Front row, L-R: Huel M. Love, Sr., Cheryl Ledbetter (daughter-in-law), D. Leigh Love Back row, L-R: Betty C. Love, Huel M. Love, Jr. (Kenny), Fred Ledbetter, Julie Love Templeton
hour using bleach and cleansing cream. Before she had arrived in Miami for Eastern’s flight attendant school, the freckles were no longer visible. Many people who have faced Betty in court have not been aware of her softer side. For 13 years, Betty ran a Girl Scouts troop in Talladega. Rumor has it that even the boys in the area wanted to get in this troop. Every year the troop took great trips such as going down the Snake River in Wyoming one year. Betty’s passion, however, can be found when you talk to her about Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge is a one-year program which even Betty Love describes as formidable. The program has rescued 18-andover young adults from the possibility of prison because of battles with alcohol and/or drug dependency. The young adults get a four-month program at local centers such as in Baldwin County and Dallas County, and then an intense eight-month program at a campus in Lincoln, Alabama. Abstinence from tobacco, alcohol and drugs is combined with prayer and counseling, which leads to an effective alternative to a possible prison life. Betty tells the story of a young man who faced seven years in the state’s prison. Betty counseled the young man and his family to push his judge to consider Teen Challenge as an alternative to prison. The seven-year prison sentence was turned into a split term of one-year at the Teen Challenge facilities and six years of probation. The young man’s entire life was changed. He now has a good job and no prison history. It was clear to me that Betty’s success with this young man meant as much or more than any courtroom success she had achieved.
Betty Love was raised by two parents of the Depression era in the small town of Alpine, Alabama. Her early education was in a small school where one teacher taught 10 children of varying ages after building a fire in the fireplace of the school room every wintry morning. Betty had two sisters and one brother who were older. She had no members in her family who had been lawyers before her. Of her six children and one foster child, four have become lawyers. The eldest, Kenny, practices commercial law and still handles appellate cases for Betty. Leigh has semi-retired but still gets a call from her mother anytime there is a workers’ compensation issue that surfaces. Julie Love Templeton practices in Tuscaloosa. You should take a look at http://huntsville.about.com/b/2004/10/13/ alabama-lawyer-is-crowned-mrsamerica.htm for more information on Julie. In 2005, she was crowned “Mrs. America” and later finished third in the “Mrs. World” competition. Betty’s foster son, Fred Ledbetter, can be found practicing law with Betty in Talladega. Non-lawyer children include Carla who works with the Alabama Department of Human Resources. Son John is a Pentecostal minister in Statesboro, Georgia. Son Jason, a former culinary school gradu-
ate and internist under famed Chef Frank Stitt in Birmingham, was also head chef at the Ombi in Nashville. He now has his own food-service business there. Stepdaughter Alice Faye Love is an artist who lives in Birmingham and Paige Love Smith is a computer consultant living in Atlanta. One thing I always remember about Betty Love from my early days in litigation was that she never backed down. At the time, it probably struck some male lawyers the wrong way. However, if they had seen the same defiance in a male lawyer, it was deemed an effective trait for a good litigator. Betty paved the way for a lot of female litigators in Alabama. She came a long way from Alpine, Alabama and has made a lot of difference in the lives of clients and women lawyers in this state. ▲▼▲
Charles F. Carr was a founder of the Carr Allison firm which has offices in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. He practiced law in Birmingham and Mobile and now is in the Carr Allison Dothan office and resides in his native city of Enterprise.
Front row, L-R: Julie Love Templeton, Fred Ledbetter, Carla Ann Love Tinney Back row, L-R: Alice Faye Love, Huel M. Love, Jr. (Kenny), John Hugh Love, Jason Landers Love The Alabama Lawyer
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