Faulkner Farms

From tomatoes to cattle, Cash brothers eyeing success

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Susan Wall

Among the numerous farms along St. Clair County Road 33 is one reminiscent of Wyoming’s countryside.

Its great expanse of grazing land is bordered by gently sloping, tree-lined hills. Artesian-fed Beaver Creek winds through the 471 acres, tumbling over a rock ford at one point.

“It’s a little piece of heaven,” said Andrew Smith, who gets to enjoy the view every day in his job as farm manager.

“It’s gorgeous,” said Joey Cash of Ashville.

From 1972 until recently, this property belonged to Dr. Jim Faulkner. It was called Faulkner Farms.

Not only was it known for its beauty, but also for the registered Simmental cattle from Europe that Faulkner raised right there in St. Clair’s Beaver Valley. The annual cattle sales at Faulkner Farms were popular events that drew people from as far away as Montana and Canada. They came to buy livestock, of course, but also to delight in the barbecue and fellowship those occasions offered.

Joey and his brother Brian purchased Faulkner Farms early in 2017.

The two had admired the farm from the time they were lads.

“I always recognized it more for the abundant wildlife,” Brian said. “There were always turkeys and deer out in the front hay field. I never dreamed we would actually own a piece of this beautiful place.”

When the Cashes purchased it, the farm already had a well-established infrastructure that included a tack room and office, four barns, a farmhouse, where Andrew and his family now live, and a two-story log cabin with an incredible view.

The Faulkner Farms property possessed something else of importance, namely its previous reputation as a purebred operation.

All of these made it the “perfect” place for the Cash brothers to establish their cattle enterprise.

“We pretty much want to carry on Dr. Faulkner’s legacy of being a well-known cattle business,” Joey said. He and Brian want to raise “the best Angus cattle in the business.”

They plan to construct a large barn and roping area for holding sales similar to the ones Dr. Faulkner hosted for many years, Brian said.

This cattle venture is an entrepreneurial detour for Joey and Brian. For many years, they have been farming tomatoes on 400 acres the family owns atop St. Clair’s Chandler Mountain. Their tomato business currently under the name Cash Cattle Co. – previously was called Burton Farm and has spanned 85-100 years. The Cash brothers represent the fourth generation of tomato farming in the family.

Burton Farm was the largest tomato farm in the state for a time, Brian said.

Joey added that, through the years, it also was an innovator in the business.

“The tomato business has been great to our family,” Brian said.

It allowed the brothers to be financially able to purchase Faulkner Farms and the prime Black Angus stock to put on it, Brian said.

They sold two tracts of their tomato-farming land and put the resources into the cattle farm, Joey said.

They acquired the last line of top-pedigree embryo-transplant heifers from Bobo Angus Farm in Huntsville, “one of the biggest and best purebred businesses in the country,” the brothers said.

“It would have taken us 10 years to breed up to the kind of animals we bought off the bat,” Joey said. “… We bought our way into the (cattle) business as big as we could, and tomato farming allowed us to do that.”

Currently, the herd has about 300 head. Two hundred are brood cows, while calves and bulls account for the other 100. One bull – at 2,600 pounds – thinks he is a pet.

For two years, the Cash brothers have been acquiring female cows and keeping them on leased property on Chandler Mountain. Ultimately, the Cashes plan to limit the brood population to 250 and the total herd size to about 500 to avoid overworking the land.

Joey noted theirs is a purebred seed-stock business. In other words, their cattle are for breeding purposes, not for consumption.

Added Brian, “With the genetics we have acquired, the females will pretty much sell themselves. Our emphasis has to be on selling quality, sound bulls to commercial operations. We are going to offer a lot of ‘value added’ options with the sale of our bulls.”

Among the options Brian listed are providing Angus Source perks for buyers seeking to market cattle sired by a Cash Cattle bull, guaranteeing bulls sold by Cash Cattle, and offering free delivery in certain instances.

“We want to be an asset to commercial cattlemen in the area” by providing stock and services that allow Cash Cattle customers to market their own animals at a higher price, Joey said.

The transition out of tomato farming into cattle farming has been exciting, but came about through “a lot of praying,” said the brothers.

“We are thankful for the help, support and prayers of our families and many others in this venture,” Brian said.

This family cattle business also involves the efforts of Joey’s wife, Tracy; and daughter Jacie, 12; as well as Brian’s wife, Paige; and sons Corbin, 9; and Cylas, 4. Already, the dads are teaching the younger generation of Cashes to round up, deworm, rope and vaccinate the cows, record pertinent information and search the fields for new calves.

“We want to instill … in our kids … work ethic and pride for the animals and the land that God has blessed us with,” Brian said. “I want to build a business that my children, one day if they so choose, will be able to carry on and be successful in.”

 

Jenny Gauld

Her monumental legacy

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Submitted photos

Dr. Jenny Gauld stood 5 feet 3. Yet, those who knew her said her influence in everything she undertook was monumental.

From rearing children to helping those in need to establishing a new program at a university, she did it with vision and diligence, they say.

“She gave 110 percent at the very least,” said daughter Lee Franklin Shafer of Anniston.

Following a brief illness, 78-year-old Dr. Gauld – who had 6 children (one deceased), 11 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild – passed away on March 14, 2017.

The legacy she left is far reaching.

 

… as wife and mom

Her husband of 40 years, Ernie Gauld of Pell City, described her as “a fun person.”

“She loved people and loved making people happy,” the Rev. Shafer said of her mom.

Denson Franklin III of Birmingham, Dr. Gauld’s son, said his mother was patient and supportive of her children. “We knew she loved us unconditionally.” An “intense listener, … she saw value and worth in everyone.”

Not only was she an avid Atlanta Braves fan, but she also was an excellent cook and gardener. “Whenever we would visit, she would send us home with a grocery sack full of tomatoes, pole beans, eggplant, squash and cucumbers,” Franklin recalled.

She was quite the knitter and seamstress too, Franklin continued. “I still have the corduroy Winnie the Pooh she made that was my full-time companion from about age 3 until somebody told me I was too old for dolls!”

She and her husband liked antique vehicles and had 10 of them. Dr. Gauld’s favorite was a 1955 red Jaguar, which she made certain her husband handled with care.

Even in her husband’s hobby, Dr. Gauld was fully committed. As a result, she was named to the board of directors for the Library and Research Center of the Antique Automobile Club of America.

 

… as a leader

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Gauld worked at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where in 1986 she became the institution’s first assistant vice president for enrollment management, said Cindy Roberts Holmes of Hoover. Ms. Holmes was Dr. Gauld’s executive assistant.

Ultimately, Dr. Gauld became vice president of student affairs, the first female to hold a vice presidential position at UAB.

The Rev. Shafer credits her mother with being a trailblazer who wanted women to be “known for their brains and skills. … Because of women like Mom, who broke down the barriers between men and women in the ‘70s, I have had a much easier time in my career as an Episcopal priest, another role that was historically reserved for men.”

Some UAB projects that bore Dr. Gauld’s fingerprint included the Campus Recreation Center, the Commons on the Green dining facility, and the transition from a “commuter school” to a full-service institution, according to the UAB National Alumni Society and UAB News Archives. Early admission to UAB’s medical school was also one of her projects, states another source.

“She is credited with leading UAB in enrollment growth and was strongly committed to diversity,” said Stella Cocoris of Hoover, who retired from UAB as assistant vice president for enrollment services and university registrar. “Under her leadership, a pioneering program in minority recruitment and retention graduated hundreds of students who are now professionals in the fields of health, law, business and more.

“Jenny’s vision and drive helped change UAB from its well-established and long-standing image as a ‘commuter school’ to that of a vibrant residential campus with a full complement of student programs and activities – the UAB of today.”

 

… as a visionary

Dr. Gauld’s time away from the office was no different.

In 1985, for example, she was a volunteer with Family Violence Project that later came to be a service of the YWCA Central Alabama, said Suzanne Durham of Cook Springs, YWCA’s chief executive officer for 34 years. YWCA Central Alabama is based in Birmingham.

A year later, Dr. Gauld was named to the YWCA board of directors. In four more years, she was president, a post she held five years, Ms. Durham said.

In 2000, Dr. Gauld helped to start the Purse & Passion Luncheon in Birmingham to raise funds for the YWCA emergency shelter and services.

After her time as president, “she co-chaired two capital campaigns that each raised close to $15 million,” Ms. Durham said. “The campaign in 2006-2008 raised funds to bring a domestic violence shelter to St. Clair County and build a new family homeless shelter and affordable housing in a neighborhood close to downtown Birmingham.”

The YWCA board planned to surprise Dr. Gauld by naming the St. Clair shelter “Jenny’s Place.” Dr. Gauld, however, wanted people to feel dignity in saying they live at “Our Place” instead of at “Jenny’s Place.” Thus, it is called “Our Place” at her request.

Nine years after Purse & Passion commenced in Birmingham, Dr. Gauld duplicated that annual fundraiser in Pell City. “Since then, Purse & Passion St. Clair County has raised nearly $500,000 in vital funding to support Our Place,” YWCA officials say. Dr. Gauld’s efforts were recognized in a special tribute at the 2016 event.

Before bringing Purse & Passion to St. Clair County, Dr. Gauld helped to establish the YWCA’s Prom Palooza locally. Through this endeavor, teen girls in need in St. Clair receive a free gown, accessories and shoes for their special night.

 

… as the achiever

A native of Gadsden, Virginia Gauld earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Emory University. From the University of Alabama, she received both a master’s in rehabilitation counseling and a doctorate in higher education administration. She began her career in 1967 as a first-grade teacher and joined the staff of UAB in 1977.

The Virginia D. Gauld National Alumni Society Endowed Scholarship was established at UAB in her honor. She retired from UAB in 2006.

According to UAB News Archives, Birmingham News deemed her “one of Birmingham’s most influential women,” and Birmingham Business Journal named her “one of the top 10 Birmingham women.” She served with the National Conference for Community Justice and Cahaba Girl Scout Council.

In addition, she was a graduate of Leadership Alabama and Leadership Birmingham, and served on the Jefferson State Community College advisory board.

After moving to Pell City, she was “citizen of the year,” a member of the boards of directors for Rotary Club of Pell City, Pell City Housing Authority and Pell City Center for Education and Performing Arts (CEPA). She was active in many facets of Pell City First United Methodist Church.

Ms. Cocoris, who worked with Dr. Gauld 20 years, found her to be a woman of integrity. “She was compassionate, passionate about her work, and the epitome of commitment and dedication to UAB and her many community-based interests, especially the YWCA. … She would never ask someone to do work she was unwilling to do herself. … She had an innate ability to identify and value an individual’s unique skills and, in doing so, gave many people the gift of better knowing and valuing themselves.”

 

… as a friend

During the challenging years of establishing a new program at UAB, a bond of trust developed between Ms. Holmes and Dr. Gauld that grew stronger and stronger.

They were known as the “dynamic duo.”

“We were best friends,” said Ms. Holmes, who became Dr. Gauld’s assistant in 1984. “She loved my family, and I loved hers.”

When Ms. Holmes’ husband suddenly became gravely ill in 2003, Dr. Gauld accomplished the near impossible, setting up in only two days a scholarship in his name before his passing.

“Jenny Gauld was the one person who made the most impact on who I am today,” Ms. Holmes continued. “She was my mentor, my best friend and my soul mate. She touched everyone she knew in a special way, but none more than me.”

She had a gift for making people feel special.

One day in 2008, Brenda Wyatt of Pell City answered her telephone to hear, “This is Jenny Gauld. I’ve been told you are someone I need to meet.”

Dr. Gauld had contacted Mrs. Wyatt because both of them shared a desire to help women and children in crisis or poverty.

Immediately, the two women connected. “There was something about Jenny that made me feel as if we had known each other all of our lives,” Mrs. Wyatt recounted.

During the many hours spent planning an emergency shelter for women and children, a precious friendship blossomed between Mrs. Wyatt and Dr. Gauld.

“My life is immensely richer for having known Dr. Virginia Gauld,” Mrs. Wyatt said. “To be called her friend will always be considered one of the great honors of my life. … She did not need to know me. Quite the contrary, I needed to know her. And for that, I will be forever enriched and grateful.” l

Purse & Passion is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 24, at 11:30 a.m. at the Beacon of Pell City First United Methodist Church. If anyone is interested in hosting a table or attending the fundraiser as a guest, they can contact Liz Major at lmajor@ywcabham.org or (205) 322-9922 ext. 350 for more information.

Farm to Table

St. Clair County style food

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Susan Wall
Styling by Renee Lilly

Home-grown and home-cooked are as common as kudzu around St. Clair County. You don’t have to go far to pick blueberries, find fresh eggs, fresh produce or grass-fed beef and pork, or to satisfy your sweet tooth. When it comes to culinary delights, St. Clair can hold its own.

Drop by Wadsworth Blueberry Farm in Cropwell, owned and operated by Mike and Jeanette Wadsworth, and pick blueberries whenever you want them during berry season. That’s usually early June to mid-July, unless the rains wash away the crop like they did this year. “We closed earlier because there were no more blueberries,” Mike says. “You can check our Facebook page to know when we’ll be open for picking again.”

The farm operates on an honor system, with pickers filling their baskets and placing their money into a box provided. “It used to be a You-Pick or We-Pick place, but we’re phasing out the ‘We-Pick’ side of the business,” Mike says.

Wadsworth’s blueberries are the star of many a recipe Jeanette whips up for family and friends, such as her locally famous Very Berry Salad and Blueberry Bars. A new star has just debuted at Wadsworth Farm – Blueberry Bread Pudding with a blueberry cream sauce.

At Red Hill Farms, also in Cropwell, Vaughan and Christa Bryant sell their pasture-fed cows and free-range pigs by the half or whole, and their packaged ground beef, sausage, pork roasts and chops, as well as various cuts of beef roasts, cubed steaks and stew meat, from their garage on Saturday mornings.

Their beef by the half will be ready soon, and they may still have some half or whole pigs left. The prices for their packaged pork range from $5 per pound for sausage and $7.50 per pound for bacon to $9 per pound for chops. Their beef prices range from $5.50 per pound for ground beef to $12 per pound for London broil and flank steak.

If you’re hankering for fresh fruits and vegetables, look no farther than the Mater Shack on U.S. 231 North between Ashville and the I-59 exit. Owned by Greg and Brandy Weston, the Shack sells fresh produce from their own Weston Farm during the summer, and imports from other places the remainder of the year.

“We start picking in July and go through mid-October,” says Brandy Weston. “We grow green beans, tomatoes, squash, okra, cantaloupes, watermelons, a big variety of peppers and zucchini.”

They also grow pears, which are available for about a month beginning late August or early September, and a variety of pumpkins. “Our fresh peaches and corn (at the Mater Shack) are local but come from Allman Farms, which is near ours,” Brandy says. “Our eggs come from Clarence Harris and Eddie McElroy, who also live in St. Clair County.”

Dayspring Dairy in Gallant, Alabama’s only sheep dairy, produces cheeses, dips and caramel spreads sold at farmers’ markets in Birmingham (Pepper Place), Atlanta (Piedmont Park) and Huntsville (Madison City). They also have a small farm store on their property.

Their products include aged cheeses such as gouda and manchego, fresh cheeses such as feta, halloumi and ricotta, a variety of cheese spreads, and a caramel sauce. Their Basil Peppercorn Fresca cheese spread makes a great base for a BLT or tomato sandwich. You can pour their caramel sauces (vanilla bean or bourbon flavored) over brownies and ice cream, or dip apple slices into them.

When you’re ready for dessert, try the Pecan-Pie Bars at Canoe Creek Coffee on US 231 South, also between downtown Ashville and I-59. It’s just one of their many fresh-baked pastry items. They have branched out into breakfast and lunch panini sandwiches, too. “The most popular is our turkey sandwich, and second would be our BLT, followed by our homemade pimento cheese with bacon and tomato on it,” says Sara Jane Bailey, daughter of owners Mike and Alison Bailey. The shop is noted for its coffees, smoothies, tea and bottled soft drinks, too.

“Come in every Saturday mornings from 9am-11am and hear piano hymns, Celtic, classic and bluegrass by Matthew Bailey,” Sarah Jane says, speaking about her brother. “If you would like to bring an instrument, we would love to have them. All musicians get a free breakfast sandwich and coffee.”

When it comes to a dessert that gets rave reviews and a spotless plate when dessert is done, check out the Pell City Steakhouse. The local fixture famous for its steaks is just as well known for its pies, which are baked by Shirley Posey and Peggy Reynolds. “They bake sweet potato, pumpkin when people want it, pecan, apple, old-fashioned chocolate and, of course, lemon icebox pie,” says owner Joe Wheeler. “People can buy it by the slice or they can get a whole pie to go.”

They don’t have every variety every day, Wheeler says, and he suggests calling ahead (205-338-7714) if you want a whole pie.

Still haven’t satisfied that craving for something sweet? Try Frankie’s Fried Pies or Al Strickland’s fudge.

For 22 years, Pell City’s Frankie Underwood has been making fried pies for friends and former co-workers at two local banks. “I was working at Colonial Bank, and that’s when I started doing some, and all of a sudden, it just exploded,” she says. “I don’t know why I keep doing it.” But she does, at the rate of about 150 per week. She makes lemon, chocolate, apple and cherry pies in her home kitchen.

Al Strickland is known around Springville as The Fudge Man. He makes 14 varieties of the candy that people buy for gifts or for themselves. Although his cottage industry helps support the Christian mission work he does through OneEighty Church, he gives away as much as he sells. “My fudge is my ministry,” he says. Al makes fudge all year round, but his busy season is the fall. “I make 36 pounds a week then,” he says. “At Christmas, I sell some good-sized orders that people box up and give away.”

He prices his fudge for $10-$14 per pound, depending upon the variety and amount ordered. He keeps four or five pounds in his refrigerator all year, and delivers if the customer wants several pounds. He also ships some to people in other states whom he has met during his mission trips. To place an order, call Al at 205-999-5508.

Honey can be used to sweeten any recipe, and Jimmy Carmack of Odenville has been making some of the sweetest honey in the state since 1973. He has about 200 colonies of bees spread between Mobile and Huntsville, and primarily produces wildflower honey, cotton honey and occasionally kudzu honey. His honeys have won numerous local, state and national ribbons. In 2007, Whole Foods Market, a national grocery chain, opened their first store in Alabama and contacted Carmack to be their local honey supplier after sampling a variety of honeys from this area. His honey is now in all their locations throughout the state.

In St. Clair County, you can buy his Pure Alabama Honey at C & R Feed Supply and Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 411 in Odenville, at BJ Produce on U.S. 231 in Pell City, at Moody Produce on U.S. 411 in Moody (behind the Chevron station), at Pioneer Hardware on Thornton Avenue in Leeds and at C & R Feed on U.S. 231 in Ragland and Piggly Wiggly in Ashville.

Nearby Birmingham may be growing a reputation as a “foodie” capital, but when it comes to setting that perfect farm to table fare, it’s hard to beat St. Clair County’s style. 

Editor’s Note: To learn more about these locally grown, locally made products, check them out on Facebook for Red Hill Farms, Wadsworth Blueberry Farm, Dayspring Dairy and Canoe Creek Coffee.

For recipes, check out the print or full digital edition of Discover The Essence of St. Clair

A Unified Vision

Pell City schools setting example with workforce development

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos courtesy of Pell City School System

When it comes to preparing high school students for entry into the workforce, the Pell City School System is doing everything it can to stack the odds in its students’ favor.

Part of that process is the system’s continuing partnership with the St. Clair Economic Development Council, Jefferson State Community College and local businesses in a regional workforce development initiative, but a large part of it is the result of the system taking internal measures to embrace a broader view of the role of education in students’ lives.

“The key to it is having a team of people who can get information to the students because they hear about college and they hear about jobs, but they do not have a working knowledge of the steps they need to take to get a good job or a career,” said Pell City Schools Curriculum Coordinator Kim Williams.

“The second part of it is the training opportunities that go along with those jobs. Just having a team that can provide the knowledge to those students is essential.”

The efforts have paid off, not just for students and the school system, but for the community, especially for businesses and industries hungry for a well-trained workforce.

Danielle Pope, one of the Pell City High School teachers focusing on workforce training, said the success of the program did not happen overnight — it was a steady progression over the past few years.

“We went from what was originally called co-op classes to paid internships, and the process continues to progress,” she said. “The community has really gotten behind what we are trying to do. We have about 60 community partners between apprenticeships and internships.

“And we keep getting better quality internships that are more career-track based. It lets the students look at more long-term options.”

Many schools have some form of career prep, with a later focus on admission to a four-year college.

“Most schools do career prep in the eighth- and ninth-grade — but it is not very relevant to students at that age. Then for juniors, the focus is on college, looking at things like the ACT test and how to get their scores up,” Pope said.

And both Pope and Williams said college prep is still a very important part of the curriculum at Pell City, but they also are making career prep a priority to provide options for all students post graduation.

“We have AP and online classes – we have a strong core academic offering for that. The classes we have do a good job preparing students for four-year college. And we have a plethora of students following that path,” Williams said.

“But our data points to 40 to 45 percent of our students will finish their first year of college – that’s on track with data for the rest of the state. That leaves 55 percent of students who need a viable pathway to a career. They need to find a good career, and that happens through two-year colleges, career centers or workforce development.”

According to the other partners in the training programs, Pell City’s efforts have been an unqualified success, with students placed in every branch of the regional workforce, from medical offices to major construction and industrial companies.

Williams said their program worked because of the level of commitment from everyone involved as the system implemented and continues to implement more and more job-training options into the curriculum.

“Success comes from the top. Superintendent Dr. Michael Barber has been completely supportive in these programs. … Dr. Barber and the school board have been very supportive in letting us explore ways students not going into formal post-secondary academic settings can get jobs,” she said.

“There was a big push in Alabama for workforce development, with big bond issues from the state focusing on that. … Then, as far as the Pell City community goes, we have had business leaders all saying we need a skilled workforce, skilled training programs in our area to meet workforce demands.”

And those leaders have been more than willing to help put Pell City students to work.

“Then we have the EDC recognizing that need and working with David Felton, program coordinator and advisor at Jefferson State’s Manufacturing Center,” someone Williams and EDC Assistant Director Jason Roberts credit as being a key player in coordinating the community college’s role with all the other participants.

“We have all these entities in the community recognizing this need, and the school board and superintendent recognizing the need. If you don’t have key leadership positions buying in behind the program, it won’t be a success,” she said.

The other side of that are the hands-on educators and staff in the system like Williams and Pope who make the classes and programs work and continue to grow. 

“We have a career coach this year, Shelley Kaler. Our counselors have a lot on them administratively – testing, college applications and all the other essential ways they help our students every day. So, Shelley is devoted to helping students figure out what they want to do — especially students who do not know what they want to do,” Pope said.

“She is singularly focused. I think having someone on board who can help students in that one way is very important,” Williams agreed.

Pope added that Kaler’s position is particularly helpful for students who may not be on a four-year college path.

“She has taken a lot of those kids and said, ‘Let’s get you in a place that has benefits and good pay, where they can start building a career.’ Those are often places that also have tuition assistance for students who may want to explore post-secondary education options while they work,” Pope said.

In addition to that guidance and classes that can help students graduate with certification in everything from welding to medical fields, the school system also goes the extra mile to put the students together with the people who will eventually be hiring and training them.

Pope has spent years attending meetings and conferences, making the connections with business leaders, getting their feedback on what they expect from graduates looking for work and also convincing those leaders to take a more hands-on role in the education process.

“This year we are trying to figure out a way for students to get in contact with people in different industries. We did do a traditional job fair for seniors, but we also had career discussions in the medical, construction, industrial, city government and public safety fields with those leaders, including the city manager, police and fire chiefs,” Pope said.

“Partners would come in and have a panel, tell how they got where they are. Students could ask questions — and our students did a really good job asking questions, and they could stay after and talk to the panel participants.”

The students also got the opportunity to do mock interviews with the employers who might be doing the real interview one day. That was so successful that the school actually had one student hired from a mock interview.

Pope said the response from the students has been positive. But, just as important, the partners have also been impressed with the students and the efforts the school is making.

“The feedback from the representatives who came was positive. They kept saying, ‘I did not have anything like this when I was in high school,’” and they wished they did, she said.

“Between 20 to 30 business reps took part this year, with juniors and seniors taking part from the school. We got a lot of good feedback from people in the community — people who want to do this.”

The school system has been focusing in the highest demand areas: industry and manufacturing, construction and medicine. But they are continually adding classes, with pharmacy tech, information technology and other areas becoming more in demand.

And because of partnerships with Jeff State and local businesses and a program initiated by the state that allows people like firefighters or accountants to become educators certified to teach their specific areas of expertise, many of the classes being taught can lead to some level of skills certification at graduation.

“We had six students pass their pharmacy tech certification at the end of the year this year,” Williams said.

“It has been a team effort,” Williams said. “Jeff State has the resources to supply the training. Businesses have the need. The EDC looks after the overall economic health of the community. The superintendent and the board support our programs,” she said.

“Everyone is on the same page, sharing the same vision.”

Harry Charles McCoy

From the Heart

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Graham Hadley
Contributed Photos

Friends and co-workers describe Harry Charles McCoy as a hardworking, dedicated, humble, compassionate “gentle giant” with unfailing integrity, a man who started work at age 12 and whose determination and caring spirit helped him become an enterprising business man and highly-respected father, grandfather and community member.

The 68-year-old is probably best known in his hometown of Pell City for his infectious smile, a lifetime of helping others and being the longest-serving employee of Kilgroe Funeral, with more than 55 years on the job and counting.

Harry Charles was 9 when his father, Blois McCoy, died at the age of 37, leaving his mother, Josephine McCoy, with eight children to raise. Vowing to aid his mother, Harry Charles stepped up to help for the first of countless times, going to work doing odd jobs around town and at the Lee Motel, where his mother was employed.A 12-year-old Harry Charles was cutting grass at the motel when a friend of the Kilgroe family asked him if he’d like another job. “I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’ That was 1962, and I’ve been here ever since,” says Harry Charles.

Jane Rich Kilgroe vividly remembers meeting young Harry Charles when she came to visit her then-boyfriend Sonny Kilgroe at the family business, Kilgroe Funeral Home, run by her future father-in-law, Joe Kilgroe. “I couldn’t get over him being just 12 and working seven days a week,” Mrs. Kilgroe says of Harry Charles. She says he grew to be like a brother to her late husband Sonny, a caring companion to Sonny’s mother, Mrs. Josephine Kilgroe, and a bonified member of the Kilgroe family. “I don’t know how I would have made it through after Sonny died, without Harry Charles,” says Jane Kilgroe.

Even after Sonny’s failing health prompted the Kilgroe family to sell the funeral home business in 1991 – with a clause in the contract that Harry Charles McCoy would have a job as long as he wanted one – Harry Charles remains an important part of the Kilgroe family.

Through junior high and high school, Harry worked every day, even while playing football at St. Clair County High School. “And he gave all his pay to his mother for the family,” Jane recalls.

Harry Charles cut the grass at the Second Avenue funeral home and washed cars. Soon he learned how to put up the tents at gravesides and take them down. Some days he came late to the funeral home, walking the 2 miles from home or riding his bicycle, once he got one, at almost dark after football practice.

“Folks asked me about it, if it bothered me working at a funeral home or being here at night,” Harry Charles recalls. “It never has bothered me. I’d lost family myself, and that’s one reason why I think it’s important to do all you can, to do the best for the families, to let them know you care. It’s the final thing you can do for a family.”

About the time that 12-year-old Harry Charles started working at the funeral home, so did Barnett Lawley, who had also lost his father at a too-young age. “We were in the same shape, trying to work to help earn money,” say Lawley, who was a few years older. A quick, lifelong friendship resulted. “We were close good friends. We went hunting together, went to each other’s football games. Everything was segregated then, but we didn’t know or care.”

Lawley remembers when he, Harry Charles and Sonny Kilgroe would take the flower van – on a free day when there was not a funeral – and camp out together at Huckleberry Pond.

 Now, 50-plus years later, Lawley, a businessman who served eight years as Alabama’s Commissioner of Conservation and Natural Resources in Gov. Bob Riley’s administration, says his respect for his childhood friend has just grown. “I can’t put into words how much I admire him.”

Lawley calls Harry Charles an example “of what we all should be. He’s always hustling, working hard for his family and friends. He thinks about others first and is absolutely a leader in this community.

“Harry Charles is the kind of friend you know will always be there for you.”

Stories about Harry Charles’ determination, hard work and caring spirit come quick to those know him. There is the time when Harry turned 16 and Joe Kilgroe said, “Harry, you need to get your driver’s license,” and Harry Charles took off and ran to the courthouse and ended up taking his driver’s test in the state trooper car of the late Trooper George Gant, who insisted on paying the license fee.

Once he was 16 and had the license, Harry learned to do more and more jobs for the funeral home. “Mr. Joe told me that if I’d graduate high school, I’d always have a job, and I have,” Harry says with a grin. “They’ve been like family to me many years.”

He grew up side by side with Sonny Kilgroe, who was a few years older and taught Harry how to do most every job at the funeral home. “We were always working together. He helped me, and I learned a lot. Mr. Sonny was like my brother,” Harry says. Sonny died in 2015. “I’ll never stop missing him.”

It was 1986 when Harry Charles began opening and closing graves for the funeral home, first by hand, which was standard then. Former co-worker Terry Wilson, who now works at Ridout’s Valley Chapel at Homewood, recalls Harry Charles working a full day at Kilgroe, then going to hand dig a grave for a funeral the next day. “I’d go check on him, and it’d be dark, and he’d have the truck lights shining on him, still digging by hand, late into the evening.”

With time, Harry devised a way to use a trailer pulled behind his truck to smooth out the dirt before the service “because it bothered him for the families to see a pile of dirt,” Wilson says. Next, Harry Charles began using a ditch witch, then power equipment and today has a fleet of equipment – including three dump trucks and a tractor – and his own business opening and closing graves in St. Clair and other counties.

He’s built his own business, all the while serving others and having a love for what he does, for his community and for the families he serves, Wilson says. “He has the best attitude and work ethic. In my lifetime, I’ve never known anyone I respect more than Harry Charles McCoy.”

Another story revolves around one of those trucks, a low-mileage truck Harry found at a local dealership traded in by actor Jim Nabors, who needed a bigger truck for work on his sister’s nearby farm. “Harry always called that truck Gomer Pyle,” says Jane. “He still has Gomer Pyle.”

At the center of many Harry Charles stories are his concern and service to families being served by Kilgroe Funeral Home.

“When my stepfather died,” recalls Teresa Carden, “Harry Charles pulled my car around back and washed it while I was inside at the service, so my car would be polished in the procession. How awesome and thoughtful was that?” Carden adds, “He is sincere and hardworking to the core.”

Jane Kilgroe recalls that when she and Sonny were about to get married, Sonny was so nervous that Harry Charles packed Sonny’s suitcase for the honeymoon. “That’s how close they were,” Jane says.

Soon Harry Charles came to Mr. Joe and said he’d found himself a girlfriend, Jane says. Harry and Linda Sanders were married at the courthouse and soon began their family. Today, he and Linda, who is retired from working with the Kilgroe family at home and at Josephine’s antique shop, have 48 years of marriage and seven grown children.

They are Harry Lamar McCoy, who served 32 years in the military, is still in the reserves and works at ACIPCO in Birmingham; Sabrina McCoy Wilson, a school teacher in Michigan; Charles McCoy, who works at Norfolk-Southern Railroad, and Malinda Fomby, who works at DHR in Pell City. Also raised in the McCoy household and counted among their children are nephew Nicholas Dante McCoy, who works at Norfolk-Southern, and grandsons Javoan McCoy and Montez McCoy, who both work at ACIPCO, and granddaughter Shayla. He and Linda now also dote on a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. The family attends Rocky Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

All in the family

Friends brag, too, about Harry and Linda’s family. “They taught their children a strong work ethic, good manners and to be respectful,” says Buddy Spradley, Jane’s nephew who taught McCoy children during his 20 years teaching elementary art at Iola Roberts Elementary School in Pell City. He adds, “And, Harry, he’s as strong as an ox, but his heart is even bigger.”

Working for Sonny’s Czechoslovakian mother, Josephine Bukacek Kilgroe, at her antique shop by the funeral home and the family home, Harry Charles needed that strength.

“We’d get truckloads of antiques at once,” he says. Lots of heavy lifting, setting them up, cleaning and polishing the furniture, “only with Johnson’s Paste Wax,” Jane adds.

Miss Josephine was a joy, Harry says. “I knew how she was and we got along very well.” Another Harry story friends tell was about the night Pell City’s power was out all over town and Harry Charles didn’t get an answer when he called to check on Josephine. He rushed to her house, and having a key she gave him, went in and found Mrs. Kilgroe on the floor with a broken shoulder, unable to move. “It scared him to death,” Jane recalls. “Josephine kept insisting she had to be moved. He called the ambulance and picked her up and laid her on the couch, this couch right here,” she says.

After the fall and surgery, Josephine, who was 86, had to go to a nursing home for rehabilitation, with 24-hour RN care.

Linda McCoy was there with her often, too. “She wasn’t happy at first until she figured out she saw more people in a day there than a week at home. Harry went to see her every morning – he had helped her with breakfast every day at home – and fixed her coffee like she liked it and began the habit of taking Josephine’s clothes to the dry cleaners because she liked nice clothes, and he continued to do that until her death in 2006 at age 94. Then the family and Harry and Linda did the work to close down Josephine’s antique shop.

Another Harry story Jane likes to tell is about how Harry built his family’s seven-bedroom home in Pell City from a one-room house owned by his grandmother and deeded to him along with 8 acres of land. Harry added on with every child, and today the home is filled with antiques from purchases or gifts from the antique shop and from broken or reject pieces that Harry repaired or refurbished or one of his friends did. There are cows and horses on the 8 acres now, too.

Today, Harry Charles begins his days checking on Jane Kilgroe. They are best friends, too, she says. They have breakfast and talk about their days, about old times, about Sonny, and Josephine and Joe, about Linda and their children, grandchildren and greats.

Jane Kilgroe, Barnett Lawley and many others in Pell City have longs lists of things Harry Charles did for them and the ways they admire him. For Harry Charles’ part, he says he enjoys “helping people and doing what I can for others.”

He says he believes “it’s an honor and great privilege to do for other people. My mother was that way, too,” he says. “She used to say if you can’t help, don’t hinder. I try to do my best for people. Helping is from the heart.”

Opry Lives on in Gallant

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Susan Wall

Late in the evening, about sundown,
High on a hill up above the town,
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lordy, how it would ring,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing.

Bill Monroe’s Uncle Pen would have felt right at home at Old Valley House in Gallant. That’s where local bluegrass musicians gather for a monthly jam session every first Friday. With their guitars, mandolins, banjos and the occasional Dobro and fiddle, a stage-full of homegrown performers makes the rafters ring and the audience sing to old-timey tunes. Some of those tunes are mournful, some are spirited, but all are certified crowd pleasers.

Adron and Joyce Willingham and their son, Mark, turned Adron’s 200-year-old, four-room family home in Gallant into a tiny version of the Grand Ole Opry. They knocked out a wall between two of the rooms, built a small stage, brought in durable, hard-plastic chairs and a sound system. The people started coming. The music officially begins at 6 p.m., but the musicians start straggling in about 5:30 to tune up. The room seats 40-45 people. It’s free, and anyone is welcome to come and play, sing or just listen.

“Last month, there wasn’t even standing room,” Joyce Willingham says at the April event.

Although the venue is never referred to as a version of the Opry, the front of the main room bears an uncanny resemblance to its Nashville godmother. Three steps lead up to the small stage. In front of those steps, there’s a table with two- and five-pound bags of Martha White Flour, one of the longest-running sponsors of Grand Ole Opry segments. There’s even a fake microphone patterned after the real one in front of the Opry stage, only the Gallant version has the letters WAM printed vertically on each side. Any traditional country music fan worth his Ernest Tubb albums knows the Opry is broadcast by radio station WSM. Joyce explains. «That’s for Willingham, Mark and Adron,” she says. «They left me out.”

Her husband says this is the oldest house in the Greasy Cove valley. It’s where he spent some of his pre-teen years, until his family moved away. In 1964, he returned and bought the property. He built a house behind the old one. In 1989, he started the Friday night jam sessions. “We had one every Friday night for 10 years or more, then we stopped for a while,” Adron says. “We started back with every first Friday about 10 years ago.”

Old family (Willingham) photos and pictures of previous jam sessions line the walls of the main room, along with LP album covers and stringed instruments such as mandolins, guitars and dulcimers. A strand of Christmas garland laced with red and white bulbs drapes the weight-bearing ceiling beam between the stage and seating area. Overalls hang on what used to be an entrance door, while framed, original posters of shows by Hank Williams and Flatt and Scruggs hang on the wall behind the stage. Overhead, two ceiling fans are ready to stir the upcoming summer air, while 45 RPM records dangle from the ceiling.

 Regulars greet each other like the old friends and relatives they are. Light chatter goes on throughout the session, but it doesn’t seem to bother the musicians or other audience members. Most nights, five to seven musicians show up and sit in chairs in a semi-circle on the stage. Tonight, there are nine. Larry Battles plays mandolin. He has come to these jam sessions since they started. James Keener and Phillip Mulkey play several stringed instruments, while Mark Willingham plays guitar and banjo. Jerry Womble plays 12-string and six-string guitar. Most of the musicians are members of gospel and/or bluegrass bands. Mark and Phillip, for example, are part of The Backwoods Boys, a group that plays at churches and festivals throughout the South.

At the Old Valley House, they play classics such as, Nine Pound Hammer, Shotgun Boogie, Fireball Mail, Where the Soul Never Dies, Sweet Bye and Bye, and I Saw the Light. A few audience members sing along with them on the gospel songs.

Phillip Mulkey does vocals occasionally. He sits stage left, facing one of three microphones. When he sings, others join him, some providing vocal harmony, all doing instrumental backup. Someone yells out, “Do The Preacher and the Bear.” Keenor obliges, but can’t recall all the words. Some folks on the back row of the audience start a discussion about who recorded that one. A newcomer remembers it was Phil Somebody, but when she tries to Google it, she discovers the house is in ‘Cell Hell,’ with no service except in certain areas of its yard. (Turns out Phil Somebody was Phil Harris.)

Jesse Wright sits in for a short while, playing guitar. His wife, Alice, is in the audience with their two sons, Gavin, 3, and Garret, 7 months. The boys are clapping in time to the music. “That’s Daddy,” Gavin says to the stranger seated next to him. The stranger, also a newcomer, turns to his mom and says, “You know what’s missing?”

 “No, what?” Alice responds.

“A fiddle.”

“I play fiddle,” she says. “Just not tonight.”

A man in the audience shouts out, “Get That Wildwood Flower going on that banjo,” and the guys crank up an instrumental version of the old Carter Family favorite. Mark Willingham jumps in with his guitar to play the part Mother Maybelle Carter did on her trademark autoharp. “Hey, Phillip, let’s hear that new instrument you got,” someone else yells.

 “I’ll get it in a minute,” Phillip replies.

 Soon he pulls out a tiny, handmade instrument he found at a garage sale for $2. Neither he nor anyone in the audience knows what it is. It’s about the size of a mandolin, but its body is skinnier. He says it originally had 10 strings that he replaced with mandolin strings. He plays it like a mandolin, too.

At 7 o’clock, hats come off and the retired Rev. Darwin Cardwell blesses the food that people brought. One by one, folks stroll into the kitchen and chow down on pimiento cheese sandwiches, chicken-salad sandwiches, pigs-in-a-blanket, hot dogs, store-bought mini-cupcakes and homemade German chocolate cake. It’s like a church potluck, but with finger foods instead of casseroles. The small kitchen is cramped, with its wood-burning cook stove, cabinets, two tables laden with food and another with coffee and soft drinks. Iron skillets hang from the walls, and a shelf holds old clay crocks and a cookie jar.

After supper, Adron takes to the stage and channels Roy Acuff by singing Dust on the Bible and Wreck on the Highway. Adron’s brother, Rayburn Willingham, follows with The Great Speckled Bird, another Acuff number. Then the group breaks into, “Kaw-Liga,,” one of the last songs recorded by Hank Williams before he died in the back seat of a Cadillac.

Jerry Battles says his late father, Arvie, helped found these jam sessions. He points to a photo of Arvie on a table beneath one of the glass-enclosed guitars on display. “He lived for this Friday night,” Battles says.

More bluegrass, country and gospel songs spill out. The audience softly joins in on Build My Mansion Next Door to Jesus and In The Sweet Bye And Bye.” The repertoire tonight includes Old Rattler, Rocky Top, and Dueling Banjos,” before Vernon Bishop does his instrumental version of I’ll Fly Away on the Dobro.

Adron goes outside, then comes back in with an arm load of logs. During winter and chilly spring cold snaps, he keeps a fire going in the fireplace of the main room. Old-timers recall when homes like this were heated by fireplaces. «You’d stand facing the fire and fry your front, then turn around and fry your back,” one woman commented

“Hey, Joyce, remind me to bring those folks leaving now some bush onions,” Phillip Mulkey yells from the stage as a couple gets up to go.

“I got some, too,” Joyce answers. She explains to the newcomer that bush onions are like green onions, but are grown in the winter.

The April session breaks up at 9:15 p.m., about 45 minutes earlier than usual. Rev. Cardwell prays a dismissal blessing, asking God to see everyone home safely. Several “amens” follow his, and folks start drifting out in twos and fours. Already, they can’t wait for the next first Friday.