Discover St. Clair June and July 2018

Family Sod Business • Waterfront Palace • Mantel Shoppe Local Color • D-Day Veteran • Yarbrough House and Farm • EDC Update

June & July 2018

Red Gates From an old barn to an amazing venue

Special Wedding Section

Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Weddings:

Uniquely St. Clair Everything a couple needs for the big day

Page 54

A family business is booming Page 24

Traveling the Backroads Yarbrough Homestead Page 14

PFC Prestridge Surviving Omaha Beach Page 48

St. Clair Weddings Red Gates Page 54

Lakefront Palace Page 32

Venues for everyone Page 62 Food for every taste Page 68 Rings and Registries Page 74

Business Review

Music lives on at Local Color Page 42

EDC Report Card: Making the grade and more Page 78 Cover photo courtesy of Sweet Life Photography Stefanie Knight

June & July 2018

www.discoverstclair.com

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Carol Pappas

Writers AND Photographers

Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. She serves as president/CEO of Partners by Design, the multimedia group that publishes Discover.

Elaine Hobson Miller Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University.

She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications.

Joe Whitten Joe Whitten was born in Bryant on Sand Mountain. When he arrived in Odenville in 1961 to teach at St. Clair County High School, he found a place to call home. He and his wife, Gail, taught across the hall from each other. He continues to live in Odenville in a 1904 house they called home for 36 years. Joe was active in the Alabama Writers’ Conclave and the Alabama State Poetry Society. The society named him Poet of the Year in 2000. Joe has also published a number of St. Clair County local history books.

Paul South Paul South, a native of Fairfield, is an Au¬burn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, he had a versa¬tile career as reporter, columnist and first full-time sports information director at Samford University.

Susan Wall Susan Wall moved to Logan Martin Lake from Birmingham, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Alongside the nursing career, she owned Dreamscapes Photography, a portrait and wedding studio. Winner of the 2010 August Moore award at the Bluff Park Art Show, with numerous publications in magazines and the Kodak Instructional Magazine, her passion now is digital painting and portraits.

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Graham Hadley

Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia company. An Auburn journalism graduate, Hadley also served as the news editor for The Rome News Tribune in Rome,Ga.

Jackie Romine Walburn Jackie Romine Walburn, a Birmingham native and freelance writer, is an Auburn journalism graduate who has worked as a reporter, editor and corporate communications manager. She’s had recent writing published in the Birmingham Arts Journal and Alalitcom. Jackie is currently seeking an agent and publisher for her first novel, Mojo Jones and the Black Cat Bone.

Leigh Pritchett

Leigh Pritchett has been in the publishing field 30 years. Early in her career, she worked for a New York Times Regional Newspaper. Since the 1990s, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in local, state and national publications in print and digital form. Mrs. Pritchett received the Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montevallo.

Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally graduated from Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education.

Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college.After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

Mike Callahan Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.

Loyd McIntosh Loyd McIntosh is a freelance writer and former news reporter and sports writer for several newspapers throughout the Southeast, including The Daily Home. In over 10 years as a freelance writer, he has published work in a variety of magazines. He is a native of Trussville and now lives in Pell City.

From the Editor

Tradition thrives in St. Clair Tradition. It seems like a simple enough word, but its meaning is far from simple, defined in stories as diverse as the cultures they reflect.

Growing up Greek, for instance, I have a natural affinity for cooking – a talent for which Greeks the world over are known. Their tradition centers around a good meal, prepared for family and friends. They are natural hosts, wanting one and all to enjoy themselves. In many ways, it’s their recipe for life. It’s no small wonder that my brother, sister-in-law and nephew carry on the tradition in their restaurant with recipes handed down from their mothers and grandmothers.

Around these parts, there is plenty of tradition of all stripes.

Over in Argo, the skillful hands of Nick Leopard carry on the work of building mantels of all shapes, sizes and styles at The Mantel Shoppe.

Near Seddon, a third generation of sod farmers carries on the family business at Dixie Sod, and hopes are that the next generation will follow suit.

In Ashville, the Yarbrough family lives on the land where their ancestor built his home in 1825, and it has been occupied continuously for nearly 200 years by a Yarbrough.

In Springville, a musical tradition has been resurrected.

Making a comeback is a treasured nightspot known throughout the region for original music played by such musicians as Three on a String, the Martini Shakers, Andy McGinniss, Janet Hall and a host of other bands and soloists. Local Color, closed in 2017, is now open in a limited capacity on the weekends complete with a donation jar to keep the lights on, according to former owners Merle Dollar and Garry Burttram.

In June, our nation honors D-Day and a tradition of honoring service to our nation. D-Day was the invasion of Normandy during World War II, and Hilman Prestridge has a rare vantage point for the remembrance with his eye witness account of that

fateful day, a time the world never forgets.

And on a much lighter note, our special bridal section is chocked full of traditions – old and new – for celebrating that special day with St. Clair as its centerpiece.

There’s plenty more to discover in this issue. Turn the pages and discover it all with us!

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

June & July 2018 • Vol. 42 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Susan Wall • Photography Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Graphic Designer

A product of Partners by Design www.partnersmultimedia.com 1911 Cogswell Avenue Pell City, AL 35125 205-338-3466

Printed at Russell Printing, Alexander City, AL 7

Taking New Wood to Old Heights

By Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Mike Callahan

Connie Harrell didn’t really know what she wanted in the way of fireplaces for the new home she and husband Terry are building on Logan Martin Lake. She just knew who she wanted to make them.

“We remodel homes and have dealt with The Mantel Shoppe about 15 years,” Connie says. “I always go to them to have mantels done. I used to work with the owner’s dad.”

She chose alder wood for the family room, which has a 14-foot ceiling, and let Shoppe owner Nick Leopard handle the design. The stacked mantel-on-mantel in the Harrells’ master bedroom is made of white-painted poplar. Connie sketched its design on a piece of paper, Nick built it, and she declared it “perfect.”

“It’s an old-fashioned style you see a lot in antebellum homes, where they stacked mantels on top of mantels,” Connie says. “That room has 12-foot ceilings.”

Tucked away in a nondescript, industrial building on Argo’s Angus Street, The Mantel Shoppe isn’t a place you just stumble upon. With its 60-70 styles of mantels in a variety of woods and finishes, the place is well-known by home builders and remodelers like the Harrells throughout Birmingham and Huntsville, and to individuals across the USA. “We do more work in Huntsville than Birmingham,” says Nick, a second-generation owner. “We ship out a lot of mantels, too. We build them for a guy in Oregon who sells to people all over the U.S. from his web site, and the web site makes it look like he built them.” Nick doesn’t mind the guy claiming credit for The Mantel Shoppe’s work, though. It helps keep his saws humming to the tune of 400 mantels a month.

“We’ve been in business almost 30 years,” says Nick. His dad, Ronald Leopard, who died six years ago, was the best woodworker Nick has ever seen. He could visualize just about any project, then build it. He made kitchen cabinets while Nick was growing up, then went into hardware sales for a few years. In 1988, he started building mantels for a few friends out of a spare bedroom in his Springville home. By 1990 the woodworking shop had grown big enough to be moved to Leopard’s garage. “Dad said he could quit his sales job when he got up to 30 mantels a month,” Nick says. “It took him three months.” Dad talked son into working for him after college, and Nick figured he could use his marketing degree to help push mantels. “I’ve been doing woodwork since I was eight years old,” he says.

The Mantel Shoppe was building 700 mantels a month when the U.S. economy tanked in 2008, taking many Birmingham homebuilders with it. Nick went from 15 employees to eight. “Everybody had to double-up, but it made us more efficient,” Nick says. “We learned to

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

The Mantel Shoppe

Taylor Britton cutting wood for a custom mantel 9

The Mantel Shoppe

Taylor Britton adding trim work to a mantel. do with seven of us what we had done with 15. (The eighth employee is the bookkeeper.) Everybody is so much more skilled now.” Fortunately for everyone concerned, home building in Huntsville kept going when it slowed in Birmingham, because Redstone Arsenal kept hiring highly-paid employees who built big houses, according to Nick.

About 10 percent of The Mantel Shoppe’s designs come through the customers, who pull ideas out of magazines and off Pinterest and other web sites. The remaining 90 percent are the Shoppe’s designs, many of them named after the small towns on the backroads that Nick’s dad traveled through Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida on his hardware sales route. He used names like Lewisburg, Marianna, Bristol, Harrisburg, Tellico, Leesburg, Kingsport, Camden, Montevallo and Chatom. The Shoppe’s brochure is broken down by styles, such as Chateau Collection, Classic Collection, Garden Collection and Mission Collection. The latter is the fastest-growing in popularity.

The most expensive mantel the Shoppe has produced cost the customer $8,000 and was made of quarter sawn oak (each log is sawed at a radial angle into four quarters, producing a straight-grain pattern) and was a double-mount (had an upper as well as lower mantel). At the other end of the price scale, he sells and installs $200 mantels. “I’ll sell those for

10

Connie Harrell designed her own Craftsman-style mantel.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Justin Johnson keeps a variety of finishes in the paint shop.

Nick Leopard took over the family’s mantel business when his dad died.

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One customer asked for a distressed look, so one of his employees beat a beam mantel with a chain. The customer was pleased with the results. “We’re very flexible,” Nick says. “We do what the customer wants.”

The Mantel Shoppe uses several types of wood, including walnut, maple, cherry, oak, cypress, mahogany and poplar.

They come into the shop at the warehouse end as boards, which are then cut to the sizes needed. The finished mantels that don’t go into area homes are shipped in sections inside long, narrow, casket-like boxes the shop builds out of particle board. “Some customers joke that they are going to save theirs for their burial,” Nick says. Obviously, some assembly is required at the receiving end.

Quarter-sewn oak is the most expensive wood, because of the time it takes to cut and glue the pieces together. Walnut is another top-end wood, although mahogany has gotten expensive too, and hard to find, according to Nick.

About 90 percent of his mantels are made of poplar because of its availability and because it’s the best wood for painting.

“They grow poplar just for painting in the Southeast, which is a huge advantage for us,” he says. “People can’t believe you can stain poplar, too, but you can.” He buys poplar from four sources in the Birmingham area. He uses a lot of poplar for upper mantels, i.e., those that stack on top of a mantel in houses with tall ceilings, like Connie and Terry Harrell’s lake home.

The uppers have a flat front. He used to do 10 double-mounts a week when the upper mantel was a TV cabinet. Now, he rarely sees a TV cabinet any more. “People have wider, flat-screen TVs and they don’t want to hide them,” Nick says.

Sometimes, he just uses cedar beams cut to size for a shelf mantel, a 1970s and 1980s trend that is making a comeback.

“We spent the ‘90s taking out these beams,” Nick says. “I wish we had kept them, because now they’re coming back in style in both new houses and remodeled ones. We’ve taken out a thousand of them, and now we’re installing seven or eight a week.” He also mounts a lot of rough-cut beams on outdoor fireplaces.

Some of his other products include cornices, bookcases, church podiums and custom headboards. “We can do just about anything a customer wants out of wood,” Nick says. “Like our motto says, we’re the best thing to happen to fireplaces since firewood.” l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

13

Traveling the

BACKROADS

Yarbrough Homestead Standing as a living monument to St. Clair History

Yarbrough House showing stone work for columns 14

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted photos Drive through Beaver Valley some blue-sky autumn morning and drink in its beauty. Put your window down, breathe in the perfume of new-mown hay and stop to marvel at Beaver Mountain splashed with colors from God’s personal paint pots.

As you enjoy these lovely vistas, try to imagine how things looked in 1822 when Manoah Yarbrough migrated from North Carolina and settled his family here. Beaver Creek ran clear and full, and the forests stood thick with old-growth trees.

The roots of the Yarbrough family lie in Yorkshire, England.

According to written accounts in the Ashville Museum and Archives, “The Yarbroughs of America are lineal descendants of William Yarbrough, who was one of the 60,000 Normans who embarked as vassals to the Duke of Normandy in the year 1046 to conquer England.” William the Conqueror awarded William Yarbrough an earldom in reward for his loyalty.

Some of the English Yarbroughs settled early-on in Amelia County, Virginia. Sometime between 1729 and 1775, seven Yarbrough brothers settled in Louisburg, Franklin County, North Carolina. One of the brothers, Zachariah Yarbrough, moved to Davidson County some time before the Revolutionary War. There, he married Elizabeth Dowd.

One of this couple’s seven children was Manoah (1770-1836).

On August 16, 1799, Manoah married Mary Cunningham (1778-1840). Mary’s parents, Joseph and Ann Buntin Cunningham, had come to North Carolina from Maryland.

Yarbrough researcher Beal Teague records that “Joseph Cunningham had been a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, fighting in Virginia and North Carolina.”

Teague also recorded that Mary’s brother, John Cunningham, had settled in St. Clair County in 1818. Official documents show that on January 16, 1821, the Alabama House and Senate approved John as one of the “commissioners to select and superintend the building of a courthouse and jail” in St. Clair County.

The exact date the Yarbrough family left North Carolina seems uncertain, but they arrived in St. Clair County, Alabama, in 1822. Manoah had intended to settle near Ohatchee, but the Indian unrest still flourished in that area, therefore he settled on the west side of the Coosa River. Coming to Alabama with Manoah and Mary were five children: Littleton, Wiley, Manoah, Nancy and Obediah.

Manoah chose a location suitable for a mill so that he could cut the needed material for building a home. This he found on Beaver Creek some miles east of Ashville as the creek wends its way to the Coosa River. The area had one other home at this time — that of the John Looney family.

For a living place while they built the mill, felled trees, cut boards and beams to build the house, Manoah and the boys built a lean-to room in front of a cave. There, the family lived until they completed the house in 1825. Eventually the Yarbroughs constructed several mills on the farm: grist mill, sawmill, wool carding mill, shingles mill, and a cotton gin much later. Family lore relates how Indians would bring lead to trade for Yarbrough goods, always coming at the same time of the day.

Pioneer life The farm had a blacksmith shop. Littleton learned of a seam of coal in Gulf Hollow, and he would go there to dig coal for the smithery. Today no one knows the location of that coal

John Yarbrough Jr.

seam.

As on any pioneer homestead, there flourished here both apple and peach orchards which provided fresh fruit in season, dried fruit and preserves for winter, and apple and peach brandy — licensed and legally made.

After Manoah’s death, Littleton lived in the house his father built. At Littleton’s death, his son, John, raised his family in the home. When John died in 1933, three of his children, Elizabeth, Burk and John continued living in Manoah’s house.

Another son, Fitz, had married Bernice Ramsey in 1923, but she died in 1925, leaving her 8-month-old son, Fitzgerald, who grew up in the home hearing stories about ancestors.

John, Jr., married Rebecca Lee, and they reared their two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the house Manoah built.

Today John and Rebecca’s daughter, Elizabeth Yarbrough Sorrell, owns and lives in the ancestral home where she grew up.

Legacy continues Fitzgerald Yarbrough married Emma Jean Barber. Three children were born to them: Fitz, Nancy, and Burk. The children learned farm life and loved it. Fitz recounted a conversation: “Dad once asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘Farm.’ He said, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘Farm.’ He asked me again and I answered the same way. Then he said, ‘But how do you want to make a living?’ So, I taught school and farmed.”

Fitzgerald loved the farm and respected the fact that the Yarbrough family had kept possession of it since 1822. In 1979, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry named the “Yarbrough Homestead” both a Century Farm and a Heritage Farm.

Fitzgerald taught his children two important virtues: thrift and preparation for the future. The fact that they don’t sell hay saw them through a severe drought some years back. That drought depleted hay and caused water sources to fail across

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

15

Traveling the

BACKROADS

Manoah and Mary Yarbrough graves

the country, but Beaver Creek kept flowing, and the Yarbrough cattle had water as well as hay.

When asked if she helped with the farm, Nancy replied: “We all learned to drive the truck and tractor in the hay field. At times, I drove the tractor to fluff and rake the hay before it was baled. My main job was to drive either the tractor with wagon or the truck when we had square bales. In recent years, I’ve driven the truck pulling the trailer loaded with round bales.” When her mother, Jean Yarbrough, started working at the County Board of Education, then it was Nancy’s job to “cook lunch for everybody working in the fields.”

From generation to generation Today, Fitz, Burk and their sister Nancy Yarbrough Sansing own the farm and have their homes there. The brothers work approximately 225 acres of ancestral land they started helping their dad with in elementary school. Nancy pitches in when she’s needed. The fields and pastures spread along Beaver Creek, which flows wide and clear, and its natural beauty is equal to creeks flowing through the Smoky Mountains.

The farm day starts with a count of the 235 head of cattle, checking to see if it increased or decreased during the night. Then there is the upkeep of buildings and equipment, the cutting and baling of hay, moving cattle from one pasture to another — an unending work they continue because of their love for the land and its long history.

Standing well off the road, Manoah’s house gleams white in the sunshine with pastures on

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Fitzgerald Yarbrough on his tracror

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

Yarbrough House at the turn of 20th century

The kitchen at the turn of the century. The cupboard is original to the house.

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either side and Beaver Mountain behind it. The three-story home looks colonial in is simplicity.

A small porch graces the double front doors with a hand-blown glass transom above and narrow mullioned panes on either side. Two square columns sitting on short sandstone pillars originally supported the porch roof overhang, but John Jr. replaced them with iron poles when the wood columns deteriorated beyond repair. The upstairs front door opens onto a small balcony overhanging the porch.

The small entrance hall is in keeping with colonial style, as is the plain, sturdy staircase.

A large room stands on either side of the hall.

Both the hall and the rooms are walled with wide boards, all hand-planed. The ceilings are of the same. The floors remain the original heart pine boards.

Fireplaces with chimneys of hand-pressed brick heated the 1825 home both upstairs and down.

Lighting, of course, came from candles and oil lamps. As the years progressed, modern heating and electricity came to the home.

Lovely as this home is that Manoah Yarbrough built, the master builder of the family was Manoah’s son, Littleton Yarbrough. He built the St. Clair County Courthouse (as well as courthouses in Texas), Ashville First Baptist’s second sanctuary and the James Phillips home in Beaver Valley.

At the completion of the courthouse, Littleton records in his ledger: “March 25th, 1845. I built a courthouse at Ashville which has 155,640 brick which I am to pay Campbell Jefferson two dollars and fifty cents per thousand. Settled in full, June 4. 1845.” Several of the wooden brick molds used to form the bricks still exist today. One is on display in the Ashville Museum and Archives.

Of the building of the Ashville Baptist Church (now Ashville First Baptist), Mattie Lou Teague Crow records this in her 1963 history Ashville Baptist Church: “Ashville’s second Baptist church building, erected in 1859, was a prefabricated structure.” After the church drew the plans, they took them to Littleton and commissioned him to construct the building. Mattie Lou continues: “Yarbrough had the timber cut from the land which lies between the Yarbrough homestead and the public road. The lumber was hand planed and the boards cut to specification. It was then hauled in sections by ox wagon to the building site and there assembled without a metal nail or screw in the entire structure. Wooden pegs were used throughout. Yarbrough had marked each peg and corresponding peg hole with Roman numerals and when the building was razed in 1931 these numerals were easily read.”

Littleton’s daughter, Elizabeth, married James Madison Philips. The 1847 home that James had

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Traveling the

BACKROADS

This wooden bridge spans the creek that runs through part of the homestead. built for his wife still stands in Beaver Valley.

Littleton built the house with lumber from the Yarbrough mill. Elizabeth and James’s daughter, Sallie, married James Hodges, an Ashville merchant. Sallie and James’ daughter, Elizabeth Hodges, married Howard Hill, the world’s greatest archer of his day. Hill’s archery is featured in the 1938 movie, Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn.

Fitz Yarbrough, Burk Yarbrough and Nancy Sansing 20

Recording, living history Fitzgerald wrote down this Littleton story his grandfather, John Sr., told: “Littleton asked to borrow money from his father to buy land, but instead of loaning it to him, Manoah told him he would loan him his still (for which he had the Government license). It is said that he made enough money the first year to pay for the land.”

Littleton sold some of his whiskey to Jack Daniels in Lynchburg, TN. Such stories keep family history spirited.

Manoah Yarbrough’s home is one of St. Clair County’s treasures. Among the original furnishings still in the home are items that Manoah brought with him from North Carolina. Over the years, pieces of the home’s furniture have gone to the homes of other Yarbrough descendants.

A great part of the fascination of the home and farm lies in the 196 years-worth of documents, newspaper clippings, Bible records, photographs, whiskey license, deeds (one signed by President James Monroe), family ledgers and a scrumptious sounding eggnog recipe.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

The house as it stands today

The original foyer facing the front doors 21

Traveling the

BACKROADS

Squeezing everyone in the car for a ride in the early 20th century.

John Yarbrough Sr.

John Yarbrough Jr. carding eggs

22

Over the years, this writer has watched the present owners of the Yarbrough lands grow up and become the caretakers of history. Elizabeth “Liz” and husband Rick Sorrell welcomed me into the dining room of Manoah’s 1825 home. On the table lay treasured photographs and ephemera for me to examine. As we talked, Liz recalled growing up in the house and how her dad told of his friendship with Howard Hill, of picnics under the trees by the mill, of swimming in the mill pond, and of chilling watermelons in Beaver Creek on hot summer days. Her love for her dad, his stories, and her heritage are evident as she talks of him.

At the farm Nancy, Fitz and Burk showed me the “brandy stone” Fitz had found and dragged to the house using an International 444 tractor. John Jr. directed Fitz to the general area where he knew the stone lay buried. Fitz probed there until he located it. They drove me over the farm showing hayfields and pastures, stopping to see the cattle and ending up where Manoah’s mill had been on Beaver Creek. There they told of helping their dad build the bridge spanning the creek where the dam washed away in a 1920s flood. Sycamore trees, silver in the sun, arched over the water singing its way to the Coosa River.

Back at Nancy’s home, they showed more treasured items of their history — including the deed signed by President Monroe and the eggnog recipe.

Perhaps the most treasured of all was Fitzgerald’s handwritten memories of the house and farm. In it, he recounted stories told him by his aunts and uncles and his grandfather, John Sr. His closing sentence records his love of this land, for he writes: “No one but Yarbroughs has ever owned the land where Manoah’s house still stands. It is my hope that it will always remain in the Yarbrough family.”

Manoah, Littleton, John Sr., John Jr. and Fitzgerald would be well-pleased with the present-day stewardship of this farm.

May it still be owned by Yarbroughs 200 years from now. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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SOD FARMING

A FAMILY BUSINESS 24

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Third generation sod farmers carry on legacy of love Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Graham Hadley

An American flag tops part of the irrigation system.

Matt Smith stands in a 60-acre field in Lincoln.

This one is his favorite of all the fields at Dixie Sod Farm, Inc. The fertile expanse rises and dips gently on a gradual slope toward Logan Martin Lake. Overhead stretches the big, blue sky.

In the air are the sounds of nature and the fragrance of morning.

Surveying the ribbons of freshly harvested rows before him, Matt speaks of how rewarding it is to be outside, ... to plant something in the ground and watch it grow, ... to produce something people want.

He is a farmer.

“It’s who I am,” said Matt.

Nearby, a Brouwer harvesting machine resumes its rhythmic clacks as it neatly cuts sod into 16-by-24-inch slabs. One man guides the machine while two other workers stack the newly cut rectangles into an intricate pattern onto pallets. The men are careful to make certain that each pallet holds precisely 169 slabs – enough to sod 450 square feet.

Already that morning, a large load of Dixie sod had been delivered to a customer in Lake Martin/Alexander City. The current harvest was destined for Hoover, and another load would go elsewhere before day’s end.

That week, like almost every other week, 200 to 300 pallets would be produced at Dixie Sod Farm, where the harvest season never ends. Two hundred acres are devoted to growing sod. The fields of the 140 acres off Golf Course Road in Pell City and the 60 acres near the Honda plant in Lincoln are always in different stages of maturation to yield a year-round harvest.

“There are certainly easier ways to make a living and easier ways to make more money,” said Matt. “But this is what I am.”

At 36 years old, Matt already has worked in the turf sod industry more than two decades. “I’m probably the only 36-yearold you’ll meet who’s been in the same business 23 years,” he said.

As a 13-year-old, he had no other choice but to work at the family’s sod farm. But, Matt confesses, he actually enjoyed it. If a truck left the farm, he was on it. “I wanted to be part of everything they did.”

That was especially true at plowing

Vintage tractor in front of family home

Cattle farming is part of the business, too.

Mowing the grass, sod-farm style

Test strips are taken to monitor field conditions

A FAMILY BUSINESS time because he got to drive those huge tractors.

“When those things were moving, I thought I had to be out there,” Matt said. “... I still love it today.”

Each day as Matt works in a field alongside his employees or talks with a customer, he is keenly aware that he is standing on the framework and reputation built by his grandfather and father. As the third generation of his family to operate Dixie Sod Farm, Matt is committed to upholding that reputation and continuing the vision.

“A lot of credit is due my family before me,” said Matt, who learned the business at the elbow of his father, Richard Smith, and grandfather, Marlin (“M.S.”) Hugghins. “... I spent hours of my life on the fender or behind the seat of a tractor learning from them. I learned from the absolute best. ... M.S. Hugghins was literally a pioneer of sod farming in the United States. No doubt about that. He even helped to start a sod farm in South Africa.”

A revered legacy

M.S. began sod farming in the 1960s when he was responsible for grassing the rights of way during construction of Interstates 59 and 65. To have a ready supply of grass for the projects, M.S. started a sod farm near Auburn, where he lived at that time.

During the weeks he spent planting grass at the I-20/I-59 interchange in Birmingham, M.S. frequently traveled U.S. 231 to go home to Auburn. On those drives, he noticed the abundance of farmland in the Pell City area and became convinced it was the right place for a sod farm, said Susan Smith, one of M.S.’s daughters.

In the late 1960s, he started M.S. Hugghins Sod Farm in St. Clair County. Ten years later, he sold some of it, but retained a portion, added acreage to it and named the business Dixie Sod Farm, Inc. That was 1978.

The early years of sod farming were quite laborious for M.S. because the machine used for harvesting was similar to a walk-behind garden tiller, Matt said.

That was until M.S. purchased the first tractormounted Brouwer sod harvester ever brought into the continental United States. He went to Canada to get that harvester (serial number 003).

As M.S. used the harvester, he devised and implemented a modification that made the Brouwer more effective. Brouwer company officials heard about the improvement and sent a representative to Alabama to see it. The company obtained permission from M.S. to incorporate the modification into later designs, Matt said.

M.S. retired from sod farming in 1989 and sonin-law Richard Smith (Susan’s husband) took the helm.

“He was very passionate about it,” Matt said of his dad’s approach to the business and the quality

26

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Matt shows off a pallet of sod

Matt and Whitney, and their sons, Hunter and Cole

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A FAMILY BUSINESS

Preparing another section of the farm for sod

Richard and Matt as a boy moving sod.

Heath Walker in the office 28

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

of its sod.

O’Neal Cagle of Pell City, a 20-year employee of Dixie Sod Farm, agreed. “(Richard) took pride in making his grass look good.”

The three varieties of turf sod grown at the farm are Emerald Zoysia, Meyer Zoysia and Tifton Bermuda. Emerald Zoysia, however, is the farm’s staple.

“That’s what we’re known for,” Matt said. “... My dad had a very high-quality product. He had a good name with it. ... He had his own twist on Emerald Zoysia.”

In fact, some customers still refer to it as “Richard Smith Emerald Zoysia,” Matt said.

In 2005 while Matt was home from college for spring break, Richard died. Matt stayed home the remainder of the semester to run the farm. In the fall, he returned to Auburn University to complete his degree, which is what his father would have wanted, said Susan.

“I had to take over the family business and finish college,” Matt said.

In between classes or in a corridor during class time, Matt – a senior studying horticulture – would take care of business matters by phone. When they could not be handled long distance, he would finish his classes for the day and drive back to Pell City.

“I had some very, very good employees,” Matt said. “That helped tremendously.”

O’Neal, who still works at Dixie Sod Farm, was one of those employees.

“He helped keep the business going while I was in college,” Matt said. “... And my mother ... helped me tremendously, too. For the first few years after my Dad’s passing, I don’t think I would have made it without the help of O’Neal and my mother.”

Just three or four years after Matt took over the business, the U.S. economy experienced a significant downturn.

Like so many others at that time, Matt faced the challenge of keeping his business afloat.

“The odds were really stacked against Matt as to whether this business would survive,” said wife Whitney.

To provide for his family, to keep the business going and to make certain the farm’s employees got paid, Matt took a second job – as a deputy sheriff for St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department.

Whitney said Matt’s sacrifice was “a sign of true leadership.”

Matt’s days were very long: he was at the farm during daylight hours and on duty as a deputy sheriff at night.

He kept up that pace until 2013, when he left his full-time job as deputy sheriff.

“It was a meaningful part of my life,” Matt said. “I enjoyed being a deputy sheriff. The county was good to me. Very good to me. I felt like I was walking away from a part of my family when I left that job. It was a hard decision.”

Matt did not give up law enforcement completely, however.

He is a reserve deputy for St. Clair Sheriff’s Department and a part-time police officer for the City of Riverside.

Prior to 2009, the products of Dixie Sod Farm were marketed through another sod farm and were sold under a different name.

Matt changed that business strategy, selling the products under the Dixie Sod Farm name directly to the customers.

“It was a difficult transition,” Matt said. “I had to learn a lot of things.”

Nonetheless, the strategy worked.

“Since 2011, the business has taken on a new face dramatically,” Matt said. Both the sales volume and customer

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A FAMILY BUSINESS base have increased significantly.

Now, the farm is running two cutting crews and three delivery trucks and employs seven people in peak season, said Matt and Whitney.

“He’s done a fantastic job,” Whitney said. “... I could just write a book about how proud I am of him.”

Nine-year-old son Hunter has definitely taken note of his dad’s efforts and accomplishments. “He’s done a really good job,” Hunter said.

In addition to Dixie Sod Farm, Matt operates a cow-andcalf operation on property in Riverside. The herd of about 45 brood cows produces offspring for commercial purposes.

Also, Matt has coached Little League baseball, is serving on the board of directors for the local Farmers Cooperative and attends First Baptist Church in Pell City with his family.

“You learn to manage your time,” said Matt, who believes his most important job is as a husband and “full-time dad.”

Whitney said Matt always puts her and their sons first, ... always.

No matter how busy his schedule is, Matt takes his sons to school each morning and never misses the boys’ ball games, she said. And he makes certain that the family eats dinner together every night.

Big rigs are a sign of success for the farm.

Loading pallets for a customer

Family-centered

In recognition of their achievements, Matt, Whitney and their sons were named “Outstanding Farm Family of 2017”

by St. Clair County Farmers Federation.

The concept of “family” is an integral component of Dixie Sod Farm. That word encompasses the farm’s history, current leadership and management philosophy.

Matt speaks of how important Whitney is to him and to the business. She is his “right-hand man,” so to speak. In fact, her desk sits literally at his right hand. Whitney is the farm’s financial manager and also is employed as a nurse in Birmingham.

Their brother-in-law Heath Walker, who is married to one of Matt’s two sisters, oversees sales. The employees, Matt said, are regarded as members of the family, too.

“They’re real nice people to work for,” O’Neal said.

Hunter and 6-year-old brother Cole have a role in the business as well. They are budding agribusiness-men and Matt’s willing assistants.

“Both my sons like to be out here,” Matt said. “They’re very inquisitive about what we do and why we do it.”

Just as Matt’s grandfather and father taught him every facet of the business, Matt is teaching Hunter and Cole.

The boys delight in working with and spending lots of time with their dad at the farm. In fact, when they list what they like most about the farm, each boy’s first response is about getting to be with Dad. “I like working with him,” Cole said. “I get to help him do stuff. I get to help him deliver sod.”

And just like their dad, the boys think the tractors and the big delivery trucks are super cool.

Matt said he will encourage his sons to pursue the career of their choice. But he definitely would be pleased if the boys continue the family business.

“I’d like to see this go five, six, seven generations,” he said. l

30

M.S. Hugghins, Matt’s grandfather who started it all

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Sunset views, family, unique ideas anchor palatial home Story by Jackie Romine Walburn Photos by Susan Wall Building their home on Logan Martin Lake was a longplanned labor of love for Lori and Dave Elmore, who combined construction expertise, years of planning and distinctive ideas to create a one-of-a-kind home.

With a Rustic French style that mixes wood, stone and black angle iron, the 14,000 square foot home sits on 1.5 acres on the shore of Logan Martin Lake – next door to Lori’s parents and on the water where they’d always wanted to live.

Dave, a builder and owner of Crossings General Contracting, and Lori, an accountant, say planning, documentation and communication helped them work on the project together with ease. Inspired doses of design and do-it-yourself artistry also create a home with distinctive touches in every room and innovations throughout.

“Compiling ideas was somewhat a labor of love,” says Dave, who was the contractor for the building process that stretched to three years, from planning to move-in in midOctober of 2017. The building of their first home after 11 years together brought to life long-saved ideas. “Yes, there was a wish list,” Dave smiles, “and she got all of it.”

Arched entrances, hand-fluted columns, white pine floors, black iron railings plus spruce ceilings and accent walls tie together the home’s four floors of living space.

The home is highlighted by three rock fireplaces, casement windows and multiple outdoor living spaces, including a towering “witches hat” screened area with an outdoor kitchen.

“We were very hands-on with the finishes,” Dave said. With similar tastes, a long-considered wish list and determination to make each room unique, the couple worked together to craft homemade and handmade solutions and features throughout the home.

The home was purposely planned with nine bedrooms and 12 bathrooms to accommodate their five grown children and their eventual families, friends and extended family.

“We both grew up close to our families,” says Lori, “and we love the idea of having a central location for everyone to gather.”

32

The unique home really does look like something from Europe when viewed from the water.

Lakefront Palace

One of the first have-to-haves on the design list was the placement of the kitchen’s cooktop to face southwest for great sunset views through the dining area’s large windows. The views and other perks of lake life, plus living next to her parents, retired Alabama Power Company President Elmer Harris and his wife, Glenda, make the location ideal for the Elmores.

The exterior of rock and wood has seven gables and cedar shake roofing. The main floor entranceway leads to a great room with a tall rock fireplace and towering windows allowing for the first of many views of the lake and entrance to one of several outdoor living areas. A rock archway leads to a custom kitchen with a copper farmhouse sink, made-from scratch kitchen cabinets with antique and Flor de les accents.

The home’s handmade-by-Dave custom items also include the 13-inch curved Cove top molding in the kitchen, lighting fixtures in the great room and several bathrooms that were made from candle holders bought from Hobby Lobby, the candelabra light fixture over the kitchen’s island that is hand crafted with black iron trivets, the full-size bed swing in the middle of the Witches Hat screened area and a cut-stone floor air vent solution between the great room and kitchen.

Dave also came up with the idea for leather walls in the powder room half bath by the kitchen area entrance and found the leather on clearance for $50.

He built the head board and bed frame in the in-laws suite, engineered the pool waterfall, and converted rolled tin candles holders into lighting fixtures in the master bath, where a swinging metal-and-wood door that leads to master bath began as a wall hanging from Hobby Lobby.

The home’s nine bedrooms each have a water view, a bathroom and a name, to help keep up with them during construction. In addition to a bunk bed area on the top floor and the master bedroom suite with its own views, stone fireplace, outdoor areas and dreamed-of master bath and closet area, the home’s bedrooms are named: • The Lakeside Room, where “you feel like you are standing on the water’s edge.”

• The Fireside Room that sits next to the outdoor fireside pit.

• The Poolside Room next to the pool and its waterfall.

• The Hole, a bedroom tucked into the foundation of the house.

• The In-Laws Suite, “self-explanatory” and ready when it’s needed.

• The Picture Frame Room with a window that looks like a picture frame.

• The Drivetime Room that sits above the driveway.

• The Bulldog Room that overlooks the street, Bulldog Circle.

Unique features also highlight each of the 12 bathrooms, including vanities made of log sections, stone slabs and antique dressers.

34

Lakefront Palace

Lori and Dave Elmore

The beautiful pool wraps around one of the support columns.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Lakefront Palace

Wood shingles surround this outdoor sitting area.

The upstairs balcony overlooks the living room, complete with stone fireplace.

Nothing says comfort like this large suspended lounge chair.

36

The unusual kitchen shape leaves plenty of room for cooking and entertaining.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

The architectural stylings continue around to the front of the house.

A full house automation system controls lights, security, heating and cooling plus music from surround sound speakers throughout the house – allowing different music in different areas. Other safety and convenience features include an elevator, a storm shelter, a laundry room on every floor, self-activating safety lighting in every hallway and a huge pantry area with a Cheyenne door.

For pure fun, there is a home theater, large patio areas with a pool, a natural gas-powered fire pit and a basement game room with two tri-fold doors that allow an 18-foot opening to the back deck. The game room also boasts an Auburn gumball machine with orange and blue gumballs, a birthday present to Lori. The couple met at an AuburnAlabama football game in 2005. They’d both attended Berry High School in the Birmingham area but didn’t know each other then.

Asked for their top five favorite things about their new home, Lori and Dave’s lists cover a gamut of its custom features.

Fun in the Summer Sun

Lori’s five favorite areas are:

1. The rear screened porch with its view of water, pool and boathouse.

2. The pool waterfall.

3. The master bath tub, a huge jetted Roman tub backed by waterfall window and a large double shower area with rainfall and several other shower heads next to 6 x 9-foot mirrortinted windows that you can see out of but others cannot see in.

4. Her closet, off the master bath, which has custom pull out storage and columns hand fluted on site.

5. Big fireplace in the great room.

Dave’s five favorite areas are:

1. Witches Hat area and ceiling. This screened outdoor area has a stone fireplace topped by a mantle made from an oak tree that fell on the property, two entrances, an outdoor kitchen and the Dave-made full bed size swing. But it’s the ceiling and towering cone made of one-by six-inch spruce that tops his list and required two painstaking months of carpentry work on a 60-foot man lift to line up the gently curved vertical spruce boards.

2. The Game room – which is only missing the pool table Dave plans to build.

3. The pool waterfall.

4. Views from the kitchen and master bedroom.

5. The log and stone vanities.

37

Lakefront Palace

Arched wooden ceiling over the front entrance.

As the seemingly unending punch list on their home shrinks, soon to disappear, the Elmores look forward to a summer of lake life when their empty nest refills with their blended family. Their grown sons and daughter, all away pursuing degrees and careers, include Lori’s sons, Harrison King, 26, and Conner King, 22, and daughter Sarah King, 24, and Dave’s two sons, Houston Elmore, 21, and Cade Elmore, 19.

Family and friends already gathered, filling those bedrooms, in late March when the Elmore hosted a wedding reception for her niece, Carlyn Harris and her groom, Brent Tyree.

Vendors and contractors of note on the home building project include Traylon Ward, whose crew did the framing on the house and who was hired on

by Dave as a key person “who can do anything.”

All the stone used inside and out came from Lamb Stone in Oneonta, the firm’s largest single order ever, and Warren Family Garden Center and Nursery in Leeds that supplied landscaping items, including unique plants and planters. Other items Lori chose from online vendors with successful finds at Wayfair and Houzz, and for the candle holders, trivets and doors turned into homemade accents, credit goes to Hobby Lobby and Dave’s imagination. l

38

This wooden ceiling over the sitting area is one of the key features of the home.

A bedroom truly fit for royalty

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Bands like Cash Domino Killers and Rosewood are keeping the music going at Local Color.

LOCAL COLOR REDUX

The new BYO business model is working well for customers and Local Color

Keeping Springville’s ‘colorful’ music spot alive Story by Paul South Photos by Michael Callahan, Susan Wall, Jerry Martin and courtesy of Local Color

In the late fall of 2016, Merle Dollar and husband Garry Burttram announced that on New Year’s Eve, their iconic music venue, Local Color, would take its final bow.

But Bobby Horton, legendary fiddler of the equally iconic Alabama bluegrass trio, Three On A String, was skeptical.

Three On A String would play that “final” performance.

“I wouldn’t be surprised a bit of Merle and Garry reopen,” he predicted. “They love it too much. I wish they wouldn’t close.”

It turns out, Horton, like a musical Jeremiah, was a prophet.

“Bobby got his wish – sort of,” Dollar says.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

43

LOCAL COLOR

Bobby Horton got his wish.

Local Color is back, but without Burttram’s delicious cornbread cooked in a hubcap-sized cast iron skillet and chicken and dumplings. The wildly popular stage opens a couple of times a month, not as a traditional business, charging only a cover to pay the bands.

Dollar reminisced about Local Color’s 2016 final curtain that wasn’t.

“The patrons were mourning and grieving and crying, and the musicians were so nostalgic already. Really gloom and doom.”

The building was up for sale, with a buyer on the horizon, but after two months, Erick Smith of the rockabilly band Cash Domino Killers approached Dollar with an idea – a house concert. No food or drink, save what patrons would bring themselves, sort of like a covered dish dinner, or an all-day singing and dinner on the grounds, but with furniture.

Dollar ran the idea by her sisters, who with her own the building.

The response: Why not?

The result? A packed house.

“Everybody came in and brought their own food and their own beverages and just paid a cover charge at the door for the musicians, and we had a grand night.”

Fast forward a few weeks after that grand night. The expected sale of the building fell through. And it looked as though Local Color had danced its last.

Dollar and her sisters decided that Local Color deserved one last send-off, a last waltz, if you will. They called on their old friends, The Martini Shakers, another rockabilly act that had played the place for years. The response from the joyous crowd ignited another idea. The girls decided to host house concerts once or twice a month, getting the word out to Local Color die-hard regulars.

“We’ve had some remarkable crowds,” Dollar says. “And we’re just doing it at our leisure.”

Merle and Garry are retired now, traveling to Scotland and Disney World and keeping up with kids and grandkids.

And now, virtually every weekend, music again rings from Local Color. To be clear, it’s show business but no business.

“It’s strictly a house concert. I want to stress that it’s a non-business. The family is hosting different bands to come in. I get requests all the time from musicians to come in and play,” Dollar says. “We’re strictly a non-business.”

She added: “It’s just one of those magical things that just refuses to go away.”

44

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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LOCAL COLOR Local Color looks and feels the same, except for the patrons who bring their own snacks, from popcorn and pop, to sacks of fast food, to gourmet munchies and bottles of Merlot.

But while the food brought from home varies with every patron, the reaction is universally the same to the Local Color house parties: “Why didn’t you do this sooner?”

“It’s been so heartwarming to know that people are so excited to come back again,” Dollar says. “It really was such a downer (when Local Color closed). Once it started buzzing through the musical community (about the house concerts) it was like, euphoria and ‘hallelujah’ and ‘Oh, boy!’ One person stopped me in the grocery store and said, ‘It’s about time.’”

Along with the music dates, it’s also a gathering spot for Merle and Garry’s family get-togethers, holiday dinners, baby showers and the like. And the family – through Merle and her cousins, Sylvia Waid and Peggy Jones, who form the Andrews Sisters-style Something Else Trio – provides the musical heartbeat.

“There would be no Local Color without ‘Something Else,’ Burttram says.

Dates are booked through July, but the spot remains for sale. “Three months, who knows what can happen in three months.”

Encore performances The acts, jubilant to return to this intimate spot where the music seems all that matters, include The Cash Domino Killers – named for music legends Johnny Cash, “Fats” Domino and “The Killer” Jerry Lee Lewis, pay homage to the timeless tunes of the 1950’s. Through the, you’ll hear the sounds of The Million Dollar Quartet (Cash, Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins), The Drifters, The Tams and others.

The band has played Local Color for years. Like Three On A String, it has helped define the venue as one of Alabama’s great small music spots.

Another fan favorite, The Dill Pickers, a musical comedy ensemble, also draws packed houses.

“They’re like a comet,” Dollar says. “They show up once in a blue moon.”

No place like ‘home’ Thanks to the bands, Merle and Garry and their families and fans, Local Color lives on.

“Even while it’s sitting there empty, it still has that aura, that mystical feel about it. There’s something about that. I don’t know what it is. People walk in and say, ‘I’m home.’”

The place still has flawless acoustics, so perfect that folks swear you can hear smiles from the audience, that sits in rapt attention, drinking in the music.

“You can hear them smile,” Dollar says. “You can hear them cry. You can feel it. It’s palpable. The emotional connection that you have with your audience, you feel it, they feel it.”

Local Color, it seems, has indeed taken on a life of its own, past what even its owners expected. Like The Little Engine That Could from children’s literature, it chugs on.

Says Dollar, “It’s a light that refuses to go out.”

As for the fiddling prophet, Bobby Horton, he’s overjoyed at Local Color’s revival. He compares the place to “a musical community center. Most people are so comfortable there, both

46

With the records and other decorations on the walls, Local Color still feels like a home for music.

Merle and Garry

Sylvia Waide

players and people sitting there. It’s got that magic. You can’t build it. It just sort of happened because of Merle and Garry setting that atmosphere.”

Horton adds: “People are thrilled to be coming to that little ol’ place over there. It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful.”

And as for his prophecy?

“The blind hog found the acorn on that prediction,” he says.

“I’m so glad it did.” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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PFC Prestridge at ease

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

PFC Prestridge

Tales of survival from Omaha Beach Story and photos by Jerry C. Smith Submitted photos General Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke of Operation Overlord as “a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

To back up this solemn resolve, the Allies mounted the heaviest seaborne invasion in world history on June 6, 1944, a World War II event that would become known as D-Day. Hilman Prestridge, a 19-year-old draftee from Clay County, Alabama was there and lives on today to share his experiences.

The numbers are staggering, especially to moderns who haven’t lived during an era when literally the whole world was at war. For this operation alone, more than 160,000 Allied troops, 13,000 aircraft, and some 5,000 ships mounted a concerted invasion of Nazi-held Europe, including a 50-mile stretch of coastline in Normandy, France.

There were five distinct areas of beachhead assault, codenamed Juno, Sword, Omaha, Gold and Utah. Of these, Omaha was the most difficult because of its hilly terrain and high concentration of concrete bunkers sheltering German cannons and machine guns.

PFC Prestridge of the First Infantry Division was in one of the first boats to land on Omaha, in the face of withering gunfire from fully-prepared, seasoned troops who had been expecting them for days.

Many drivers of the amphibious landing craft, called Higgins boats, refused to go into the shallowest water, fearing entrapment by grounding or by metal objects placed by the Nazis to snag boats and prevent heavy vehicles from coming ashore. As a result, many soldiers perished from drowning due to the heavy weight of their equipment and a malfunction of their flotation devices.

In the thick of the fight

“We had these life preserver things called a Mae West around our waist,” he recalls. “They were supposed to float up under our armpits when you filled them with air, but because we were loaded down with so much stuff, they couldn’t do that and just hung around our waists.

“Lots of men died with their feet sticking out of the water because all that ammo and grenades and backpacks kept them from floating upright.”

He gives high praise to his boat pilot, a brave Navy man who knew what was at stake and carried them into much shallower water that could be waded. But that’s when the real horrors began.

As soon as the front landing door was dropped, heavy machine gun fire began raking his buddies as they stepped off into the water. Many died right in front of the boat. Hilman says those stories about men jumping over the side instead are true, and that some owed their lives to that decision.

“Fact is,” he adds, “we missed the best landing spots because

Remains of German pillbox at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France

of heavy fog and wind but did the best we could anyway.”

It took several days to secure all five beachheads. “I found a low spot behind one of those tripod tank traps and slept with bullets whizzing just inches over my head.”

The casualties were appalling by any standard, with some 10,000 Allied wounded and more than 4,000 confirmed dead.

But it could have been even worse.

“Because the weather was so bad that week,” Hilman explains, (German Field Marshal) Rommel had left the area to attend his wife’s birthday party, thinking we couldn’t land with that kind of weather. The Germans needed aggressive field leadership, and with Rommel gone, they were left without.”

As Hilman spoke of the horrors of that operation during our interview, he had to pause occasionally to gather himself emotionally. One of his most touching anecdotes concerned a tank that had finally managed to drag itself onto the shore, despite most of its unit having foundered in deep water, drowning their crews.

“I heard that tank behind me with those two big engines roaring,” he said. “It came right by me where I was pinned down by bullets over my head. When it passed me, I saw the word, ALABAMA, painted across the back end, and knew things were going to get better. He knocked a big hole in all that barbed wire, so we could get through.”

He also tells of the destruction of a particularly wicked German gun emplacement that had wrought heavy casualties and nearly brought the Omaha Beach assault to a standstill.

“We saw the (battleship USS) Texas out there, not far from shore. He put it in reverse and backed way out for a clear shot, then blew that pillbox to pieces with one shell.”

After the beaches were finally secure, an officer informed Hilman that his brother-in-law, Fred Lett, had also landed on another beach, and told him where he could be found. The officer refused permission for Hilman to leave the area but added that his own Jeep was parked nearby with the keys in it, and Hilman was to be sure nobody bothered it. Hilman and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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PFC Prestridge wound up in Glasgow, Scotland,” he relates. “We finally were deployed to some place I can’t name in England. The people there were real good to us, and I even got to meet Princess Elizabeth while she was visiting troops in the fields around Dorchester. She was the same age as me, but not yet queen.”

Hilman said none of those in his outfit knew anything about the plans for D-Day; they were simply told they would ship out on June 5th, but their move was delayed until the 6th because of bad weather.

He said the English Channel crossing was pretty rough, and a lot of soldiers got sick, especially after boarding the landing craft. “They told us the waves were 12 feet, but the number I believed was more like 20, but it didn’t bother me. The rougher the water, the better I like it,” he explained.

“We were told to jump off the ship and into the boats when the waves went highest, but a lot of guys broke their legs when they timed it wrong because we were so loaded down with field gear and ammo.”

Hilman’s outfit was stationed in France until all of Europe had been liberated, then they were transported by ship back to the United States for a 30-day leave before being reassigned to another duty. While America-bound on the destroyer SS John Hood, they were told that their next assignment would be an all-out attack on the mainland of Japan.

Fortunately, before this hellish invasion was launched, President Truman took more direct steps in 1945 to bring World War II to a close. Upon landing in New York, Hilman and his comrades participated in a ticker tape parade celebrating that victory and were soon mustered out of the service.

Home at last PFC Prestridge, 1944 Fred had a joyous reunion a short while later.

Hilman’s military career began upon receiving “a letter from Uncle Sam” right after graduating from Lineville High School.

His basic training took place at Fort Bragg, NC, where he was selected for Field Artillery training in Maryland. “I was real happy with that idea,” he said. “Artillery gets to stay way behind the front lines, so I figured it was about the safest place to be in a war.”

He relates that his gun crew got into a bit of trouble when they accidentally put seven charges of gunpowder in a field piece designed to use four. The gun survived, but the projectile went all the way into town, destroying a huge tree but luckily doing little other damage.

Those in charge were not pleased, but this was during wartime, so allowances were made. Nonetheless, for no stated reason, they moved Private Prestridge into Amphibious Landing school, eventually thrusting him right into the teeth of the enemy.

“I was worried about it at first,” added Hilman, “but the transfer probably saved my life. The guys I trained with in Artillery were all later killed in battle.

“We loaded up onto the Queen Elizabeth (ocean liner) and

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Upon returning to Alabama, Hilman married Vernie Cruise, his high school sweetheart, and settled down. He worked at various jobs that included 10 years at Dewberry Foundry in Talladega before settling down to a career as an electrician at Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, where “I actually did more work for the school’s athletic department than electrical stuff.”

Now, a 94-year-old resident of Col. Robert L. Howard State

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Prestridge where he landed at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France

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PFC Prestridge A LCVP from the U.S. Coast Guardmanned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops wading onto Omaha Beach the morning of June 6, 1944.

Veterans Home in Pell City, Hilman Prestridge is far from retired. He’s been involved in many veterans’ activities, including group visits with his old comrades to various D-Day memorials in America and overseas.

While attending a 70th anniversary gathering at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, Hilman was greeted by a lady whose two brothers were with Hilman at Omaha Beach. They didn’t survive the landing. She was holding a Bible that one of them carried while serving, which had somehow found its way home.

He’s also revisited the actual spot where he landed in Normandy more than 74 years ago and has an album full of photographs he uses to illustrate their horrendous experience.

Hilman Prestridge is one survivor of only about 5,000 D-Day veterans estimated remaining. He is indeed an honored member of the Greatest Generation.

Thank you for your service, PFC Prestridge. l

Prestridge, left, at 70th anniversary of invasion, in Bedford VA D Day Memorial 52

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

Red Gates Yet another amazing venue defines St. Clair as THE Wedding Destination of choice 54

Quest for tractor barn leads to elegant event venue in Odenville Story by Jackie Romine Walburn Photos by Graham Hadley and Sweet Life Photography - Stefanie Knight and Lauren Hudson Photography Contributed photos

It may have been fate or divine guidance, or both, that brought Steve and Desa Osborn to St. Clair County and a life-changing land purchase.

Either way, when the Osborns found 26 acres in Odenville perfect for building a barn for Steve’s tractor, Matilda, and an eventual backto-the-country home, they also discovered a dream avocation as proprietors of a rusticallyelegant event venue called Red Gates at Kelly Creek.

“God paved the path,” Desa says, looking back at the whirlwind transformation of the once overgrown land in the shadow of Taylor Mountain, named for the St. Clair family that once farmed the land.

The adventure began with finding the land – when machetes were needed to hack through the overgrowth to find the remnants of an old barn, a leftover pecan orchard, an original hand-dug well and two ponds.

As the Mountain Brook couple began making plans for Matilda’s barn, another search altered those plans. Their son Stefan Osborn and fiancée Mary Vlasis were planning a May 26, 2017 wedding and looking for a unique venue to host an after-rehearsal dinner.

After visiting venues – including the iron and wood-filled Iron City Birmingham in Southside — and finding venue-only fees costing up to $10,000, the Osborn family decided to build their own rustic iron and wood venue.

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

Red Gates

A moss-covered tree adds to the charm of the barn.

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Today, a two-story 65,000-square-foot timber frame barn rises proudly to center the landscaped grounds, a veteran now of weddings and parties – including the first event that started it all, Stefan and Mary Osborn’s afterrehearsal dinner. Already booked through May of 2019, Red Gates at Kelly Creek has 28 weddings on the 2018 calendar, plus a charity function for a nonprofit foundation dear to the Osborns.

With a full caterer’s kitchen with a separate entrance, the venue can host 50 to 300 people. Folks were visiting and signing up even before the sawdust was swept up, Steve says. And, Red Gates at Kelly Creek – named for the red gates Desa wanted instead of the ordinary silver ones plus its location at 2800 Kelly Creek Road – has been busy ever since.

The journey from beginning construction in February 2017 to the first event three months later combined Steve Osborn’s design and construction knowledge with Desa’s eye for decorating and quality wood building materials plus the artistry and knowhow of timber frame builder, Joe Dick.

An environmental consultant who grew up near Florence helping his father build and fix whatever the large family needed, Steve Osborn designed the two-story timber frame barn. “I knew what I wanted, but I also knew enough to know when to hand it off to an expert,” he says.

That expert, Joe Dick Framing of Helena, brought in a mini-mill to cut timbers that were joined with notches and

One of the sitting areas in the barn

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

Red Gates

Desa and Steve in front of a cottage made of wood from the old barn

The barn decked out for the big day

The huge vaulted ceilings in the barn make it perfect for wedding events.

Entrance to Red Gates

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Steve and his prized tractor, Matilda. bolts and to mill the pecan wood, which came straight from the Red Gates land and was used as treads on the two staircases.

Poplar milled on site was used for the vanity tops in the bathrooms. The crew welded the iron railing pieces on site, too.

Desa, who was Desa Lorant when she attended Berry High school in Birmingham, called on the building materials expertise she learned during her 28 years working at Birmingham International Forest Products.

She and Steve knew exactly what posts and beams and lumber they wanted where. “We were always going to build a barn,” Desa says, “but not this big of a barn.”

From Joseph Lumber Company in Columbiana, they got the 10 sturdy 22-to-24-inch-caliper Southern Yellow Pine posts that hold up the towering barn, plus the beams and lumber. The exterior of Cypress board and batten siding came from a south Alabama mill, fully treated and stained using Q8 log oil.

Two staircases with the pecan wood treads and iron railings lead to a wraparound loft upstairs. A chandelier centers the barn’s open area, and another chandelier hangs on the covered porch area, just above where Maltilda, the Mahindra tractor, often occupies an honored place.

Tied together with shiny concrete floors inside and handmade benches dotting the porch area that’s cooled with

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The swing in front of the barn is a popular photo spot.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

Red Gates

The second-floor balcony overlooks the main room in the barn.

A number of ponds and water features adorn the property.

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ceiling fans, the rustic barn has ladies’ and men’s restrooms. As a plus, it features comfortable gettingready rooms for the bridesmaids and the bride, each filled with antique furniture handed down from Steve and Desa’s families.

So far, about half the couples opted to be married inside the giant barn and the other half outside, where an arbor, a handmade mantle, the stocked pond and the chandeliered porch area are available as backdrops.

Highlights on the grounds include a fire pit surrounded

by Adirondack chairs, a lighted horseshoe pit, a flower garlanded tree swing and the small garden shed built with materials salvaged from the old tumble-down barn which stood 200 years on the site where the new barn was built.

They are still adding on. Steve is building a small groom’s cabin with a porch so the fellows have a place to dress, too.

Nature provides other backdrops for vows and pictures, including the lighted pecan trees that are producing nuts again, resurrection ferns and wild garlic native to the place.

One event circled in red on the Red Gates calendar is a benefit for the Clayne Crawford Foundation, a nonprofit supporting children, women and veterans founded by the Clay, Ala. actor and director. It’s the second benefit hosted at Red Gates for the Foundation founded by Crawford, star of the Lethal Weapon

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

television series and the 2002 movie, A Walk to Remember.

A Pig Out Picnic Barbecue and Benefit – complete with pig roasting in the ground – was held in May at Red Gates at Kelly Creek. Desa serves on a Foundation committee, and both strongly support the Foundation’s projects, particularly the community work of The Music Room in Leeds that offers music therapy classes for autistic children. The Music Room also partners with the Autism Society of Alabama on “Inclusion Through Music,” a June camp that serves autistic children.

Ever since the young married Osborns moved from a rural area near Wilsonville back to Desa’s hometown, settling in Mountain Brook, they were always going to move back to the country, where Steve is happiest, Desa says. The search for their country place intensified as their son, Stefan, and daughter, Kristina, who now lives in Gadsden, finished school.

Now, they talk about where on the property to build their retirement home when the time comes. Perhaps by the pond that’s stocked with Florida hybrid bass and Copper Nose Bluegill? Or on the other side of the pond at the tree-shaded foot of Taylor Mountain? They will decide eventually.

They both still work full time while managing and building their new thriving business.

But, they know that after years of searching, they’ve finally found what they were looking for – a picture perfect place where they can do what they love doing, together.

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

The perfect place

Blue jeans to black tie, St. Clair has it all Story Paul South Submitted photos This is a big year for weddings in pop culture, from factual – Prince Harry and the American actress Meghan Markle – to fictional – Dr. Sheldon Cooper and Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on the television comedy, The Big Bang Theory.

But from where everyday couples sit, there’s no nuptial more important than their own. And the old reporter’s five W’s and an H, (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How), applies to weddings, too.

With destination weddings all the rage, remember that there are a number of picturesque, romantic wedding venues in St. Clair County. Here’s a glance at some of them: Applewood Farm, Pell City: Applewood Farm is a wedding photographer’s dream, with more than 80 acres of rolling farmlands, creeks, ponds and wildlife, embraced by Alabama hardwood forest. There are rustic, but elegant indoor spots, too, notably the 4,200-square foot Chandelier Barn, with room for up to 200 guests for both the ceremony or reception.

Highlights also include The Farm House for rehearsal dinners, an 1841 Log Cabin and Country Cottage for the bridal party, or for a one-night honeymoon for couples who don’t want to travel on their wedding night.

Other amenities include: A dance floor, overnight accommodations for the wedding party or guests, a stage for a band or disc jockey, cozy dressing room, a full stainless-steel prep kitchen, secure parking and handicapaccessible restrooms. Applewood Farm also offers heating and air-conditioning in all its buildings, providing comfort for the wedding party and guests any season of the year.

Applewood Farm offers a secluded setting yet easy access for guests with just a short five-mile drive from I-20.

Applewood Farm is a Southern Classic, a welcoming rustic retreat, a perfect place to say, “I Do.” For more information, visit applewoodfarmal.com, or call 205-338-4910.

Applewood Farm

Celebrations, Pell City: Owner Debra Dyer is a self-described “one-woman” show at this popular Pell City venue, and for couples, that’s a good thing.

“That’s what’s unique about us,” she said. “I’m the owner, so they’re getting my personalized attention.”

One of the area’s larger venues, Celebrations has 10,000 indoor square feet. Smaller rooms upstairs are perfect for the bride and groom to prepare for their big day, and another upper space is available for reception treats.

Couples can hire their own decorators, baker, photographers, caterers, music and the like, or Dyer will provide referrals.

In business since 2001, Celebrations provides tables and chairs and audiovisual equipment. Dyer offers a flat rate, depending on the amount of time the couple wants to use the venue.

Celebrations, as the name suggests, is available for a variety of

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Celebrations

Dawson’s Honeysuckle Farm

unique events, birthday parties and the like. Like many of the area venues, Dyer has won raves from her clients.

“They tell me they can see God shining through me and that I have a sweet spirit and that I’m easy to work with. That means a lot to me, because I work hard. When people are generous and grateful and give me compliments, it makes it all worthwhile.”

Dyer makes a solemn promise to the couples who want to tie the knot at Celebrations: “If they come here, I will do everything in my power to make it the best event for them.”

For more information, call 205-884-8632, or visit the Celebrations page on Facebook.

Dawson’s Honeysuckle Farm, Ashville: Rave reviews from friends following a Dawson family wedding in 2014 sparked an idea for this beautiful wedding venue on 235 acres in the Slasham Valley west of Canoe Creek. The result is an “organic, peaceful and elegant atmosphere for weddings and receptions.”

Still a working farm, Honeysuckle Farm can be customized by wedding parties to create a unique experience. The Barn can be dressed up or down from black tie to blue jeans to fit any couple’s own style. Bistro lighting in the barn casts a romantic glow, and a center stage offers plenty of room for a band or DJ. We have built a new ceremony barn to give the bride an option to have a covered ceremony site.

“We encourage our brides to go out onto the farm and pick the greenery to use in their wedding decoration and table centerpieces,” Bart Dawson said. “We try to make our weddings beautiful, fun and affordable for our brides.”

A full kitchen and a screened serving house is perfect for caterers, and there is a quaint cottage on the grounds for the wedding party to prepare for the big event. There is ample parking and a shuttle service is available. For more information, go to dawsonshoneysucklefarm.com, or call 256-490-4669.

a classic American red barn, that celebrates the simple elegance of the country life.

The spot gets high marks for ease and affordability, and it’s a great spot for couples who don’t want to break the bank. The charmingly rustic red barn has room for up to 250 guests and the stalls can be transformed into drink stations, children’s play areas and other boundless possibilities.

Along with the barn, there are outdoor spots great for beautiful outdoor ceremonies and photos. The red barn is popular among clients, Carter St. John said.

“I love the country feel of that red barn,” Carter St. John said.

“Plus, we’re easy to work with and really affordable.”

For more information, contact drycreekfarm01@gmail.com, or call 205-705-4041.

The Heritage House, Odenville: An elegant, turn of the last century 1907 Victorian-style home, provides a warm, welcoming venue for everything from casual to formal weddings. Billed as a “true escape” from the boisterous bustle of the city, the Heritage House features lofty ceilings and classic décor, as well as a rustic barn, courtyard and vintage horse-drawn carriage that harkens back to a simpler, more romantic time.

Mercy and Chris King have owned Heritage House since 2013.

“It offers a quiet respite from some of the big-city venues,” co-owner Mercy King said. “The location is a big selling point and it’s only 20 minutes from Interstate 20 with easy access to Birmingham.

The home offers unrivaled intimacy, seating 45-50 inside and up to 125 combined inside and outside. Seating is complimentary, as well as tables for receptions and rehearsal dinners. A full kitchen is available. Parties can bring their own food, or the Heritage House staff can recommend caterers to fit your budget.

Heritage House also has an in-house sound system and can offer rentals for linens, seating and other amenities. Among seating options are vintage church pews, the perfect fit for the historic home.

For more information, visit odenville.org, or call 205-677-6232.

Mathews Manor, Springville: Built in 1930, Mathews Manor was originally home to a popular restaurant, The Forks Inn. Debbie and Harold Mathews bought and restored the restaurant in 1999 and opened in 2001 for weddings and extraordinary events.

Over time, Mathews Manor expanded to open venues within a venue. Built in 2003, Grace Hall offers space for larger

Dry Creek Farms, Pell City: What began as friends “borrowing” their cattle barn for weddings and other celebrations is now a full-fledged family business. Joy St. John and sons Carter and Locke are still in the cattle business but are also in event planning and hosting.

The family constructed a second barn, separate from its cattle facility, great for weddings, receptions and other celebrations. It’s

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair perfect place weddings and events. Nearby, Rebecca Gardens, which opened in 2001, is a great spot for beautiful outdoor events. And across the street, Micah’s Meadow, like Rebecca Gardens, offers a placid, picturesque spot for outdoor weddings and occasions.

The meadow hosted its first wedding in 2009 just for ceremonies.

In 2016, a rustic, elegant barn was built at the 52-acre Micah’s Meadow for weddings and receptions.

Mathews Manor offers a variety of services, including complete floral designs, customized catering, Bride and Groom cakes in a variety of flavors, wedding planning and direction, rehearsal dinners and a complete sound system.

What sets Mathews Manor apart, Debbie Mathews said, is that it’s all-inclusive, offering everything a couple will need for their important day.

“We help you from day one, to plan the wedding, to take care of all the needs that you have . . . We do the food there, we do the flowers there, we do everything, which makes it less stressful for a family. That’s what we feel really helps. Some places, families have to bring in all they need. At ours, you don’t.”

Mathews, who has worked in wedding and event planning for more than three decades, said helping couples is “our dream. I still just love being a part of a bride and groom’s special day. One of the most important times in their lives is getting married. I can’t imagine any other job being more fulfilling.”

For more information, contact 205-467-3935 or Mathewsmanor. com.

Mountain View Farms, Ashville: Billing itself as “A Private Estate Wedding Venue,” Mountain View Farms consists of 110 acres nestled among towering oaks and gorgeous views. Jeff and Sheila Caddell were the first couple married on this long-time family land… which inspired them to help other couples have their dream wedding.

“There are several ceremony locations, including a picturesque gazebo surrounded by water, a huge oak that sits on the edge of the glistening lake, or the large pavilion with vintage chandeliers and gorgeous oak farm tables” Jeff Caddell said.

Sheila Caddell added: “As ‘day of (ceremony)’ planners, we help with every detail of the wedding day, tealights and other

Mountain View Farms 64

Louie’s at Countryside Farm props. We say don’t settle for a rental venue where you stress over the details…enjoy the day with your family and friends.”

Mountain View Farms has options for weekday, Saturday and Sunday packages which are customized according to each bride’s desires. “Fireworks are always exciting and included for all of our Saturday brides. We capture epic firework shots and videos, and we are one of a few venues that offer this,” Jeff Caddell said.

For more information, visit them on Facebook, Instagram or online at mountainviewfarmsofashville.com, or call 205-594-5857.

Mountain View Gardens and Ballroom, Springville: At the Mountain View Gardens wedding and event venue, “everywhere you turn is a memory to be made.” Spectacular views, 20 years of experience in event planning and the flexibility to create a simple or ornate wedding are some of the features of this 11-acre venue.

The Victorian home with its Grand Ballroom, along with gourmet food created by Mountain View Gardens catering staff ensures a magical celebration.

The large, wraparound porch that embraces the home lends itself to conversation, celebration and countless photo opportunities.

Mountain View Gardens offers several ceremony options for couples: poolside, in a garden area, or with a mountain view or under towering Alabama hardwoods with light provided by elegant chandeliers. A barn is also available for country-themed outside weddings. The Grand Ballroom is perfect for winter weddings. The indoor settings offer couples a spring and summer fallback in the event of inclement weather.

An elegant bridal suite decorated in keeping with the grand Victorian tradition offers a formal, but relaxing place for the bride and her bridesmaids.

Mountain View Gardens also has solid professional relationships with videographers, photographers, printers, musicians, bakers and destination honeymoon planners to meet all the needs of one of the most important days of your life.

“I go 100 percent above what I’m supposed to,” said co-owner Debbie Lewis. “The price is less, and I work hard to make sure everything is perfect. I tell the brides, ‘I care more about your wedding than you do, and it’s going to be done to the best of my ability. It’s important to me that it’s done right.”

For more information, contact Debbie Lewis at 205-629-6791, or mtnviewgardens@aol.com.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair perfect place Livery does allow couples to bring in alcoholic beverages on a limited basis. Local service providers are at the top of The Livery’s referrals.

“I always try to promote Leeds first and the businesses within our city.”

The Livery Event Center is located at 1601 Ninth St., across from another historic structure, the Leeds Rail Depot. For more information, visit theliveryeventcenter.com, or call 205-699-6647.

Livery Event Center

The Livery Event Center, Leeds: For couples who want to be embraced in Leeds history on their special day, The Livery Event Center offers a perfect option. Located in one of Leeds’ oldest buildings on the town’s historic main street, Ninth Street, The Livery was once home to a livery stable. The venue now offers an intimate setting surrounded by tradition, but with modern conveniences.

Owner Linda Miller and her husband, lifelong Leeds residents, have owned The Livery since 2010. The Livery hosts all kinds of events, from investment seminars to anniversary parties. But weddings are special, with the couple in mind.

The venue comfortably seats 75 to 80 guests and with soft lighting and a grand chandelier, The Livery is perfect for a warm, intimate wedding ceremony and/or reception.

“It’s a small place, with the old original concrete floors. It has the old bead board with the original green patina on it,” Miller said. “When you walk into it, it’s like you’re transported into a different time. It has a charm about it. People love to get married there for small weddings.”

Another highlight of The Livery is affordability, a plus for couples on a budget.

“A good thing about it is we offer it at a price that people can afford to pay,” Miller said. “A lot of wedding venues now start at $2,000 or $3,000. We’re nothing close to that. We charge the same whether it’s a wedding ceremony, a bridal tea, birthday party, a variety of events.”

She added: “We offer a place where people can have an affordable wedding. It’s my way of giving back to people in the community and sharing something very special to us.”

The Livery offers space for a wedding, as well as tables, chairs and setup for a flat fee. Tablecloths steamed and placed on the table are also available for an additional charge. Couples can provide their own planners, caterers, decorators, florists, music, photographers and other wedding-related vendors, but The Livery can provide referrals for those services if needed. The

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The Sonnet House, Leeds: It seems fitting that the Sonnet House, a century-old home that was rescued from disrepair through a “labor of love,” is now a popular place for couples to celebrate their love for each other.

Opened for events in 2007 after years of renovation, the venue, formerly known as the McLaughlin House, holds fast to its history while opening its doors to contemporary wedding celebrations.

The Sonnet’s approach? “To seamlessly carry out weddings and events with creativity, fun, organization and five-star service.” The three-person Sonnet staff – Jared Heaton, Corey Hults and Ellen Morgan – bring years of experience in event planning, service, catering and floral selection and arrangements.

And, given the fickle spring and summer weather in east Alabama, a 350-seat chapel provides a ready-made Plan B with no added costs for the couple.

“One of the big draws for us is that we only do one wedding a day,” said Sonnet House Managing Partner Jared Heaton. “Most of our weddings are outside, but we have an indoor chapel, so if it were to rain, we don’t have to scrounge for a tent, or add on an additional $1,000 in cost for their wedding that they had not budgeted for. You can actually control your budget much better, knowing that (the chapel) is in place. There’s a peace of mind that comes with that.”

Tours are available by appointment only. For more information, contact SonnetHouse@gmail.com, or call 205-699-7490.

Walters Farms Weddings, Ragland: A 400-acre tract with a breathtaking view of the majestic Coosa River is home to Walters Farms Weddings. A rustic, but elegant barn under the farm’s tall timbers is a great site for an indoor wedding celebration that promises to be “a timeless Southern wedding like no other.”

The Walters property remains a working farm, adorned with a natural beauty that makes it perfect for indoor or outdoor weddings. A natural vine arbor overlooks the river, and there is rustic bench seating for outdoor weddings. Majestic trees also provide cool shade. But there are also a number of nearby power outlets to allow modern conveniences.

Among its amenities, Walters Farms offers an elegant Bride’s House, with a vintage preparation room, a kitchen, a full bath and two sitting rooms for bridesmaids and a masculine, spacious Groom’s Space with a den and kitchen to allow the couple to prepare for their special day in privacy and comfort. The kitchen is a caterer’s dream. There is ample parking nearby and handicap accessibility, as well as a free shuttle service. Tables and chairs, as well as a wide selection of decorations are available at no charge, and the Walters Farms staff cleans up after the wedding at no charge.

Affordability is also an important plus at Walters Farms, with a flat rate covering all services.

Co-owners Deloma Walters and her husband, Joe, and the staff takes a personal interest in every event. She and her husband Joe are carrying on a family tradition. The Walters Farm was started in 1945 and began as a wedding venue in 2013.

“We’re always on site to resolve any need that arises,” Walters

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Cabin Bluff said. “We are dedicated to helping make the couple’s wedding day go smoothly.”

For more information, or to schedule a tour, visit waltersfarmsweddings.com or call 205-470-9515.

Weddings at Cabin Bluff, Springville: Rave reviews after posting family pictures from weddings on their breathtaking Cabin Bluff property combined with 30 years of event planning experience are a recipe for a great wedding experience.

A traditional red barn built specifically for weddings and events was comp listed in 2016. With 4,000 square feet, the elegant barn can seat up to 250 ceremony guests comfortably and 250 for the reception. An outdoor terrace wedding venue can seat 350. A full kitchen, as well as suites – one for the bride and her maids, a second for the groom and his attendants – provide a place for comfortable preparation.

Weddings at Cabin Bluff also has a great working relationship with a number of proven area vendors for photography, floral, cake and catering needs.

“Our barn and the field where we do our weddings are only steps from each other,” co-owner Wendy Ryals said. “I don’t know of another place in our area that combines our capacity to seat people in a beautiful field overlooking a valley, plus, then entertain them right on the property in one area. That to me is great.”

The views of the valley below Cabin Bluff are a wedding photographer’s dream, with a breathtaking view of Canoe Creek Valley, with the stream flowing into Washington Valley. And on a clear, low humidity day, couples can see Mount Cheaha, Alabama’s highest peak.

For more information, contact wendy@weddingsatcabinbluff. com, or call 205-332-0941.

Walters Farms Weddings

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

St. Clair’s got taste Food galore to tickle any palette

Finger foods from Local Joe’s 68

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Susan Wall Submitted photos From barbecue to sushi, fish to chicken Alfredo, St. Clair caterers can do just about all the wedding food a bride dreams about. Whether you’re having a casual barn wedding or a formal church ceremony, a grand gala with 300 people to feed or a small, intimate affair with family and close friends, someone in St. Clair County can make your dinner or reception an event folks will be talking about for years.

Caterers around St. Clair share common reasons for what they do. Most of them got into the business because they like to cook, and doing weddings gives them warm, fuzzy feelings of being part of a happy celebration.

“I like taking stress away from the bride and groom, letting them enjoy their special day,” said Craig Frickey, co-owner with wife Michelle at Sammie’s Touch N’ Go Catering in Pell City.

“I like seeing kids who grew up coming to my restaurant, and now I do their weddings. That does make me feel kinda old, though.”

The Frickeys opened Sammie’s in 2000 in a log cabin overlooking the county airport. Soon people started asking about catering their special events.

What began as a side business took off, and four years ago they closed the restaurant to the public and began catering full time, both on site and at other venues. Meanwhile, they purchased J & S Country Store & Deli in Pell City, which is why you’ll find their Sammie’s catering brochure there.

“Michelle and I are a team,” said Craig. “I decorate the plates, and she, the rest of the place.

We do a lot of weddings. So far this year (early May), we’ve probably done six or seven and have that many more scheduled.”

He always talks to the bride and bridegroom, telling them it’s their day, and they can have whatever they want in the way of food. “Whether they prefer finger foods or a sit-down meal usually depends on the time of day,” Craig said. “We want it to be about them, let them make the decision, then just show up and have a good time.”

A popular trend is to have several food stations at the reception, each featuring a different item.

One might be a roast beef carving, another pasta, a potato bar and even a grits bar. “Shrimp and grits is one of my most requested items,” Craig said.

“I put lots of butter, heavy cream and andouille sausage in it, and I do sautéed shrimp on top and a basil cream sauce. Two things that never change are shrimp and grits and bread pudding.”

Frickey said his company is a full-service caterer, from table linens to liquor, but he doesn’t make wedding cakes.

Like most caterers, however, Craig and Michelle can whip up just about any main dish requested. “I had some lady who wanted an Indian dish,” Craig said. “I said, ‘You get me a recipe, and I can make it.’ I did and they loved it.”

Like the Frickeys, Polly Warren can work from just about any recipe. She has been catering more than 30 years out of the KFC Pell City location her family has owned for 46 years. “When my kids were in school, they asked us to cater during football seasons,” she said. “I said, ‘Let’s do

Amanda Camp’s vegetable platter

Cheese cake from Local Joe’s

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair Taste

A vintage pickup makes the perfect display for Amanda Camp’s cooking.

steak, baked potato and salad.’ So we did that for 200-300 people.

Then folks started saying, ‘Oh, you can do teas, weddings, birthdays.’

Word spread, and they continue to call me.”

She does just a few weddings each year, every one with a different menu. “We don’t do cakes, though,” she said. Polly caters all the CEPA events that have hors d’oeuvres or meals and has catered the Pell City Rotary every Tuesday for 10 years. She does private events, Boy Scout dinners, the annual Pell City Mayor’s Breakfast and just about anyone else who calls. She has done weddings with 350 guests, but her largest civic assignment was for 600. Her smallest group was 20.

“I love to cook and to serve people,” Polly said. “It makes me feel good when they like my food. I think I was born for cooking,” said the native of Greece. “I learned a lot of Southern cooking from my mother-in-law, who was from Georgia. I make Greek foods, too.

I may change a recipe and do it my way, but it works. I’ve had no complaints.”

Wade Reich, owner and operator of Butts To Go on Martin Street North in Pell City, operates out of the Pell City Texaco station.

But don’t let the location fool you. He’s been featured in USA Today, Southern Living and other publications that have reached internationally.

He does seven or eight weddings a year in Birmingham as well as St. Clair County, and claims, with tongue just lightly planted in his

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cheek, that he has been catering since he was five years old.

“I grew up with the family hotel business in Gadsden and Birmingham,” he said. “When I was five, my parents let me put the peas on the plates for a Kiwanis dinner.” In 1974, his family opened Pappos in the old Printup Hotel in Gadsden, and he worked in the kitchen there.

“We bought this place (the service station) in ’08 and started catering in ’09,” Reich said. “The food business allows us to be in the gas business.” Many of the weddings he does lean toward smoked meats, but he isn’t limited to those. “We did one at Applewood Farms with grilled pork chops and chicken Alfredo,” Craig said. “The bride wanted the chicken for the younger kids. The rehearsal dinner the night before featured barbecue.” He does steaks, too, but not wedding cakes.

Overnight, he can cook enough meat to serve 6,000 people, but the largest group he has catered was 10,000, if you count his family hotel business days. From Butts To Go, he has catered as many as 450 and as few as one. “We cater to everyone who walks through our doors,” he said.

Kat Tucker is one of the few caterers in St. Clair County who also bakes cakes. She can customize foods or cakes to suit the tastes of just about any bride and bridegroom, including unusual requests like those of her own daughter.

“She doesn’t like cake, but she loves lasagna,” Tucker said. “So, I

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

made lasagna in the shape of a wedding cake.”

Tucker has been catering out of The Kitchen in Pell City for 18 years because she loves to cook and loves making people happy.

“That’s my goal, to make the bride and bridegroom happy and make sure their guests have a very enjoyable event,” Tucker said. “A wedding is a time for celebration. If something is not quite right with the food, that’s what they’ll remember. We make sure it’s great.”

Nine out of 10 times, the wedding couple doesn’t have time to enjoy the food, whether it’s served as a sit-down dinner, buffet-style or consists of appetizers only, according to Tucker. So, she always makes a care package for them carry out. “They can eat it in the airport while waiting to catch a plane or put it in their freezer for after the honeymoon,” she said. Tucker sometimes keeps leftover portions of the wedding cake in her own freezer until the couple asks for it.

“I have shipped cakes as far as Florida,” she said. “I carried one to Missouri when I did my nephew’s wedding out there.”

Mandy Camp, of Bowling’s Barbecue/The Complete Catering Company in Odenville, has been catering for more than 10 years. She can feed from 50 to 500 people, providing linens and centerpieces as well. She loves doing weddings, but also caters several civic events and a local Christian school. “People knew we would deliver orders from the restaurant and go set up, so they began asking about weddings,” she said.

She loves weddings because she gets to be part of a couple’s special day. As of May 1, she had catered 10-12 weddings this year and had one or two a month booked through December. “I have a Facebook page, but I don’t really promote my catering business,” Mandy said. “All publicity is by word of mouth or people attending a wedding and seeing what I do.” Popular wedding foods include panko chicken, meatballs, pulled pork and pulled chicken. Most brides prefer the food to be served buffet style. Sometimes those buffets will include Mandy’s green bean bundles (see Discover’s December 2016 Shopping & Dining St. Clair for recipe) and mashed potato bars or stations.

“I don’t do cakes, but if someone asks for a wedding cake, I have a couple of people I can call,” she said. “I used to do them, but since I had a child, I don’t have the patience.” Her mother, Sonja Bowling, is a big part of the catering business, and several good friends and close family members help, too.

MainStreet Drugs in Pell City and Odenville Drugs call Mandy when they have events, she said. “We have provided food for the Gideons every month for eight years, we do catering for Moody High School athletics, the MHS prom this year, civic events, school events and some churches.”

Lisa Vourvas at Two Sisters, a homestyle restaurant on U.S. 231 in Ashville, does a few weddings a year, preparing whatever the bride and bridegroom desire. Although her sister, Betty Cox, works with her, Lisa is the owner.

She has been catering since she opened in 2010. Most of it is for civic and community events, like the Shoal Creek Fire Department’s annual dinner for volunteer firefighters and their spouses. The largest number she has fed is 240 at the WMU fashion show at First Baptist Church of Ashville, while the smallest was a local wedding for 20 people, where the menu featured fish. “We did about 30 at the Ashville High School Class of 1948’s reunion,” Lisa said. “The firefighters want country-fried steak and peach cobbler every year.”

The primary chef for Two Sisters, Lisa grew up cooking for three younger sisters.Her most popular catered items are chicken salad and macaroni and cheese, which she also serves in the restaurant. She has a secret ingredient in the chicken salad that she refuses to reveal, although many customers have asked. “It gives the chicken salad flavor but you can’t taste the ingredient itself,” Lisa said.

Karen Stanfield handles the catering side of Local Joe’s Trading Post, near the St. Clair/Etowah county line on Rainbow Drive.

“Because we have the use of the kitchens at both restaurants (the other is in Alexandria), it is not unusual for us to have three or four weddings or large catering events per weekend,” said Karen, who owns the restaurants with her husband, Jodie. “Our highly experienced catering staff loves what they do, and it shows each and every time they serve.”

74 Plaza Drive Pell City, AL

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair Taste In addition to weddings, Local Joe’s has catered four large community events over the past few years, including The Mayor’s Ball in Gadsden (to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of America), The Mardi Gras Magic Party (Family Success Center in Gadsden), The Paws for St. Paddy’s (Etowah County Humane Society Pet Rescue & Adoption Center), and The Girlfriend Gala (Success by Six program in coordination with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library).

The latter event was for 600 people this year.

The highest number of wedding guests Local Joe’s has catered was 465 people at a family farm, the smallest probably 25-30 at a private home. “The farm wedding had a fun menu primarily of desserts,” Karen said. “They also had some trays of mini croissants with chicken salad and pimento cheese, as well as some mini sliders for people who needed to have something with not so much sugar.

There was a coffee bar because the couple loves their coffee.”

Local Joe’s has culinary-trained chefs who will make any cuisine a client wants, from Spanish to Cajun. The most popular catered meats are brisket, smoked turkey, pulled pork, chicken, ham, ribs, sausage and bacon-wrapped smoked shrimp. “Chefs Nathan and Damon make many delicious hors d’oeuvres, as well as some beautiful anti-pasta platters, fruit platters and vegetable platters,” said Karen. Despite the presence of a bakery at Local Joe’s, Karen refers brides to a couple of local specialists for the wedding cake.

She may not be on Local Joe’s referral list, but Lorraine Smith of Steele makes cakes. Operating as Edibles by Lorraine out of the commercial kitchen in her own home, she also bakes cakes for birthdays and other celebrations. She has even been known to donate a few for charitable events.

“I did around 40-45 weddings last year,” Lorraine said. “I also do birthday cakes between weddings. I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years. It’s a specialized business. I get to do something special for someone and that brings me joy.”

Lorraine got her training at Jerri’s Bakery in Rainbow City, which was owned by her husband’s aunt and uncle. “His aunt opened up a shop for people to buy baking and cake decorating supplies, and from there, people wanted cakes,” Lorraine said. “I managed her place for 13 years.”

Every cake is different, but she does a lot of Auburn and Alabama-themed cakes, which usually take on the personality of the bridegroom. Aubie or Big Al might be wearing golfing attire, camouflage or motorcycle boots. “These are always the fun cakes,” Lorraine said. “The bride’s cake is more elegant.”

One of her most challenging cakes involved a woman who loved old books, old papers and typewriters. She wanted antique handwriting on her cake. “I have a printer that makes edible type, so I printed off the letters and pressed them to the side of the cake,” Lorraine said. “Her aunt had made flowers out of pages of a book.”

Lorraine sets up tastings, where the bride and bridegroom choose flavors from her list. then sit around a table and taste the cakes and discuss their theme. “We try to make their wishes and dreams come true,” Lorraine said.

She can do any flavor a bride or groom wants, even to the point of having a five-tiered cake with a different flavor for each tier.

“Bridegrooms sometimes want strawberry (instead of the traditional chocolate), and sometimes a bridal cake will be chocolate or peanut butter flavored,” she said. “Barn weddings are different from church weddings, being more rustic, more country in style. We do a naked cake for a lot of barn weddings.” That’s when she adds extra icing between the layers, then lightly coats the outside with icing that she scrapes off, leaving some of the cake exposed.

Lorraine has no clue as to the number of wedding cakes she bakes each year. “I just count my weddings,” she said. “Most weekends I do two or three. I meet some of the most wonderful people that way.”

Louie’s Grill at Countryside Farm in Cropwell is an impressive restaurant, a wedding and event venue and an onsite catering operation all rolled into one. With veteran restaurateur Brenda

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Sammie’s Touch ‘N Go Catering broadens the catering offerings

Butts to Go can serve up BBQ and more.

Hamby at the helm, Countryside Farm has grown into a destination point for wedding ceremonies, receptions, rehearsal dinners, showers, intimate dinner parties, corporate events, parties, reunions and luncheons.

“We are a full catering service with banquet rooms for all occasions,” Hamby said. Imagine it, and chances are, Hamby and company can make it happen. After all, Louie’s has become a regional attraction for its delicious food in an elegant but casual atmosphere.

Hamby is no stranger to the food business even though she came to Alabama as owner of the thoroughbred training farm when Birmingham Race Course opened as a horse track in the nearby metropolitan area. At the track, she also operated the Back Stretch Cafeteria in the barn area and the Jocks Lounge in the Clubhouse.

Closer to home, she owned Lakeside Barbecue and Grill at Rabbit Branch, then bought Even Odds Restaurant in 1989. In 1991, she opened the City Club, which later became Harbor Lights. “We came home to retire,” she said of the farm. “It didn’t stick.”

You might say it’s in the genes. My mother taught me. She was the best cook I have ever known.” After that, she owned restaurants, hired chefs and “learned a lot more.” But it was the years of early learning by her mother’s side that set her on a successful path. “I had no restaurant experience when I opened the first one.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair

Rings & Registries

It’s a new day for the big day

A one-of-a-kind ring from Griffins 74

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Story and Photos by Graham Hadley Photos courtesy of Griffins Jewelers Contributed Photos Months before the big day, couples are busy not only planning every aspect of the wedding, but they are also busy choosing their rings and setting up their bridal and wedding registries.

And, while for many soon-to-be newlyweds, the traditional route is the obvious choice, others are choosing more nontraditional options when it comes to everything from rings to what setting pieces they want to register for. And more and more, as both technology and cultural trends change, the businesses that provide those services are giving customers a much broader spectrum of choices.

The rings For more than a century in the United States, engagement sets and wedding rings followed tried-and-true traditional styles. Usually simple gold or platinum bands for the wedding rings, a single large diamond sometimes surrounded or accented by smaller white diamonds for the engagement and guard rings were the norm.

Not so much anymore. Rings come in just about any style you can imagine, literally. Customers are no longer constrained by what they see in the store — their imagination is the limit.

“It’s very different from what it was 20 or 30 years ago,” said Michael Abernathy, a jeweler and vice president of marketing and sales for Griffins Jewelers.

“People come in and have done a lot of research on the Internet, seen rings online, Facebook, Pinterest or other sites.

They might want something in a modern style, but we are seeing just as many customers looking for a vintage style, maybe art deco. We have styles from many different genres.

You are not stuck with cookie-cutter designs.”

The options for rings are almost endless, and it is the men as often as it is the women who what something distinctive.

While gold or platinum are still more often than not the standard, other metals and materials are growing in popularity.

You might see rings made from tungsten, palladium, cobalt or some other metal gracing the fingers of newlyweds. Some people are opting for rings that are a combination of materials.

“We have some beautiful rings that are polished wood on the inside and metal on the outside,” Abernathy said.

And it does not stop there. Rings can be made from other materials, like silicone or carbon fiber. There are even hypoallergenic rings available.

The use of those alternative materials also makes it possible to make the style of the ring very unique, from the traditional simple polished bands to rings with intricate designs. Men, in particular, are drawn to some of the darker rings with almost industrial design elements.

Abernathy said he has seen rings that have patterns similar to the tread on a motorcycle tire for biking enthusiasts.

The same is true for the stones. White diamonds are popular for the engagement rings, stones with brighter colors, sapphires for instance, are also in high demand, he said.

“Sapphire engagement rings go way back. Princess Dianna’s ring was a sapphire ring.”

All of these are designs that can be purchased off the shelf or ordered, but like Abernathy said, with ring designs, your imagination is the limit. Custom-designed rings, thanks to

A men’s wedding band with polished wood inside technology like LASER engraving and computer-aided drafting (CAD) software, the same software architects use to design buildings, are possible today.

“We have had people bring in all sorts of designs,” Abernathy said. “Often, we will sit and talk with them and sketch something out. But they will sometimes bring in their own work. We have even had a customer bring in a sketch of a ring on a napkin.”

He was quick to point out that there is more time involved in creating that perfect, unique custom design for a customer, but the end result is something that is well worth the wait.

The initial designs are modeled on a computer, then that is shown to the customer in a 3D digital format. Once the customer is satisfied with the design, the ring is modeled in wax and sent to the store for them to try on. After that, the ring is cast, stones selected and the final production is created.

Abernathy said, even though Griffins is a small-town, family business, they have access to high-quality stones at prices that are competitive, or even better, than the big chains because they are members of a group consortium, the Continental Buying Group, which gives them collective purchasing power.

“We can keep our quality up and our prices lower even though we are a small-town jeweler.”

For many couples, they have heirloom jewelry that they want to use the stones out of and incorporate them into the new designs. That is not a problem, either, he said.

Many people see these custom rings as creating a new heirloom piece for the next generation.

“Every piece has its own story. People will look down and see their ring and it brings back all the memories, the story, of how they got it,” Abernathy said. “We want to create that story.

“Our job here is to get people what they want,” and that is particularly true when it comes to wedding bands and engagement rings.

“If you have thousands of rings, and the customer wants that one special ring, you have to have that special ring for them.”

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Weddings: Uniquely St. Clair Rings & Registries

Custom glass pieces at Mum and Me

The registry Just like the ring market, today’s bridal and wedding registries are a mixture of something old and something new.

Becky Griffin, one of the owners of Griffins Jewelers, said they still see many brides come in and request very traditional and formal items in their registry, but they are also seeing requests for more informal, everyday china. Griffins bases their registry out of their Talladega location, and can work with any couple to meet their needs.

“When a bride comes in, we work with them to get them just what they want. And often these days, they want plates and settings that are easy and convenient to care for,” Griffin said.

Neva Reardon, owner of Mum and Me in downtown Leeds, agrees.

“I would get good basic pieces that you would love and use. …Get good pieces that you can grow with and that you like — creating a foundation that you will grow with,” she said.

They said going that route often fits better with today’s busy lives that are the new normal for many couples.

Both ladies recommended that, when picking out items for your registry, don’t limit yourself or your guests who will be buying for you.

“We do both bridal and wedding registries, and the reason you do it so you can get what you want and it helps the people

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buying get you something you want to use and that you like,” Reardon said.

They also recommended having items across many price points, so your friends can buy you what you want, regardless of their budget.

“When someone comes in and registers, we talk to them to see what they like. Then, we set up a table that people can pick out gifts from,” Griffin said.

Griffin recommends combining easy-care place settings with more expensive serving pieces, like the traditional silver serving trays. It gives the couples the best of both worlds — table settings that are affordable and can be cleaned easily with more formal heirloom pieces. She also said considering a few holiday accent pieces to go on the table is a good idea.

Reardon, whose unique mercantile boutique specializes in specialty items from artists, both local and from across the South, also said consider registering items you would normally not be spending money on for yourself.

“If you registered here, you would be registering for things that you don’t see other places, pottery, glass, handmade objects — things that if you take care of, it becomes your vintage piece, but it is one of a kind, handmade,” she said.

“It is for the bride who wants what nobody else has.

Something of the individualist, you know, that someone in America has sat at their wheel or hand built, they have made it, instead of something imported that everyone else has because it came from a production line. It gives you a home that is more uniquely yours.”

Magnolias gift shop, another business that bills its self as being ready to “help you find the perfect gift,” with locations in Pell City, Sylacauga and Chelsea, has embraced some of the new technological options out there.

Combining their website with integrated Facebook pages, they are listing some of their bridal registries online.

That and an interactive web contact form for finding that “perfect gift” makes shopping for the new couple just that much easier.

Griffin said they are working toward providing a similar service for their stores.

Regardless of whether you are looking for something that is traditional or something uniquely yours, businesses like Griffins Jewelers, Mum and Me, Magnolia’s and others in St. Clair County and across the region are ready to step up and meet your wedding needs.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

Magnolias in Pell City

St. Clair Alabama

Business Review Louis

A new era begins at Northside McSweeney Automotive is just one of the big businesses to open recently 78 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018 78 DISCOVER Essence St. Clair •••August & September 2013 78 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 78 • DISCOVER The Essence DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & July 2016 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair & September 2017 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER The Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 & 2015 2017 of DISCOVER St. Clair •The Business Review DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January January 2018 78 The Essence of St. •••April & May 2018

Story and photos

by Carol Pappas

EDC Report Card Making the Grade and More

Jefferson State’s partnerships are helping create jobs and fill them.

It’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. And from St. Clair County Economic Development Council Executive Director Don Smith’s vantage point, the rear-view mirror has an enviable view.

What’s more, the road up ahead looks even more promising.

EDC is about to complete its 5-year strategic plan, and Smith reported on the progress at a recent breakfast for Partnership for Tomorrow, a coalition of business stakeholders who have anted up to help move St. Clair County forward.

While the plan might have seemed ambitious to others around the state, St. Clair is on track to meet or exceed its goals a year early.

It wanted to obtain 500 acres for investment.

Check. It obtained 828 acres. Add $50 million in payroll, $3 million more for schools, $150 million in new investment. Done, done and done.

Putting St. Clair County to work are 1,500 new jobs created.

Smith is quick to point out that EDC can’t do it alone. Its partnerships in workforce development, for instance, are paving the way for brighter futures for the county’s young people. With heavy

New stores breathing life into shopping centers across St. Clair

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018 79 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •••August & September 2013 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 79 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 79 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & July 2016 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair & September 2017 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER The Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 January 2015 2017 Business Review •& DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair •79 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January 2018 DISCOVER The Essence of St. ••••April & May 79 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & July 2018

Business Review

St. Clair EDC

Town & County’s new building is a major reinvestment in Pell City

St. Clair is setting the standard for workforce development.

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emphasis on workforce development, identifying skillsets companies need and working with the school systems and Jefferson State Community College, EDC has helped put together a winning combination. Students are training for good paying careers and walking into those starting $50,000 a year careers debt free, not a story shared by many going traditional college routes.

Health care is growing rapidly. St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Northside Medical Home and Pell City Internal Family Medicine are leading the way. New primary care clinics have opened in Margaret, Springville, Ashville and Trussville thanks to their efforts. A new pediatric clinic is opening in Springville.

Chambers of Commerce throughout the county are getting a boost from EDC with efforts focused on making them stronger and giving them greater ability to promote their areas. Professional marketing packets are being provided to all communities to highlight their marketability.

EDC is sharing its knowledge to its constituency through summits on Economic Development for retail and industrial issues and Smart Growth on best practices for preparing for growth.

In addition, a commissioned report identified 20,000 square feet of the top floor of the Pell City Municipal Complex as a viable location for a small business incubator to anchor entrepreneurs and help give them their start.

Downtown historic districts are being revitalized, and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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Business Review

St. Clair EDC

Northside Medical Home cut the ribbon on its new phase, doubling the size of its presence and bringing specialties and primary care all under one roof.

tourism and recreation are coming into focus as targets for development, promotion and growth. A logo and branding are on the horizon for St. Clair to project a unified, consistent and compelling image as efforts for the future progress.

“We have 15 active projects going on in St. Clair right now,” Smith said in April, noting that the county’s recruitment and development efforts over the past four years have been “very successful.”

But, it’s no time to rest on laurels, said Smith. He’s already eyeing the next strategic plan, which will begin being formulated through planning sessions June 19, 21 and 27 with input from all corners of the county.

“There are so many different aspects to economic development that it’s essential to have a road map that has been created by the business, community and elected leaders throughout St. Clair County,” Smith said. “It allows us to remain focused on large, longterm projects that benefit all the communities and the citizens here.”

At this turn in the road, the map looks pretty clear.

“The success of these last two 5-year strategic plans have proven that the EDC can accomplish incredible things when we have the resources and support from the community,” he said. “We look forward to the upcoming community input and goals for the next fiveyear period.”

Judging by the vantage point from that proverbial rear view mirror, so should St. Clair County. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2018

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