Marshall Good Life Magazine - Spring 2017

MARSHALL COUNTY

Mike Alred got axed for doing the right thing at his last job; this time he’s semi-retiring Usually about this time of year Dr. Andy & Martha Jane Finlay eagerly await Eden’s return Just because pro fishermen Matt & Jordan Lee have a dream job doesn’t make it easy work SPRING 2017 COMPLIMENTARY

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Welcome

A turtle bravely ventures from her shell, and a cave follow-up provides a piano coincidence

H

ere’s a follow-up on a story from last issue and the turtle story behind a non-turtle story in this issue. As I always say, second things first ...

Sheila McAnear, as most advertisers and many readers know, is the advertising/art director in our two-employee operation. (Technically, my wife, Diane, is our office manager and third employee, but since Sheila and I work out of our homes and don’t have an office, “Dee” has time for her real jobs: teaching piano and playing pipe organ.)

By her own confession, Sheila is about as outgoing as a turtle. That’s why I was shocked when – because of the busy holidays – I hit a dead end on finding a guest cook for recipes in this issue, and Sheila poked her head out of her turtle shell comfort zone and volunteered. Not only did she round up recipes and cook five dishes, but she typed up the recipes and shot her own food photos.

The further beauty of it is that Sheila not only lives and works in Marshall County, but she was raised in Cullman County and works there as well. We insist that stories in our Cullman and Marshall GLMs have local connections, so we get to share her recipes in both magazines.

I tasted Sheila’s Italian wedding cookies. They’re marvelous. Can’t wait to try her other Italian dishes. But more than anything, I’m glad to see her out of her shell.

T

he follow-up on the story I wrote about Cathedral Caverns in the last issue came in the form of an email from a publicist with Arcadia Publishing in Charleston, S.C., the folks who put out the enticing and extensive trade paperback series “Images of America.”

I was informed that on Feb. 27 “Cathedral Caverns” would be published. Its author is Whitney Snow, an Arab graduate now an assistant history professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

I spent a long time looking at the estimated 350 photos spanning the story of Jay Gurley and my favorite cave. I’d seen very few of the pictures before.

My fav might be a shot of Jay’s snow-covered ‘64 T-bird parked at the cave’s giant column, Goliath.

I’m tickled for Whitney. I’ve known her since ... well, since she took piano lessons from my office manager. Way to go, Whitney! I admire anyone who writes a book.

David Moore Publisher/editor 6 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Contributors A full-time pastor in Albertville, Seth Terrell doesn’t have many material desires. “I do have a hankering for cowboy boots,” he says. He has about 20 pair – ostrich to snake and elephant skin – he bought at yard and estate sales. Not that he needs an excuse, but he does own 20 cows on a small farm on Section Line Road.

Annette Haislip has traveled extensively, still it’s a big world. A big country, even. Somehow, she never managed to make it to Charleston, S.C. – but she’ll rectify that soon. She and her daughter, Mary, are planning a trip. So far, they have a modest list of about 100 restaurants they are dying to check out. Sounds divine.

Steve Maze published “Yesterday’s Memories” from 1996 to 2008. He’s often asked if he’d do it again. “Basically ever time I see someone in town they ask me that.” He has no pat answer, but back then he had one full-time job and the magazine amounted to a second one. But he doesn’t mind being asked – it is a compliment.

Driven by a smart-aleck gene, Extension Agent Hunter McBrayer has been pushing to write a story about yard chickens for the ”Good ‘n’ Green” column. Publisher said no.

So this quarter Hunter turned in a photo of a row of “Good ‘n’ Dead” Leyland Cypress trees.

What? Oh, wait ... it actually makes sense.

When it rains, it pours ... which can be good for a free-lancer. Photographer/writer Patrick Oden had a four-day corporate shoot in Nashville in mid-January. Naturally, this overlapped with a story deadline for GLM. No prob. He packed his laptop and resorted to his well-honed art of multi-tasking. He even made deadline – barely.

Ad/art director Sheila McAnear has used an iMac and iPhone for years. Now she has an iPad. “I’m hoping it makes life easier. You have to stay connected.” She knows all too well the aggravations of technology problems, but it could be worse. She could still have her crashhappy Dell. “I hate to be an Apple snob, but ...”

Writing at 2 a.m., publisher/editor David Moore often questions his sanity. Still, he’s never regretted leaving newspapers to go out on his own. But after three and half years of GLM in Cullman and Marshall counties, he’s still not sure why producing eight magazines a year takes longer than 104 newspapers.

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Inside 10 Good Fun

Start your “spring” with the Polar Bear Plunge or a hot night at fundraising poker

16 Good People

Mike Alred stands tall as a Marshall citizen

22 Good Reads

“A Gentleman in Moscow,” Fannie Flagg

25 Good Cooking

Sheila McAnear has some Italian recipes people will be asking you for

34 Good ’n’ Green

Rain, rain don’t go away, your yard will need it and a lot of TLC this spring to recover

36 A Garden of Eden

Come what may bloom this spring, last year the Finlays’ yard was divinely lush

44 From fan to friend

Jesse Rush got his dream, not only meeting but befriending his western movie idol

48 Good Eats

Bo Duncan and crew make the Rock House like being with old friends – who really cook

50 The hands of time

Gary Payne keeps time going from his clockmaking shop in Grant

56 Convention singing lives

The Alabama School of Gospel Music keeps alive a traditional aspect of worship

62 Matt and Jordon Lee

The Auburn brothers are making a name for themselves in the Bass Elite Series

70 Out ’n’ About

Arab First stages “Living Last Supper”

On the cover: Mountain laurel blooms add to the extensive dazzle of azaleas and rhododendron in Dr. Andy and Martha Jane Finlay’s yard in Albertville. Photo by David Moore.

This page: One of the delicious ways you can order your filet mignon at the Rock House Eatery is with sides of grilled asparagus and garlic smashed potatoes. Photo by Patrick Oden.

David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

Vol. 4 No.2 Copyright 2017 Published quarterly

Sheila T. McAnear Advertising/art director 256-640-3973 sheila.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Al 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net

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This photo, part of the exhibit, was shot in February 1865, a month before his second inauguration in March, below, and two months before his assassination April 15, 1865. Though weary-worn from the stress of war, Lincoln manages a slim smile. The crack that appeared in the negative after development has fascinated observers because it seems symbolic of the split in the nation on Lincoln’s mind – the course of the bullet that undoubtably changed the course of the wounded nation’s reconstruction.

Mask of Lincoln

Smithsonian exhibit is at Guntersville Museum through February

H

e’s not stumping for reelection as president, but Abraham Lincoln is making a stop in Marshall County on what’s intended to be a road that returns him to Washington, D.C. Maybe return “them” to Washington is a better term.

The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service has developed a special traveling portfolio version of the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, “One Life: The Mask of Lincoln.”

It’s on display through Feb. 26 at the Guntersville Museum.

The exhibition, which commemorated the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, opened at the National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

The portraits of Lincoln – drawn from the Portrait Gallery’s unrivaled collection – depict the physical changes in his face from his years as a freshman Illinois congressman to a troubled visage as he led the fight for the Union, culminating in his grizzled isolation as president.

In that capacity, Lincoln led the nation through its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis as he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government and modernized the economy.

Also, on view will be a replica of one of two Lincoln life-masks. The original life-mask was created Feb. 11, 1865, about two months before his death.

The Guntersville Museum, located at 1215 Rayburn Ave., is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information: www. guntersvillemuseum.org.

10 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Good Fun

It’s spring – get out and do something ... starting with a cold plunge in February?

• Through March 3 – “Coloring History”and Orlando Mathers The Mountain Valley Arts Council has again collaborated with the Crain Court Youth Center to present their annual exhibit, this one titled “Coloring History.”

Works by participating kids showcase local landmarks people from across Marshall County will recognize.

Alongside their work MVAC is exhibiting the work of special guest artist Orlando Mathers, an acclaimed watercolorist from Nashville, who has participated in several local showings, including Art On The Lake. The exhibit opens February 8th, with a reception on the 9th from 4:30 – 6pm celebrating the kids and Mr. Mathers.

The MVAC Gallery is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199.

• Feb. 18 – Polar Bear plunge “Shiver me timbers!” That’s what you might scream if you or your group is brave enough – or just like doing fun and crazy things – to join the Polar Bear Plunge this Saturday at the Guntersville Senior Center.

Registration is noon-1 p.m. A costume contest will be held at 1:15 p.m. ($25 gift certificate for winner), and the plunge happens at 1:30.

A minimum $50 donation is asked for; $25 for age 18 and under. Awards also go to the adults, child, business and organization that bring in the most donations. The event is sponsored by the Guntersville Ladies Civitan Club to support its project of building the Every Child’s Playground.

For more info: Barbara Panazze, 727-365-2873.

• Feb. 18 – Annual fashion show The eighth annual fashion show sponsored by the Marshall County Tech School will be at 6 p.m. in the log gym on the campus of DAR School in

Grant. And it should be the biggest show.

“A Glimpse Through Time” will include 12 individual shows and more than 80 student models from across the county showing off their talents through their original fashion, hair, makeup, music and art creations.

The extravaganza usually attracts around 500 people. The theme covers fashions, hairdos and music from the 1900’s to today and will feature performances by the all-state choral group from Douglas High School.

Admission is $20.

“It’s going to be great fun,” promises Laura Thompson, who teaches the 54 students in cosmetology at Marshall Tech.

• Feb. 25 – Casino Night A blast awaits you from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as Guntersville Sunrise Rotary Club presents its annual event at Guntersville Town Hall.

First five drinks are on the house and only $1 afterward. Admission also gets you $10,000 in “casino bucks” to start playing poker, blackjack roulette and more. Use your chips and winnings to bid on fabulous door prize items and surprises throughout the night for more chances to win. There’ll be entertainment and heavy hors d’oeuvres.

Proceeds go toward Every Child’s Playground, a project of the Guntersville Ladies Civitan Club.

Tickets are $65 per person. Contact a Sunrise Rotary member or buy online: www.eventbrite.com and pull down the “browse events” tab. Tickets are also available at the Guntersville Public Library and at the door.

• March 8-31 – Katrina Weber exhibit Mountain Valley Arts Council presents an exhibit of Katrina Weber’s landscapes, still life and figure paintings in oil and pastel.

Her work has been shown across the

Just a wild guess ... people had a lot of fun at last year’s Casino Night fundraiser.

And a photo booth was just part of it. Above are Dr. Kate and Dr. Rich McCurdy, front row, and Tyler and Margaux Stone in the back.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

11

One of the pieces awardwinning Huntsville artist Katrina Weber will show at her MVAC exhibit in March is titled “Breaking Dawn” and depicts a view from Monte Sano.

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country at nine solo exhibits, and she’s participated in dozens of juried and invitational group shows. She was awarded one of four national merit scholarships by Oil Painters of America in 2009, and juried twice into the national “Paint the Parks” traveling exhibit. Her paintings hang in corporate and private collections across the U.S. A reception will be held 5-7 p.m. on opening night.

The MVAC Gallery is open free to the public 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199.

• April 5-28 – Gene Black and Rita Winters exhibit The two local Guntersville artists will be sharing the Mountain Valley Arts Council Gallery in this dual exhibit.

Weaving is Rita’s passion. Having always been fascinated with fabrics, she began her career as a self-taught weaver, buying her first loom in 1977. She now owns four looms, ranging from a 45” four-harness

loom – her “workhorse” – to a small, portable inkle loom for weaving narrow bands.

Gene Black is both a painter and a master quilter, having started painting after deciding the art he had didn’t match his newly painted living-room.

He also fell in love with quilting. After growing up playing under a quilting frame that hung off the front porch, he decided in 2008 to learn how to quilt.

A reception for the artists will be held 5-7 p.m. April 5.

The MVAC Gallery is open free to the public 1-5 p.m. TuesdayFriday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199.

• April 7-8 – Farm and Poultry Expo The Fourth Annual Alabama Farm & Poultry Expo will be held 9 a.m.6 p.m. at the Marshall County VFW Fairgrounds on U.S. 431 in Boaz.

New this year will be farm and garden stories. There also will be farm exhibits, educational sessions, live demonstrations, arts and crafts,

entertainment, free inflatables for children’s play area and food court.

Enter the BBQ chicken cook-off and the Kentucky Fried Chicken eating contest. In addition to farm and poultry equipment, see fun things such as boats and ATVs. The event is sponsored by the Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce.

For information on sponsorships and booth rentals contact the chamber: 256-593-8145; or boazchamber@ gmail.com.

• April 21-30 – “Big Fish, the Musical” The new Broadway musical features music and lyrics by Tony nominee Andrew Lippa (The Addams Family, The Wild Party) and a new book by esteemed screenwriter John August (“Big Fish,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”).

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Artists ... get out your paint for the Paint-Out Calling all area painters … Get your paint out and take part in the Marshall County Paint-Out. Some 25 Alabama artists will be chosen to create a painting or drawing of a historic site in the county. As part of the Alabama Centennial and the Year of Exploring our places, the works will first hang at the Guntersville Museum for the kick-off of the Marshall County Bicentennial at 5-7 p.m., May 25.

The exhibit will spend the remainder of the year rotating between showings in Albertville, Arab, Boaz and Grant.

April 1 is the deadline to apply, which includes submitting three-four photos of your work or providing

Overflowing with heart, humor and spectacular stagecraft, this Whole Backstage production will be directed by John Cardy, assisted by Amanda Hollingsworth.

Based on the celebrated novel

by Daniel Wallace and the acclaimed film directed by Tim Burton, “Big Fish” centers on Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman who lives life to its fullest … and then some. His incredible, larger-than-life stories thrill everyone around him – most of all, his devoted wife, Sandra. But their son, Will, about to have a child of his own, is determined to find the truth behind his father’s epic tales.

As Daniel’s final chapter rapidly approaches, Will embarks on a journey of his own to find out who is father really is, revealing the man behind the myth and truth from the tall tales.

Shows are at 7 p.m. April 21, 22, 27, 28, 29; and 2 p.m. April 23, 30.

Tickets – which go on sale April 3 – are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $10 for students. They are available at the WBS office 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays; by phone at 256-58214 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Facebook/website information for jury review.

The competition is open to two-dimensional pieces in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink or mixed media.

Canvas is preferred.

Artists of all ages may apply. There is no charge to participate.

Quick-draws or studies are to be created on site the week of April 23-29. The final work may be completed in the studio or en plein air. Deadline for completed work is May 19.

For more information contact: Julie Patton, julie. patton@guntersvillemuseum.org; or Katy Norton, katy@ marshallcountycvb.com.

the Lake promotes the arts while benefiting its scholarship program for local high school graduates.

Artist applications are available online: www.artonthelakeguntersville.com; or by contacting show chair Julie Patton: julespp@aol.com.

7469; on the WBS Facebook page; or at: www.wholebackstage.com.

• April 22-23 – Art on the Lake The 56th annual edition of Marshall County’s longest running art show – and one of the state’s – will feature more than 130 fine artists and craftsmen from throughout the Southeast and beyond. As always, there will be food vendors, outdoor games and rides and a bake sale – fun for the entire family.

The show will be at the Guntersville Recreational Center at 1500 Sunset Drive. Admission is $2 for 13 years and older. Sorry, no animals allowed.

Sponsored by the Twenty-First Century Club of Guntersville, Art on

• May 3-26 – Pamela Watters exhibit The Mountain Valley Arts Council presents Pamela Watters, who uses pastels in painterly fashion to create landscapes reflecting her love of the lush surroundings found in the Southeast. Whether her subject is figurative, still life or landscape, she captures excitement by combining techniques of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists with outrageous colors of the Fauves, projecting a feeling of shimmering light, movement and explosive colors to capture the imagination of the viewer.

A reception for the artists will be held 5-7 p.m. May 4.

The MVAC Gallery is open free to the public 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199.

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15

Good People

5questions

Mike Alred

‘Citizen of Marshall County’ took a stand for what’s right; now slows (some) at CB&T

Story and photo

by David Moore

O

n March 31, Mike Alred will retire as CEO of Citizens Bank & Trust.

Well, semi-retire.

“I’ll probably work several days a week on board and administrative matters,” he says. “It’s an undefined role.”

Regardless, Mike leaves CB&T in fine shape. Of 119 banks chartered in 2003, 66 no longer exist. Of the 53 survivors, CB&T is the 16th largest. From its founding in Guntersville, it has grown seven branches and a loan production office in Cullman County and Blount County and in 2014 was ranked among the nation’s top 200 publicly traded community banks.

Also CB&T is building a 33,000-square-foot corporate office and bank between Gunter and Blount Avenues in Guntersville, property it bought cheap in 2006. Waylaid by the recession, the new building is expected to open this spring.

The site resounds with irony. The facility is being built on the unfinished foundation of the former Community Bank. Construction ended with the fraud conviction of bank president and CEO, the late Ken Patterson. Mike, formerly Community’s vice president for branches, was the key whistleblower who, along with others, brought the fraud to light — at a cost.

Driving to work in 2000 he would pass the site where Community had poured a foundation for a new bank the previous year. He could see no progress and seldom saw workers.

Studying fixed asset reports, Mike learned the bank was paying construction invoices. He discovered the bank’s contractor was also building Patterson’s 17,000-square-foot mansion near Blountsville. Something nefarious was up.

He discussed his grave concerns 16 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

with Mike Bean, the bank’s CFO and an inside director, and George Barnett of Guntersville, an outside director. They soon realized Patterson and another VP had orchestrated massive fraud on Community Bank.

A

t a July 2000 board meeting, with Patterson present, the three men openly spoke out about the cost overrun scheme and pushed for an investigation.

Shareholders filed suit in a failed attempt to get enough votes to remove Patterson and the board.

Despite their flawless performance reviews and pay raises, Patterson had Alred and Bean stripped of their authority and removed from the board. Then, on Nov. 10, 2000 — Mike well remembers — he and Bean were fired. But the die was cast.

Contractors were indicted in May 2002, convicted that fall and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Along with two other bank officers, Patterson was indicted in 2003, convicted in 2005 and sentenced to five years.

More irony. To no small degree Mike’s banking reputation was built on the foundation that got him fired — doing the right thing. Adding to the irony, he never even started out to be a banker.

Mike intended to get an engineering degree at Auburn University. Instead, he ended up getting married to his sisterin-law’s sister and earning a degree in industrial management. It was through a finance professor and a friend of his father’s, John Brookshire, that Mike’s interest turned to banking.

He went into management training with Trust Company Bank in Atlanta, Rome and Macon, Ga. When he left Macon 12 years later he was vice president over 11 branches. He left because a headhunter who called about a job finally broke down and revealed it was

for a CEO position with SouthTrust — of which Mike thought highly — and it was in Boaz.

“Tell me more,” he said, feeling the pull of home.

It was great at first. They bought Security Bank & Trust in Arab, branched into Albertville and Guntersville.

Eventually, as head of SouthTrust of Marshall County, Mike oversaw 10 offices.

Then came structural changes.

Local decisions moved to Birmingham.

Customer service fell. Branches started closing.

“My dream job at SouthTrust became a nightmare,” he says. “What I thought was the best bank in Marshall County in delivering service to the customer became the worst bank. I was not comfortable in presiding over that.”

W

ith some hesitancy, Mike took an EVP job with Community Bank, at its peak Alabama’s seventh largest bank.

“It’s exactly where God led me,” he says. “I was there for a reason. Despite my internal warnings, once I made the decision I was very enthusiastic.” Until he got fired, that is.

Mike took a job at his friend Jody Chorba’s contracting firm. He did OK, but he felt like a duck out of water.

Dominoes fell in early 2003. Chris Martin called, just FYI, saying he, Roy Rollings and Paul Claborn had bought a bank building at auction. In the next few weeks five or six people said if Mike ever started a bank, they’d invest in it. And, in March, Jody said he and Bob Hembree thought Mike should start a bank. They all trusted and believed in him.

“By the first week of May we had a board and a consultant and were sitting in Mike and his wife, Linda, outside the new CB&T building set to open this spring.

Snapshot: Michael Alred

FAMILY: Born in Guntersville, May 1951 ; middle child of George and Doris Alred; siblings Tom Alred of Boaz and Ann Barrow of Guntersville. Married the former Linda Roberts of Lithonia, Ga., 1972. Son Wes is a financial advisor at CB&T; daughter-in-law Mary and three grandchildren.

EDUCATION: 1969 graduated Marshall County High School; 1973 graduated Auburn University; 1983 graduated LSU Graduate School of Banking.

CAREER: 1973-1986 Trust Company Bank, Atlanta, Rome and Macon, Ga.; 1986-1998, president and CEO, SouthTrust Bank of Marshall County; 1998-2000, vice president, Community Bank; 2001-2002, marketing director, Chorba Contracting Corp., 2002-present, president and CEO, Citizens Bank & Trust.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: 2003, president, United Way of Marshall County; 2004, first president of the board of directors for Marshall County Economic Development Council; currently serves on the board of directors of Marshall County Healthcare Authority; member of Guntersville Rotary Club and Marshall County Leadership Challenge; elder, Grace Fellowship Presbyterian Church.

front of the FDIC and the Department of Banking with a proposal to start a bank,” Mike says.

For some reason, he found it easier than one might think to sell $10 million in stock, and on March 3, 2003, Citizens Bank and Trust was chartered.

“I have strong faith and I am a strong believer that God had a purpose and plan,” Mike says. “I think he orchestrated everything that happened.”

1.

What does it mean to you to be from a seventh-generation family in Marshall County?

It means that everything about Marshall County is important to me.

I want all of the things that are good about Marshall County - and there are many. I also want to make sure that what comes in is good for the county.

It means a lot that my grandchildren are growing up here. I want to preserve our great school systems, governments and culture for them. Growing up in Marshall County was one of the best things that has happened to me, and I want everything about it to be as good for my grandchildren and all the other children here as it was for me - even better.

There’s a banking saying that if you grow your community, your community will grow your bank. I think that is true.

Even though my first years in community banking were not here, I brought that philosophy back with me and have been able to apply it where I grew up.

My dad taught me long ago that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. That applies to any walk of life. Caring about the people around me is vitally important in everything I do, whether it’s people I went to school with, work with or go to church with. It’s something that has helped shape my life. It was a great lesson my dad taught me at an early age.

At banks in Georgia I was taught how to work in a community, and bringing it back to Marshall County has meant a whole lot more. Growing up here makes it a deeper commitment.

2.

As a family man and a businessman, as a “citizen of Marshall County, ” can you explain your philosophy of community involvement?

18 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

My great grandfather built what is now the Seventh Day Adventist Church across from Ringold Plaza. My grandfather built almost all of the rock buildings around here — Rock House Eatery, what’s now The Whole Backstage, Henryville United Methodist Church, the vertical pole gym at DAR School ...

Mom grew up in Union Grove and went to high school in Arab. Dad grew up in Claysville. My son graduated from Boaz High School. We go to church in Albertville — Grace Fellowship Presbyterian — and live in Guntersville.

I think we all have an obligation to leave the world a better place than we found it.

You can’t do that sitting at home. You have got to be involved. It’s that simple.

My favorite scripture is Philippians 2: 3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I think that tells you what you’ve got to do.

Linda, of course, has been a huge part of everything I’ve done. She’s part of the involvement, too. She was in the Marshall Leadership Challenge before I was. She was president of the Boaz PTA. She shares the same philosophy.

She’s not only been involved, but she’s supported and shared in everything I have done.

Find five things that you are truly passionate about and get involved. But make sure you are passionate about them and don’t over burden yourself to the point where you are not doing a good job or don’t enjoy it. If you lose your passion, you are not doing anyone any favors.

3.

What steps do you take to be organized in order to juggle family, church, business and everything else you do?

Linda picks out my ties and suits for me. She has unbelievably good taste. But she doesn’t have to remind me of things. I am pretty organized. She puts it altogether on the front end.

I guess I am famous for having short conversations (laughs). Wallace Malone, the former head of SouthTrust, said learn how to disengage early. I had a boss

one time who was famous for turning five-minute conversations into one-hour conversations. I vowed to never do that. I try to optimize my time.

To be honest, I’m not as involved in community service as I was. My one big involvement now is the hospital.

I have learned how to say no. You have to know that if you can’t do a good job, it’s better to say no than to say yes and do a poor job.

I can’t juggle nearly as many balls as I used to. I don’t have the stamina. My church, hospital, bank and family are what I have tried to cut it down to now.

4.

From your “whistleblower” experience at Community Bank, how scary can it be to stand up and do the right thing?

It was very scary knowing that I would lose my job. That was almost a certainty.

In my late 40s I’d have to start all over.

I faced anxious uncertainties about what my job future would look like. Possibly I would be blackballed from the industry I spent my whole career in. That was very scary.

As far as the decision about what I had to do, it was pretty clear-cut. It was the right thing. But I lost a lot of sleep over it.

Mike Bean, the chief financial officer of Community Bank and acting chief accounting officer of Community Bancshares, and I were outsiders. Mike came from Compass Bank. The state had dictated to Community Bank that they had to hire both of us — Mike for accounting expertise and me for commercial lending.

After I realized what was going on, I called Mike and said I wanted to meet. I said the building in Guntersville had a lot of fraud in it. He thought so, too, and said there were a lot of other things that were wrong, too.

Soon after that, we got word that the state already planned to do an examination of the bank. We agreed to just turn over what we had when the state came in.

After three weeks, when the state finished its examination, we met for lunch. Mike said, “You are not going to believe this, but they said our information is beyond the scope of the examination.

They’re not going to do anything about it.”

That morning, in my daily Bible

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reading, a life application study, I had read a footnote that said it’s a Christian’s responsibility to expose evil.

I know that God had me read that on that particular morning, and I told Mike I didn’t think we had any choice but to go forward with our information. We decided to move forward regardless of the cost to us.

I told Linda exactly what was going on, that it could cost me my job, that it could cost us everything, and she agreed that I had no choice but to go forward.

I could not have done it without her support.

George Barnett was one of the bank’s board members. We knew we needed other’s support, so I confided in George, but I did not know how he would react. He was also legal counsel for the bank.

I said, “George, there is something I have to tell you.”

He said, “I’m glad someone finally said something, because I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to put up with this crap.”

He pointed us in the right direction to get a lot of stuff done. Without him,

we would not have been able to do it, even though it was the right thing to do.

But it was scary.

5.

What is something most people don’t know about Mike Alred?

Well . . . there was the day I chased a pig down U.S. 411 in Cartersville, Georgia.

I was 27 and working in Rome then.

My wife had asked me to find a baby pig to take to my father-in-law as a Father’s Day present.

Linda’s dad had just sold his business and moved out to the country.

She and her siblings had never even seen him in anything but a business tie, so she suggested getting him a pig.

As fate had it, the bank had just financed a pig farm. So I contacted the people and bought a piglet.

I thought a 6-week-old piglet would be little bitty, but it weighed 40 pounds. The farmer got a pallet and built a cage for it to ride in the trunk, but the trunk would not close. I was wearing jeans and held the pig while he remade it.

I started out from Rome smelling like a pig and stopped to clean up. I checked on the piglet. It was out of the crate and walking around in the trunk, so I stuffed it back in.

My route would take me through downtown Atlanta, and I was worried the pig might jump out on the interstate.

So I stopped at a convenience store in Cartersville, north of Marietta. I was going to put the pig in the back of the car ... but the pig was not it the crate.

I looked and saw it out in the road. I ran to get the pig, and it started running, so I started chasing it. I got a hand on it, and it got away. I got a hand on it again, and it got away again.

Finally — I was on all fours and had ripped out the knees of my pants — I got the pig. By that time no cars were moving on U.S. 411. Everyone was watching the idiot chasing the pig.

I threw the pig on the floorboard of the back seat. It was so stunned it did not move all the way through town.

Fortunately, they didn’t have cell phones and videos back then. That would have gone viral.

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Good Reads

‘Jailed’ in hotel’s microcosm, a count marks Russia’s change

The ‘Whole Town’s Talking’ ...

6 feet under at Still Meadows

n a “Gentleman in Moscow” Amor Towles creates a fascinating world from the view of a sixth floor attic room where the occupant is confined. Count Alexander Rostov, a 30-year-old aristocrat who fled to Paris during the Bolshevik Revolution, returns to Moscow to be with his “By the smallest of one’s grandmother in her final days. Subsequently, he is actions one can restore summoned to the tribunal, some sense of order accused of being a counterto the world.” revolutionary poet and sentenced to lifetime house arrest in the luxurious Hotel Metropol.

From his former grand suite, he is allowed to take only a few heirlooms to his bare room. He insists on bringing his grandfather’s Louis XVI desk, which plays a role in the story.

For 30 years he observes the political changes that occur from the idealism of the Revolution to the horrors and brutalities that occur under the reigns of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev.

With his reduced circumstances, Rostov establishes a new life, forging relationships with unforgettable characters in his small world: hotel employees, guests, a beautiful movie star and a precocious 9-year-old girl. Years later during one of the many purges, she mysteriously appears with a young daughter whom she leaves in his care before disappearing again.

Eloquently crafted, this story is to be savored like a glass of the count’s favorite Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Rostov is one of the most charming, sophisticated and witty characters I’ve encountered, redefining the meaning of home and family.

– Annette Haislip

his is the fourth book in Fannie Flagg’s Elmwood Springs series with many of the characters from the other books making an appearance. In “The Whole Town’s Talking” Flagg presents the history of the town from 1889 until the present.

A group of Swedish immigrants moving west find the fertile land in Ohio “All you can do is to try to a suitable area in which to grow old as gracefully as settle and establish their you can, keep your mind families and farms. active and try not to fall.”

Lordor Nordstrom, a young bachelor, marries a mail order bride from Chicago. Katrina, working as a servant, is eager to have her own home despite her reservations. A true love develops between the two and the rest of the story follows them, their neighbors, friends and their descendants through the years.

The small farming community becomes a bustling town hurtling through the Depression, WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam right up to the malls and supercenters built on the nearby interstate. The town then becomes a shadow of itself as businesses relocate and young people migrate to larger cities.

Another segment of the town resides in the nearby cemetery, Still Meadows, where the inhabitants observe and comment on current events and welcome the new arrivals.

Still Meadows presents a moving commentary of life after death of the residents of the town and even strangers who happen to come to rest there.

This is a heartwarming tale of life in small town America and Flagg will not disappoint her many fans.

– Annette Haislip

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The chef at Brothers Kitchen shares some of his favorite recipes If you’ve never been inside The Borkenau, here’s your chance to see Roy’s home WINTER 2016 COMPLIMENTARY

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Good Cooking

You know it tastes good when people ask for your recipe

Story by David Moore Food photos by Sheila McAnear

L

“I tried to start out cooking vegetables because that’s what was always on the table at Mom’s house,” Sheila says. “But putting a pot of green beans on the stove didn’t always turn out good. You have to do something to them. So I called Mom. Countless phones calls later, I had learned how to cook a meal.”

As time passed, Sheila tried cookbooks, but the dishes never turned out like she expected.

“So I learned to wait until someone cooked something good, then I asked them for the recipe.”

She apparently did a lot of asking. “I have recipes stuffed everywhere now.

I have a huge to-do list to get them on the computer and organized.”

With Sheila’s timeintensive job, her youngest son, Terry, 18, has resorted to DIY kitchen measures.

“He’ll want pancakes or something and know I’m busy working,” she says. “So he’s started digging into my recipes.”

ike many cooks, Sheila McAnear collects recipes.

Unlike many cooks, she’s collected very few recipe books.

“I do like recipes,” she says. “And a cook is no better than her recipes. If I taste something that’s good, I always try to collect that recipe. To me, it’s a great compliment to the cook if someone asks for the recipe.”

As a partner in MoMc Publishing, Sheila is the advertising/art director for Good Life Magazine in Cullman County and its sister publication in Marshall County.

Besides working in both counties she lives in Scant City between Arab and Guntersville, but she grew Sheila’s Italian wedding cookies will literally melt in your mouth and up in the New Canaan are guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face, wedding or not. community in eastern Cullman County, along The recipe for them is on page 26. Photo by David Moore. with three brothers.

For much of their early lives, Sheila’s mother, Sara hen she can’t ask for a recipe, Sheila figures out Tielking, was a single mom. how to mimic it. Such was the case after she and a girlfriend “She was a do-it-herself person,” Sheila says. “She worked returned from a restaurant where they’d ordered delicious full time, she cooked, she cleaned the house, and she always had a huge garden to feed us. She just didn’t have time to teach fettuccine alfredo.

“We started throwing things into a pot and came up with the me how to cook.” recipe,” she says. It must be good. “I’ve never made it when When Sheila got married, she had few cooking capabilities. someone didn’t ask for the recipe.”

“Chicken and dumplings were the only thing I knew how to Besides organizing her recipes, another quest Sheila is on cook when I left I home,” she laughs. “That’s when I realized I is learning to make really good wine … in fact. She’s been didn’t know how to do anything … including clean house. I had working on it for years. to collect recipes pretty quickly to put anything on the table.”

“The first batch I made turned out really well, but I tried he young couple lived with her husband’s parents for to follow that same recipe and it didn’t turn out so good.” It’s a while, and so it was that Sheila learned a lot about cooking much easier, she laughs, to visit your favorite wine store. from watching her mother-in-law, Nadean Light. Years later On the following pages, Sheila shares some of her favorite she had to phone Nadean and Sara a lot for help.

Italian dishes ... and you don’t even have to ask for the recipes ...

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OVEN BAKED CHICKEN 1 cup dried breadcrumbs ¼ cup grated Parmesan 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley ½ tsp. pepper ¼ tsp. salt ½ cup butter, melted 2 tsp. fresh chopped garlic 6 boneless chicken breasts Heat oven to 375. Combine breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, pepper and salt in a shallow bowl; set aside.

Combine butter and garlic in a 9” skillet and simmer one minute.

Cut chicken into large strips and dip one at a time into the butter mixture then place into breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat evenly.

Place each strip on baking pan.

Drizzle with any remaining butter and breadcrumb mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is lightly browned.

SPINACH LASAGNA 1 pound ground sausage 1 pound ground chuck 3.5 oz. package sliced pepperoni 2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning (see recipe on page 28) 24 oz. spaghetti sauce 1 cup water 8 oz. box lasagna noodles 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1 tsp. salt 12 oz. frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained 4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese 1 cup shredded asiago cheese Cheese Mix: 16 oz. ricotta cheese 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 eggs 1/3 cup fresh chopped parsley ½ tsp. garlic powder ½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. pepper Heat oven to 350. Add oil, salt and lasagna noodles to 3 quarts of 26 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

boiling water. Cook 5 minutes, drain and set aside. Cook spinach and set aside. Mix ground beef and sausage in a large bowl; add seasoning mix.

Brown meat mixture in a large skillet until done. Stack the sliced pepperoni and quarter them. Add to the cooked meat. Cook one additional minute.

Pour spaghetti sauce and water into medium saucepan; simmer for 10 minutes. In large bowl stir together ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, eggs, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. In a 13x9-inch pan layer one cup of sauce, three noodles, half of the meat mixture, one cup of sauce, half of the spinach, half of the cheese mixture, three noodles, one cup of sauce, remaining meat mixture, remaining spinach, three noodles, remaining sauce, remaining cheese.

Top with grated mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove foil and cook additional 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIES 1 ½ cups unsalted butter ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar ¾ tsp. salt 1 egg white 1 ½ cups finely ground pecans or almonds 2 tsp. vanilla extract ¼ tsp. butter flavoring ¼ tsp. coconut flavoring 2 ¼ cups unbleached flour, selfrising 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar for coating Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter in a bowl, gradually add sugar, salt and egg white. Beat until light and fluffy. Add nuts and flavorings. Blend in flour gradually and mix well.

Shape into one-inch balls using about 1 tsp. for each cookie. Place on cookie sheet, and bake for 12 min. Do not brown.

Cool slightly, then cover in confectioners’ sugar.

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ITALIAN SALAD 2 cups Romaine lettuce 2 cups green leaf lettuce 1 cup baby spinach ¼ red onion, sliced paper thin 3.5 oz. can whole pitted black olives 15 pepperoncini, whole

¼ cup asiago cheese, grated ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated Roma tomatoes Croutons Combine mixture of greens

ITALIAN SALAD DRESSING 1 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise ¼ cup light olive oil ¼ cup red wine vinegar ¼ cup white vinegar ½ tsp. parsley flakes 2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese Whisk together mayonnaise, oil and both vinegars in a small bowl. Add parsley, seasoning packet and cheese. Chill before serving.

28 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

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RED WINE SANGRIA 1 bottle Merlot wine ½ cup brandy 1 cup triple sec ½ cup orange juice ½ cup pomegranate juice ¼ cup simple syrup, or more to taste (equal parts sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves, cooled) 1 cup cold seltzer Juice of 3 limes ½ cup blackberries ½ cup strawberries ½ cup blueberries ½ cup raspberries One apple, sliced One orange, sliced Mix all ingredients together except the sliced orange. Let stand in a tightly sealed container for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Add sliced oranges before serving for presentation.

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CHICKEN FLORENTINE 3 boneless chicken breasts 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach ½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. pepper 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese for spinach mix 1 cup prepared sauce mix 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese for topping Sauce Mix: 3 Tbsp. butter 3 Tbsp. flour 1 cup milk ½ cup heavy whipping cream ½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. pepper ¼ tsp. nutmeg 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese Melt butter in a small sauce

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Above is Dr. Andy and Martha Jane Finlay’s yard in Albertville on April 3, 2016. (See more on the following pages.)

Left is what Leyland Cypresses in Grant looked like after drought damage – and more damage may show up this year.

Good ’n’ Green

Help ease pain of drought with plans (and rain) for this spring Story by Hunter McBrayer

D

rought can be a funny thing. Well, not that funny … but people notice it’s dry when there is no rain, yet they seem to forget about it once the rain sets in.

Last summer and stretching into fall, Northeast Alabama, including Marshall County, experienced the most extreme drought classification (D-4). While the rains of winter returned some water to once dried up ponds and creeks, we as gardeners and homeowners have not seen the end of the effects on our landscapes and naturalized areas.

Drought is much more than scorched 34 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

grass and wilted tomato plants. It affects plants on the microscopic level, affecting or completely disabling the necessary functions they need to live.

To put things in a timeline, just as we see our plant leaves start to wilt, their roots, even those of established trees, are beginning to suffer.

As soil moisture is pulled away from the roots, cell death in the roots and vascular tissues begins to occur. And as drought continues, root and shoot dieback leads to decline and in some cases plant death.

Even if plants are not dead, it can take months or years to repair the damage.

Drought affects trees, shrubs and other plants, not just short term but long term.

We are all very familiar with the shortterm symptoms of drought – wilting, leaf scorch, defoliation etc. – all of which are particularly obvious on young trees, shrubs or new lawns. But it is the long-term effects that will haunt us over the next few years.

Here’s what to expect …

F

irst, some plants will not come out of dormancy this spring.

I, along with many Extension and landscape professionals, expect that lawns will be much thinner or non-existent this year. This will lead to space in the turf for a heavy set of spring and summer weeds.

Some trees and shrubs that do break bud after dormancy will have root systems

insufficient to support the canopy, leading to dieback or death this spring and summer.

Long term, drought stress can reduce a plant’s ability to fight disease and pests. It is common in the years after drought to see an influx of Southern Pine Beetles and other stem boring insects that attack trees, both coniferous and hardwood alike.

Where dieback occurs, dead branches leave wounds for fungal diseases to invade healthy tissue. In the case of many Leyland cypress trees, which are prone to fungal cankers, the stress of drought allows the disease to spread throughout the tree, leading to plant death.

N

ow, this article is supposed to be “Good ‘n’ Green,” so what are my recommendations for landscapes after last year’s drought?

First, be kind to your trees. If long-term weather forecasts play out, we may be in for another dry summer. The plants that are desperately trying to bounce back will need TLC throughout the season. Water them when possible.

Stay away from excessive fertilizing.

The root system of plants may already be compromised from cell death last summer, they do not need more canopy to sustain.

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Lastly, if you see that a tree has succumbed to disease or insects, it may be time to consider a replacement.

Sometimes, the only way to have your yard looking “Good ‘n’ Green is to plant something new.

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35

To spring or not to spring?

Dr. Andy and Martha Jane Finlay are awaiting the answer this year

During a normal spring, the grounds around their Albertville home grow lush with an explosion of rhododendron, such as the Roseum Elegans pictured here, azaleas and mountain laurel.

Who knows if rhododendron, like those above, azaleas and mountain laurel, closeup bloom below, grew in the Garden of Eden or not?

Either way, they grow in profusion – or at least they have in past years – on the grounds of the Finlays’ home in Albertville.

Story and photos

by David Moore

F

ebruary and March usually find Martha Jane and Dr. Andrew Finlay Jr. eagerly anticipating the spring color about to explode on the throngs of azaleas, rhododendron and mountain laurel that lavish their large yard in Albertville.

This year, they’re awaiting spring with an uneasy dose of trepidation. It’s not expected to be a normal season.

When Andy built their house in 1973 on a sprawling lot on Cobe Circle, the landscaper suggested planting a few rhododendrons out front, a few azaleas on the side … and so the flood gates, or shrub gates as the case might be, were flung wide. For some four decades he planted, moved and nursed his shrubs, creating a virtual Garden of Eden.

Photos for this story were shot at the start and end of last April. At the time, the Finlays could only guess at 38 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

the number of their alluring azaleas, rhododendrons and mountain laurels – there were hundreds.

But withering drought took a strangle hold in August and began squeezing the moisture from the ground. Andy readily sacrificed the sprinkler system to the thirsty plants.

“Our water bill has never been so high,” he says. “I have never been so grateful for the Tennessee River. And

MUB (the Municipal Utility Board) has been appreciative of my water usage.”

But by September, Andy knew more drastic steps were necessary. It was not a scalpel the physician pulled out, it was his pruning sheers.

Two to four hours daily, five days a week for three months – while the drought continued – he sadly pruned back the shrubs. Rhododendrons, one that proudly stood 20 feet tall, sprawling with multiple trunks and branches, were reduced to eight feet and a single trunk.

Most of the wood the doctor cut off was as dead as a longhorn skull in Death Valley.

Not too many shrubs were complete losses, though, and Andy thinks those still alive in November will come back, eventually.

“But,” he adds, “it will take at least five years to get back to where they were.”

A

ndy’s father, Andrew G. Finlay Sr., was raised on a farm in Colorado in the early 1900s and grew up to be a doctor.

Family lore has it that Dr. Finlay Sr.

Andy, above, stands beside a huge, rambling specimen he grew from seeds he ordered years ago from the American Rhododendron Society.

Martha Jane, left, stands on the path Andy created through rows of azaleas and trees behind their house.

“When they bloom in the spring, I go out every morning,”she says. “It’s just paradise out here.” Andy used to break off all the spent azalea buds – “have deadheading parties,” he laughs. “I got tired of doing that. I said they’re on their own.”

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

39

Over the years, Andy has grown some 70 different types of azaleas and rhododendron. In some cases, he has 25 or more of each type. Clockwise from bottom left are: R. bakeri, one of the azaleas that Andy raised form seed; Album elegans, Anna Rose Whitney, Lee’s Dark Purple, George L. Tabor, Narcissiflora and the spidery R. Alabamense, a native volunteer in the woods on their property. was doing his residency in a hospital in New York City when a physician working there from Boaz introduced him to Eugenia Carter Finlay. Eugenia, who’d been born in Parches Cove, was visiting the big city for voice lessons.

She must have sang her way into his heart, otherwise it’s doubtful he’d have moved to Boaz to start his practice in 1935. He married Eugenia the following year, and in ’37 Andrew G. Finlay Jr. was born.

In 1950 Dr. Finlay Sr. bought 40 acres in Guntersville, the site for Finlay Plaza today. He loved experimenting with iris and kept a big vegetable garden. His son was impressed – well, some.

“My father would get up at 4:30 40 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

in the morning with a miner’s light and dig in the garden, but that wasn’t my fancy,” Andy laughs. “I did help him some, but I had more guilt than anything.”

As a young teen, however, Andy did some planting. He decided to make a rock garden, perhaps because rocks require no mowing. At any rate, on the hill behind what’s now Foodland, he arranged some stones, set out a dozen or so azaleas and other long-forgotten plants and … voila.

Andy graduated from Guntersville High in 1955 and Sewanee, The University of the South in 1959. He initially eyed architecture but disliked calculus, fell back on biology and went to medical school at Tulane, but

not before marrying Jane Graham of Albertville in 1959.

After med school and a residency in Buffalo, N.Y., he spent two years in the Navy, one at the Naval hospital in Charleston, S.C., the other aboard the submarine U.S.S. Woodrow Wilson.

“We’d stay underwater for 60 days,” Andy says. “I would not have chosen it, but I would not take anything for my experience. I loved it.”

A

fter three years of internal medicine residency and one of cardiology, all in Buffalo, he and Jane moved to Albertville in 1970. He opened a practice, worked at what’s today Marshall Medical Center South, and even saw patients in Arab and Guntersville.

Tragedy struck when Jane, mother of their four children, died of lung cancer in 1987.

He had met the former Martha Jane Paul of South Alabama through clubs and events in Albertville. After a divorce, she had moved to Montgomery for two years. Andy, a single dad and

busy doctor, needed a good Christian woman, and Martha Jane quickly came to mind.

“When Jane died, Andy called me and we had a fairytale love affair,” she says.

“I was not sure she would come back here,” he says.

But she did. Four months after Jane’s death they were married.

“It’s been 29 years,” Martha Jane says, “and it’s been great.”

At least some of that’s because she doesn’t have to care for the Garden of Eden. That, she insists, is Andy’s realm – has been for years.

Back in 1973 when the house was built and the landscaper suggested planting a few azaleas, a little green light had blinked on Andy’s thumb. Ah … his old rock garden in Guntersville.

“I thought I’d move the azaleas up here to Albertville if they were still alive,” he says. Lo and behold, after 20 years on their own, 12 azaleas had survived.

“We weren’t going through a drought like this (past) year,” he laughs.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

41

Martha Jane and Dr. Andy Finlay have four adult children and 11 grandchildren. She’s quick to brag on Andy and created a needlepoint piece that depicts his many interests, from medicine (he was recently named a Marshall Medical Centers’ “Healthcare Hero”) and sports to photography and music. Andy is working on improving his saxophone playing but has already shown his hand at the harmonica, which he played at a granddaughter’s wedding reception. His renditions of “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “Stand by Me” brought down the house, Martha Jane says.

Andy Sr. doubted they’d survive transplanting, but Andy Jr. dug them up, loaded his station wagon then planted them in his yard. They lived.

B

y 1976 Andy was planting more and more azaleas, rhododendron and mountain laurels. Two years later he bought an adjoining lot and kept planting.

He found that native plants are generally more tolerant to the local climate and soil than plants originating elsewhere. They have fewer diseases and problems such as ants chewing up the roots.

“I have dug a lot of them from the woods around here,” Andy says.

On the other hand, he’s had great success with many a shrub ordered from Oregon.

Many shrubs were only six inches tall when he bought them. He’d nurture 42 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

them in a protected area and not move them until they got established.

Andy followed a planting rule his father taught him: plant a $1 plant in a $5 hole; a $5 plant in a $10 hole.

The point? Dig the hole deep and wide enough for the roots to grow.

Many of Andy’s shrubs have been moved over the years, especially after he bought more property adjoining his backyard about 10 years ago. He always gave his transplants ample holes to grow into.

Naturally, some of the plants – many of them prized varieties – have died.

“I don’t have near the numbers of azaleas I used to have,” Andy says.

But for every azalea, every rhododendron, every mountain laurel he’s planted, Andy has made a written notation of its variety. The list is long.

Just in case you’re wondering, “I

don’t put out any more plants,” Andy laughs.

O

ver all the years, Andy never golfed or fished.

“I spent the very vast majority of my leisure time at home raising azaleas and rhododendron from cuttings, plants or seeds,” he says.

Working 70-hour weeks for most of his career, he tried to reserve Sundays for “family dad” activities with the kids, such as boating or hiking. Friday afternoons and Saturdays were his big yard days.

On Dec. 30, 2016, Andy retired from Marshall South ... more time for shrubs.

“He said many times to me that his plants didn’t talk back to him like his patients.” Martha Jane laughs and adds, “And I guess his wife ...”

“Now wait a minute,” Andy chuckles.

“Actually I solve a lot of problems working in the yard. I think about patients or family

situations. I don’t dig and just think of nothing else. I’ve made a lot of decisions during those busy times.”

As a youth he made the decision not to get up at 4:30 a.m. and garden by a miner’s light. Nonetheless, his father’s love of growing things affected Andy.

“My father’s example is probably the most important reason for my love of gardening,” he says. “As my dad, I love to dig in the dirt and enjoy the ‘fruits’ of the earth. His love was vegetables, mine is the beauty of rhododendron species, of which azaleas are, especially around here, a popular subgenera.”

M

Martha Jane started doing needlepoint in 1971 and later taught the textile art to 50 women ... and eventually one man: her husband, Andy. “He was one of my best students,” she laughs. Says Andy, “I just wanted something to do with my idle fingers while watching TV.” One of his largest and most intricate pieces is a rendition of Chang E, who’s tied into Oriental legends, who might be a geisha and now inhabits the moon with a sacrificial rabbit. However the story pans out, it’s a beautiful piece. “He does gorgeous work,” Martha Jane says. Other examples of Andy’s needlepoint talents are the eight dining room chair seats he spent four years needlepointing. Each has a different pattern of Alabama birds and flowers designed by artist Marie Barber of Ragland.

aybe Andy didn’t partner-up and garden with his dad, but he says he does have a partner.

“I enjoy seeing the beauty of the flowers and having the satisfaction of knowing that it’s something that God created and allowed me to work along with the project,” he says.

One way or the other, their project will continue this spring.

Whatever blooms come, once they die back, if you happen past Andy and Martha Jane’s house you might well see him out working. He’ll be heavily pruning back his beloved shrubs, hoping to coax the Garden of Eden back to its former glory.

Good Life Magazine FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

43

A fire at Gene Autry’s house in California made Jesse Rush’s dream come true on Georgia Mountain

From Fan to Friend

collection. Gene Autry received a copy of each newsletter, and when the star’s home burned in 1962, he wrote Jesse a letter.

“He wanted to see if he might duplicate t all began one Saturday afternoon in some of his rare recordings and radio 1936 when 14-year-old Jesse Rush walked esse began a meager collection of shows I had since most of Gene’s personal into the old Palace Theatre in Guntersville western memorabilia when his mother collection had been lost in the blaze,” Jesse to see “Red River Valley.” The teenager bought him a Gene Autry guitar from Sears said in a 1999 interview. “I was a late arrival that day gave him a set of original since the journey was a records and radio shows. He 10-mile ride by wagon. kept insisting on paying me, The western had already but I told him all I wanted started, but Jesse looked up was his friendship.” at the big screen and spotted In return for the favor, a young cowboy named Autry sent Jesse copies of Gene Autry riding his horse two special radio shows Champion. previously withheld from Jesse was already a fan collectors.

Except for Autry of western movies, but there and the Cowboy Hall of was something different Fame in Oklahoma City, about Gene Autry. He Jesse was the only person to wasn’t the typical cowboy own a copy of the shows. that moviegoers were The two new friends accustomed to seeing on the began calling and writing silver screen … he was a each other.

While Jesse singing cowboy. saved all of Autry’s Jesse was fascinated letters and was thrilled with the new movie star. He to correspond with his especially liked his singing childhood hero, there was and watched the movie Jesse Rush sits in Gene Autry’s skybox on the day they first met, something else he wanted several times that day. Gene watching his childhood movie idol autographing photographs for to do – meet Gene Autry in Autry had become Jesse’s him. Jesse was a contractor by trade and still lived on Georgia person. idol by the time he walked Mountain when writer Steve Maze interviewed him in 1999. out of the Palace Theatre.

And he had a dream from n 1977, Jesse wrote Jesse later moved around but wrote Steve from Gulf that day forward … a dream Autry saying he and his wife Shores and Jemison, where he might be buried. that would carry over into were coming to California and would like to meet him. adulthood. & Roebuck as a Christmas gift. He added Autry replied, saying to call his office For more than 40 years, Jesse dreamt to his collection by purchasing old 78 when he arrived. at least a thousand times of meeting Gene records for 18 or 19 cents apiece.

Jesse arrived at the Gene Autry Hotel in Autry in person. But never in his wildest Palm Springs on May 10.

He also began collecting tapes of dreams did he think it would be a fire “I called Gene’s office in Los Angeles Autry’s radio shows and 16-millimeter at Autry’s California home in 1962 that and his secretary told us that Mr. Autry was brought the two together. movies. Over the years, he added books, expecting us,” Jesse said. “He owned the Jesse was born in Sumner, Miss., but movie posters, lobby cards, sheet music, California Angels baseball team, and our songbooks, cap pistols and other items to his parents moved to Georgia Mountain meeting was set up for Friday night at the when he was 2. The youngster inherited his his collection. By 1960, Jesse had one of love of old westerns from his father, whose the largest – if not the largest – Gene Autry baseball stadium.”

The head usher escorted them to Gene’s memorabilia collections in the world. cowboy idols were Tom Maynard, Tom private skybox. Several people were After he joined Autry’s fan club in Mix and Buck Jones. already there when Gene and his wife, the early 1960s, an article appeared in Every Gene Autry movie that showed Jackie, walked in. Though Autry had never the club newsletter detailing Jesse’s huge in Guntersville, Jesse was there. And Story and photos provided

by Steve A. Maze

I

he tried to be near a radio every Sunday evening at six to listen to the Gene Autry show sponsored by Doublemint Gum.

J

I

44 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

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seen Jesse before, he walked straight to him.

“You must be Jesse,” Autry exclaimed, extending his hand. “I am glad to meet you.”

“Not as much as I am to meet you,” Jesse laughed.

The two spent the next three hours talking about Autry’s film career and watching the game. Autry had a photographer take photos of them together.

The famous cowboy star also signed his baseball scorecard and gave it to his friend from Marshall County.

J

esse visited Autry about 15 times, once in 1979 that turned out to be particularly memorable when Autry entered his skybox with former U.S. President Richard Nixon.

“Mr. President, this is my biggest fan from Alabama,” Autry said, introducing Jesse. “He has more of my material than I have myself.”

Jesse was wearing a Leo lapel pin from the University of North Alabama.

“What is that … a dog?” Nixon asked.

“No, Mr. President, that’s a lion,” Jesse replied.

Nixon asked what it signified. Jesse said he was a member of the UNA board of trustees and …

“And the lions are the college football team,” Nixon interjected.

“And you can believe they are lions on the field,” Jesse added.

He also attended several “cowboy” functions with Autry over the years and met other western stars as well. He became good friends with Autry’s movie sidekick, Pat Buttram, who hailed from Winston County. Jesse opened a cowboy museum in the Boaz outlet center at one time, and Buttram attended the grand opening.

Ironically, most of Jesse’s cowboy memorabilia went up in flames in a 1997 house fire. It had been a fire that brought Jesse and Autry together, and fire destroyed his priceless Autry collection.

Jesse salvaged a few items but decided it was too late in life to rebuild his collection. The fire, however, could not destroy the memories of the man Jesse had watched on film and met in person.

T

he last time the friends spoke was about a year before Autry’s death on Oct. 2, 1998. He’d had a stroke and his health 46 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Gene Autry in his heyday as the Singing Cowboy, with his horse, Champ. was failing, but Jesse got an invitation to his 91st birthday party on Sept. 2.

Autry wasn’t feeling well, however, and the party was postponed until Oct. 16.

Unfortunately, he died before his party could be held.

“He was a nice, easy going and downto-earth person,” Jesse said. “It was almost like losing a member of your own family.

His death is still hard for me to accept.”

Jackie Autry wrote Jesse after her husband’s death. She recalled the time in 1962 when Jesse made copies of his personal collection and sent it to Gene. But she also recalled the friendship that grew between them.

“He was the most important part of

my life,” Mrs. Autry wrote, “and I know he was an integral part of yours. Together you share a strong bond of friendship, and there wasn’t a day Gene didn’t cherish that gift. I want you to know how much he appreciated all you did for him over the years ...”

As a result of his memorabilia collection and strong friendship with his childhood idol, Jesse became known as Gene Autry’s #1 fan. He was proud of the title, but never promoted himself that way.

“Someone else stuck me with that label,” Jesse said before his own death. “To me, everyone who has even been a Gene Autry fan is his #1 fan.”

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47

Rock House Eatery

Like an old friend who can really cook

Good Eats

Story and photos

by Patrick Oden

F

or 12 years Bo Duncan was general manager of The Springs Resort and Spa in Costa Rica. He oversaw four restaurants and five bars at the five-star-resort in paradise.

But paradise is a matter of perspective, and for Bo the stress and long hours were taking their toll.

“I was getting a bit burnt out,” Bo says.

So in 2011 he accepted his father Joey Duncan’s invitation to visit Guntersville and the Rock House Eatery. Joey hoped he could convince Bo – who was born in Birmingham and raised in Franklin, 48 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Tenn. – to stay and become involved in the family business.

The Duncans had owned the home on the corner of Gunter Avenue and Loveless Street for roughly 15 years when in 2009 Joey and Bo’s little brother, Brandon, opened the unique southern home as the Rock House Eatery.

Joey had spent his career in the design industry, traveled extensively and loved to cook. It was a love shared by Brandon, who had enjoyed cooking for the guys on base while serving in the Coast Guard. Following his service he attended culinary school.

Semi-retired, Joey had toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant, and Brandon’s recent

completion of his culinary studies provided the perfect excuse to realize that dream.

Originally open for lunch only, by their second year the Rock House had added dinner service and full bar.

Shortly after opening, however, Brandon moved to Portland, Ore. Joey and Bo’s stepmother, Anita, took over the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

B

o’s visit to Guntersville in 2011 at his father’s request was bitter sweet. In his third week home, Joey unexpectedly died.

It was a devastating blow for the family, but Bo feels blessed to have been at his father’s side after having been away for so long.

Bo Duncan, far left, often greets hungry guests at the restaurant for lunch or dinner. “Everything is homemade and fresh, with an emphasis on sustainable dining and agriculture,” he says. “At its core, our philosophy recognizes that there is, quite simply, tremendous value to eating locally.”

Buying local means fresh, a boost for the area’s economy, minimizing the eco-footprint on the environment and fostering a sense of community, Bo believes. The Rock House also offers a good selection of wines, Alabama craft beers, including Main Channel, and concocts perhaps the wildest Bloody Mary you’ve ever seen, much less tasted. At left and far left is a salmon and goat cheese salad and a fried green tomato sandwich.

With a tremendous amount of experience in fine dining, Bo quickly picked up his father’s torch and continued forward, working to make the Rock House everything his father imagined it could be.

Joey already had the major pieces in place. His design background shines through in the remodeling and décor of the 1924 home, and chef Julian Zambrano of the famous Beverly Hills eatery Il Cielo was already running the kitchen – and still is – at the Rock House.

The eatery also runs a thriving catering business through the duo of Reese Covington and Chef Lee Jones.

You couldn’t ask for a stronger pedigree

for your event. Reese, who’s been in the industry more than 25 years, heads up planning; Lee, classically trained in Paris at École de Cuisine La Varenne, is the main catering chef. They make for a one-two punch that will knock your socks off.

“We’re a southern gourmet restaurant with a commitment to consistency,” Bo says.

Consistency is important to a restaurant, but so is delicious food, and the Rock House, without question, turns out consistently delicious plates.

In fact, when the Alabama Cattleman’s Association considered more than 600 restaurants in Alabama before awarding

their Best Steak Award, the Rock House made the final four.

“I think we actually came in second,” Bo grins … a contagious grin.

B

o’s background in luxury hospitality is palpable as he cares for the patrons of the Rock House Eatery. He never stops moving. He never stops smiling. It’s almost as if he has a sixth sense for customer service.

And it’s that honest and sincere care for his customers that make eating at the Rock House feel a bit like you’re visiting an old friend. One who really knows how to cook.

Good Life Magazine FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

49

The hands of time ... the hands of the clockmaker

Gary works on the intricate maze of gears, springs and counter weights on the inside of a clock he’s restoring.

In William Faulkner’s classic novel “The Sound and the Fury,” young Quinton Compson receives his family’s heirloom pocket watch, with these words of advice from his father ... “I give it to you, not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment, and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it.”

Story by Seth Terrell Photos by David Moore

W

hile clockmaker Gary Payne of Grant knows better than to try to conquer time, perhaps it is accurate to say that he spends much of his free time successfully conquering the keepers of time – old, beautiful clocks.

“Listen to that,” he says sitting in a leather lounge chair in his basement clock shop. The rhythmic ticking of clocks from all over the world fills the air. Soon, the ticking is accompanied by gongs 50 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

and chimes marking the hour in musical bursts. The occasional chirp of a cuckoo, the high-pitched ping of hundred-year-old pendulums swinging back and forth. “I could sit down here all day listening to that sound,” Gary says. “It’s relaxing.”

Gary’s ear has become finely tuned in the 11 years he’s been a clockmaker. So finely tuned, in fact, he can distinguish a specific ticking noise of a particular clock from the host of them that line the walls of his shop.

However keen are his ears, Gary’s eyes are even more so. He flips on his magnifying goggles and goes to work, mending tiny broken springs and wheels

in an effort to restore antique clocks for customers from across North Alabama.

Gary is among a precious few clockmakers in the country, and only among a handful of clockmakers in the state.

“There’s a high demand,” he says.

“Especially for people [clockmakers] who know what they’re doing and do it well.”

Much of his business comes through relationships he has built from his military days, having been stationed all over the country. In fact, Gary’s journey as a clockmaker and his interest in the craft began when he was stationed in Germany on active duty. While there, he befriended

A quick tour of Gary’s shop is a march through time, complete with the everpresent and very real passage of seconds, minutes and years.

Old Eli Terry clocks date to the early 1800s. German clocks mount the walls, carved from hardwoods of Europe’s Black Forest.

The Black Forest is widely considered the Mecca of clockmaking. It is the place where German farmers perfected the art over the centuries, finding a livelihood through the bitter winters.

Gary shares the same taste for innovation as those early German farmers.

Before the age of computers, even before the age of radios, clocks were considered forms of entertainment.

“Each clock tells a story, gives us a glimpse of what was going on in the world at that time,” Gary smiles. “The whole package [art and history combined] just makes it real interesting.”

Gary recalls old clocks he’s seen or worked on that were often circulated from village to village. Long before people hunkered over radios or sat staring at TV sets, villagers would often gather around clocks. Many of the clocks Once Gary’s interest in clockworks became his love, friends and with “cuckoo action,” as Gary co-workers took notice. “Somebody would say, ‘Hey, do you says, have a three-dimensional know what this guy does?’ And before you know it, quality: soldiers with swords or through word-of-mouth, I ended up with more porcelain farmers rounding an axis with pitchforks. (business) than I could handle right then.”

an old German clockmaker who sold antique clocks.

Craftsmanship first drew Gary to the timepieces, and when he arrived back home in the States he had 12 antique clocks in his possession.

“They were beautiful pieces,” he says. “But none of them were working.”

S

o Gary took them to a clockmaker he’d searched out in Kansas City. When the man saw the beautiful clocks and Gary’s keen interest in them, he offered him an apprenticeship.

By that time, Gary and his wife Ellen were used to new adventures. Even though the place they called home was always subject to change, and Gary’s job as a military chaplain consumed most of his time, he could not help himself; Gary took the clockmaker up on the offer to apprentice. He took each of the 12 clocks, one by one, to the shop and worked on them himself under the oversight of the master in Kansas City.

Gary quickly realized his interest was beyond just a passing fancy. And more … he realized he was quite skilled at clock repair and restoration.

His talent and love for clockmaking and repair took him to the only clock school in the country that has an actual campus. He found himself in Columbia, Penn., in the heart of Amish country on the banks of the Susquehanna River, ready and willing to learn all there is to know about the world of clocks.

Precious hours of military leave were spent taking courses under the tutelage of some of the most skilled clockmakers in the world. Soon Gary was one of them, though his kind humility keeps him from admitting such.

“I never dreamed I’d become a clockmaker,” he says. “But here I am. I’m kind of analytical. I like to discover things and how they work. So it was just a natural fit for me.”

The title “clockmaker,” is a bit of a misnomer. While many clockmakers make every piece of a clock, Gary considers restoration and repair to be the foundations of his work.

W

hile Gary and Ellen traveled the globe, their love for clocks always followed close behind. Today, over 100 clocks line the walls in Gary’s basement and home, or are in various stages of repair or display.

Unlike typical American basements, which often become the final resting places for what might be graciously called “sentimental refuse,” Gary’s basementturned-clock-shop is full of life – an oasis for the senses.

G

ary’s story is filled not only with clocks but with people. Serving both as Army chaplain and as a civilian minister, Gary has devoted his life to helping other people.

“When you’re in the people-helping professions, it can be overwhelming,” he says.

Because the United States had been at war so long, those in the military’s caregiving professions are seeking out things that are fun, things that offer a healthy balance to a veteran’s life.

“It’s important to me,” says Gary, FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

51

The animated “Farmer’s Daughter” cuckoo clock above, depicts a young man in lederhosen toggling up and down a ladder to the window from which his beloved’s face emerges. Her angry father pivots with a pitchfork, just a cuckoo’s chirp from catching the unwanted suitor. With a penchant for cockpit clocks from warbirds, Gary has one from a late 1940s Russian jet, right, as well as American bombers, Vietnam and Desert Storm choppers and a WWII Nazi fighter. Opposite is an Ansonia Triumph, circa 1882, with statues on the sides and woodwork Gary completely rebuilt; and below it a restored French Japy from 1890, which he topped with a figurine. Gary overhauled Vienna Regulator, far right. They went through various design motifs through the years. This one is Alt Deutsch (Old German) design common from 1870 to 1895. “when I’m working with a soldier to ask, ‘What do you do for fun?’”

Clockmaking is not only a necessary diversion for Gary Payne; this pastime is a mental, spiritual and physical well-being exercise. He even sees clockmaking as a mission and has used his skills to offer handson experiences for school kids.

52 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Such a love for clocks compelled Gary to offer his talents to his sons, Nicholas and Nathaniel. Before the boys left for college, they spent quality hours with their dad, learning the art of clock restoration.

“They got good at it,” Gary says. “I told them that regardless of what direction they wanted to go in life, this set of skills would

teach them self-discipline and help them gain confidence in themselves.”

G

ary’s clock shop has been up and running for a little over a decade. But Gary, in many ways, sees himself not simply as a repairman but as a curator. Beyond the tedium and meticulous fitting of springs

and wheels, Gary researches each clock and pieces together its history as part of his restoration work.

He uncovers the cultural significance behind the clock sculptures and interprets religious motifs that accompany several clocks (complete with angels and demons and grim reapers).

He also works to learn about a clock’s designer: sometimes having to pull out the dial of certain clocks, from Austria for instance, to find the designer’s name. The signatures of those clocks can be difficult to find because many were secretly signed by their Jewish makers who were avoiding prying Nazi eyes.

Then there are the clocks that wow him with their sheer presentation, like the Lenzkirch models that were, as Gary says, “the Cadillacs of German Black Forest clocks – built to last.”

Regardless of make or design, each clock has a story and is endowed with unlimited sentimental value.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

53

“People have been fascinated by time since the first occasions they tried to capture it,” Gary says. “But now days if someone wants to know what time it is they look on their cellphone.”

Yet in the modern era where the complexities of timekeeping have birthed the digital age, sustained GPS devices and produced high-tech ways of measuring time by the movement of atomic particles, the old clocks still stand firm through the ages.

“Where else do you get the intersection of physics and mathematics and metallurgy and woodworking and history and art? All in one single object?”

Gary asks.

I

n the peaceful lounge area of Gary’s clock shop, looking out over the bluff where the winter sun falls pale on the waters of Lake Guntersville, gilding the hills around, the hundred or so clocks count off yet another hour in time.

Another moment in life.

Gary finds an almost hypnotic effect listening to churning pendulums that have sounded through the years. The peaceful hum heard by people long ago.

There is something subtly profound in hearing the old clocks marking the passage of life in one more tick … one more chime.

Good Life Magazine It’s probably a good thing that all of Gary’s shop clocks are not set for the same time. It could get noisy. At right is a novelty clock he couldn’t resist adding to his collection. It’s a traveling clockmaker, showing the time for all to see, plus carrying clocks for sale strapped to his backpack.

54 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

One of Gary’s prized clocks is a porcelain timepiece from the German Black Forest, circa 1890.

Intricate hand-crafted flowers cover the face, seemingly unaged in 125 years. The irony is strong: though the clock itself ticks away the moments, its beauty is timeless.

For more on Gary and his workshop visit: www.garysclockshop.com.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

55

And the beat goes on ...

Atop Sand Mountain, the Alabama School of Gospel Music convenes for two weeks annually to keep alive the soul and song of a traditional form of worship

Story and photos

by David Moore

F

or the most part, Mercedes Childers’ lifestyle is similar to that of the majority of high school students in Marshall County and the country.

Between school, homework and studying for tests, she finds time to text friends, hang out with them at Albertville High School, attend church and maybe have a date on the weekend. She is looking for a part-time job.

As it does for some students, music lured Mercedes from the path of the majority. She started piano lessons at 8 and took up the alto sax in the seventh grade.

Turns out she loves music so much she later quit softball and volleyball to make room for band and choir.

“Music,” says Mercedes, “was the path I knew I was going down.”

A testament to her talent, though only a junior, she leads the 260-member awardwinning Aggie Marching Band as drum major. Daughter of Samantha and Michael Childers of Albertville, Mercedes wants to major in music at Jacksonville State University and become a band director or give private lessons.

In her love of music, however, Mercedes has veered down a side path far fewer musicians march. For the sixth year Mercedes will spend June 4-16 enrolled in the 31st annual session of the Alabama School of Gospel Music, which convenes at Snead State Community College.

ASGM teaches students, young and old, to sight-read convention music – southern gospel music – that generally has faster, more upbeat rhythms than sacred hymns. Instead of standard round notes, convention music incorporates shaped notes. But unlike sacred harp with its four shaped notes, convention singing uses seven notes, and songs are not sung a 56 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

In addition to leading the Albertville High School marching band as drum major, Mercedes Childers, above, also loves the group singing classes, part of the ASGM. cappella but are accompanied, usually by piano.

Mercedes says theory and other lessons she learns at the Alabama School of Gospel Music help her pursuit of the musical career she wants for her future.

What’s more, she has a blast.

“It’s probably my favorite two weeks of summer.”

“I have many friends in music,” she continues. “One came to the gospel school with me one year, but most of them don’t understand it, or choose not to. When it has ‘gospel’ in it, they second-guess themselves.”

Not Mercedes.

Beyond the worship aspects she enjoys in the music, she’s learned much.

“When I started coming here and saw shape notes, it was almost like a new language. It took me a while to learn, but once you get them it becomes easier.”

“Sight-reading shape notes, you hear the intervals in your head,” she adds. ”It makes sight-reading circle notes easier.”

A

lthough Congress recognizes Lawrenceburg, Tenn., as the birthplace of southern gospel music, some folks contend it was born on Alabama’s Sand Mountain. One of those, Dr. Bobbie Glassco, says the reputation stems from the number of gospel groups from the area.

Bobbie, who lives in Horton, graduated from Douglas High in 1950, eventually earning degrees from Snead, Jacksonville State and Auburn, where she Tom Powell, right, a founder and the music director at the Alabama School of Gospel Music, leads a directing class in the music building at Snead State.

Becky Walker teaches private voice lessons during the summer sessions at ASGM, but she loves to join in the group singing class, flying in the face of the saying that “... those who can’t, teach.” Above, Dr. Bobbie Glassco is a fixture at the school.

Singing schools arose in colonial days In learning “shape notes” at the Alabama School of Gospel Music, Mercedes Childers of Albertville and others are continuing not only a southern tradition that started as sacred harp singing, but they’re delving into the heritage of what’s been called early America’s most important musical institution – the singing school.

English-rooted settlers in colonial America, out to reform congregational singing in Protestant churches, used “country parish music.” Singing masters of the day taught brief courses using “tunebooks,” according to David Warren Steel, professor of music and southern culture at the University of Mississippi.

After the American Revolution, itinerant singing masters from the north traveled inland and southward, founding singing schools that, beyond educational and religious values, provided rural residents rare opportunities to socialize and even court.

Shape notes first appeared in print in 1801 in Philadelphia. Four differently shaped notes indicating the fa, so, la, mi tones of a simplified musical scale that made it unnecessary for pupils to learn key signatures. Critics moaned, but it set a standard for sacred music in the south and west. Regional composers began compiling sacred tunebooks. Some sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and revisions of the 1844 “The Sacred Harp” form a cornerstone in a musical heritage still viable today in six southern states.

Southern singing masters added folk hymns and revival songs for camp meetings. They formed groups – such as the Chattahoochie Musical Association, still active after 165 years – and held conventions to sing, certify new teachers and showcased their classes.

After the Civil War, so-called fasola four-note singing declined elsewhere but flourished in the south. Many teachers, however, switched to a seven-shape system – known as convention singing – that, unlike sacred harp, has accompaniment.

In the 1900s, as folks traveled and communicated more easily with their neighbors (and future spouses), gospel quartets replaced church and community singings. Most singing schools died out.

The few survivors evolved into one- or two-week schools specializing in sacred harp, denominational or convention singing, keeping alive their traditional ways of praising God. Relying on new songs published annually in inexpensive books, these singing schools today are funded through sponsoring conventions, publishing houses and/or tuition.

Such is the Alabama School of Gospel Music.

58 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

got her master’s and doctorate in sociology. She served 42 years in teaching and administration at Snead.

She’s been involved in the Alabama School of Gospel Music since its inception in 1986 and served as president the last six years. Music has been much of her life.

“My dad taught singing schools when I was growing up,” Bobbie says. “He had me take piano for a year, and I started playing and singing for him when I was 5.”

Her long-time husband, the late Truman Glassco, was deeply involved with singing schools and organized several over the years. One is the Alabama School of Gospel Music, which he co-founded with Tom Powell, director at the school today.

Tom, too, has deep roots in gospel music. His grandfather was George Thomas (G.T.) “Dad” Speer of the iconic Singing Speers family, which dates to the early 1920s, transitioned over several generations from radio to television and produced 60 albums through 2003 and was inducted into the Gospel Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 1998.

T

om, who grew up on North Main Street in Boaz, was only months old when he was taken to his first singing school.

“I grew up in it,” he says. “In the history of convention music, Sand Mountain was probably the strongest area in the nation for gospel writers, singing schools and convention singing. Most every church around here used the convention books Sunday morning before the preaching.”

Naturally, he knew Truman and Bobbie.

Tom, a band director in Tennessee then, and Truman got into a discussion in 1986 about North Georgia, the Cumberland Valley and other areas having summer

Tom Powell teaches a first level directing class in the afternoon with a room full of mostly youngsters. The school teaches six levels of classes. In the final level, students compose a song in the upbeat convention style using seven shaped notes. singing schools. They decided Sand Mountain warranted one, too.

“We are going to do it,” Bobbie recalls Truman telling Tom. “You come and run the school, and I’ll make sure we have the money.”

That fall, Tom, Truman, Carlos Bailey, Barney Raines and other convention singers got the ball rolling. Soon, 50 folks from 14 counties had plunked down $10 each as founding board members of the Alabama School of Gospel Music.

With Truman as president, Bobbie as secretary and Tom as the director – a position he’s held with the exception of six years – the school’s first session in 1987 at Snead State attracted 130 students.

T

en months out of the year Becky

Walker teaches choral at Douglas High School. Two weeks out of each summer she excitedly teaches voice lessons at the Alabama School of Gospel Music.

She’s not shy about encouraging her Douglas students to sign up for ASGM. She gives an extra push to those considering majoring in music, but some of them hear the word “gospel” and think the singing school is nothing but, well, singing.

“They don’t realize they are learning theory, ear training, part writing, conducting skills, sight reading and more,” Becky says. “Their third year at the school is like music theory in college.”

Attending ASGM is a commitment and hard work, but it’s worth it, she believes, and anyone wanting to learn music should find it fun.

“It’s like music sudoku,” she laughs.

Becky plays piano at The Fellowship in Albertville, and her grandparents were convention singers who conducted singing schools in her native Mississippi.

“That was part of my draw to teaching here,” she says. “I just love music.”

“A lot of times music can reach a person when speaking can’t,” she observes. “Music is everywhere. Think how boring the world would be without it.”

And for those who can’t truly sing?

“The scripture,” she laughs, “says to make a joyful noise to the Lord.”

T

om Powell has directed singing schools in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia for 30 years. He says they all contend with societal changes ranging FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

59

Sitting about casually on the floor, fourth and fifth level students play an obviously fun, something like clapping out tonguetwister rhythms written on flash cards. It’s little wonder that students like Mercedes Childers, who love music, say that the two-week session of the ASGM is one of their favorite parts of summer. from video games and an influx of contemporary Christian music in churches, to families and communities being more loosely knit than they once were.

Still, singing schools hang in there. Last year, 125 students from eight states signed up for the session on the Snead campus. ASGM’s annual enrollment range is 108 to 160.

“Sacred harp was big at one time, but has been preserved,” Tom notes.

“There are not as many (convention) singings as we used to have, but they are well attended. We want to develop a love and appreciation for this kind of music.”

His intent at Alabama School of Gospel Music is to help preserve convention style music and have attendees return to their churches with a tool for improving ministry programs.

There’s been a side benefit, too, he smiles.

“This was not necessarily our intent, but most of these students develop friendships that last for the rest of their lives,” Tom says. “My kids’ best friends are the ones they went to singing school with in the summertime.”

Mercedes echoes Tom’s comment about making friends then raises it an octave of her own.

“You make so many new friends here,” she says. “One day, I am going to encourage my kids to come here or to do something like this.”

And so there’s hope that the heritage of convention singing carries forth.

Good Life Magazine 60 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

Want to learn, relive, pass on convention singing ways?

Think you or your children might be interested in the Alabama School of Gospel Music? Here are a few things to know: • Date: Registration: Sunday, June 4, 2:00 p.m., Maze Music Bldg., Snead campus Classes: Monday-Friday, June 5 - June 16.

• Tuition: $115 for full-time students; $85 for day students; $40 for night students.

If paid by May 1, the $25 registration fee is applied to the cost.

• Instruction materials: $30.

• Dorm housing and meals: $325. Lunch can be bought separately.

All contributions are tax-exempt.

For more information: www.alabamagospel.com; or call Dr. Bobbie Glassco: 256-593-6946.

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That ain’t workin’ ...

Wanna bet?

Lee brothers say differently

Bass fishing. Professionally. Big bucks for having a blast.

What’s not to love about that? Millions would call it the proverbial good life. A dream job.

Not so fast.

Matt and Jordan Lee – the celebrated Auburn-graduate fishing brothers on the Bassmaster Elite Series – agree that pro fishing is their dream job. Some might even their say it’s their destiny. But despite its dreamy aspects, it’s still a job. And assuming you can even land one of the rare job openings, you best know it comes with its share – and more – of pressure.

To deal with it, warn Matt, 28, and Jordan, 25, you better be dedicated. And you better truly love fishing.

Story and photos

by David Moore

H

ere’s a taste of the workload and pressure pro anglers face with their dream job, as viewed through Matt and Jordan Lee. The nine tournaments of the 2017 Elite Series run from Feb. 9-12 at Cherokee Lake in Tennessee to Aug. 24-27 at Lake St. Clair in Michigan. It marks the third year for The Brothers Lee to fish the BASS circuit with the nation’s top anglers.

They plan to fish each Elite tourney, plus Jordan qualified for the Bassmaster Classic March 24-26 on Houston’s Lake Conroe – a trip he won’t mind making.

On top of these major events, Jan. 19-21 in Florida they fished the first of three Bass Pro Shops Southern Opens this year and intend to fish the other two, including the one on Smith Lake Sept. 28-30.

That means no-telling how many miles of trailer-hauling travel for the two Cullman County natives who now live in Marshall County in the Waterfront community (Matt) and Grant (Jordan) to be close to Lake Guntersville, their adopted home waters. The Lees and other pros also make reconnaissance trips to tournament lakes at least a month before the event, thus doubling their mileage.

So they basically face 25 weeks of little but fishing and travel.

As a perspective on the traveling, they’ve hauled their boats on 35-hour drives to California. They’ve driven 18 hours straight to get home from Minnesota.

While on the Auburn fishing team, Matt once drove 21 hours straight to a tournament, weathering a snowstorm en route in Mobile, of all places.

Pressure to win is relentless. Pros must remain in the top 70 in points to guarantee a spot in the Elite Series. Making it into the Classic is tougher still. And they have to place high enough in the money to pay the bills – which are considerable.

Not to overstate the obvious, the other 108 anglers they face on the Elite are hardly cupcakes.

“These guys are the best,” Jordan says.

“It’s not by accident. They want to win worse than you can ever imagine.”

O

K, you might think, so, it’s a

64 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

pressurized job. Big deal. But these pros only work from January through September. That’s part time.

Not so fast. Again.

“September to January matters as much as January to September,” Matt says.

Instead of catching fish, that’s when all but the biggest pros are trying to net sponsors. Without sponsors – even with sponsors – professional level fishing is expensive.

Just to enter the Bass opens costs $1,500 per tournament. Entry fees for each of the nine Elite Series tournaments is $5,500 – $49,500 a year. A top-of-theline fishing boat, assuming you don’t win it, might set you back $70 large. And you need a truck and trailer to pull it.

Even if the Lees share motel rooms and grill burgers, living on the road costs a small fortune, especially when you tally in gas to haul a boat from Texas to Florida to Oklahoma to the St. Lawrence River.

“Fishing is like a bad gambling addiction,” Matt says. “It’s like playing craps in Las Vegas with all your money.”

It’s much better to play with someone else’s money – which makes sponsorships so important. So from October to January the Lees, like most pro anglers, spend hours on the phone and email with sponsors and potential sponsors.

“You just deal with it,” Jordan says. “It comes with the territory.”

A great winnings record helps catch and keep sponsors like fishing spinner bait cast on the edge of the grass. So do consistency and longevity.

“If you can stick around, you get more backing, work your way up with companies that offer sponsorships, get more locked in,” Matt explains. “My primary focus is getting stable enough in fishing not to worry what next year brings.”

S

ons of Cullman veterinarian Dr. Bruce and Leigh Lee, the brothers grew up in nearby Vinemont. Hunting interested neither. Baseball was of some interest. But catching fish emerged as the top lure.

As a youngster Jordan played baseball, but his bat soon gave way to the “bug” he caught wetting hooks with his grandfather at his catfish pond at Jones Chapel.

Matt loved to fish, too, and when they

were about 12-10, their father bought – mostly for the boys – a small, used Blazer fishing boat. The Lee family also had a boat they kept at Lake Guntersville Yacht Club, where the boys often fished from the docks.

For his 14th birthday, Matt graduated to a 1992 Ranger 361V, which he had for years.

While Matt played high school ball for the Cullman Bearcats, Jordan had other fish to fry, so to speak. He fished as much as possible on Lake Catoma with their friend, Gavin Ellis, who had a flat bottom boat. He entered and won local tournaments.

“He went fishing, and it wasn’t cool back then,” Matt laughs. “I don’t know if there was another person besides Jordan who brought BASS magazines to middle school.”

After graduating from Cullman in 2007, Matt enrolled at BirminghamSouthern College, studying engineering when not hurrying home to fish with Jordan or in a local tournament.

Jordan graduated in 2009 and enrolled at Auburn University mainly because he was raised to love the school, but it certainly didn’t hurt that it had a fledging bass fishing team.

“It was just getting big my first year in

The Lees fish the edge of the channel at the mouth of Waterfront Bay in early December. They rely on their instincts and knowledge of the ways of bass and how weather and other conditions affect the lake.

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

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The Lee brothers are very competitive with other tournament anglers, but it’s a bit different with each other. “At this point we work together a lot,” says Matt, left. “We still want to beat each other, but mostly we just like to catch fish, go out on the water.” college,” Jordan says. “It was a club sport, like hockey. They were not doing any serious recruiting.”

But they did recruit Jordan.

Jordan would go on to earn a degree in marketing. Well, he had to pick something, and nothing held much interest excepting fishing.

“I knew I could use the marketing,” he says, “but I wasn’t about to change what I really wanted to do.” Catch fish.

I

n the course of that pursuit, he and Matt wrote the most exciting chapters in the annals of Auburn and perhaps even all of collegiate fishing. They also got more than a nibble of what pressured fishing tastes like.

As a sophomore, Jordan and his team partner, Shane Powell, finished seventh in the 2010 version of what would later 66 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

become Bassmaster’s Carhartt College Series National Championship.

Next year the good friends again made the championship, this time resulting in a next-to-the-last day fight with Stephen F. Austin State University for the title.

In waning minutes, Jordan lost a fourpound bass that would have won for them.

But the fish swam away, as did Auburn’s best shot at its first national fishing title.

That was also the first year the college championship featured a Classic flight.

So on the final day Stephen Austin’s two team members – instead of Jordan and Shane – got to fish one-on-one for the inaugural collegiate berth in the next year’s Bassmaster Classic. It was neither Auburn’s nor Jordan’s year.

Meanwhile, Matt had learned he could transfer to Auburn and earn a dual degree in engineering.

“I wanted to join my brother,” he says.

“The fishing team looked like a pretty cool gig.”

So the Brothers Lee fished together in 2012, making it all the way to the nationals. Again. Only to finish second for Auburn. Again.

This time, however, the rules had changed. The two members of the top four teams competed individually for two days in single-elimination brackets to determine who won the only college ticket to the Classic. When the waves settled, the week-long tournament that started with 110 anglers from 57 colleges and universities had boiled down to two brothers at Auburn facing off in the Classic flight.

With their parents watching in torn elation, Matt and Jordan pitted rods and wits against each other and the fish for four and a half hours in triple-digit heat.

Jordan, with an ESPN cameraman on his left, waves to onlookers as he heads his Auburn wrapped boat out of Guntersville Harbor for the blast off on the second day of the 2014 Bassmaster Classic. He and Matt went to Auburn in large part for the fishing team, but they encourage high school anglers heading to college to focus on the quality of the school as opposed to attending “Podunk University” on a scholarship. The brothers keep their boats well equipped, including a large selection of rods and reels. The containers filling their boat lure lockers look like libraries.

On his last cast, Jordan saw a fivepound bass swallow his jig. He set the hook and – snap. The lunker broke his line.

W

hen the drama ended, Matt scaled two bass at 5 pounds, 6 ounces.

Jordan caught two weighing 2-4. The scene was described in a Bassmaster story as being more like a funeral than a coronation.

“If we fished 20 times, he’d win 18,” Matt said at the time. “I hate it for him, but I’m happy for me. I know right now he’s hurting, and I’m hurting for him.”

Another angler might have called it quits. Not Jordan. In jubilation and agony he cheered for Matt at the 2013 Classic in Oklahoma where, fishing against the best of the best, his older brother finished 46th and won a $10,000 check.

That same year Jordan, determined and focused, fishing again with Shane Powell, they won a wild card on Pickwick Lake to qualify for the Carhartt College Series National Championship.

They finished a frustrating third in the championship.

But, in a twist of fate or declaration of destiny, they qualified for the Classic bracket a month away. In his final year on the Auburn team, Matt and his teammate finished fifth, missing the Classic bracket by a spot.

Jordan and Shane were lined up on different sides of the Classic bracket.

After two days of eliminations, the others were gone. The two Tiger teammates and friends were left facing off in reel time to determine who would represent Auburn for the second straight year at the Bassmaster Classic in January 2014 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

67

Matt brings his boat into the boat launch across Ala. 79 from Waterfront Grocery and Tackle after an afternoon of fishing with his brother. Practice makes perfect ... or at least better. The Lees both offer guide services as a side to the pro fishing jobs. at, of all sweet places, what Jordan had come to consider his home waters – Lake Guntersville.

Destiny? Fate? It may not truly matter.

Jordan was hot. Jordan fished smart. And he weighed in five bass at 12 pounds.

Shane caught four for 9 pounds, 3 ounces.

Jordan knew exactly how his close friend felt … and how Matt felt a year earlier.

At the Classic, Jordan fought back the last day to finish an astounding sixth place in his first pro show and earn a $22,000 paycheck.

O

ut of school, the Brothers Lee were dead set on making their dream job a reality. That necessitated qualifying for the Elite Series. One way to do that is to finish among the top five anglers in one of the three geographical regions that host the Opens. Each region totals points from its three Open tournaments.

The Lees went all out, fishing all nine Opens in 2014. Matt qualified through the 68 FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2017

southern region, Jordan nailed it in the central.

And so they hit the trail trod by bass fishing’s elite.

They were fortunate in the Opens and their rookie Elite year to have sponsors such as Carhartt they’d picked up at the college level that helped with entry fees and equipment. It reinforced a lesson introduced at the college level: there are two sides to being a pro in this business.

“There’s the side of fishing, of actually catching fish,” Matt surmises. “But a lot of professional fishing has nothing to do with catching fish.”

Success helps snag sponsors.

“So we try to stay on our game by going fishing,” Jordan says. “I would go everyday. It’s different every day you go out – the wind, the water color, the grass.

You get good.”

“It’s like golf,” Matt adds. “Someone who plays 20 days a month is better than someone who plays every once in a while.”

Success catching fish, they insist, is highly instinctual.

“It’s not your mechanics, and very little is luck,” Matt explains. “Fish move and go to areas for a reason. He who figures it out wins.”

“A lot of fishing is drawing from past knowledge – the look of the water or the lake” he continues. “Also, if a lake in Minnesota looks like Lake Guntersville, it helps you draw on that.”

F

inally, say the Lees, making the dream job of professional fishing a reality requires dedication and work. Translate: fish, fish, fish, come muggy heat you can cut with a bait knife or freezing rain that cuts through whatever you wear.

“If you don’t love it and are not dedicated, you end up not doing it anymore,” Jordan says.

“You still get pumped up at blast off, but it does get to be a job,” Matt says.

And that’s when the pros go to work.

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Out ’n’ About In conjunction with Holy Week, you might want to attend the Living Last Supper at 7 p.m., April 12-13, at Arab United Methodist Church.

Inspired by the Book of Mark and Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper,” the dramatization is presented every other year. The volunteer actors remain frozen in place until one at a time the disciples come to life to ask Jesus if he is the one who’ll betray Him. Afterward Jesus breaks the bread of His body, shares the wine of His blood. The cast in 2015 was, from left above, Ron Hanes, Marc Scarbrough, Marcus Flack, Jeremy Couch, David Russell, Scott Beard, Justin Kritner as Jesus, Jeff Hestley, Rickey Loveland, David Jacobs, associate pastor Roy Bryant, Myles Teston and Dr. John York. This year, Richard Turner replaces David Jacobs, and another change had not yet been made at press time. Photos by David Moore.

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