Tag: Other Stories

Iola Roberts

A 60-Year Legacy

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
Photos courtesy Pell City Library Archives

Iola Roberts Elementary seems more of a tradition than simply a school. And its namesake would probably applaud that notion.

After all, Miss Iola Roberts more than earned her name on the school that has since seen generations pass through its doors. She set the standard that is still valued six decades later.

Present-day Iola Roberts School celebrated the legacy she left with an anniversary reception in late April, remembering 60 years of the school’s history.

Iola Roberts will always be a part of the school beyond the name. Her portrait hangs in the school’s lobby, seeming to keep a watchful eye on the school she loved and the students she nurtured and encouraged as if they were her own.

But step out of line, and the whack of a ruler across the palm or a tiny chin caught in her signature thumb and forefinger pinch weren’t far away.

Strict disciplinarian and cultivator of cultural arts were her hallmarks. And many a graduate will tell you those two seemingly opposite characteristics are what shaped their later lives – for the better.

It has been 60 years since Iola Roberts School opened on Pell City’s main thoroughfare, US 231. It was formerly known as South St. Clair School. Before that, it was the Avondale School, serving the Mill Village. Miss Roberts actually came to Pell City at the request of mill executives who wanted her to run their school.

And run it she did.

“Miss Roberts made sure we had music and art and good manners,” said Julia Skelton, a former student, who attended the anniversary celebration along with more than 100 others.

In a video tribute to the anniversary, Gaston Williamson underscored the recollection. “Miss Roberts’ emphasis was on 1. Behaving, 2. Manners, and 3. Culture,” he said. The school had a choir, and plays were standard fare.

Andrew Wright, who was principal at the school and a former student, said during his tenure, he tried to continue what Iola Roberts began. His administration offered a well-rounded education that included the arts, and faculty taught students how to understand the world around them.

Dr. Michael Barber is an Iola Roberts alumni who has a unique vantage point when it comes to Iola Roberts. He served as principal at the school, and he is now superintendent of the school system.

The values he learned at Iola Roberts as a student are the principles that guide him to this day – “making a difference in the lives of children every day.”

While his approach as principal was a little more unconventional than Miss Roberts’, he got students’ attention just the same. He focused on reading at the school, and when students met their goals, he rewarded them with feats like jumping out of an airplane, getting arrested by the faculty, shaving his head and kissing a pig.

“Iola Roberts has always been a magical place that seems to transport former students back to their childhood,” Barber said. “I am always amazed how accurately students from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s can with great detail recollect fond memories of the school. When a grandmother or grandfather of a current student pauses by a classroom door, lunchroom or staircase, you know they are visiting a very special memory of their own childhood.

“I still do the same thing today. I cringe when I walk into Iola’s cafeteria because that is where students received their vaccinations from the county health nurse, Ms. Zachy. All students lined up against the wall and received their shots in front of each other. Many of us fell to the floor writhing in pain.”

Barber also remembers field day, a highlight of the school year. “I relive the greased pig chase each time I walk onto the playground. We actually chased greased piglets during field day. If you caught the critter, you won a big candy cane. My brother, Kinsman, caught a pig and we ate the candy cane for a week.”

For Barber, he has seen the school from different angles over the years, but the conclusion is always the same. “The employees of Iola have always carried on the wonderful atmosphere found at the school. From the time of Ms. Roberts to today, they welcome children daily. For me, it was Millie Ann Lawley in the first-grade and wonderful teachers each year after.”

The school has traditionally been a mainstay of the community. “The people who attended Iola as students feel an ownership and special connection to their school. I don’t fuss when my own grown children want to go by Iola when they are in town. I feel so blessed to have attended and worked at such a special school.”

Although the anniversary celebration was an opportunity to look back at the legacy. It also was a time for new traditions. Faculty unveiled specially designed Iola Roberts pins, and former faculty and present faculty were “pinned,” forever linked by a common bond.

And when children leave Iola Roberts and continue their school career all the way through Pell City High School, faculty pledged to be back at their graduation to let them know how special they are with a pin of their own. It signifies a kinship shared by all those who pass through Iola Roberts Elementary.

“It was wonderful to see former teachers and students share their common love for Iola Roberts Elementary School at the 60th anniversary celebration,” Barber said. “I saw and listened to people who qualify for senior citizen benefits become children again.”

And that’s a tradition that seems to continue year after year.

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Chicken Head Run

Zachary Mason:
And the Music Lives On

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Michael Callahan
Submitted photos

On a cool, spring morning in April, offering only a slight hint of warmer weather ahead, hundreds of people gathered at Pell City Lakeside Park in memory of Zachary Mason.

The next day would have been his birthday. Music from loud speakers echoed throughout the park, a celebratory prelude to the Fourth Annual Chicken Head Run. Zack would have liked that. Music was his first love. Friends and family were his passion. “Chicken Head” is what he playfully called most everybody. It became his trademark.

And on this weekend each year, they come together to raise money for the Zachary Mason Memorial Fund, which provides music scholarships to deserving students at Pell City High School.

Zack would have liked that, too. He walked at graduation from Pell City High School to a standing ovation in 2012, a tribute to the accomplishment of their fellow classmate who was born with Down’s Syndrome.

The son of Randy Mason and Melinda Pierce, Zack had a knack for making friends – plenty of them. “Anybody who had any contact with him fell in love with him,” said Tanya Osborne, his eighth- and ninth-grade teacher, who came up with the idea for the run. “He was my gentle giant. He was the sweetest thing possible. He played with my kids. He has a special place in my heart, and I will never forget him.”

In August the year he died, she saw information on Facebook about a Down’s Syndrome run in Gadsden. She and others formed a team for Zack. They donned T-shirts with a “kissy face” picture of Zack and dubbed themselves, “Zack Attack.”

About 30 people ran in that race, and it was the catalyst for a run every year since in Pell City near his birthday. “He called everybody Chicken Head. It was the perfect name for the race,” Osborne said. Now in its fourth year, the Chicken Head Run attracts nearly 200 runners and has awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships.

It’s a way to remember Zack and to keep the music alive. His aunt and Randy’s sister, Cacky Berlin, comes each year from her home in Clyde, N.C. “This is his element,” she said as she motioned toward the crowd, the music and the runners. “He touched so many people in his short life. It’s unbelievable. It’ really great that this race can help other students. He would be so happy.”

Rhonda Purdy, Melinda’s best friend, echoed the sentiment. “The music lives on,” she said. “It’s a way to continue to share what Zack loved most – music.”

His mother, Melinda, called it “exciting” and a testament to Zack. “He touched so many lives.”

Rhonda’s son, Adam, was one of those whose life was particularly touched. When Zack died, “I was heading down a path I didn’t need to go down. He changed my life. He was my best friend and my little brother. It was so sad to lose someone so close to us, but he inspired every life he met. He touched more people than most of us will touch in our life,” he said.

“As tough as it is, it makes it all worthwhile to see all these people,” Adam said.

Stepfather Todd Pierce concurred, recounting stories of “how much he loved people. He would be in the middle of all of it. He loved everybody.”

Zack was especially close to his brother, Austin, who was running the time clock at the race. Photos of them together over the years reflect the bond the two shared.

Shelby Weaver, a student at Jacksonville State University, won a music scholarship from the memorial fund. “It helps me to know I have a community scholarship like I have. It’s support from home. Because Zack loved music like he did, it helps me continue what I’m doing.”

His father, Randy, is known for his civic leadership. You could always count on spotting Randy involved in countless worthy causes throughout the city. And you could always spot Zack right alongside him.

Randy made it a point to make sure Zack was involved, too – at Chamber of Commerce events, Civitans and at Pell City Center for Education and the Performing Arts, where Randy acts as stage manager for shows.

“Both Randy and Zack are such a blessing to our community,” said former executive director of the Chamber of Commerce Erica Grieve, as she distributed packets for runners. “It is great to be able to come together in memory of Zack.”

“He came to all the rehearsals,” said CEPA Artistic Director Kathy McCoy. “He sang with Steve Shafer in the Christmas production. He would sit in the audience, and he knew every song, every word, so we started putting him on stage. He was our real sweetie.”

Unlike most teens surrounded only by peers, Zack’s reach transcended age demographics. At his 18th birthday celebration, 70 to 80 adults showed up, his grandmother, Sara Bain recalled. Four singers donated their time to entertain. When the classic, “My Girl,” was performed, Zack knew all the words. Barely masking her surprise, she said. “I didn’t know he knew the moves!”

Zack spent a great deal of time with his grandparents, and music was usually at the center of it, Bain said. He had baskets of cassettes and CDs at their home, and in the last few months of his life he took particular interest in the Gaithers Homecoming music video, featuring Singing in My Soul. “He played it over and over. All of it ministered to him deeply and therefore to me, too, because I watched and listened through Zachary’s eyes, ears and heart.”

What reminds her most of her grandson is a saying that seems to fit perfectly. “Live Simply. Love Generously. Laugh Often. Live Freely. That was Zachary.”

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Making Beautiful Music

St. Clair teachers’ latest
recording topping charts

Story by Jim Smothers
Photos by Jim Smothers,
Wallace Bromberg Jr.
and Graham Hadley

Their students may have noticed Shannon and Heather Slaughter were in an especially happy mood in mid-May, and it wasn’t just because the last day of school was approaching. This bluegrass performing couple just got word that their independent CD, Never Just a Song, had reached No. 1 on the National Roots Music Report for the week of May 13.

In their Facebook message to fans, the Slaughters said, “It’s our first number 1 on any chart, and we are really excited and feel really blessed.”

The traditional bluegrass song, Moonshiner, was the first single to be released after the album’s January release, and it’s gotten a lot of attention and airplay in the genre. But they’ll tell you quickly their favorite song on the disc is one they wrote together, The Best Thing We Ever Did.

It’s about their daughter, 2-year-old Rae Carroll Slaughter, who has changed their outlook on life and what’s really important in this world.

And it’s easy to see why. The adorable little girl inspired the lyric “She makes my day without saying a word,” and she is the center of their life together and their plans for the future.

About her

Shannon Slaughter was already a veteran performer and songwriter in traditional country and bluegrass music while Heather Sanders was playing electric bass with the youth band at her church in Argo in western St. Clair County.

She had a musical tradition in her family going back at least three generations. Her grandmother Ramona Carroll was part of a female vocal group that performed locally, and she hosted regular music nights in the basement of her store, Buckeye Grocery, near Argo.

Heather’s mom Robin was also a singer and bass player. She met Heather’s dad, Terry Sanders, when he came with his guitar to make some music with the people at the Carroll family store.

So it was no surprise that Heather could sing, but performing didn’t come naturally to her at first.

“My grandmother used to make me get up and sing at church,” she said, “and I was the shyest human being of all time.”

Her dad taught her to play guitar and mandolin, and she eventually conquered her shyness.

She made connections with Mike Toppins in Nashville and began work on her solo CD, I Meant It, and that’s what led to her first contact with Shannon.

A moderator with an Internet music site, Worldwide Bluegrass, knew Heather was ready to record, and wanted to help her along. The station had a message board, and the moderator sent Shannon a private message asking him if he had written any songs that would be good for a female singer, and he told him a little about Heather.

As any modern male would do, he looked her up on the Internet and found her photos on MySpace.

“She was really good-looking, so I replied, ‘Yeah, I think I have some songs for her,’ ” he said.

Heather recorded two of his songs on that CD, In My Heart, and Dying to Live Again.

The two communicated by email and telephone and really hit it off, but didn’t meet face-to-face at the time. Shannon was based in North Carolina where he was networked with a number of professionals in the industry. But Heather’s dad wasn’t sold on the idea of letting his daughter go out of state to meet a guitar-playing singer. The Internet station moderator didn’t like the idea, either. “She’s too young and innocent for the likes of you,” the moderator told Shannon when he asked for Heather’s phone number.

They didn’t have any more contact for two years.

“He left me high and dry,” Heather said. “Then I got home from a vacation, and there was an email waiting saying he wanted to see me.”

Meanwhile she joined the Gadsden-based band, Acoustic Rain, and played a number of shows across central Alabama. Shannon came down for a weekend to see her perform at Moonsong near Noccalula Falls in Gadsden.

“By the time I heard her sing five notes, I knew she was as good as anyone I had ever heard,” Shannon said. He sat in with the group for a couple of songs that night and stayed up all night singing with Heather. They hit it off so well in person, he extended his stay to spend more time with her, and they’ve been together ever since.

They swap lead vocals and support each other with silky smooth harmonies sure to please.

About him

Shannon is one of the better-known performers in bluegrass and classic country music today. Fans are quick to say he is “the real deal,” with his solid songwriting and guitar playing and friendly, soothing voice. He was raised in Chiefland, Fla., where he started performing while he was still in grade school. He started playing guitar when he was 8, and within two or three years he was singing at churches and livestock fairs and anywhere else people would listen.

As a teenager he met professional player Booie Beach at a Tony Rice concert and asked him if he would help him improve his playing. Beach taught Slaughter a lot of techniques and guitar licks that helped him on his way.

“We became lifelong friends,” Shannon said. He had played professionally already five to 10 years by that time.

“Two years later, Beach left the Larry Stephenson Band, and I took his place. Since he was my teacher, I already knew his licks, and I played my first two gigs with them without a rehearsal, and they told me, ‘You’ve got the job.’

During more than two decades of performing and recording, Shannon also played with Lost and Found, and for two years, he was the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Lonesome River Band. He was part of the Lou Reid and Caroline band, performed with Grasstowne and with Melonie Cannon, and he is also an award-winning songwriter.

But with all his experience and stature in the music industry, Shannon has kept his feet on the ground.

“There aren’t really any stars in this kind of music,” he said. “We’re just regular people.”

And they don’t have any intentions of quitting their day jobs. Both are school teachers. Heather is a special education teacher at Walter M. Kennedy Elementary School in Pell City and Shannon, a history teacher at St. Clair County High School in Odenville. He recently resigned from his additional duties as a football coach to be able to spend more time with his family.

“We want to keep on doing music, and we would like to have about 15 gigs a year,” he said.

Together

Alabama influences are making their way into the couple’s music, as reflected on their newest CD, Never Just a Song.

Back to Birmingham most obviously touches on Shannon’s new home state. Co-written with Heather and Dale Felts, they sing, “When I need to find out who I am, I go back to Birmingham.”

Less obvious is the Alabama connection in the song, Company Town. It’s about the lifestyle of a coal mining community in Margaret, where Heather’s grandfather once lived, the poverty the people endured, and how they lived together.

The sight of a farmer in bib overalls on Sanie Road between Argo and Odenville inspired the song, That’s What’s Good in America. It’s about “doing honest work for honest pay,” football, God and family.

The CD has 14 tracks, half of them written or co-written by Shannon.

You can find more about their music and CD online at shannonandheatherslaughter.com

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The Old Is New Again

Vintage Touch Making
Furniture Into Art

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Mike Callahan
and Jamie Parker

Where you see junk, they see a table, a chair, a bench, a lamp, even a work of art.

Jamie Parker and her fiancé, Travis Reed, run Vintage Touch in Pell City’s historic downtown area — a store that carries home furnishings and décor items that are truly unique.

And by “unique,” they really do mean absolutely one-of-a-kind.

“My fiancé and I create repurposed furniture. We just sold a sofa or entry table that was made out of an old porch column and part of a gate. We built around that, added some wood, made it look like old barn wood — look old and new at the same time,” Jamie said.

“We are a store of all things. You never know what you are going to find in here.”

Vintage Touch opened Dec. 21, 2014, in the building that once housed Pell City Grocery “years and years” ago.

And since then, business has been growing steadily as more people are rediscovering Pell City’s historic downtown district as a walking and shopping area.

The couple had run booths in other places around Birmingham, but picked Pell City for their first store.

“We decided to open here because we live here, and I love this downtown area,” Jamie said.

“We have truly been blessed. We were a little worried, coming from places like Vestavia to a little town, but sales have been increasing every month. Pell City has really showed us a lot of love. People are so friendly.

“Our customers want to see downtown make it; they want to see downtown rise back up, and I want to see that, too.”

That walking-and-shopping atmosphere is proving to be almost a perfect combination for the kind of business Vintage Touch does. Much of what is sold in the store is made in the store, and customers can see the process of turning junk into treasures firsthand.

“They see that we are in here doing the work. When people see you putting your time into something, it makes it that much more special to them,” she said.

It’s a process Jamie and Travis love — all of it — from “picking” items from old barns and yards, combing flea markets and similar venues, even finding discarded furniture set by the street, to rebuilding it into something new.

Their designs cover the spread. They have an old tractor steering wheel made into a lamp hanging in the window and have made a bench they created from an old truck tailgate that was sold for more than they paid for the truck. It now sits in an office entrance at a firm in Birmingham.

“We can look at something that someone else thinks is trash and turn it into something that is so beautiful, so unique, that people just fall in love with it,” Jamie said.

“It’s something my fiancé and I can do together, he has a full time job, and this is a lot of hard work, but it is fun.”

Travis’ full-time job is as a farrier — a horseshoer — and a blacksmith (“He’s really good at it,” Jamie interjected), and along the way, working on farms, he has found all sorts of treasures for the shop, including old watering troughs that get repurposed into things like benches to chairs.

“Those are some of our most popular items. We have people waiting for furniture made from old watering troughs,” Jamie said.

The prices in the shop are as varied as their designs — you can always find something you can afford.

“We strive to be extremely affordable,” Jamie said. “We even sell to other stores to resell for more, and we all make money. We want people to be able to walk in here and see what we have that they want and be able to afford something,” Jamie said.

In addition to selling their artistic furniture, the store sells some accessories Jamie and Travis have found along the way, vintage items like lunch boxes and advertising signs and promotional materials.

The couple will also take on special-order jobs, but say things turn out the best when they still have some room to be creative with their designs.

Vintage Touch does sell merchandise for a few select vendors, but what they sell has to follow the business rules of being unique and special, just like the store.

Follow Vintage Touch on Facebook.

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Northside Expanding

Looking to create ‘Medical Home’

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

In 2001, Dr. Rock Helms — not too far removed from medical school — founded a practice in his hometown of Pell City. By 2015, it is setting a new standard in health care for the entire region.

Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on Northside Medical Associates’ latest venture, a state-of-the-art imaging suite, and plans by Williams Blackstock Architects for another phase of the burgeoning practice is on the drawing board. It will be a 40,000-square-foot addition that is a joint venture with a diverse group of specialists.

The Northside partnership of Helms, Dr. Michael Dupre’ and Dr. Bob Whitmore is on the move to make Northside what Helms describes as a “medical home” for the region. The comprehensive services they offer can all be found on the same campus just south of Interstate 20 off U.S. 231.

It’s a new trend that has started in health care around the country, giving patients full access to their primary care, specialty physicians and diagnostic testing all in one place. It is spurred by a push from Medicare that has “naturally been progressing” — a concept that makes practical sense for the practice and patients alike.

Dupre’ is overseeing the imaging-suite project set to open soon. It is hard to conceal the excitement — and the pride — when he talks about it. A wide-bore, open MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is the centerpiece of it, the only one of its kind in St. Clair County. Before, Northside had to send its patients to larger, metropolitan areas to acquire these kinds of services. Now, it’s just a few steps from their doctor’s office in an 8,000-square-foot addition built by Goodgame Company.

What sets this cutting-edge diagnostic tool apart, Dupre’ explained, is not only its precise imaging capabilities but its openness, quietness and its quickness. No longer must patients endure a lengthy process in cramped and noisy conditions.

Toshiba’s unique technology puts the magnet in a vacuum container that doesn’t allow the transmission of sound. The patient and technician could carry on a conversation there is so little noise, which wasn’t possible with the old technology. “The imaging plane is wider so you don’t even have to have your head inside to get the scan most of the time,” Dupre’ said.

And it’s quicker. Most studies take 15 minutes or less. It has the ability to test 25 patients a day versus the 10 to 12 average with the older technology.

An added benefit, since it is done outside a hospital setting, is that the patient usually has much lower co-pays, similar to a doctor’s visit.

Dupre’ said the partners saw a “huge need” for this phase of their practice, especially in sports medicine, geriatrics and for the veteran population. “We want to keep our patients here. We felt like it fit well with our vision.”

The vision continues with a multi-specialty building planned for construction in the fall of 2015 with completion expected by summer 2016. While specialties are part of the practice already, this will enable specialty physicians to own part of the facility and be housed along with other physicians Northside is recruiting. Additional imaging will be included as well.

The newest phase of Northside’s medical home will include cardiology; ophthalmology; optometry; pulmonary; ear, nose and throat; orthopedic surgery; dermatology; urology and gastroenterology specialists.

Meanwhile, Northside has reached out to other areas to provide medical services in other communities where there is a need. In recent months, Northside clinics have opened in Vincent and Moody with full-time staff. The Moody location offers after care in the evenings and on Saturday as well. Northside’s main location has been offering after care for years, recognizing a need to become more accessible and more flexible in its hours of operation.

In today’s environment, it is “challenging to survive in a smaller practice,” Helms said. Demands on a one or two-doctor practice take their toll, and it gives larger practices an opportunity to look at multiple locations and expand services to areas of need.

A separate company, Northside Services, has been formed to assist other practices with tasks like billing, coding, quality measures and accounting — “all the things it takes to run a practice,” Helms said.

Its outreach has begun to focus on occupational medicine. “Employers are under pressure to keep insurance costs down,” so Northside is working with companies and industries to institute wellness programs and develop on-site clinics where the doctor conducts exams at the company, Helms said.

It is Northside’s way of seeing medical needs throughout the region and filling them, much like its in-house pharmacy, Northside Apothecary, fills prescriptions and even offers free delivery.

As Helms puts it: “We are trying to create, basically, a medical home where you can obtain all your healthcare needs in one place.”

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Dancing With Our Stars 2015

Pell City charity event raises $10,000

Photos by Michael Callahan

You might call a ticket to it a hot commodity if you looked around the room with a capacity crowd of more than 500 to see the 2015 version of Dancing With Our Stars.

And you would be right.

Thirteen groups and couples danced their way into raising more than $10,000 for the American Cancer Society, an evening that featured ordinary citizens who stepped onto the dance floor and wowed the crowd with an array of moves, shimmies and surprises.

An insurance salesman donned a polka dot dress and wig to keep up with “the girls.” Police officers showed their moves to the tune of Bad Boys, and what better song for firefighters than Disco Inferno? It was all in fun and all for a good cause.

When the evening concluded and trophies awarded, the real winner was evident — the American Cancer Society — and the real hero was Pell City Line Dancers, who started the event a year ago.

Doris Munkus, who heads the group, called it “great entertainment.” The money will go toward helping cancer patients with gasoline for trips to treatments, wigs, prostheses, makeup, lodging at Hope Lodge in Birmingham and research at UAB Cancer Research.

Munkus had high praise for all the dancers who donated “time and talent” to the event, making it yet another success story for the Pell City Line Dancers’ fundraising effort for the American Cancer Society.

The support of the community has made it one of the top events of the year. “I love Pell City,” she said. “It is a great place to raise a family.”

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