” she laughed, “at how many were asking me, and I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
That would soon change, however, for a visit to Urainah Glidewell at the Pell City Chamber of Commerce office got results thatTonya hadn’t planned for or expected.
In the meeting with Urainah, Tonya explained how a lot of people avoided the heat of the day and came to the event when the day cooled down a bit. She asked that Greg White’s Set be moved to 5:00 instead of 3:00.
As they talked, Urainah said, “Why don’t you become an ambassador?” Which brought Tonya’s response, “What’s that and what does it involve?”
To that, Urainah responded, “Just do what you’re already doing. You’ve got a love for the city, promoting it and getting people involved.”
Ambassadors of the Pell City Chamber of Commerce are volunteers who help with events, welcome new chamber members, and support local Pell City businesses.
Never one to be uninvolved, Tonya filled out the Ambassador Application and was soon accepted.
Urainah Glidewell, Executive Director of the Chamber recently said of Tonya, who is now on the Chamber Board, “Rotunda ‘Tonya’ Forman has been a wonderful addition to the Pell City Chamber Board of Directors. From her tireless involvement with the community and her willingness to help with chamber events, to her generosity of time and spirit, we are so blessed to have Tonya as part of the team.” Tonya currently serves as Vice President of the Pell City Board of Directors.”
In her work with the Block Party, Tonya recognized that involving church musical groups would increase attendance as well as be a way churches could promote their ministries. So, church choirs, praise teams, and musicians became sets at the Block Parties.
When emergencies arise, as they will, Tonya can help assess the situation and bring resolution. One of these emergencies occurred at the 2025 Block Party. For the sponsors of the event, there is a VIP section where refreshments are served. As the day progressed, a storm rolled in, not only disrupting the event, but also blowing a tree across the driveway to Blue Eye Eatery, the caterer for the VIP section. “She had everything ready to bring out,” Tonya recalled, “but they were waiting to see if the power company was going to come out and cut the tree up.”
The power company didn’t come, and the caterer realized the only solution was a boat. “So, they communicated back and forth with Urainah Glidewell and Chamber members,” Tonya continued, “and they got on the boat with all the food and got it to the Civic Center where chamber members were there to unload, put it in a truck and get it here to the VIP area.”
Although delayed an hour or so by the storm, the VIP refreshments were ready by 5:30 or so. The early performers missed out, but the groups that came in at 5:00 and 6:00 were able to come in and enjoy the food.
ARCHIVING BLACK HISTORY
Tonya has accomplished a major success in the work of collecting and preserving the history of Pell City’s Black communities, schools, churches, and citizens.
Forman and Johnnie Mae Green at the museum
Erica Grieve, Museum of Pell City Coordinator, recently said this about Tonya’s work. “Rotunda’s passion for preserving Pell City’s Black history has been nothing short of inspiring. She has spent countless hours collecting stories, photographs, and artifacts that ensure the experiences and achievements of our Black community are never forgotten. Her dedication and heart have shaped the Museum’s Breaking Barriers Exhibits and continue to bring our shared history to life for future generations.”
When the museum director and board approached Tonya about collecting Black history, she told them, “Black people don’t have a lot of [recorded] history because they were either burned out, ran off, or left because of work.” She also pointed out fires and floods had damaged or destroyed photographs and treasured history recorded in family Bibles, etc. It would not be an easy task.
However, never one to be daunted by difficulty, she acknowledged it and set about collecting history of churches, communities, and citizens. A significantly rewarding part of the collection occurred with the taping of community members: those who had lived long lives; those who had helped integrate Pell City schools; and those who had excelled in professions once unavailable to our Black citizens. These people broke the barriers of segregation and blazed the way for those coming afterwards.
The first Breaking Barriers event was announced in the Anniston Star, February 6, 2024, in an article by Laura Nation. “The Museum of Pell City opens its locally produced Black History Month exhibit Feb. 8, featuring the people of this community as they experienced events of the times in which they lived. Their stories reflect decades of a changing community through the years as well.
‘This particular focus of the city’s history was actually born early in the development of the Museum of Pell City, said director Carol Pappas.’ Carol Papas is President of the Museum of Pell City.”
Nation’s article continued: “There are 15 profiles among the videos, some of these are Thelma O’Neal Jones, the first Black female elementary school principal; Don Allen, a member of the first integrated football team; Bob McGowan, first Black Avondale Mills supervisor; and Keith White, the first Black art teacher in Pell City Schools.” Terry Young and Tom Ham were also on the first integrated football team.
Carol Pappa recently spoke of Tonya, saying, “In the time that I have worked with Tonya on our museum board, I discovered that she’s not just a member in name only. She goes to work, ensuring that any project she’s associated with becomes a success story.”
Ninety-five-year-old Johnnie Mae Green gives high praise to Tonya and her work of collecting Black history. “For a person in her generation to reach back and to think about the times that we had in our young days and to get interested in our history]is just amazing. I’m telling you: she is one to be complemented.” Johnnie Mae further stated, “Now, God had to have given Tonya the inspiration to do this. Because, without our history recorded, we will never know our background. And I thank God for her. She’s just a dynamic person.” She paused, then added, “She’s a God-fearing young lady. That’s the ticket to life. She’s one in a thousand.”
Tonya’s journey of faith began at Rocky Zion Missionary Baptist Church where she grew up learning of God. She was baptized by Pastor James Adams who served the church for eleven years. As she matured, she sang in the choir and on occasion led the singing. She was youth director at a time when the youth program flourished. “At that time the church published a small youth newspaper,” she recalled, “and the “the youth would write about a topic we had studied in Sunday School or about events and trips that were upcoming. They highlighted achievements of a youth member.”
WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA
Wreaths across America became another focus of Tonya’s as soon as she learned of this yearly event.
Wreaths across America, a non-profit organization, coordinates the placing of Christmas wreaths on the graves of veterans. The motto of the organization is “Remember, Honor, and Teach. Remember our veterans that served and are serving America, Honor the fallen veterans, and Teach our youth about the service and sacrifice of our veterans and families.”
Forman helping with Wreaths Across America
Tonya learned of the project in a conversation with Mindy Manners at the Museum of Pell City. “I knew about Wreaths across America, nationally, but I didn’t think of it as locally involved,” she confided recently.
So, when Mindy started talking about it, I thought, I do remember flags, but I didn’t recall seeing wreaths, and I didn’t realize that it was a program doing it versus individual families or churches doing it.” In their conversation, Mindy told Tonya about the cemeteries she helped with, and Tonya realized they were traditional white church cemeteries. When Tonya commented, “We have Black veterans in our cemeteries,” Mindy’s response was, “Would you be interested in doing it for them?”. Tonya’s immediate response was “What do I have to do? How do we get this started?
The answer to that question was that Mindy Manners was getting ready to have a meeting at Pell City First Baptist Church. Tonya immediately called her Aunt Verhonda Embery, and good friend Jennifer Gover. These women travel together and always find cemeteries to explore, and they attended Manners’ meeting.
“We got the information we needed ,” Tonya recalled, “and Mindy told us how to get started—the website that we could communicate with.”
Tonya gives much credit to Jennifer Gover for getting Wreaths across America successful in the Black cemeteries of Pell City. “Jennifer took the lead. I like to work in the background, and I’m good with that.”
They began researching cemeteries and the veterans buried in each, and ended up with six cemeteries: Mt. Zion, Rocky Zion (Pell City Community), Coleman, First Baptist Cropwell, Greenfield, and Bloominglight (which used to be called Robinson).
Tonya and Jennifer had difficulty locating graves that didn’t have markers, and family members had to show where they were. Dirt had obscured some markers and they removed the dirt from those. “We involved the community,” Tonya reminisced, “and told them you’re gonna have to help us find where they’re buried.
Tonya and Jennifer got gas line marker flags to mark graves they located. The churches got involved, and the person in charge of individual cemeteries made sure they were spruced up for the wreath placing ceremony.
Wreaths cost $17.00 each Family members paid for some, and others who had no veteran to honor gave donations—some for more than one wreath, and the money came in to pay for the wreaths.
That first year, 2023, the wreaths arrived and were stored at Rocky Zion Baptist Church and some at Jennifer Gover’s home, and the two ladies organized up the program. “We got ROTC involved.” Tonya recently recalled. “We couldn’t get Pell City ROTC involved that first year, so Jennifer found veterans in Bessemer who had a program, and they came out and did the salute for us at the church, and we had singing. So, we had a small program. “
Volunteers distributed wreaths to each church, and the ladies had someone at each cemetery to meet the families and place the wreaths on the family graves. As each wreath was placed, a family member would say the names out into the atmosphere. A proclamation that here we honor one who served the United States of America, and we are proud of their service.
Writing of the premiere event, Laura Nation wrote in the December 14 issues of The St. Clair Times, “Excitement for the Wreaths Across America program has been building as two Pell City women, Jennifer Gover and Rotunda Forman, noted the need to honor the veterans and set out to develop a way to do so earlier this year.”
After mentioning the excitement of the project, Nation speaks of Gover and Forman’s labor of love in the wreaths. “Preparation for the 2023 event involved much research, contacting family members and friends, and spreading out into the community to locate as many veterans as possible. The women said they were met with much interest and help in the effort, and now, in the first year of their plan, the program is in place.”
Tonya recounts an interesting 2023 event at one of the cemeteries. “Coleman is a split cemetery—there’s a Black side and a white side. The person in charge of the white side saw what we were doing and wanted to participate; so Jennifer was able to get enough wreaths to cover the graves of the white veterans also.” What a beautiful cooperation that calls to mind the lyrics from the 60s which are as true today as then: Black and white together someday/ Deep in my heart I do believe / We shall overcome someday.
Having known Tonya for a long time and having worked with her on this project, Jennifer Gover observes, “Tonya and I have served together for the past three years as Location Coordinator and Coordinator Assistant for Wreaths Across America. During that time, she has been an invaluable asset in sharing with others the mission of WAA while convincing individuals to sponsor wreaths for our veterans resting in six local cemeteries.
“She has a strong sense of purpose and is always able to provide additional options while giving that beautiful smile. She has a heart for service and sometimes overextends herself . I think she does that because of the willingness to serve rather than be served. She’s always ready for the next adventure.”
The wreaths are removed before they turn brown and ugly. “We get our volunteers to go back and remove them,” Tonya explains. “If available, we get Greg Gossett of the Pell City Maintenance and Street Department to get someone to come out and pick them up. We bagged them up and they came and removed them.”
The success of the first year of participation in Wreaths across America has continued. In 2025, more than 200 wreaths were placed on graves.
HOLD FAST TO DREAMS
Parents Lesley Sr. and Fannie Forman
Of Tonya’s devotion to collecting and preserving Pell City’s Black history and the Breaking Barriers project, Johnnie Mae Green says, “She should be as famous as Harriet Tubman,” for Tubman collected and preserved the stories of those she helped escape slavery. Carol Pappas, President of the Museum of Pell City, praises her work as well. “Breaking Barriers, our celebration of Black history in our community, resulted from Tonya’s work, her creativity and her vision to make it happen. We are now in our third year in the series, which has focused on the first to break barriers in their respective fields, reflections of faith and family, and this year, foundations of education – a salute to educators who made a difference.
“Tonya is that rare soul who can see a need and doesn’t stop working until that need is filled. We could never have come this far in bridging our community together without her efforts.”
Langston Hughes, Black poet of the mid-twentieth century, wrote,
Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.
Supported by her faith, Tonya pursued her dreams of preserving the history of a city and its people, and in fulfilling that dream she put love into action.
Tonya, your work will continue to benefit and influence generations to come. Hold fast to your dreams and keep on collecting history. Your dream has strong wings.
Eric Knepper doesn’t take credit for the beauty in his work. A profoundly spiritual man, he says he’s simply revealing the beauty that is already within the wood when he carves his one-of-a-kind pieces.
“You just get inside the piece of wood and see what God made,” says the artisan. “That’s what you want to show, all the beauty in the grains.”
Eric Knepper shows off some of his work
For nearly three decades, Knepper has been unveiling the natural beauty in the wood around him and crafting hundreds of pieces of original wood treasures. An old rotten maple tree found new life as a beautiful bowl. A red oak tree that had to be cut on his property was transformed into a rolltop desk, a credenza and a file cabinet.
His wife, Pat, smiles across the table as she talks about different items he has created over the years. The house is filled with them, from the dining room’s exquisitely carved grandfather clock with cabriole legs to the stunning freestanding cabinet in the living room made from pieces of an old fireplace screen. “He is so talented. I can’t think of anything I’ve asked Eric to do that he hasn’t been able to do,” she adds, her eyes filled with pride. “He will find a way to do anything.”
The son of a carpenter, and a very determined man himself, Knepper made furniture early in his marriage to meet the needs of his family. “When you get started, you have nothing. We built things then because you couldn’t afford them,” he explains. He even did all the millwork in the home that they built in 1997. But it wasn’t until after retirement at age 60 that his woodworking expanded into a new passion – wood carving.
On a camping trip the couple took to Florida, his interest in carving came alive. “People in the campsite next to us carved, and he took me to a carving club in Fort Myers.” When Knepper returned to Pell City, he met with Tom Goodwin, a carver from a local carving club, and the two became great friends.
Goodwin took Knepper under his wing, showing him how to work with different woods and specific tools. His friend has since passed, but Knepper still has the carving equipment that once belonged to Goodwin. After revealing that he was terminally ill, Goodwin asked Knepper to buy his carving tools so he could pass them on to someone with a passion for the art.
Creations on display at the Museum of Pell City
Those specialty tools, Knepper explains, are mostly different chisels and knives, with some power carving tools. “On a given project, you might use two or three tools primarily, or for furniture, (you might use) your whole shop,” Knepper says. He has a wood carving room within the house for smaller projects. Larger pieces are handled in his wood shop in the barn.
As any wood carver would tell you, keeping your tools sharp is essential. Keeping them sharp is important for precise cuts, but it can also create the need for some emergency care, as was the case for Knepper seven years ago. “I cut the end of my thumb off about 6 years ago,” he admits. “You don’t even notice it now. I don’t even remember what I was working on, but I did a dumb thing.”
“He just came in and said he needed a band aid,” tells Pat. He needed a bit more than that. “It was hard to get it to fit back together,” she adds, giving credit to “a wonderful nurse practitioner at Dr. Helms’ office.”
Eric and Pat Knepper
The Kneppers handled the crisis with the same grace and perseverance that has defined their 63 years of marriage. The two met while Eric was in the Navy in Virginia. Moves to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Indiana preceded their final landing in Pell City where he came to work at National Cement. He later left that company and bought Pell City Fabrication, which provided maintenance and support for steel fabrication and other industries.
The couple have three grown children (Shawn, Scott, and Ericka), eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. Knepper says he sees talent in each of them and potentially at least one future wood carver. Several family members were among the guests at a recent art exhibit at the Pell City Museum of Art featuring his wood carvings.
Knepper’s most challenging piece was among that collection of works. He describes it as a “gold spiral thing,” for lack of a more technical term. “I just saw a picture of it and decided to give it a try,” he says. “It was very difficult because it’s hollow. I had to work from the inside out.”
The art of carving is an ongoing lesson in patience and finesse. Knepper also stresses the importance of listening to the wood. “The wood will tell you what to do, basically.” He considers himself less of a designer and more of a collaborator, with each knot, grain and imperfection guiding his hands. The character of the wood, with its texture and color, add to the direction the project takes.
Knepper has done much of his work from wood that has fallen on his property or that others have brought to him. Oak and Cherry woods are favorites, but he also has done many projects with Cottonwood and other bark woods. “I really like the color and grain of cherry,” he adds. “Sometimes people bring me roots they’ve dug up. It looks terrible, but I cut it up and look inside and it’s beautiful. You just never know.”
Though he finds it difficult to choose a favorite, some pieces – like a beer bottle complete with a bear in a Paul “Bear” Bryant houndstooth hat – clearly delight Knepper. Throughout his home, bowls, spiral works, vases and boxes crafted by this modest woodcarver are on display.
His faith is evidenced in another of his masterpieces which sits on the table – an intricate chapel featuring a lectern with an open Bible. Knepper’s craftsmanship extends beyond his home and into the heart of the local faith community. Over the years, he has used his talent to create kneeling rails for the altars of three area churches.
Template for a design of a kneeler at New Life Church in Pell City
The first kneeler was crafted for the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Rainbow City, designed specifically to complement an altar the church had received.
This careful attention to detail highlights Knepper’s ability to harmonize his work with existing elements, ensuring each piece feels at home in its setting. Later, he constructed a pair of kneelers for Pell City First Methodist, further demonstrating his commitment to supporting his community through his artistry.
Most recently, Knepper designed a folding, movable kneeler for New Life Church, which gathers at the Municipal Complex in Pell City while a new church is being built. This innovative design reflects his adaptability and practical approach, ensuring the kneeler could be easily moved and stored as needed. Form, function and beauty are hallmarks of Knepper’s work.
A quiet, serious man, Knepper is uncomfortable with attention. He shrugs off accolades, dismissing his own talent. “I’m always using other people’s design, not mine,” he says. “I just put my own spin on someone else’s design.” It gives him something to do, he says, adding that it keeps him from watching TV.
Knepper’s keen eye and ability to see what rough wood can become is what has defined him as an artist and wood carver. Hearing how a discarded root was crafted into a beautiful bowl certainly makes one pause for thought. Each gnarled root or discarded branch may still have a story to tell.
With patience, perseverance and careful listening, the wood carver reveals the beauty within.
Home of Broadway actress, Springville teacher being restored with ‘love’
Story by Scottie Vickery Photos by Mackenzie Free
After leaving a career on Broadway during the Great Depression, Margaret Byers took center stage in the hearts of Springville residents. She was a little person – not much bigger than the first-graders she taught for decades – but she made a tremendous impact on everyone she met.
That’s a big part of the reason why Nancy Tucker and her daughter, Tami Spires, have taken such care while renovating the home where “Miss Margaret,” as she was affectionately known, lived most of her life. “We just felt like we needed to honor her,” Tami said.
Tami and Nancy take a break on Miss Margaret’s porch swing
The home, which Miss Margaret’s parents built in 1891, has some unique features, including doorknobs that are much lower than typical to accommodate their daughter’s small stature. “She just quit growing as a child,” Tami said. “No one really knows why.”
One of Nancy’s favorite features of the home, which boasts 14-foot ceilings, is an old phone nook that’s built into a wall and is only about 2 feet off the ground. “She had a little chair that sat next to it,” Nancy said. “It’s such a unique house, and we’re so happy to have it.”
Neither of the women was in the market for a new home when Nancy first saw the “For Sale” sign while walking with a friend one morning last summer. In fact, they both live right down the street from the Byers home, with Nancy’s house directly behind Tami’s.
Still, Nancy had a feeling she just couldn’t shake. “When I saw it that morning, I thought, ‘That’s going to be ours,’” she said. “I wanted it the minute I found out it was for sale, before I even went in it.”
Nancy immediately called Tami, who contacted the real estate agent and scheduled a tour. A few hours after the walk-through, Nancy had a contract on the yellow house that stands directly across the street from Springville Middle School.
“We walked across the threshold, and she said, ‘I’m buying it,’” Tami said. Nancy wanted it so badly, in fact, that she didn’t even get an inspection on the house before signing the papers.
“I bought it like it was a loaf of bread,” Nancy said with a laugh. “I didn’t even think about the structure of the house or anything like that. I just loved it.”
Fortunately, they’ve since learned that, despite being more than 130 years old, the house is in pretty good condition. “There was no mold, no leaks, nothing wrong with the foundation,” Tami said. “We got lucky.”
They replaced the knob and tube wiring that is common in historic homes and can pose safety concerns, as well as some rotten porch boards. They covered up the fireplace in the dining room, one of four that were in the original house, and had the chimney removed because it was in bad shape. They also had new kitchen cabinets, which were not original to the home, and new countertops installed.
Everything else has been done by the mother/daughter duo. “Mom and I have singlehandedly done 95 percent of everything inside the house that’s been done,” Tami said. “Every weekend, we’re either here working on the house or shopping for things to furnish it. The shopping is more fun.”
While they love the history of old houses – Tami’s home was built in 1885, and Nancy’s was built in 1926 – they are especially intrigued with this one just because it belonged to Miss Margaret.
She was a beloved first-grade teacher for decades, and Nancy, Tami and Tami’s daughter, Rebekah Wester, are all teachers, as well.
Nancy taught Business at Springville High School for 26 years before retiring in 2000. A former English teacher at Moody Middle School, Tami is currently the counselor at Springville Elementary School. And Rebekah, who will live in the home once renovations are complete, teaches English at Ragland High School.
“We kind of feel a kinship with Miss Margaret because she was a teacher, and we are three generations of teachers,” Tami said. A member of the Springville Preservation Society, she leads walking tours of Springville for the fourth-grade students each year and for the public each spring. “This has always been my favorite house to talk about,” she said. “I love telling everyone about Miss Margaret.”
Small stature, tremendous impact
As a young woman, Miss Margaret dreamed of a career on the stage. Born into one of Springville’s pioneer families, she went to Huntingdon College in Montgomery after graduating from high school. A singer and dancer, she also attended an arts school in Chicago, according to an article on the “Tiny Teacher” that appeared in The Birmingham News in 1953.
Margaret Byers teaching reading
She moved to New York as a young woman and appeared in several Broadway productions in the late 1920s and early 1930s. “We’ve always been told she was a munchkin in the Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz, but we have not confirmed that to be true,” Tami said.
She did, however, play children’s roles in several productions. According to Broadway databases and other sources, she was cast in Merry-Go-Round, which played in 1927 at the Klaw Theatre, and in Her Unborn Child, which played in 1928 at the 48th Street Theatre. In 1929, 1930 and 1931, she played Bo-Peep in Babes in Toyland at the Imperial Theatre. She also was in a traveling theater troupe at some point, according to The Birmingham News article.
“She got to play a lot of the children’s roles on Broadway,” Tami said. Child labor laws were strictly enforced at the time, and at one theater, child welfare officials came after the director because they thought she was working too late at night. “She had to show them her ID to prove she was a grown woman,” Tami said.
A few years into the Depression, Miss Margaret returned home to Springville. “She was told to find another career because people just weren’t going to the theater anymore,” Tami explained.
Miss Margaret enrolled at Jacksonville State University and earned an education degree. She started teaching first grade at the Old Rock School, now an historic landmark. “If you got Miss Margaret, you were somebody,” said Nancy, whose son, Jamey, was in her last first-grade class. “I was so excited when I heard she would be his teacher. I thought I would absolutely die if he didn’t get Miss Margaret.”
Sandra Jones, a Springville native who now lives in Pell City, was another one of the lucky students. In 1994, she wrote a column about her former teacher for the St. Clair News Aegis and included a memory of the first time she met the woman who “was practically a living legend in Springville.”
“Margaret Byers wasn’t much taller than I – even in her tiny high-heeled shoes,” she wrote. “I studied the pert, pixieish woman as she darted about, smiling and chatting. Her face reflected warmth and there was a pleasant lilt in her voice. As I watched her, my fears suddenly melted away. In an instant, I came under the spell of ‘Miss Margaret’ – a spell that still lingers even after all these years.”
Even though she left the stage, Miss Margaret still loved to perform. She had an upright piano in her classroom and would often sing songs for her students. “She knew all the latest tunes: ‘Sugartime,’ ‘Catch a Falling Star,’ and ‘Mr. Sandman’ – and we sang them all,” Sandra wrote.
One of her fondest memories is of the day Miss Margaret let Sandra wear her shoes. “I had a pair of those play high heeled shoes that I had carried to school for Show and Tell. She traded shoes with me and let me wear her tiny high heels all day,” Sandra said. “They fit perfectly.”
Although she was well-prepared for second-grade, Sandra said the life lessons she learned from Miss Margaret were as important as the curriculum.
“Though she was small in stature, she was big on life; a buoyant bundle of boundless energy,” she wrote in her column. “And though she taught me ‘reading, writing, and arithmetic,’ I think the most valuable lesson I learned from her was the importance of blending work and play. She taught me that life is held in balance with the right portion of each.”
It needs to be loved
Those are the kinds of stories Nancy and Tami love hearing now that they’ve bought the house, which has had several owners since Miss Margaret passed away in 1987. Since taking possession of the house on Aug. 1, they’ve spent all their free time renovating it together.
“We have probably spent more time together in the past few months than we have in the last year, and she lives right next door,” Tami said with a laugh. “We’re not afraid to tackle anything. We’ll try anything once, and we’ve learned a lot.”
Margaret Byers with her class in front of old rock school in Springville
They’ve painted every room in the house, which was no small feat with the tall ceilings. “I was here by myself one day on top of a ladder, and I thought, ‘That’s kind of stupid, being 88 and being up on top of a 14-foot ladder,” Nancy said. “We decided after that neither of us would get on a ladder unless someone else was here,” Tami added.
They hung new wallpaper in the bathroom, which still has the original cast iron tub. When they pulled off the previous owner’s, some of the sheetrock came with it, so they decided to paint over the wallpaper hanging in the living room. “It’s not professionally done at all, but everything we’ve done has been done with love,” Tami said.
She replaced the kitchen backsplash, and she and Nancy have spent countless days painstakingly scraping linoleum off the kitchen floor and trying to save the hardwood floors in that room. When they needed a break, Tami set up her sewing machine in the sitting room and made all the curtains, which are 108 inches in length.
Through the years, previous owners made some changes to the house. The kitchen was originally located in the back of the house, with an attached butler’s pantry. A maid’s room was just across the back porch. Now, the kitchen is in the center of the home, and the back room has been turned into a bedroom. Tami and Nancy hope to eventually turn the pantry into a second full bath.
“The layout is not ideal for modern living, but it is what it is,” Tami said. “That’s kind of the charm.”
Now that the inside is nearing completion, the focus will soon turn to the outside. They want to clear the brush off the side lot and restore the yard to its former glory. They also plan to paint the outside of the house, and Nancy has decided that’s a job for someone else.
“We talked about doing it ourselves and just taking a section at a time,” Tami said. Nancy wasn’t convinced. “She talked about it, not me,” she said with a grin. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, and you have to wait on one thing to finish another. We don’t want to get new gutters until we paint the house, and we don’t want to paint the house until we get some of these limbs cut.”
Once the renovations are finally complete, Nancy and Tami want to host an Open House for all of Miss Margaret’s former students. “Ever since we bought the house, people have been sharing so many wonderful stories about her, and we want to get everyone together and get those stories written down,” Tami said.
“Miss Margaret was loved by the whole community,” Nancy added. “She was loved by the other teachers, she was loved by the students, she was just loved by everyone.”
And that’s why they feel honored to be the next caretakers of the house that shaped the little woman with the big heart. “We were so afraid someone would come in and not love it the way we do and tear it down,” Tami said. “It doesn’t need to be torn down; it needs to be loved.”
