The Works of Wally Bromberg

A Life Well Done: September 9, 1955 – August 21, 2026

Story by Carol Pappas, editor & publisher

Wallace Bromberg, Jr.

Today marks a bittersweet moment for our team at Discover, The Essence of St. Clair. We mourn the loss of longtime photographer Wally Bromberg, and we celebrate his talent that graced our pages through photographs for many years.

In fact, his photo credit sits atop yet another story in this edition, sadly his final one for us.

I met Wally years ago when we both wound up in Pell City. It’s surprising we hadn’t met before. We’re the same age, grew up in Birmingham and attended Auburn University at the same time.

But our creative paths did later cross, and I am incredibly thankful that Wally has been part of our success story over the years. His photo credit reflects not only the name of who took the pictures, it is synonymous with a keen ability to capture the moment for our readers.

Gifted quilter Willie Mae “Snookie” Turner Beavers, 99, draped in her handiwork. This image, perfectly capturing the moment, was from a collection of photos taken by the late Wally Bromberg for a 2025 story. It is the cover from the October-November 2026 edition of Discover

More than a few times, his work became our most popular covers. Teddy, the Wonder Dog, a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon training to be a pet therapy dog, quickly comes to mind. So do the Kelly Creek kayakers riding the rapids near Winnataska.

His photos of goats chowing down on overgrowth blanketing a hillside near Ashville that needed clearing offered us a glimpse into an unusual veteran-owned business called Rent a Ruminant. And especially on hot, summer days, I often flashback to his cover shot of a little girl quickly enjoying an ice cream cone before it melted into  a memory.

Wally was intellectually curious. While most photographers silently go about their business, not Wally. Sometimes, I had to interrupt him to get my own questions in. But that was Wally, he just wanted to know. And afterward, it was not unusual for him to pontificate on what he had learned. That, too, was Wally.

What impressed me the most, though, is his sense of community. He wanted to give back. His faith led him to serve others through Rotary and other avenues.

He and wife, Nettie, opened The Gallery of Eden for hers and others’ artwork, his photography and her art classes. It became a gathering place on Tuesday nights when he hosted a ‘community pickin’ for musicians, friends and neighbors sharing music and fellowship. That was Wally, too.

Wally on assignment

At the time of his death, he was putting the finishing touches on a new, larger gathering place, an art and music center called Beebo’s Place and Wolf Creek Coffee. He envisioned it as a gathering spot for artists and musicians to showcase and share their talents, and people could come together and enjoy each other’s company in fellowship.

And while there, of course, they could enjoy a good cup of coffee. Again, that was Wally – bringing community together.

It has been our honor for Wally to be a part of our team. His legacy lives on in our magazine and in the lives of so many he touched. That, indeed, was Wally, and he will be missed for a long, long time to come.

Editor’s Note: Want to check out more of Wally’s work for Discover Magazine? Put his last name, Bromberg, into the search panel on the home page and it will return all of the stories he has done for us.

Discover writer wins state award

Elaine Hobson Miller adds to extensive list of honors

Ashville’s Elaine Hobson Miller has been named the 2025 Communicator of Achievement of Alabama Media Professionals.

The St. Clair County resident won the award previously in 2017. That year, she went on to be runner-up in the National Federation of Press Women’s COA race when NFPW held its Communications Conference in Birmingham that year.

 As the Alabama winner, Hobson Miller again vied for the national award when NFPW held its 2025 conference in Golden, Colorado.

The Alabama honoree has been writing since elementary school, when she penned a piece for her school’s newsletter. Throughout high school, she worked on her school’s newspaper staff and served as news editor during her senior year.

 Hobson Miller began her lifelong career as a professional journalist and freelance writer in1968, the summer before her senior year at Samford University. She accepted an internship at the Birmingham Post-Herald, that city’s former morning newspaper.

 The following year, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with a minor in Spanish. Hobson Miller accepted a full-time position at the Post-Herald. Within a year, she became that newspaper’s first woman to cover the Birmingham city government beat.

 She left the Post Herald in 1972 when her first child was born and freelanced for several years. She was a full-time features writer for Birmingham Magazine from 1978-1980, returning to the Post-Herald in 1980, working first as a copy editor and then as food editor and features writer.

 As a freelancer, she was editor of PrimeLife, a Birmingham-based magazine for people over 55, during the four months of its existence in 1988. She wrote a twice-monthly house column for the Birmingham News, 1992-1997, and was a regular contributor to Southern Lumberman from 1990 to 2001. She also wrote content for various local corporate and government newsletters, brochures and pamphlets, including Jefferson County, Shelby Medical Center (now Baptist Health Shelby Hospital), First National Bank and Vulcan Materials. She edited Birmingham Home & Garden magazine in 2002.

 Hobson Miller took a brief sabbatical from journalism in 1996 following the death of her husband, who owned an independent pharmacy. She did enough freelance writing during that time “to keep my fingers nimble and my brain active,” she said. She sold the pharmacy in 2012 and resumed her focus on writing.

 Although the honoree considers herself semi-retired, her work has appeared regularly in the magazine, Discover the Essence of St. Clair, since it was launched 15 years ago. She also writes for its sister magazine, LakeLife 24/7, both published by the Pell City-based multimedia marketing firm, Partners by Design.

 Active in mission work, Hobson Miller has made four medical mission trips to Peru with Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood and Texas-based E-3 Partners, plus an independent mission trip to Peru. She did one mission trip to Spain and continues to participate in mission trips to Zacapa, Guatemala, where three Alabama churches have an ongoing relationship with the small village of Conevisa.