Lady Panthers Basketball 1988

Thirty years after remarkable state championship basketball run,
Lady Panthers still winning – at life

Story by Paul South
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
and Melissa Purvis McClain

When Larry Slater arrived at Pell City High School from Lawrence County in 1987, the Lady Panthers were mired in a girls’ basketball backwater.

“They had a token program at best,” Slater said. “I think they had only played like 10 games the year before. They had a team just to meet the requirements of Title IX – barely.”

In a single season, all that changed. Slater and a group of young ladies with a blue-collar work ethic that mirrored their hometown transformed the Lady Panthers from patsy to powerhouse.

You could call it the “Mill Town Miracle.”

Thirty years later, the 1988 5A State Champions are still winning, as successful in life as they were on the court.

And looking back, some call it “amazing,” others compare it to a fairy tale. But Tonya Tice Peoples, who came to Pell City from Lawrence County when her Dad, Mike Tice, became Pell City’s head football coach and hired Slater as the girls’ hoops coach, puts it more simply:

“… There were no individuals. That’s why the bond is what it is. You can be on a team but not really experience team. If you are ever on a team, and you experience team, you’ll never forget it.”

“There’s a difference, being on a team and actually being able to experience experiencing team. That’s when you don’t have people who are so individual and want to make it about themselves. That’s what I’d want people to know about our team,” she said.

There is so much more to know. From the first day Slater came to Pell City, his new players learned quickly that there was a new sheriff in town. And Slater learned something about his players. He had coached Tice Peoples and Danielle Fields Frye in AAU summer leagues, but everything else was unknown.

“I knew going in that I had two really good ballplayers – Danielle and Tonya – and then the rest was just astonishing, as far as the girls and their hunger for basketball and willingness to work, and everything was amazing.”

And his girls from the blue-collar town were ready to work. Slater, who began as a teacher at the middle school, found that out right away.

 “The Pell City kids would come from the high school to the middle school where I was, and the kids would yell, ‘Hey Coach, are you going to open the gym tonight? ‘And I thought, “Man, I’ve died and gone to heaven. That’s how it started.”

The gates to Slater’s basketball heaven opened earlier. The preceding summer, he opened the gym daily, so the girls could shoot. The road to a state title began there. In those grueling practices, in summer and throughout the season, the light began to come on for the Lady Panthers, said Melissa Purvis McClain.

“To be honest, it was Coach Slater. We were all like sponges when it came to him and his instruction and his philosophy and his game plan. We began to see that if we execute his game plan we will do this. I think for a lot of the players who had already been there, they finally had someone who believed in them and who pushed them. I was not only learning his ways and his philosophy, I was learning the game of basketball at the same time,” Purvis McClain said.

The gym would be open, and players would stay late, working on their game. It was a demanding regimen, executing a run-and-gun Loyola-Marymount-style offense and a relentlessly-pressing Big 10-style defense. But from day one, the players – starving to win – embraced the new coach and his style.

“It was all about making us better people and better players. A lot of it was him. He was hard on us. He demanded excellence, and if you didn’t deliver it, we ran for it. It was just gradually building confidence that we could go out there and win games.”

And win games they did, a new sensation for the Lady Panthers, said Danielle Fields Frye. She had played in two of the lean seasons before Slater’s arrival

“Pell City Girls Basketball had never had a winning season, to the point where what our team did,” Frye said. “We had a few wins here or there, but no one ever considered us much of a threat. We came from nowhere.”

At that time, the universe of prep girls’ basketball in Alabama consisted of Hartselle, Sylacauga, Athens, schools in the big cities like Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville.

“For us, we literally came from out of nowhere,” Frye said. ‘It was like (the movie) Hoosiers.”

By the numbers, the Lady Panthers went 26-1 in 1987-88, including three wins over rival Sylacauga, the Aggies only losses of the year.

And the greatest win, the one grown folks still talk about in Pell City, came over a girls’ basketball machine, the nationally-ranked Hartselle Lady Tigers in the state title game. Hartselle had won 62 straight games from 1984-86. Compounding the drama: Slater’s daughter Jeanice was a starter for Hartselle.

“The publicity was unreal as far as Jeanice and I playing against each other in the championship game,” Slater said. “It was packed for the first time ever.”

Panther fans had an admonition for their coach, because of his family tie.

“Some of ‘em would say, ‘Now Coach, we know you love your little girl, but you have an obligation to these girls,’” Slater said with a laugh.

And as hard as the Lady Panthers worked, there was also a team chemistry that went beyond the gym – trips to KFC, movie nights, and so on. The team was a unit. And, they also possessed a twinkle of mischief.

A few days before the Final Four, an unhappy Slater bounced his starters from practice.

“We went and got some toilet paper and started rolling Coach’s car,” Tice Peoples remembered. “A police officer came up. We got scared, but she told us we weren’t doing it right. She helped us roll the car.”

That was just one example of a town’s embrace of a team. Townspeople raised money to support the team and bought team gear. Lady Panther Basketball sweatshirts were a hot item in shops where storefronts were painted black and gold. It was that way all the way to the finals.

 

The Championship Game

The Lady Panthers trailed by two and had the ball. As Tice Peoples moved up the floor, she looked to the sidelines to get Slater’s instruction. The arena at Calhoun Community College in Decatur was jammed with a standing-room-only crowd. Even 30 years on, Slater and his players recalled the breathtaking details of those closing seconds.

A Hartselle defender knocked the ball away from behind but was quickly fouled by Pell City’s April Hughes with 8.3 seconds left. The Tiger player had entered the game with 1:38 left, replacing Jeanice Slater, who had fouled out. Pell City’s coach called a time out to ice the shooter, who went to the line to shoot a one and one.

Slater then called a familiar play: “Sideline break, make or miss, with Tonya shooting the three.” It was a play the Lady Panthers practiced nearly every day.

The Hartselle shooter missed. And Danielle Fields Frye grabbed the rebound.

“I really didn’t have to fight for it,” Frye said of her big board. She passed the ball quickly to Tice Peoples. Hartselle crowded the lane, expecting the talented guard to drive to the basket. Instead, she stopped to the right of the key, outside the three-point line and drilled the shot, giving Pell City the lead with four seconds left.

A stunned Tiger team failed to call a time out. Precious seconds drained from the clock. And the Panthers’ astonishing run was complete. Final score: 77-76, Lady Panthers. Keep in mind, Pell City trailed by 15 in the third quarter.

Thirty years later, Tice Peoples’ only remembered emotion heading into the game-winning bucket was anger at giving up a turnover.

“He looks right at me and says, ‘You’re going to shoot the three. You’re going to take the shot,’” she said. “I wasn’t nervous, because I was still mad about what had happened.” So, I was ready to make a play mentally. I just was hoping she didn’t make the shot. Everybody just did their job. We had practiced it. Everybody was underneath in case I did miss it, and it goes in.”

History made. The Pell City High School Lady Panthers were champions, the school’s first state title team in the history of the AHSAA playoff format in any sport. But Slater believes the upset win meant more than a championship for one school. It was a landmark win in the history of girls’ prep sports in Alabama, a state that at one-time prohibited girls’ sports.

“Some people don’t like for me to say it, but I’m going to say it anyway,” Slater said. “It really helped launch girls’ basketball in the state of Alabama.”

 

Still Winners

The years have flown like a Lady Panther fast break. Some of the Lady Panthers went on to play college basketball at Auburn, Alabama, Troy, the University of Montevallo and Columbus College. Slater went on after two sparkling years at Pell City to become a successful junior college coach at Wallace-Hanceville, recruiting some of his former Pell City stars along the way.

Like Slater, Tonya Tice Peoples became a teacher and coach. After working in NASCAR, Danielle Fields Frye is director of community engagement for the United States Auto Club (USAC) and lives with her husband and two daughters outside Indianapolis. Melissa Purvis McClain is an engineer. Erica Collins Johnson, like McClain, is still in Pell City. Alicia Moss Ogletree and Kathy Vaughn – a distinguished military veteran — are still in the area as well. April Hughes is in the fashion industry in New York.

Sadly, one beloved teammate, Nikki Golden, passed away a few years after the fairy tale season. Collins-Johnson’s Mom Alice, one of the team’s most devoted fans, died a few months after the championship.

Slater has kept up with them all. And they with him. Many of his former players say he was “a second Dad.” He’s followed them through their lives and now keeps up with their children. If he had to sum up his team after 30 years, he said, it’s about more than basketball. And that’s the way he wanted it all along.

“They were not to be denied,” he said. “They wanted to play the game. And they wanted to be good at the game. I think that last ballgame just showed the sheer determination of that team. Not just one person. It was April Hughes committing the foul. It was Danielle getting the rebound on the missed free throw. Tonya making the shot. It’s unreal what the kids accomplished – then and now.”

Biking St. Clair

County’s terrain, beauty draw cyclists

Story by Will Heath
Photos by Mike Callahan and Susan Wall

Something about St. Clair County keeps drawing cyclists from all around back to its roads. Perhaps it’s the winding paths that lead to unrivaled scenery, like Chandler Mountain, Washington Valley, Logan Martin and Neely Henry lakes.

Maybe it’s the feel of the wind and the solitude as you pedal one more mile and then another to get a glimpse of one more breathtaking view.

Ask a cyclist, and they will readily tell you it’s the countryside – rolling pastures, meandering creeks, an old barn, a roadside waterfall – it all keeps them coming back for more.

“There are more and more people getting involved in it,” said Jay Hollis of Pell City. “Last year and particularly the year before, there were quite a few new cyclists in the area.

A rider himself, Hollis now estimates that “probably 35-40 people” in the area ride with about 15 to 20 on a regular basis. His own group, the Pell City Cycling Club, bikes two to three times per week.

“It’s a really well-known area,” he said. “A lot of the men and women we ride with, they will pass through here, and we meet up with them when we can. They come from Irondale, Chelsea and the Shelby County area. … I ride with a group from Vestavia sometimes on Sundays. They come over about once or twice a month for 40-50 miles around the area.”

St. Clair County offers them a central meeting point, with a friendly culture and picturesque scenery.

“I love St. Clair County,” said Sherry Wilson of the Urology Foundation, which for a decade chose St. Clair for its Tour de Blue to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer. “It’s just a beautiful countryside. The people are so nice and friendly.”

 “They pitched in and helped us with our ride,” Wilson said. “We just kept going back to the same area to put on this event because the people in Moody were just fantastic – from the mayor’s office to the police department to the volunteers to the school system. We started at the elementary school and meandered around the countryside. The (administration) was just great to work with, and we just really enjoyed it.”

Although Wilson and fellow organizer, Tom Moody, said they were discontinuing the ride for the time being, “I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Moody, and the terrain was lovely,” Moody said. “The positive parts were the generosity and support of the people, particularly the mayor’s office and the chief of police and the government. And the beautiful scenery we had the riders go through it.”

That ride included a century ride – 100 miles in all – that had cyclists from multiple states biking over Blount Mountain and passing McClendon Gap, circling around Chandler Mountain, and through historic Ashville. It was a remarkable showcase for the county’s scenery, one that earned no shortage of praise from riders in various forums around the web.

“This is a ‘must do’ ride in Alabama,” said Doug Tinkham of SwimBikeRunAlabama.com

“Put this ride on your calendar,” said Dan (“Dirtdog”) Watson, creator of Dirtdogs Birmingham Cycling Google Group

“Awesome route. One of the most scenic centuries I’ve ridden,” said John Halsey, another participant

Biking is an activity that draws in participants from all over. Tim Pemberton of Trussville’s Cahaba Cycles says he sees a “steady increase” of riders from around his area.

“I think it usually starts off like, ‘I want to do something to get in shape,’” he said. “You go from riding around the neighborhood to seeing how far you can go.

“There are lot of people who ride up to Springville by the prison (St. Clair Correctional Facility in historic St. Clair Springs) and come back on 411, make a big loop there. There’s also, up in Springville to the left, you can climb Pine Mountain up there. Lots of people are riding in Springville and make that kind of loop and come back (to Trussville).” The view from Pine Mountain’s ridge is incredible.

Pemberton sees riders of all ages, particularly since Hewitt-Trussville High School added a mountain biking team. “It’s all over the place,” he said. “They go from that (high school) age to as old as you want to be.”

For his part, Hollis says he and others ride from one end of the county to the other – “all the way to Ohatchee, to sometimes the tip of Talladega,” he said. “We’ll ride down to Vandiver or Sterrett or to locations near Leeds,” also a popular destination point for scenic routes on Highways 55 and 43 (Wolf Creek Rd). “Sundays, we’re out sometimes four to five hours at a time when everyone can get together.

Hollis enjoys the Northwest section of the county just as much – “probably more toward Springville and Odenville, there are amazing rides out there,” he said, adding that the Pell City Cycling Club would like to start adding some routes to the area. We will post routes on our site and we encourage anyone wanting to start cycling or veteran cyclists to look us up and join in.

 “We like getting out, just being outdoors. A little bit of exercise while enjoying the beautiful rolling hills in the area.” Sometimes while riding I cant wait for it to end only to find myself thinking about when the next ride begins. You cant help but enjoy the fresh air and the winding backroads.

 

Safety, equipment
critical to sport

It’s more than just the ability to pedal. Pemberton said he frequently field questions from first-time riders to veterans alike. He and others at Cahaba Cycles can offer tips on safety, as well as equipment.

“There’s a different bike for riding around the neighborhood, or if you’re going to be in a big group riding on the road,” he said. “I try to tell everybody to at least have some lights to keep on even during the daytime, and some high viz clothing or helmet or something, so at least you’ll be seen.”

And as cycling numbers have grown, so has the need for more awareness about vehicles and bicycles on the road together. Hollis noted that a member, Charlie Browning, worked tirelessly and helped encourage the county to erect “Share the Road” signs to help support riders.

As the county continues to grow, “Hopefully they (county government) will get more behind it and make it a bit more rider friendly in the next few years,” Hollis said. It is a beautiful destination for people to come and enjoy cycling or running.

For now, though, no one’s complaining. They just board their bikes, take in the scenery and enjoy the ride.

Economic Evangelists

Lyman Lovejoy and Bill Ellison tirelessly
work to boost St. Clair County

Story by Paul South
Photos by Graham Hadley and Carol Pappas

Look around one of the top five fastest growing counties in the state, and it is hard to miss the work of two individuals who put county first and profits second. Make no mistake, both are successes in their careers, but they are strong forces for progress, envisioning what can be and becoming the catalysts to make it happen.

Lyman Lovejoy, president and CEO of Lovejoy Realty, and Bill Ellison, president and CEO of I-20 Development Inc., not only share a friendship, they share common traits – perseverance, vision, heart, emphasis on teamwork, integrity, legacy and love of community. That’s what matters most to them, and St. Clair County has become the beneficiary.

 

A cheerleader for the county

For 47 years, Lyman Lovejoy has worked in real estate and development in the county as president and CEO of Lovejoy Realty. His company has built residential subdivisions and farms and helped young couples buy their first home. But he has done more, much more.

He makes it his business to get involved with every city government in the county as well as the County Commission, St. Clair Economic Development Council and other entities that share a common goal of moving forward. He knows every mayor and council member in the county by first name, and when he sees a need, he works to fill it.

He is an essential part of the growth of Margaret, which grew by 278 percent between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. The next five years tacked on another 8 percentage points of growth. When the town needed a drug store, a dentist and a doctor, Lovejoy successfully recruited them to town. He’s done the same in other St. Clair communities.

Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair EDC, remembers his surprising first encounter with Lovejoy, when Smith was interviewing for the assistant executive director’s role. He expected someone with a large portfolio of successes to be far different from the down-to-earth man he met.

“I expected him to be cutthroat and ruthless,” Smith said. “At the time, I thought it was hard to be that successful without kind of selling your soul a little bit. What I learned quickly was this: Lyman has one of the purest hearts of anyone I’ve ever met. He can’t lie. He tells you everything he’s thinking in the first two minutes after he meets you. He is about as transparent as anybody.”

 “We do more business in some parts of the county than others,” said Lovejoy Realty’s Qualifying Broker Brian Camp, who is also Lovejoy’s son-in-law. “But Lyman is still out promoting the county because he loves the people. He loves the life that it promotes. He just thinks it’s a great way of life out here and wants everybody to know about it. He’s just all for the county and its people.”

He has served as chairman of the county’s Industrial Development Board, on the Alabama Real Estate Commission, and been honored by the SCEDC with its Chairman’s Award. Past recipients have included retired Alabama Power executive Tommy Bowers of Pell City, Circuit Judge Bill Weathington of Moody, Spencer Wideman of Ragland’s National Cement and others.

“He believes in a better tomorrow,” Smith said. “While some people see a vacant lot, he sees it’s going to be a piece of property that’s going to be home to a lovely neighborhood, or a store to serve the community or a church that’s going to be a gathering place on Sundays for the community. That’s what he sees. He loves this community.”

For his part, Lovejoy downplays his role. He says his success came with the help of others. In turn, he works to help others.

 “Lyman would tell you he’s in the people business, not really the real estate business,” said Camp, who’s worked alongside Lovejoy for 20 years. “He digs down in every aspect of their lives, where they work, where they go to church, what they’re doing. It just naturally comes to him, helping people in their lives, then he works with them on their houses and land. He works to help people get jobs or move from one position to the other. He’s actually involved in more of people’s lives than just real estate.”

Camp added, “Ninety-nine percent of what Lyman does in the community is not about real estate. He helps and works to make a difference and stumbles into business while doing that.”

Smith agreed. “I’ve walked up behind him while he’s talking, and he’s not even talking about his properties, but about the county. He’s a one-man marketing machine for the county.”

For Lovejoy, it’s not about a transaction or numbers. Over the years, Lovejoy’s firm has owner-financed home mortgages for folks whose credit may not be up to par.

“It is about relationships,” Lovejoy said. “If people know you care about them, then the business will come to you.”

Lovejoy was beating the drum for St. Clair County decades before it became a hot property for commercial and residential development, when cold calls to bankers and others were met more with skepticism than optimism. Times have changed.

“It’s kind of a comical thing. When I first moved down here, people would laugh and say, ‘What are you going to have, hoot owls and chickens?’ Years later, they were calling me asking me to get them a little piece of property in St. Clair County. I guess we had the last laugh.”

Lovejoy, now 76, with the energy of someone half his age, seems always on the move, chatting up strangers in the grocery store checkout, performing Christmas carols or favorite hymns for residents at nursing homes, or walking property, thinking of its potential. It’s all part of learning about the county and the communities he loves.

Over the years, he has helped recruit Jenkins Brick, now ACME Brick, and large corporations; located numerous industrial and new school sites; and brought in retail, in addition to dozens of subdivisions he developed, appropriately earning him the moniker, “The Land Man.”

 

Hard work, bird dogs and a legacy

Bill Ellison was semi-retired when he moved from Kentucky to St. Clair County in 1985 after building a string of successful fast-food franchises and economic development projects.

An avid outdoorsman who hunts, fishes and competes at a high level in bird-dog field trials, Ellison fell in love with the woods and waters of the county. But ever the hard-working entrepreneur who would labor seven days a week in his eateries from dawn to dark, Ellison saw a need in the Pell City and sought to fill it.

“At that time, living in Pell City, entertainment, restaurants and shopping options were minimal,” Ellison recalled. “To shop for most things, we were having to go to Talladega, Leeds, Birmingham or Oxford. There just weren’t that many choices in Pell City for shopping. You would hear it in the community. People wanted more retail options.”

 Even though he had development experience, he’d never done anything on a scale to match a retail shopping center. But Ellison went to work. He cast his eye to the north side of I-20. It became the Bankhead Crossing development, anchored by a Wal-Mart, followed by Home Depot and dozens more on both sides of the US 231 interchange.

The growth seen today didn’t happen by accident. It took him 14 years to assemble the multiple properties that now comprise what is a sprawling commercial district along that corridor.

Folks learned quickly that Bill Ellison is a persistent man and he is not afraid to solicit help. He welcomes it. From partners to city and county governments to economic development officials and bankers, he skillfully put together a collaborative effort that would become the thriving commercial district you see today.

He obtained option agreements, and those, combined with the Pell City government’s realization that the future growth of the city and its tax base could be realized in that corridor, all worked together to make it happen.

Once he had assembled all the purchase agreements, he had to go to the City of Pell City for help with major hurdles like annexation and the extension of utilities under the interstate.

The city and the county officials realized that the interstate was important to their future economic growth. It was Ellison’s vision, but the city and the county, Ellison’s partners and Ed Gardner Sr., former executive director of the St. Clair EDC, all worked to make it happen.

And there were cold calls, lots and lots of cold calls, to prospective retailers. From that piece of ground with Ellison’s persuasiveness in obtaining letters of intent grew an Arby’s, a Wendy’s, a Hampton Inn, a gas station and a Western Sizzlin’. Ellison had been recruiting the steakhouse for years, and he and his partners actually bought the franchise and opened it. The others soon followed because of the success of Western Sizzlin’.

The story is important, because it speaks volumes about Ellison. It’s about persistence. It’s about teamwork. “It’s about everyone working together – the city, the county, the EDC – were all focused on what had to be done in retail development.” Look at the county’s economic growth, and you see it was a tipping point. “Because of the successes we had, the whole county realized that if every one worked together, we could achieve anything we wanted to achieve.”

“I’m a little bit fearless,” Ellison said. “Looking back on it now at 71 years old … the timing for what we did was perfect. You can work hard. You can work real hard, but you’ve got to have the elected officials believe in you. And you’ve got to have some luck. I’ve had a lot of help and luck along the way,”

He added, “We were fortunate that we had success.”

And there would be more successes to follow, translating to a broader tax base, boosting schools, helping bring new and improved parks and recreation facilities, the Center for Education and the Performing Arts (CEPA), where crowds flock to hear legends like Martha Reeves and the Vandellas bring a “Heat Wave” to Pell City.

These amenities resulted from Ellison and that cooperative effort and enhanced the quality of life not only for Pell City but the region.

“He has been one of the largest growth catalysts that Pell City has ever had, since the opening of Avondale Mills (which opened in the early 1900s),” Smith said.

Look all around Pell City to see more evidence of that. He began with the groundbreaking for an Exxon convenience store. Following, his work became responsible for Walmart Supercenter, Home Depot, Publix, Metro Bank, USAmeribank, Krystal, Arby’s, Wendy’s, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, Cracker Barrel, Walgreens, Comfort Inn, Golden Rule, Zaxby’s, Dairy Queen, Bojangles, Buffalo Wild Wings and scores of retailers and service businesses. They are not located in just one area, but citywide, benefitting everyone. His developments account for four of the city’s top 10 sales tax generators and no less than 35 percent of total sales tax base.

While Lovejoy tries to fit locals into local niches – like home-owned drug stores – Ellison’s contacts cast a wider net into larger retailers and franchises. Almost all the development on the U.S. 231/I-20 interchange was the result of decades of Ellison’s tireless work. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, a movie theater, three hotels and every fast-food eatery imaginable dot the landscape, Smith said.

“He’s constantly encouraging retailers to come to the market, three or four years before the market is ready,” Smith said. “When the market is just at the verge of being ready, they’ve already heard about Pell City and the market because of Bill Ellison. He is responsible for two of the three largest sales tax generators in Pell City.”

Ellison sometimes tells a self-effacing joke, Smith said, that speaks volumes about the Lexington, Ky., native’s persistence.

“The joke is that many times retailers come to Pell City, not because the market’s large enough, but just so Bill will leave them alone. He is tenacious.”

Big retailers may have their algorithms and mountains of software to help them analyze the viability of a franchise in Pell City, but spreadsheets often miss the mark, Smith said.

“Many times, they don’t get it right, until they just trust in Bill, because he knows that people who shop in Pell City aren’t all from Pell City. He knows there are people who come to the lake (Logan Martin) or spend their summers at the lake – and those numbers don’t show up on a census report. He knows that Pell City’s economic strength is much greater than any demographic report a retailer may run.”

Ellison calls his persistence “moving the rock.”

“Every day you try to move the rock,” he said. “Every day, you try to have a positive push somewhere. Some days you push the rock, and the rock doesn’t move, but some days you push, and the rock does move. But you’ve got to try to move the rock every day. And it’s not just one rock. You have to multi-task.”

Timing, tireless work, teamwork and more than a little luck, made the developments happen, Ellison said. But at its heart, the growth began with countless cold calls, not over days and weeks, but years.

And he had help along the way from the late Don Perry, chairman of the board for Metro Bank, who over the years believed in him, helped him and encouraged him. “I can’t say enough about Don’s leadership, Metro Vice President Richard Knight and the bank’s philosophy in general about putting community first.”

First Bank of Alabama and its president, Chad Jones, have given him help along the way, too, he said.

He cites a lesson he learned in the restaurant business as a key that translated into his success in economic development efforts.

“Restaurants (are) a people business,” he said. “I’m no better than (the dining experience of) my last customer. In the development business it’s the same way. You’re no better than your last transaction. You’ve got to treat people right. You must be honest. You must be fair. It’s about satisfying your customer every single transaction of the day.”

He added, “I want to do something the right way.”

Like Lovejoy, Ellison seems constantly in motion. Ellison fills pages of a legal pad with his weekly to-do list. He works hard, and he plays to win, constantly listening, looking and learning.

That “can-do” work ethic can be traced back to his childhood, he mused. He described himself as a hyperactive child, and when his grandparents would babysit him to allow his parents to go out for the evening, they kept him occupied with puzzles.

The problem solver seen today in Ellison’s approach to business stems from those puzzles he figured out as a child. “Economic development is like a puzzle you have to figure out, making sure all the pieces fit in the right place,” he said.

Finding a way through the obvious maze of economic development in and of itself can be stressful. His release comes in the field, with his bird dogs. On the 2017 United Field Trialers Association circuit, Ellison has the two highest point amateur dogs in the nation. “I get to go out and shoot my gun and let the stress melt off. That’s what I use my bird dogs for.”

Like his dogs, development is a passion.

“Real estate is a business, but it’s a love that I have for chasing things and trying to bring more businesses in here. It’s something I love doing,” he said.

Ellison has an unmistakable love for St. Clair County. And he’s the same kind of cheerleader for the county that Lovejoy is.

“We’ve got a great county,” Ellison said. “My pitch is, St. Clair County is a great county today, and it’s going to be even better in the future.”

With Ellison and Lovejoy leading the effort, that prediction looks to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

ACES

This ain’t your granddaddy’s Extension System

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Michael Callahan

Perplexed about when to plant kale or collard greens? The Alabama Cooperative Extension System has a workshop for that.
Want your teenagers to learn money-management skills or more about healthy eating? Alabama Extension has programs for that, too.
Need to touch up your job skills? Alabama Extension can help you do that as well.

Many folks remember St. Clair County extension agents coming to their farms to advise gramps about those pesky weeds in the cow pasture. They may recall home agents telling grandma that to safely can her green beans she must use a pressure canner not her hot water bath canner. But money management and job resumes? Clearly, this isn’t your grandparents’ extension service any more.

“Most people know us simply as the Extension Service, but our name officially changed from service to system in 1995 after a landmark federal court ruling, making ours the nation’s first unified Extension program,” says Lee Ann Clark, coordinator for Alabama Extension’s St. Clair County office since 2005.

“Originally, program services centered primarily around agriculture and home economics-related topics. The 4-H Clubs, which began in 1909 as Corn Clubs (for boys) and Tomato Canning Clubs (for girls), laid the foundation for today’s 4-H program. It is still one of our flagship programs, but we’re so much more today.”

For 90 years, the bulk of extension programs were carried out by county agents—generalists who kept abreast of many different subjects and delivered a wide-variety of programs.

By the onset of the 21st century, there were fewer farms, changes in public expectations and the World Wide Web, which changed how information was being delivered. In 2004, these changes prompted a reorganization and switch from using the generalist agents to regional agents who specialize in one of 14 extension program priority areas.

Regional agents now cover several counties, advising third-generation farmers and the newcomers who just moved out of the city. However, despite the growing emphasis on regional agents, Alabama Extension continues to operate offices in all 67 counties.

Funded by federal, state and county governments, Alabama Extension is an extension of land-grant colleges, according to Henry Dorough, extension coordinator for Talladega County and a former regional agent for animal science and forage in St. Clair County.

Land-grant colleges were established by the federal government under the Morrill Act of 1862, which granted 30,000 acres of federal land for each member of Congress each state had. Southern states were prevented from participation until after the Civil War. The Hatch Act of 1887 established agricultural experiment stations in conjunction with the land-grant colleges. In 1890, the second Morrill Act extended land-grant status to black colleges in the South, which included Alabama A&M and Tuskegee University.

Today, there are 16 research centers in Alabama, along with Auburn University and Alabama A&M, that feed research-based information to Alabama Extension.

“The basic premise for Cooperative Extension actually began at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University,” Dorough explains. “Dr. Booker T. Washington, the university’s first president, mandated that all professors spend time out in the community educating the public, especially the poor and in rural areas, teaching citizens where they lived. He coined the phrase, ‘taking the university to the people,’ which is what Alabama Extension does.”

 
Early days

The roots of the county extension agent go back even further, to the ‘movable school’ George Washington Carver established through Tuskegee University in 1906. Named after Morris K. Jesup, the Jesup Wagon was a horse-drawn demonstration wagon used by Thomas Monroe Campbell, who later that year received a federal appointment as a farm demonstration agent.

The same day Campbell got his assignment (November 12, 1906), William Crider Stallings of Texas became the first extension agent to serve a single county. “The way I see it, the sun rises in Tuskegee before it does in Texas, making Campbell the first County Agent,” says Dorough. “I think it’s significant that a black man at a black college in Alabama was the first extension agent in the country.”

Tuskegee is a private land-grant college with its own extension program. “Tuskegee opted out of Alabama Extension to preserve its history and unique identity, but they are a partner in the system,” Dorough says. We call on each other and work with them, even though their name isn’t on our letterhead.”

 
Casting a wide net

The regional agents covering St. Clair County go far beyond what Booker T. Washington or George Washington Carver could have imagined. Angela Treadaway, regional agent for food safety, preservation and preparation, heads up the ServSafe program, a certification class for restaurant workers and owners required by the county health department. Her class on cottage industries keeps people who want to sell foods from their own kitchens from running afoul of the health department.

Vikki Blalock of Lincoln learned some jelly-making techniques at a recent Jams and Jellies Workshop hosted by Treadaway. “These new techniques will save me time and will produce a better jelly,” she says.

Sallie Lee, urban regional extension agent for home grounds, gardens and home pests, has lots of programs for older folks, like Grow It to Eat It, a catchy name for container gardening. Emily Hines, regional agent for family resource management and workforce development, conducts workshops and advises individuals on budgeting and finance, along with job preparation skills like resume writing.

Nancy Graves is the 4-H Foundation regional agent, while Becky Staples serves as a 4-H agent assistant for St. Clair County. Staples goes into local schools with various programs like Skins & Skulls, a science program that gives fourth-graders an up-close-and-personal look at the structure of wild animals in the woods of St. Clair County. She also conducts a Classroom in the Forest program and takes a group of kids to 4-H camp every summer. Graves is in charge of all volunteer-led clubs, including the 4-H after-school club and specialty clubs that focus on horses, archery and shotguns.

Through the 4-H Innovators Program — the only one of its kind in Alabama — Staples uses STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and math) projects that expose kids to critical thinking and teamwork. Spaghetti Towers, for example, gives students 18 minutes to take 20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti noodles, three feet each of masking tape and string, and a marshmallow to build a freestanding tower that will hold the marshmallow.

 Donna Shanklin, regional agent for human nutrition, diet and health, holds workshops on diabetes education and various other health and nutrition-related topics for the general public. She also works with soon-to-be released prison inmates, providing them information on nutrition and public health.

Bethany O’Rear, regional agent for home grounds, gardens and home pests, conducts classes on gardening, landscape and rain barrels. Every other fall, she teaches the 12-week Master Gardener course, which will be available again in September 2018.

Joan Belzer attended O’Rear’s Fall Gardening Tips lunch-and-learn workshop in December 2017. “That was the first one I’d gone to,” says the Steele resident. “I made notes about what I needed to do, and one was about the care of equipment before winter. I also made notes about how much rain and mulch new plants need and how to get my soil tested through Auburn. I’ll probably go back to other events because I learned enough to make it worthwhile.”

As forestry, wildlife and natural resource agent, Norm Haley hosts workshops on invasive plant control and pond management and creates and posts videos on the Alabama Extension YouTube channel, focusing on wildlife management, trapping and drainage control.

If military veterans need assistance in accessing their benefits, they can call Wayne Johnson, who heads up Veterans Outreach, a pilot program developed in St. Clair County. “Many veterans don’t know what their benefits are,” Johnson says. “I go to different events, visit the veterans home and churches, spreading the word and touching base with our vets to see what they need. One of their biggest needs is where to go to access their health and other benefits, but they are also looking for support groups and assistance with job training.”

 The Extension office has two vehicles to help vets get to and from medical appointments and sponsors a support group for PTSD victims. “I’m finding a lot of the older veterans don’t have any family or close friends around,” Johnson says. “We also help our homeless vets. Right now, I have two families I’m helping to find housing.”

 
New to the job

Cori Harris and Alex Tigue are the two newest agents who serve St. Clair County. Cori is a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) Educator. She goes into qualifying St. Clair County schools using an iPad program called Body Quest to teach kids about making healthier choices. To promote fruits and vegetables, youth participate in weekly Warrior Tastings, where they taste a variety of crunchy fresh produce. Physical activity, sleep hygiene and family engagement also are promoted with recipes provided for parents to try at home.

Tigue works with farmers as an animal science and forage agent covering St. Clair, Jefferson, Marshall, Blount and Calhoun counties. One day he may be in Ashville or Guntersville, another day he’s working with a cattle producer in north Blount County or helping other agents conduct a workshop at Auburn University for backyard poultry producers. “All of our agents are like this,” he says. “We’re wide open all the time.”

Seventy percent of the calls Tigue gets are about weeds taking over pastures or bugs eating up someone’s field. “People go on the internet and aren’t confident about the answers they’ve found,” he says. “They want someone who can tailor an answer to their specific problem and not a one-size-fits-all. Our specialty as Alabama Extension agents is finding individual answers for individual people.”

 
All about learning

A couple of years ago, Emily and Mark Taylor of Ashville attended a hay and forage workshop, a four-class series held in different places. Emily is a member of the St. Clair County Farmers’ Federation board of directors and chairperson of its women’s committee. She and Mark raise cattle on acreage once owned by Emily’s parents. “I’ve been to several of the lunch-and-learn workshops for gardening and fruit trees and fermentation,” she says. “Those things are very helpful to your farm and household.”

Lee Ann Clark, whose enthusiasm for her job shows in her animated conversation and the 4-H memorabilia in her Pell City courthouse basement office, uses several means of getting the word about Alabama Extension programs and services out to the public it serves.

The St. Clair office has two Facebook pages (St. Clair County, AL, Extension Office and St. Clair County, AL, 4-H); a web page (www.aces.edu/StClair); writes a weekly column for local newspapers; and offers a free, bi-monthly newsletter. Anyone who wants to get on the newsletter mailing list may call the Extension Office at 205-338-9416.

“Currently, we have more than 1,800 families on our mailing list,” says Clark, a St. Clair County native and former 4-H’er who has worked for Alabama Extension here since 1998. “The newsletter is available on our web page and via an eNewsletter, but we realize that not everyone has internet access or prefers to read it online.”

In addition, Clark spearheaded a project that put kiosks about Alabama Extension outside her office door and at the Moody and Springville libraries. Her goal is to place one in all other libraries and the courthouse in Ashville. Born of her idea to create an information center based on the Red Box movie rental-type box concept, the Extension kiosks — the first of their kind in the state — provide all a person needs to know about the county Extension office in one easy-to-access place. “I believe that our tagline on the bottom of the kiosk, ‘Cooperative Extension. Extending Knowledge. Changing Lives,’ quite simply sums up what we do,” she says.

Clark’s current project is setting up an aquaponics class in St. Clair County. Why aquaponics? “Because people have requested it,” she says. That’s reason enough for her. 

Backwoods Whitetails

Deer farm in Odenville building a brand, bringing visitors’ smiles

Story  by Carol Pappas
Photos by Susan Wall
Photos courtesy of Backwoods Whitetails

Drive through the gates of Backwoods Whitetails in Odenville, and you can’t help but sense you are about to witness something very special.

Wind through the property of rolling pastures, a canopy of towering trees lining both sides of the rocky road and pull to a stop at a nondescript barn. Fencing surrounds this farm, and it looks like most others around these parts, but instead of rows of crops growing all around, a hundred pairs of eyes are focused on you.

Fawns, bucks and yearlings wander through fenced pastures, their almond eyes trained on the strangers who have just arrived. Treats thrown in their direction bring them closer, and closer still.

At Backwoods, it’s all in a day’s work – raising prime stock deer from bottle-fed newborns to majestic bucks with racks wider than the length of your outstretched arms.

Owners Dane and Katelyn Dorsett and family are not your typical farmers, they breed deer, which now number 140 head, including fawns. And they sell to other breeders and owners of huge hunting enclosures around Alabama, fetching $4,000 and up each.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, said Dorsett. “It’s a big gamble. I tell people, don’t invest more than you’re willing to lose. One straw of semen to artificially inseminate in hopes of breeding prime stock can cost $15,000. And only 75 percent – “sometimes less than that” – take.

You might call this a family farm business. And you would be right. Dorsett’s wife, Katelyn, assistant principal at Odenville Intermediate School, bottle raises many of the fawns each year for the business they started in 2011.

Her father and three others help Dane with the daily chores of running an expansive deer farm like this that contains 10 pens stretching over multiple pastures.

Macy, the Dorsetts’ dog, hops aboard the all-terrain vehicle, keeping an eye on things and getting out at every stop. “She goes in every pen with me,” Dorsett said. She’s even been known to ‘kiss’ a deer or two.

The Dorsetts’ two boys — Hayes, 3, and Bryce, 1 — play nearby. It’s just another day to them as they round out the picture of this family affair.

“I am looking forward to next year, when I don’t have actual babies and deer babies we’re raising at the same time,” Katelyn said. “I am glad the kids get to grow up around this. They like being outside.”

When her “deer babies” are born, she starts bottle raising them in individual stalls located in the barn. Meanwhile, a ton – yes, that’s 2,000 pounds – of custom deer feed a week keeps the rest of the deer satisfied.

This all takes place on 40 acres in rural Odenville. Dane said the farm’s name came from its location – “the middle of nowhere.”

But around Alabama, it’s quickly making a name for itself, producing superior class genetics in its stock. According to its website, the Dorsetts have been on a “strategic breeding plan using Northern and Texas sires to create a range of genetic crossings.”

And farm visits are welcome daily. August is the busiest time of year when breeders are coming in and out, they are moving bucks and getting ready for breeding, said Dane.

This time of year is a little slower, and the deer actually seem to enjoy the company of admirers passing by on a Saturday morning. Realtor Lyman Lovejoy was among that group. He had brought his stepson and grandkids to experience it.

“This is unbelievable that we have something like this right here in our own backyard,” said Lovejoy. “These majestic animals are a sight to behold, and it’s heartening to know that a young couple can not only make a living but put St. Clair County on the map with this farm. What they’re doing is really impressive – the whole operation.

“And my grandkids see these beautiful deer, and their smiles tell me they think it’s Christmastime and Santa’s on his way!” l

 

New life for Little House

History saved and preserved
in Springville

Story and photos by Jerry C. Smith

The Springville Preservation Society refers to it simply as The Little House, but its transformation from forlorn vintage home to a quaint welcome center and community venue is no small story.

Built in St. Clair Springs sometime around 1880 (or 1835, depending on whom you ask), this homey two-room cottage was destined for demolition. In 2002, Roderick Brown made the society an offer: Move it, and it’s yours, but do it now. His only request was for a marker that acknowledges his gift. He’s since passed away, but a large oval plaque has been placed on the front porch in his honor.

The house was first relocated to the old Springville Lake property, where it underwent major restoration to prepare it for community use. Its windows were replaced with handcrafted copies of the originals. A fine front porch and tin roof were also added.

Springville’s John Trotter, who did most of the carpentry work, remembered those days well, “When we started this project, I was 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed over 200 pounds.” Now slimmer and a bit shorter, he quipped, “If we had to do this again, I would probably wind up 4 feet tall.”

A needlework plaque on the kitchen wall says it all: Hard work is the yeast that raises the dough. John, his wife Sara, and Gayle Hammonds were prime movers for the entire project and continue their leadership roles today, but other folks and factions have generously lent their support.

For instance, the magnificent wood flooring in the parlor was donated from a pile of demolition salvage. It was stored in a building belonging to Pearson Sawmill, owned by the family of Carol Pearson Waid, who, with her husband Frank, have worked tirelessly in other local restoration projects.

Originally painted a hideous green color, the 1-by-4-inch tongue-and-groove flooring had to be sanded and sealed, but is now a lustrous vintage pine color, complete with random worm tracks and deeply colored knots.

The Hammonds, the Trotters and other community members have donated furniture, kitchen equipment, labor and other goods and services to Little House, which now sits on land owned by the City of Springville.

Sara says, “A local councilman said (Gayle and Sara) were two of the most determined ladies he’d ever met.” They’ve worked tirelessly for years, seeking donations through local fashion shows and other fundraising activities.

Gayle adds, “For Sara, John and me, it’s been absolutely a labor of love.”

They point out that it’s by no means finished. It’s a perfect opportunity for local civic groups, garden clubs, Boy Scouts, landscapers, grass cutters, anyone with time and willingness to contribute something positive to the Springville community infrastructure.

John, who lives in a vintage home on Gin Street that he also restored, said, “When we got the house, it had no floors or ceilings, no bath and no wiring. We had to install all of it.” He pointed out a ceiling lamp and table lamp, both of which were converted from kerosene to electricity by the same electricians who wired the house using materials typical of rural electrification.

Other than a few comfort additions, such as air conditioning, there is little in the main parlor to betray Little House as being less than a century old. But the similarity ends there as you step into a modern kitchen, complete with microwave and refrigerator, then into a new bathroom, which is a story unto itself. The Society had intended using Little House as a welcome center on the old Spring Lake site, but found that it was not legal to install a septic system so close to the city’s water supply, thus the move to another location.

In 2012, the new front porch was removed, and the house was moved to its present location at 66 Walker Drive, just west of downtown Springville. Restoration work continued until recently, adding the restroom, floors, ceilings, a handicap ramp and reinstallation of the front porch. 

Gayle says it will serve several community functions. For one, it will be opened as a welcome center anytime there are large events, such as block parties, 5k races and Homestead Hollow events.

In addition, its main purpose is to serve as a rentable venue for small community group functions, including club meetings, showers, parties and other gatherings. Although actual occupancy is limited by fire law to 16, Gayle says there is ample level lawn space for tents, booths, outdoor festivities and overflow crowds.

Their brochure suggests wedding ceremonies on the front porch with bridal preparation inside, birthday parties, intimate dinners, anniversaries, child tea parties and any other functions not involving huge crowds.

Catering is available from The Choppin’ Block’s amazingly varied menu, or you can bring your own and use the in-house refrigerator and microwave. A limited number of chairs and tables are provided. For information or reservations, contact Sara Trotter at 205 467-3000.

Both Sara and Gayle emphasized that a quick private tour can easily be arranged at very short notice by phone, either to Sara or to Gayle, at 205-937-3071. Gayle adds, “We all live less than 10 minutes away and would be glad to meet you there.”

To reach Little House, go west from the four-way stop in Springville for about a quarter mile, then left on Walker Drive. The house will be on your immediate right. GPS coordinates are 33.76511N 86.4802W.

Editor’s Note: We are sad to report that Mr. Trotter passed away in late August, a few weeks after our story interview.