Shop Local

Stores here have everything you need this holiday season

Story by Jackie Walburn
Submitted photos

When it comes to unique gifts and personal service, holiday shoppers win every time by shopping locally, say St. Clair merchants who offer suggestions for most-wanted gifts for 2020.

From clothes and statement jewelry to pets and guitars to gift cards and locally made candles and soaps, around-the-corner and down-the-street merchants recommend distinctive gifts and exceptional service available at local shops.

At Mum & Me Mercantile on Parkway Drive in downtown Leeds, owner Neva Reardon recommends shopping locally and buying locally and points to products made by local artists, including pottery, candles and jewelry.

A store specializing in handmade items and artworks from Alabama and across the South, Mum & Me carries pottery from local potter Susan Moore, handmade candles from Red Beard Redolence of Leeds, soaps and candles from Community Natural in Shelby County, candles and melts from Cahaba Handmade in Leeds.

Other regionally made items at Mum & Me include Zkano organic cotton socks from Little River Sock Company in Fort Payne; Bronnie’s Brittle, a peanut brittle made in Birmingham; lotions, bath and body items from K and C Bath Co. in Birmingham; and hand-stenciled kitchen towels made by Becky Denny of Digs Design in Homewood.

Gift ideas abound at Monkey Bizness in downtown Pell City, but owner Michelle Tumlin recommends that shoppers look at the shop’s new reading glasses with blue-light filters, perfect for all ages and less than $25, plus the store’s exclusive hand-poured candles. With fragrances, flavors and names developed in partnership with a candle maker in Franklin, Tenn., the handmade candles are popular and unique to the store. Monkey Bizness candles’ best-selling fragrances are Pell City Christmas and Panther Pride, named for the Pell City Panthers.

 Specializing in women’s and children’s clothing, Monkey Bizness has added newborn clothes to its line of clothes for children, with boy sizes from newborn to 5, and, for girls, from newborn to toddler to children, tweens, misses and plus sizes, Tumlin says.  “If you’re a girl, I can dress you.”

At Ron Partain’s World of Music in downtown Pell City, long-time owner and musician Ron Partain sees music as a holiday gift that keeps giving. Open for 42 years, Ron Partain’s World of Music specializes in musical instruments, including guitars, mandolins, banjos, violins and pianos and all essentials to go with them.

“Our featured items would be guitars for all ages, acoustic and electric, and gift certificates for lessons to go with a guitar,” Partain says, noting his favorite part of his job is “watching people’s eyes dance because they made music.”

Pointing to the popularity of online buying, even for musical instruments, Partain says folks looking for music instruments or accessories should check this local store first. “Truth is, we sell at internet prices, but our joy is helping people to love music.” And if you can find it online, they can get it for you in the store.

Jewelry is always a go-to gift at Griffins Jewelers, and Stephanie Smith, manager at the Pell City shop, points to Le Vian jewelry as tops for 2020 holidays. Known for original designs using their trademarked Chocolate Diamonds and colored gem stones, Le Vian’s styles in earrings, necklaces and rings are trendy and stylish with a high-quality standard. “These are truly statement pieces,” Smith says. Griffins is a local distributor of Le Vian, an internationally renowned family-owned jeweler with a history dating back centuries. They offer a wide variety of Le Vian pieces priced from about $800 up.

Another Griffins gift recommendation revolves around solar-powered globes that rotate inside a clear sphere, a gift that’s calming and scientific at the same time, priced at $170 and up. Gift wrapping is free with purchase at Griffins Jewelers, which is celebrating its 70th year in business in 2020.

Known for its residential and commercial mailboxes marketed statewide and nationally, Alabama Mailbox Company in Ashville is also growing as St. Clair County’s headquarters for exotic animals and pets, says Kaitlyn Martin of Alabama Mailbox.

They have bearded dragons, hedgehogs, geckos, skinks and tortoises and all the items needed to care for and feed the unusual pets. “These are very unique gifts, and we have all the supplies, food, cages and bedding,” Martin says. The company’s pet offerings are expanding to include house pets, dogs and cats, organic pet food and treats. They also carry top line food and water dishes, leashes and diet supplements.

Visiting the store on Turkey Hollow Lane in Ashville, shoppers can see the pets and buy in-stock mailboxes, or they can custom order the best in mailboxes, light posts, signs and garden accessories, which come with experienced customer service. 

Warren Family Garden Center and Nursery on Old Cedar Grove Road in Leeds gets ready for Christmas season early with fresh poinsettias and other Christmas plants, including lemon cypress, Christmas cactus and bulbs, says manager Michelle Warren, one of the family owners of the full-service garden center.

Gift items she recommends include wind chimes, pottery, house plants, floral decorations and garden art. Distinctive Christmas decorations are available too, along with fresh evergreen wreaths and garland and Christmas trees which begin arriving before Thanksgiving.

At Merle Norman in downtown Pell City, expect skin-care products and splashes of color as top gifts, says Joanna Darden, salesperson at the shop on Cogswell Avenue.

All the skin care lines at the nationally-known cosmetics shop are great gifts, she says, recommending a holiday makeup item called Starry Eyes Liquid Foil, one of Merle Norman’s holiday gift items. “It’s eye shadow and mascara in copper and silvery colors that are glittery but not too much. The look is eye-popping and perfect for the holidays,” Darden says. Merle Norman originally introduced the Liquid Foil set for spring, and it was such a hit that it’s been modified for winter and Christmas and New Year’s season.

At Hattie Lee’s Boutique on Martin Street in Pell City, owner Jo Ann Bain recommends casual clothing and loungewear as top gift choices.  “Anything casual is great. Folks are staying home, working from home and doing virtual everything,” she says.

“Loungewear is really big,” she says, noting they are not basic sweatsuits, but comfortable, cute clothing, with fashion themes that include animal prints and creative camo prints. Shoppers and gift buyers are looking for “something they can get up and put on to work at home and still look good when you need to get out.” 

Hattie Lee’s is also selling fashion-forward masks – in colors and designs to match outfits or mood. “Everyone has to have them,” Bain says about mask face coverings needed during the ongoing pandemic, “so they might as well be cute.”

At Uptown Girl, also known as UG Clothing, in downtown Pell City, the variety is such that owner Virginia Seales says a UG Gift Card makes the perfect gift.

“It’s loadable and reloadable,” and with new items coming in daily, a gift card takes the guessing out of gift buying. UG’s Facebook Live Shows, held on Mondays and Thursdays via the store’s Facebook page, are another way the shop reaches customers and makes shopping easier, Seales says. Held at 7 p.m. two nights a week, the live shows feature the latest fashions and gift ideas.

Begun during the initial pandemic shutdown in the Spring of 2020 as outreach to customers, the Live Show videos continue as holiday purchasing begins. Participants can purchase via the Live Shows and pick up the items or have them shipped. The first five Facebook users who respond to the Live Show announcement with a “Shop UG” comment win $10 gift cards.

Macedonia Baptist

One of St. Clair’s oldest churches is still home to many

Story by Joe Whitten
Submitted photos

On Aug. 16, 2020, Macedonia Baptist Church, No. 2, Ragland, celebrated 180 years of faithful spiritual service in St. Clair County. The anniversary celebration occurred on a modest scale because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The congregation went for regular worship and afterward enjoyed a lunch in the fellowship hall.

The county is home to several churches organized in the early years of both St. Clair County and Alabama.Some churches have surviving records documenting the church’s beginnings, while others have scant information. Over the years, many original minute books met destruction through a house fire where the minutes were stored.

Researchers come face to face with this in researching Macedonia Baptist, No. 2. The official organization date of 1840 is recorded in St. Clair County Baptist Associational meetings, but the year that families began to meet to worship together in the area of Macedonia Mountain lies in the long shadows of two centuries. Furthermore, undocumented published accounts deepen the shadows of the past rather than giving light to them.

In the Daughters of the American Revolution book, Some Early Alabama Churches (Established before 1870) Commemorating the Bicentennial of the United States of America, published in 1973, authors wrote this about Macedonia Baptist: “This church is said to be the oldest church in St. Clair County, and it is thought that it was organized in 1812. It is located in the mountains near Ragland. Records go back to 1840.” However, the authors, Mable Ponder Wilson, Dorothy Youngblood Woodyerd and Rosa Lee Busby, give no documentation for stating this. This is a great frustration to the church and any historian, for someone gave them that information. One can hope that in some old trunk or chest, a forgotten diary or family Bible will come to light to prove the 1812 date.

The Minutes of the St. Clair County Baptist Association for 1932, 1936 and 1942 record 1840 as the official organizational date. The fact is that, as settlers formed communities, families met in homes to worship together. At some point, a circuit-riding minister would come to preach once a month. A desire for a church name and building would burn in the hearts of the group who would petition ministers in the county to help them organize a church. Probably believers worshipped together long before organizing and naming the church Macedonia. The Grizzell and Johnson families are known early members of the church.

The person who gave the 1812 date to DAR also gave a description of the first Macedonia church building. The log structure had no widows. “On the interior of the structure was cube of rocks about three feet long, three feet high, and three feet wide, with a rock shaft going out the side of the building. This was for light when it was necessary to meet a night. Pine knots were burned, giving light, and the smoke went out the shaft. A lean-to that joined onto the building accommodated the slaves.” According to oral history, the first church sat where today stands the pavilion protecting the long “dinner on the ground” tables.

Lela Alverson Grizzell told great-granddaughter Sheila McKinney that a storm destroyed the log structure, but she didn’t give a date for the storm. In a St. Clair News-Aegis article of Oct. 15, 1992, Elise Argo wrote, “The log building was replaced in the early 1900s.” The article indicates Ms. Argo got that date from Brother Archie Maddox, pastor at that time. An up-to-date, wood-frame church replaced the log building, which served the congregation until the present brick structure replaced it in 1948.

In 1956, the church started a building fund to add classrooms. This came to fulfillment in 1965 when the men of the church added two restrooms, a pastor’s study and eight classrooms. In 1985, the men added the fellowship hall with kitchen and dining areas.

The lovely painting gracing the baptistry was done in 1998 by Ken Maddox in loving memory of his mother, Mary Maddox, wife of Brother Archie Maddox.

Baptistry painting by Ken Maddox in memory of Mary Maddox, his mother

The original log building served as both church and school according to local family accounts. Shelia McKinney recounted what her great-grandmother, Lela Alverson Grizzell, told of attending the log school.

“The Alverson family settled these hills and valleys, and Lela’s brothers and sisters attended school here,” Shelia recalled. “Lela and her older brothers and sisters walked to school from Macedonia Mountain where they lived. A pond ran over the road, and she told of ice skating on the pond.

“The school had a potbelly stove, and when it rained, they took off their boots and lined them around the stove to dry. They’d wrap their feet in their coats until their feet got warm. Lela said the log church-school blew away in a storm.”

Surviving church minutes of Aug. 20, 1922, show Macedonia as a member of the Coosa Valley Baptist Association, and Rev. Joe Mitchell, pastor, appointing Russell Arnold, Calvin Wood, Henry Johnson, William G. Wilder and J. H. Trammell as messengers to the 1922 meeting. Baptist churches’ messengers represent local congregations and have voting privileges in associational business meetings.

The St. Clair County Baptist Association minutes of the 1929 annual meeting at Broken Arrow Baptist Church, Sept. 14-15, records that “Macedonia No. 2 was received, and the Moderator gave the messengers the right hand of fellowship.” The messengers were M.C. Sagers, H. Johnson, J.S. Bunt and Rosa Jane Bice. Brother Clifford Streety of Pell City was Macedonia’s pastor in 1929.

Macedonia, Ragland, was designated No. 2, and Macedonia, Margaret, No. 1, because the Margaret church had been a member of the association since 1915.

Shelia McKinney, church clerk, has collected church memorabilia and history, some of which is tattered fragments of minutes from the 19th and early 20th centuries. As with many old records on paper, deterioration has taken its toll, but those tattered remains are treasures.

Fragments of old minutes record the Church Covenant and Order of Decorum. As with most early Baptist churches, Macedonia practiced church discipline. The purpose was to help members and restore them to fellowship. Common infractions found in most old church minutes show that drinking, swearing and dancing were causes of “being brought before the church” for discipline and restoration.

The cemetery adjacent to the church is one of the older ones in St. Clair County, and as with all old graveyards, some of the oldest graves are marked by large rocks or crosses. The oldest known grave is that of John Chambliss, May 23, 1826 – Jan. 23, 1881. The oldest person buried there is Chesley Phillips, 117 years old, Aug 7, 1810 – Oct. 25, 1927. According to 1890 church minutes, Macedonia began observing Memorial Day at the cemetery “… on Saturday before the 3rd Sunday in May.” This continues today.

Macedonia’s records show that the Singing Convention often met at the church. Open doors and windows of the church allowed those outside to enjoy the singing going on inside. Newspapers usually announced these events, as shown in this Aug. 12, 1954, St. Clair News-Aegis invitation.

“All-Day Singing, Food Galore, To Be At Macedonia Aug. 15. The Annual all-day singing with dinner on the grounds at noon will be held at Macedonia Baptist Church No. 2 Sunday, August 15. Special singers for the annual event will be Mack Wright and the Victory Quartet, in addition to several others. You are cordially invited to this great day of fellowship,” it reads.

Vacation Bible School week has been another annual event for the church. During the week, children are taught Bible stories and work on crafts or art that correspond with the theme of the week. Several years ago, one of the teachers started the Bible School Quilt, with good results, as shown in the photographs.

Rev. Edwin Talley, pastor of Ragland First Baptist and a former member of Macedonia, said, “I was a member of Macedonia in the early 1980s. It was there that I accepted my calling into the ministry, and there I preached my first sermon. I remained an active member there until I was called to pastor Oak Grove No. 2 in 1986. Macedonia ordained me at the request of Oak Grove. I will always consider Macedonia my home.”

McKinney echoes Talley’s sentiments. When asked for a comment and memory, she replied, “All I can say is, ‘It’s home.’ This was the first church I ever attended. I accepted Jesus in the alter to the right of the pulpit, and I was baptized here. My daughters were saved and baptized here.

“My great-great-grandfather helped organize this church and pastored it. My great-grandparents met and married here. My aunt, Louise Grizzell Sterling, was the song leader for many years, my uncle was a deacon, and my granny taught Sunday school. Following in her footsteps, I also teach Sunday school. Seven generations of my family have attended this church and worked for God here.

“This church – not just the building – the people are my family, and I wouldn’t want to be in any other church – unless God told me to go. I pray that as long as God tarries Jesus’ coming again that my family and I will be here serving God and community to the best of our ability.

“My favorite childhood memory of Macedonia Baptist is learning to recite all 66 books of the Bible in order as they are in the Bible. I was 12 years old, and my granny, Marcene Grizzell, was my Sunday school teacher. Our class had to recite the 66 books in front of the church on a Sunday morning. When we accomplished this, the church gave us our own Bible. I still have mine. My most cherished memory now is that I saw my grandbaby, Katelyn Serenity Byers, dedicated in this church. She is the seventh generation Grizzell descendant attending here.

“I will be buried in the graveyard beside the church with my beloved family members that have gone on before me.”

Brother Bryan Robinson has pastored Macedonia Baptist since 2016. He said, “Macedonia, Ragland, is truly a church that God has ordained to be the church today where we see people saved and baptized even during a COVID-19. This church has seen many wars, the Great Depression and many United States presidents. Over the years, Macedonia’s members have endured many trials and have been victorious through it all. It makes me humble, thankful and truly blessed that God would allow me to help His church go a little further till He comes again. Macedonia members are the salt of the earth. They are a loving, caring and praying people who still use the altar every time the church doors open. I thank God for this church, my church. My wife Sandy and I call it home.” 

Each of these referred to Macedonia as Home. What they express connects perfectly with modern Christian author Philip Yancey’s words, “I go to church as an expression of my need for God and for God’s family.” Such is Macedonia Baptist Church, Ragland, a family of believers who feel at Home in church.

Bob Curl’s amazing life

At 95, World War II vet Bob Curl recalls horror of war, an unconditional love and a wonderful life

Story by Paul South
Submitted Photos

Barely a year out of high school, Bob Curl saw things a kid his age ought never see: the shattered bodies of young men, their lives snatched in a twinkling.

He’s also known the joy that every human heart should know, the magic of an unconditional, long-lasting love that endures to this day, though its beloved is years gone.

Like a Frank Capra movie of the 1940s, Curl – now 95 – has known horror and heartbreak, love, laughter and selfless service, the stuff poured into a life well lived.

A resident of the Col. Robert L. Howard Veterans Home in St. Clair County, Curl still drives, running the roads, snapping photos of his trips with cameras from his large collection of vintage photography gear. He’s been interviewed by historians from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

His smiles and his stories are well known at the place he calls home – a wonderful place, he says, where he’s been known to join a side in a rollicking game of volleyball. “I tell people I live at a country club,” he says.

Chat with him long enough, and Curl will tell you stories of bloodied French beaches, a department store fire, the Sabbath morning he first saw the love of his life and the time he met the legendary war correspondent Ernie Pyle.

What a life.

First, let’s tackle the hard part of Bob Curl’s days.

Hill over Omaha Beach

In June 1944, his job as a Navy radarman was simple – to use the high technology of the day to find Omaha Beach. He did. In a briefing in Britain days before the invasion, the teenage sailor learned that he would be part of the first flotilla of Allied vessels, facing batteries of German 88s, heavy artillery protected by reinforced concrete pillboxes.

“We were told we were probably going to be killed,” Curl said. So, I wrote a letter to my mother. I told her I wish I’d been a better son. She didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. But I thought that was the end of me.”

A strike on one of those pillboxes, Curl believes, saved his life.

On June 9, three days after D- Day, the initial Allied thrust onto the European continent, aimed at ending Nazi occupation, Curl slogged ashore through bloodied water and shrapnel-peppered sand. What he saw is seared in memory, more than 75 years later.

“… Bodies and parts of bodies all over the place,” Curl remembered. “(Pulitzer Prize-winning newsman) Ernie Pyle came on our boat. He went on the beach the second day (June 7) and when he came back, he wrote what he saw. They censored it and wouldn’t let it go through. At that time, the only way you could make a copy was carbon paper and onion skin paper. And he submitted his story, and they thought it was too graphic and too bad. So, they censored it.”

Pyle, who was killed in the Pacific while embedded with an American unit, on D-Day wrote of bloody boots and the mundane and the strange that fighting men carried into the carnage – cigarettes and writing paper, a banjo and a tennis racket.

Pyle saw what he thought were two sticks jutting out of the sand. He was mistaken.

“They were a soldier’s two feet,” Pyle wrote. “He was completely covered by the shifting sands except for his feet. The toes of his G.I. shoes pointed toward the land he had come far to see and which we saw so briefly.”

As Pyle finished the dispatch that War Department censors quashed, Curl asked him for the trash-can-bound carbon of the story and Pyle gave it to him. It’s long lost, but after the war, as a college student struggling with an English class, Curl copied Pyle’s story word for word, hoping for a needed good grade.

“I thought, ‘Oh boy, I got him now,’” Curl said of his tough taskmaster professor.

Pyle’s work earned Curl a C+.

After victory in Europe, Curl was preparing for the invasion of Japan on Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands when he learned of victory in Japan.

A love story

He would have a personal victory once he returned home. He married his wife, the former Nell Spring. The Methodist minister’s son met his future wife at a church youth social on Valentine’s Day in 1943. They dated for three months. He enlisted in the Navy the Saturday after graduation in May.

Bob and Nell Curl

He fell in love with her earlier that day, as he walked into church with a friend on his first Sunday in a new town.

“When I walked into church that morning, the most beautiful girl I ever saw was giving the devotion up there,” Curl recalled. “I nudged that boy next to me – I was 16 or 17 – I said, ‘I don’t know who that girl is, but I’m going to marry her.’”

It was the beginning of what would be a 69-year marriage, an old-fashioned love affair. She’s gone now, but every night, he talks with her, looking into the eyes of her picture adorning a wall in his room.

“She was the most wonderful lady I’ve ever known.”

Early years

Theirs is a magical story, one of several he tells. He got his first job in a local movie theater. Armed with a broomstick with a nail poking sharply from its end, Curl picked up trash.

His salary in the teeth of the Great Depression? “I got to see all the movies for free,” he said. The cost: One thin dime.

Another story was like something from a movie. As a nine-year-old while shopping with his mother at Birmingham’s iconic Loveman’s department store, a fire broke out, filling the store with smoke.

“We couldn’t go down the elevator,” Curl said. “I had my mother by the hand. We made it down to the first floor. The smoke was so thick, we couldn’t see. But we heard a voice telling us, ‘Come this way,’ That voice led us all the way out of the store. We got out through a broken show window.”

Visiting the World War II memorial

Ironically, Curl spent his professional life after the war as a Birmingham firefighter, who would go on to help train new recruits in the fire service. Like so many of his generation, Curl gave back to his community, while at the same time raising his family.

Now in retirement, he’s still impacting lives. A small bottle of shrapnel-laced sand from Omaha Beach – given by Curl to the veterans’ home – is part of a display honoring those who served.  But more than the artifacts of war, Curl radiates happiness.

Said Hiliary Hardwick, director of the Veterans Home, “He definitely doesn’t act 95. He just has the most positive outlook on everything. I’ve never heard him or seen him when he’s upset. He just kind of takes life as it comes, and he just makes the most of it.”

 She added, “He’s probably one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. He generally thinks of others before himself. He’s unique. You know, they call the World War II guys ‘The Greatest Generation.’ He’s truly the epitome of that. He’s selfless in everything that he does.”

Curl, she says, “just radiates happiness.”

Curl credits his heart for others to his dad, the late Rev. John Wesley Curl, whom he calls, “the best man I ever knew.”

Asked how he would sum up his own wonderful life, Curl responds with the two words he hopes will be his epitaph:

“He tried.”

St. Clair Veterans Cemetery

St. Clair Memorial Gardens serves as county’s only dedicated veteran burial ground

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted Photos

When folks at St. Clair Memorial Gardens and Usrey Funeral Home decided to dedicate a section of the cemetery to U.S Armed Forces veterans, owner Steve Perry first consulted with local veterans.

“I actively got together with a group of veterans in town,” Perry says. “We wanted their input, to know what’s important to them.”

The veterans’ group with members who served in Korea, Vietnam and the first Gulf War supported the idea and helped Perry work up rules and regulations for the veterans’ section in Pell City, which opened in 2012.

The rules they decided on are pretty much the same as those used by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ official U.S. veterans cemeteries. The section is for veterans and spouses and dependent children. Official honorable discharge papers – known as DD214 – are required to qualify.

Alabama’s only official U.S. National Cemetery is the Alabama National Cemetery at Montevallo and is one of 148 national veteran cemeteries, 33 soldier lots and monument sites in 42 states, according to the VA.

The idea behind the Pell City veterans’ section was not to take away from Montevallo but to expand on it and to offer a nearby choice for St. Clair-area veterans.

“The vets were all behind the idea and wanted to see it happen,” Perry said. “They liked the idea of the burial ground being closer to home and wanted to make sure things were done right, and we didn’t just throw up a veterans’ section. That’s why we follow the strict rules and regulations.

Stone markers represent each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

“We take comfort in knowing that vets had a part in putting this together,” said Perry, whose family has been the funeral home business since 1927, with Usrey’s Funeral Home in Talladega, which is now operated by Perry’s brother Mike. The Pell City location – funeral home and cemetery – were purchased one after the other in 2003 and 2004.
St. Clair Memorial Garden’s veterans’ section is set off from the rest of the 14- acre cemetery by a U.S. flag and large granite markers for each division of  the U.S. Armed Forces – the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard.  The first burial in the veterans’ section was in 2012 – the wife of one of the veterans Perry consulted early on.

The veterans’ section is laid out in lots of 16 grave spaces for a total of 352 spaces, which are filled in order – not by selection, the same way official veteran cemeteries are filled.

Spaces can be pre-purchased, but purchasers cannot pick the space location. This tradition of going in order, not pre-selected location, is the way the national cemeteries operate, Perry says. Burial spaces for a veteran and a spouse can be together with companion markers.

All honorably discharged veterans of active service are entitled to a free marker, a burial flag and military funeral honors, regardless of where they are buried. Usrey and cemetery officials help veterans apply for these benefits, including the bronze markers used at St. Clair Memorial Cemetery. No large family markers are used in the veterans’ section.

National VA cemeteries provide the burial space and opening and closing at no cost to the veteran’s family, according to www.va.gov. Families are still responsible for funeral home, cremation or other burial costs.

Because the St. Clair cemetery is not associated directly with the VA, spaces in the veterans’ section are purchased, in advance in a pre-purchase or at the time of burial planning.

However, Perry and staff handle the paperwork for veteran families, applying for the free grave marker, which are bronze as all markers are at the St. Clair cemetery. They also help arrange for military funeral honors at the family’s request.

Military funeral honors provided by the VA for qualifying veterans buried at veterans’ cemeteries or elsewhere include a presentation of a U.S. burial flag, folded and presented to the family and the playing of taps, according to www.va.gov. Federal law defines a military funeral honors detail as two or more uniformed military persons, with at least one being a member of the veteran’s parent service of the armed service.

Word is still spreading about Usrey’s services for veterans and the Pell City location’s veterans’ section, Perry says, noting that some veterans and families don’t know about the section just for veterans and others have family burial plots already purchased or family traditions of church cemetery burials.

“We just want veterans and their families to know this is here. We’ve always supported veterans, and this is a tribute to them,” Perry says.

The support takes on a personal meaning to the Perrys, too. Both of their grandfathers were World War II veterans, with the paternal grandfather serving as a paratrooper and the maternal grandfather serving as a medic in World War II, Perry says.

“This is a tribute to their service, too.”

Wreaths for Veterans

A special way to honor those who served

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos courtesy of Jerry W. Garrett Jr. and John Bryant
Submitted Photos

During the Christmas season this year, it will be a time to reflect on the gift of freedom and to pay tribute to those who secured it.

At 11 a.m. Dec. 19 at St. Clair Memorial Gardens, the second annual Wreaths Across America (WAA) observance will place wreaths at gravesites of veterans.

Hundreds of wreaths will be put on veteran graves at St. Clair Memorial Gardens, Valley Hill Cemetery, Oak Ridge Cemetery and elsewhere in the county, said Mindy and Keaton Manners and Julia Skelton, local WAA organizers.

The first WAA event in St. Clair County was Dec. 14, 2019. That morning, families, friends and volunteers placed 300 live, evergreen wreaths on veteran graves as part of a nationwide effort.

“Each year, millions of Americans come together to remember the fallen, honor those that serve and their families, and teach the next generation about the value of freedom,” notes the national WAA organization. “This gathering of volunteers and patriots takes place in local and national cemeteries in all 50 states” and some American cemeteries in Europe. “… In 2019, approximately 2.2 million veteran wreaths were placed on headstones at 2,158 participating locations around the country in honor of the service and sacrifices made for our freedoms.”

Broken Arrow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), along with Steve Perry and Usrey Funeral Home, worked to bring the local event together. Giving their assistance were St. Clair County High School JROTC, Canoe Creek Society of Children of the American Revolution (CAR), Henderson Builders Supply Co. in Pell City and numerous residents of Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home.

JROTC members salute during service at St. Clair Memorial Gardens.

Susan Bowman of Pell City was touched by the number of wreaths and the number of people who came to help place those wreaths.

This was her first time to be part of such an observance.

She got to place wreaths at the graves of her father, Jesse Hooks, and her sister, Kathy Lynn Hooks, both of whom had served in the Army.

“I was very proud and teary-eyed. I was very teary-eyed,” she said. “Just emotions running through me.”

Those same words would describe the writer of this article and her sisters as well. Only two months before WAA, our dad – retired Chief Master Sgt. Porter Bailey – had been buried with military honors.

Getting to place a WAA wreath at his gravesite stirred the pangs of grief. But it also filled our hearts with pride for the 37 years he served this nation in the Army, Air Force and Alabama Air National Guard.

The day brought emotional extremes for Lyle and Shelly Harmon, who are the parents of three sons.

Well in advance of the ceremony, Harmon – who is St. Clair County’s district attorney and chief warrant officer 4 with Alabama Army National Guard – had agreed to serve as master of ceremonies. Then, hardly a month before the observance, son Sloan (known as “Boo”) was fatally shot just off an I-20 exit.

An airman first class with the Air Force, Boo was a KC-135 crew chief at the Alabama Air National Guard’s 117th Air Refueling Wing in Birmingham. He had just turned 20 a few days before the murder.

Though serving as WAA master of ceremonies so soon after Boo’s death was difficult, “I felt I should,” Lyle Harmon said. “… I can’t even express how humbling that was to do that. … It was quite humbling.”

At the same time, it was “a huge honor,” Harmon added.

During the ceremony, veterans of the Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines each placed a wreath at the respective monuments that stand at St. Clair Memorial Gardens. Because the veteran who was to place the wreath at the Air Force monument could not attend, Shelly Harmon did it.

Lyle Harmon watched his wife – a grieving, heartbroken mother – place a wreath of tribute at the Air Force monument.

Thinking back on what Shelly did that day, Harmon recalled, “I’m just so proud of my wife. She is unbelievably faithful and strong.”

The origin

The simple request of another grieving mother was the catalyst for the local WAA observance.

In early summer of 2019, that mother contacted a DAR group in Birmingham, explaining that she was unable to place a wreath or flag for Memorial Day on her son’s grave in St. Clair Memorial Gardens. Mrs. Manners – a member of Broken Arrow DAR in Pell City – and her husband volunteered to lay the wreath.

When Mr. and Mrs. Manners went for that reason to St. Clair Memorial Gardens, which is the only cemetery in the county with a section specifically for the military, the couple were surprised by the number of veterans’ graves they saw.

In the two-mile trip from the cemetery back to their home, Manners – an Army veteran – and Mrs. Manners decided they must organize a tribute to veterans interred there.

Honoring St. Clair veterans at the memorial service

For about six years, the couple had attended WAA observances at Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. Now, they felt it was time to bring that tribute to St. Clair County.

They set a goal of 300 wreaths, 260 of which would be for St. Clair Memorial Gardens. The remainder would go to graves in Valley Hill Cemetery, Oak Ridge Cemetery and Broken Arrow Cemetery at the request of various families.

St. Clair County High School JROTC joined the effort, raising funds for 100 wreaths and providing military color guard for the ceremony.

The JROTC leaders, Retired Maj. Channing McGee and Retired Sgt. 1st Class Vicki Glover, said participating in WAA “teaches cadets the importance of community service and instills patriotism by honoring these veterans and their sacrifice.”

For the 2020 event, the cadets plan to provide another 100 wreaths. (For information on how to help the cadets meet their goal, see the accompanying story, “Sponsor a wreath.”)

St. Clair debut

The first WAA event in St. Clair County was met with such support in the community that the entire ceremony was finalized within three months, the Manners said.

But the enthusiasm following the event brought the 2020 ceremony together even quicker.

“Two days after this past event, we had it all lined up for this year,” he said.

This year’s event will also feature a replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (For more information, read the accompanying story, “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier replica to be on display.”)

After attending last year’s WAA, John Bryant of Alpine encouraged fellow members of the Knights of Columbus, Assembly 2972, Our Lady of the Lake to volunteer to lay wreaths of remembrance on graves of fallen heroes and to honor those who served the nation.

“I can’t think of anything that shows more patriotism than to honor and to show respect for our veterans,” Bryant said. “… I feel like we need more patriotism. We need to let this country know we love it, and we need to remember that the privileges we have today are because of our veterans.”

Skelton, who is also a member of Broken Arrow DAR, said volunteers will be needed to help place wreaths at St. Clair Memorial Gardens and possibly at Valley Hill Cemetery and Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Wreath placement generally is guided by military designations on headstones or footstones. However, Mrs. Manners said wreath-placement requests can be made for veterans whose grave markers have no military designation. A copy of the veteran’s DD-214 or a photo of the veteran in uniform will suffice as proof of military service.

Editor’s Note: To request wreath placement and provide documentation, email Mrs. Manners at mindy.manners@yahoo.com.

Practicing in the pandemic

Local medical community rises to meet the challenge

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted photos

Anyone entering PCIFM in Pell City had to be screened, including a temperature check.

Long before COVID-19 found its way to St. Clair County, medical professionals in the area were preparing for its arrival. They had been monitoring the progression of the virus, which began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, even before it first made its way to the United States in January.

Alabama got its first reported case on March 13, and the virus hit St. Clair County four days later. By mid-July, the state’s numbers had risen to well over 58,000 cases with nearly 1,200 deaths. At that time, St. Clair County had nearly 700 cases and four deaths.

“The biggest thing in the beginning was dealing with the panic and uncertainty,” said Dr. Michael Dupre’, who led the coronavirus response efforts for Northside Medical Associates. “When you use a word like pandemic, it gets people’s attention.”

The virus brought challenges that medical personnel had not faced before, and local healthcare officials raced to implement new procedures, alleviate concerns and remove obstacles for their staffs. At the same time, they had to treat existing patients while trying to diagnose and care for those with COVID-19.

Rapidly changing information was an initial challenge since much was still unknown. Lisa Nichols, administrator of St. Vincent’s St. Clair, said that by the time guidelines from sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Alabama Department of Public Health were communicated with the staff, new information and guidelines had been released.

“There were a lot of changes,” she said. “Our staff works in 12-hours shifts, and by the time we got information out to everyone, it had changed again. Our team was very resilient and did an excellent job of going with the flow.”

The immediate concern was keeping patients and medical personnel safe, according to Nichols, Dupre’ and Dr. Barry Collins of Pell City Internal and Family Medicine (PCIFM).

“This was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” Collins said. “To be honest, I was afraid when all this hit, the fear would deplete our staff. They hung in there fearlessly, though, because they knew they were essential to the community.”

Dupre’ said staff members were initially concerned that they would contract the virus and take it home to family members who were at risk for complications, such as aging parents or an immunocompromised child. Employees with chronic health issues or family members who were at-risk were reassigned to other areas where it was safer. The level of anxiety was unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” he said, “There were fears, but our duty and commitment to our community did not change one bit.”

Implementing safeguards

Because COVID-19 required limiting access, Birmingham Heart Clinic’s Dr. Jason Thompson uses a cell phone to get more information from a patient’s spouse.

Once initial fears were addressed, the focus was on treating patients – those with COVID-19 and those without – while preventing the spread of the virus. The first step was to identify potential coronavirus cases before patients encountered anyone else.

“We have so many entry points to the facility, so we changed the way you come into our hospital,” Nichols said, adding that separate entrances and parking lots were designated for patients and associates. Door screeners at each entrance checked everyone for fever and symptoms of the virus, including cough or shortness of breath. Anyone who is identified as having symptoms of the virus is directed into a separate waiting area while waiting for the triage nurse.

At PCIFM, patients were initially screened over the telephone when they called to make appointments, and staff members conducted temperature screenings and checked oxygen levels and symptoms at the door. Anyone who was a potential positive, based on either check, was directed to the practice’s drive-thru testing lane. “We were able to do COVID testing without having the patient leave the car,” Collins said.

Northside patients were screened at the door of all four locations – Pell City, Moody, Springville and Trussville – and only one entrance and exit was used at each office, Dupre’ said. At the Pell City campus, the building housing the ACCEL Urgent Care Center was designated for respiratory illnesses and COVID-19 testing and treatment. Anyone with symptoms of the virus, or those who had been exposed, were directed there.

In addition, hospital and medical office personnel all over the county implemented additional cleaning processes to cut down on the spread of the virus. “We’re constantly changing scrubs and masks and rotating stethoscopes,” said Dr. Jason Thompson, a cardiologist with Birmingham Heart Clinic, which has an office at Northside’s Pell City campus. “Exam rooms are being sanitized between every visit, and it’s not just changing the paper on the table. We’re wiping walls down with Clorox and wiping the table down with Clorox.”

The virus brought additional hurdles, as well. Schools and day care centers closed, leaving medical personnel scrambling for child care. Northside and PCIFM set up day care programs at their offices so their employees could continue to focus on caring for the community.

“We called it Camp Northside,” Dupre’ said of the child care program that operated for three months. “If our employees didn’t have anyone to take care of their kids, we took care of them here,” he said.

Collins said their day care program was largely operated by family members of staff as well as volunteers. “The community really rallied around that idea,” he said. “They were donating lunches and teaching materials for the children.”

Hard decisions

There were other dilemmas, as well. “Probably one of the hardest things we had to do was go to a no-visitors policy,” Nichols said. At first, patients at the hospital were limited to two visitors, but as guidelines continued to change, it went down to one within a few days. Not long after, no visitors were allowed, except for end-of-life situations and patients that required caregivers.

“We struggled with how to get people information about their loved ones. We encouraged patients to connect with their families via social media,” Nichols said, adding that the hospital purchased tablets for patients without smartphones. They also implemented a process to ensure that the nursing staff contacted one family member or caregiver to provide updates, as long as the patient gave permission.

Even though that added more work for a nursing staff that was already stretched, the team didn’t balk at that or any other additional duties, according to Shiloh Swiney, director of nursing for the hospital. “They all chipped in and said, ‘We’re going to get this done. We’re going to get these patients taken care of,’” she said. “We have a strong nursing group, and the morale has been very high.”

The suspension of elective dental and medical procedures caused additional concerns. “Initially, we rescheduled all elective procedures and did Telehealth visits for routine checks of less acute patients,” Collins said. “Not everyone had access to the internet and some patients weren’t tech savvy and weren’t comfortable with talking on camera. We had to educate our patients.”

While some of Thompson’s patient appointments could be handled virtually, other cardiac patients needed to continue to be seen in person. In order to limit exposure in waiting rooms, Thompson said that his office asked those patients to come alone unless a caregiver was truly necessary. That sometimes limited the information he received.

“I’ve got some patients who, if their wives didn’t come with them, I wouldn’t know anything,” Thompson said. “The wife is who would tell me if he had been short of breath. Now, a lot of times I’ll pick up the phone, call the wife and put her on speaker. That’s how I’ve brought them back in the exam room without crowding the waiting room.”

Patients with chronic conditions who were concerned about catching the virus often delayed seeking treatment, which led to other problems. “Our ER volume was almost cut in half,” Nichols said. “Some of the patients we’re seeing now are sicker because they waited too long to get the care they need. We want everyone to know that we are a safe place, and we are absolutely taking steps to keep everyone safe.” High-touch areas are being cleaned many times throughout the day, and some chairs in waiting rooms are blocked off to ensure patients have plenty of room between them, she said.

Thompson, especially, saw the effects that fear and suspending elective procedures, like having a stent inserted, had on his patients. In some cases, patients had strokes that could have been prevented, or they lost heart function after a heart attack that might possibly have been restored if they had sought help faster.

“I’ve had patients who sat on their chest pains for fear of the ER,” he said. “With a heart attack, time is muscle. If we can get to you within 12 hours of chest pain, we can salvage heart muscle.” Although his patients’ cardiovascular disease makes them high risk for coronavirus complications, their heart issues still need to be addressed. “We have to be careful, but we cannot ignore their underlying disease,” Thompson said.

A community rallies together

Long before Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statewide mask order in mid-July, all patients and staff at St. Vincent’s, Northside, PCIFM and the Birmingham Heart Clinic were required to wear masks, which were provided for patients who didn’t have them. When supplies were low in the early days of the pandemic, employees at Northside got busy.

Pell City Rotary delivers food to St. Vincent’s St. Clair.

“Our staff made thousands and thousands of masks,” Dupre’ said. “We had hundreds of patients at home making masks with their own fabric and their own money. We’ve always thought the world of our patients, but so many went above and beyond.”

Patients weren’t the only ones offering support. Dupre’, Collins and Nichols all said they were overwhelmed by the love shown by the community as a whole. Individuals, churches and businesses from all over the county provided meals; offered masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning products; and prayed.

Several nights, Swiney said, individuals and church groups gathered in the back parking lot of the 40-bed hospital to pray. “There are so many people out there who wanted to help, and to know they were praying for each one of us here was amazing,” she said.

“The community was absolutely awesome,” Collins said, adding that donated meals meant the staff didn’t have to leave the building and could focus on the crisis at hand. “It reminds you about what is great about the human spirit,” Dupre’ added.

Moving forward

Early efforts to flatten the curve helped because, even though people continued to get sick, the cases were spread out over a period of weeks, so the hospital was not overwhelmed. “Fortunately for St. Clair County, we’re rural enough to spread out,” Dupre’ said. “That’s really helped, and we haven’t had the impact other counties have had.”

Early on, Dupre’ said, Northside looked at designating one of the buildings at the Pell City campus to house overflow patients from the hospital, if necessary. “Thank God it was never that bad,” he said.

It could still reach that point, however, if people relax too much. Alabama saw a resurgence in cases in late June and early July after the state began reopening, and Collins said he worries about the looming flu season. Although flu season is typically considered to be October to March or April, it’s not uncommon to see cases in September.

“There’s been a real spike in (COVID) cases, and now we’re almost back to square one,” Collins said. “The only way we can get this virus to go away is to starve the virus from the host.”

That’s why it’s critical that everyone continues to social distance, wash hands frequently, avoid group gatherings and wear face coverings to prevent the spread. “Wearing a mask can really protect the people you interact with,” Nichols said. “A lot of asymptomatic people are testing positive, even though they have no symptoms. If they’re wearing masks, the likelihood of spreading the virus is reduced.”

Dupre’ said masks are especially crucial for high-risk patients. “We know the masks work,” he said. “We’ve had staff here who have swabbed thousands and thousands of patients, and we haven’t had one catch COVID,” he said in early July. He added that people need to continue to isolate themselves if they are sick and wash hands frequently, especially when they have come in contact with surfaces outside their homes.

Although Thompson said masks have meant that he has had to dramatically slow down his speech so older patients who are hard of hearing can understand him, he agrees that wearing them and taking other precautions is imperative. “We have to take this seriously,” he said. “I think it has become apparent to us that this is not going away tomorrow. We will continue to deal with this for a year or more.”

He added that, while the growing death toll from the virus is tragic, it’s not the only tragedy of this pandemic. Thompson has seen widowed patients suffer depression after being isolated from friends and family for months on end. People haven’t been able to gather for funerals, which has had a negative effect on the grieving process. Couples looking forward to starting their lives together have had to postpone weddings.

“All of this is part of the human tragedy we’re all living through,” he said. “We are social animals, and it’s interesting how you begin to crave that interaction with family and friends. I’m not pretending this is going to be easy, but it can be done.”

Collins said he is hopeful that the newfound awareness among the public about how germs are transmitted will have lasting benefits even after COVID-19 goes away. “Right now, this virus is a curse, but if it changes behavior, it may mean a decrease in other communicable diseases, such as the flu,” he said. “It may be somewhat of a silver lining beyond this nightmare.”