Good People
5questions Story and photo by David Moore
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une 30, 2015 … It’s not a red-letter date in the annals of history, but it was big day in the life of then 70-year-old local historian Dr. Pete Sparks. It was the day he packed away his Lidocaine syringe and drill and retired after 42 years of practicing dentistry in Grant. That big day was supposed to mark a paradigm shift in Pete’s life. His newfound freedom from work would allow time to spend on the Warrenton Cemetery Association, which he’d started a few years earlier; time to spend mining old copies of newspapers as a new member of Marshall County Archives. Maybe he’d help discover some “new” history on Gen. Andrew Jackson’s forts and Creek War roadway through Marshall County. And he’d have lots of time for golf. Perhaps even more pressing than golf, the already published author could charge head-long into writing two other history books he’d started. Spoiler alert: Pete’s retirement’s been great but hasn’t quite gone as imagined. “I thought that when I retired I could get through writing the books quicker than my first one,” he laughs, “but I’ve been so busy with everything else.” “Everything else” refers to all of the above and Pete’s myriad other pursuits. One gets a sense of those pursuits by simply entering his stand-alone study behind his and Rhonda’s home on Obrig Avenue in Guntersville. Packed with books, you immediately grasp that he’s a prolific reader; you quickly hone in on his passion for history. He’s read a thousand volumes on the Civil War alone. Don’t fret. Pete plays a lot of golf (four times a week); spends considerable time researching history at the archives; and more recently he’s delved into Gen. Jackson’s military maneuvers in Marshall County. “In short,” Pete grins from behind his 18
NOV. | DEC. | JAN. 2022-23
Dr. Pete Sparks
A chat about retirement, history, MMC, his neighborhood – and yes, superstition appropriately cluttered desk, “I don’t lack for things to do. I am busier in retirement than I was when I was working.”
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ete lived in Warrenton through the first grade. His dad, a traveling salesman and later a contractor, moved a lot and for seven years the family lived in Louisiana and other parts of the South. Returning home, they lived several places in Guntersville before settling down in Warrenton on his grandfather’s 80-acre farm, later known as Goat Hill. “The hill was covered in growth back in the Great Depression, and my granddaddy bought a herd of goats to clear it,” Pete says. “They did, but mountain laurel, which is poison, grew there. They goats ate it and all died. Now there are goat skeletons up there.” Young Pete pretty much lived in paradise, playing Little League ball, fishing and later playing baseball and basketball at Guntersville High – “normal, happy childhood,” he reports. He was interested in his family’s roots and enjoyed history class under Tim Richey at MCHS and later at Snead State. But he told his guidance counselor and chemistry teacher, James Dennis, that, when older, he wanted to be his own boss. James said to become a lawyer, doctor or dentist. “I didn’t want to be a lawyer or doctor,” Pete says. So he went into predentistry. “Honestly,” he adds, “I would have rather been studying history, but I had to take biology and science courses.” He finished dental school in 1972 as Vietnam was raging. Young dentists were being drafted to serve military patients in the Philippines. “I didn’t want to go to the Philippines, so I enlisted in the Air Force and spent two years doing dental work in Puerto Rico,” Pete says. “Plus a little golf and snorkeling.” He returned in 1974 to start a practice in Marshall County. His former baseball
coach, Percy Lee, was principal at DAR High School and helped procure a grant for Pete designed bring dentists to rural areas. And so Pete ended up in Grant. “I already knew a lot of the people,” he says. “Then I got there and liked the atmosphere.”
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988 was a red-letter year in Pete’s history. For starts, he and Rhonda got married. It wasn’t for the long haul like his marriage, but the county commission also appointed him to the Marshall County Healthcare Authority for the first of what would become six four-year terms. It was a period of great growth for the two existing county hospitals, including the construction of Marshall Medical Center North and the drive to build the Marshall Cancer Care Center. In 1992, Pete’s ongoing love of history led him to join the Guntersville Historical Society. He’s the current president, an office he’s held several times over the years. In 2001 he lead the charge to save the Gilbreath House, a rare survivor of the burning of Guntersville during the Civil War. The disused house was owned by Howard Powell, and Commission Chairman Billy Cannon proposed that the county buy and raze it for needed parking space. His historic sensibilities trampled, Pete confronted Billy and said if the county did that he’d contact every news outlet around and see how many votes Billy would garner by destroying one of Guntersville’s oldest surviving homes. Billy saw Pete’s logic, and the commission retreated. To raise money for the private purchase of the house, someone suggest that Pete give history tours in and around Guntersville. “I’d been on tours, and, with my love of history, I agreed to do it,” he says. The Gilbreath House was bought and today is the headquarters for the Guntersville Historical Society. For his
