Alabama History & Culture News: May 4 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

Restored greyhound bus unveiled for Freedom Rides' 60th anniversary NBC News ... against racial segregation in 1961 — was unveiled at the Alabama Historical Commission's Freedom Rides Museum in downtown Montgomery.

Two rare plant species discovered at Oak Mountain State Park Alabama NewsCenter ... he was planning to take part in a survey for a tree found only in Alabama. ... understand the range and natural history of the Alabama sandstone oak, ...

A visit to Mobile and historic Battle House Lakeside on Lanier From personal experience dining in the Mobile area, I can assure visitors this restaurant has the best food and service in coastal Alabama! Using the ...

Want a history lesson? Here are 5 more of Birmingham's oldest businesses Bham Now 1. Walter Schoel Engineering · Location: 1001 22nd Street South, Birmingham, Alabama 35205 · Website | Facebook | Contact ...

UAB's Dr. Selwyn Vickers named president of the American Surgical Association

Alabama NewsCenter

Dr. Selwyn Vickers, University of Alabama at Birmingham's dean of the ... He is the third Black president in the association's history, and the second ...

Omaha Beach hero Ray Lambert dies aged 100 Bridport and Lyme Regis News Originally from Alabama, SSG Lambert speaks about his time in Bridport in ... SSG Lambert requested that his ashes be buried at Arlington National ...

Hoover historians celebrate new grave markers at Birmingham cemetery al.com “It was a rustic resort then,” Langley said. Hale had built his wealth when Alabama's first major industrialist, Daniel Pratt, founder of Prattville and Pratt ...

Huntsville City launches sixth annual Historic Preservation Month whnt.com Blake Art & History Center, Alabama State Black Archives, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville Museum of Art, and Burritt on the Mountain. “ .

Mount Hope featured prominently in Jack Smith's book, “Moments in Time, An Autobiography, Sort of” Moulton Advertiser He later earned an M.A. degree in Journalism from the University of Alabama in 1975. Smith retired from Auburn University Cooperative Extension ...

US, UK, Barbadian authors up for Women's Prize for fiction Kenosha News The six-book shortlist includes American author Brit Bennett's tale of twins who take ... a story of African immigrants in Alabama by Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi. ... It was the books, and whether the books spoke to us.”.

History forgot about these Black soldiers of WWII. Now, a group is making its mission to remember ... Virginian-Pilot He recalled it in the book he eventually wrote with Mieke, “From Alabama to Margraten.” The French woman said to Wiggins, then a 19-year-old first ...

A history of care: Local author traces growth of medicine in metro Birmingham

Vestavia Voice

A new book from a Vestavia Hills publisher pays tribute to pioneering ... Yetta Samford, who was chairman of the board of the University of Alabama ...

See art & poetry by local students at The Green Book Project, April 29 Bham Now “We are thrilled to collaborate for a second year with Bush Hills STEAM Academy, Jefferson County Memorial Project, and the Alabama State Council on ...

Alabama artist looks to change the narrative with monument to 'mothers of gynecology' Montgomery Advertiser Each time Michelle Browder's history tour, More than Tours, reaches the statue of Sims on the steps of the Alabama capitol, she can only think of the ...

Re-enactors work to preserve the story of the battleship USS Alabama Alabama Public Radio Several times a year, Living History re-enactors in World War II uniforms board the battleship USS Alabama and the submarine USS Drum on Mobile ...

Birmingham Photo of the Day [79]: Peerless Saloon Building in 1939

The Peerless Saloon opened in 1889 in this three-story building at 1900 2nd Avenue North. After a shootout in May 1906, Mayor George Ward ordered that the saloon be closed. A vaudeville venue, the Vaudette Theater, operated in the building from 1908 until 1918 or so. The Vaudette incorporated as a "moving picture" theater in March 1917. A renovation of the building was done in 1920. 

This 1939 photograph was taken by the city's legendary photographer, O.V. Hunt, who documented many buildings during his career. Businesses operating at that time in the building included Economy Clothes and Florsheim Shores. Florsheim  was founded in Chicago in 1892 and by 1939 had numerous retail outlets and distributors around the U.S.

By 2000 concerns arose for the future of the building. In May 2001, the Alabama Historical Commission included it on the annual "Places in Peril" listing, but demolition took place in summer 2003.

A second photo below was taken in the early 1900's.

The Peerless Saloon building with signs for Economy Clothes and Florsheim Shoes visible. Taken by O.V. Hunt

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Quoted from the source:

"Black and white photograph of Second Avenue North looking eastward from Nineteenth Street. Prominent in the photograph are the Peerless Saloon building in the foreground and the First National Bank of Birmingham building in the distance. Bunting and Confederate flags decorating the streets indicate that the photograph was made during one of the Confederate veteran reunions that occurred in Birmingham in the early 1900s."

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Alabama History & Culture News: April 28 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

Elmore County Historical Society to celebrate 50th anniversary Montgomery Advertiser The event is being held at Lanark, home of the Alabama Nature Center ... In 1970, the Alabama Historical Commission, in an effort to encourage smaller ... and present, cemetery tours, and special exhibits at the museum to promote ...

Sherry Myrick's New Book 'I Married Joe' is a Heartwarming Tale of a Woman's Unwavering ... Digital Journal Sherry Myrick, a writer born and raised in Russellville, Alabama, who finished high school with a GED, has completed her most recent book "I Married ...

'Transformative change': How the growth of public art is impacting Montgomery Montgomery Advertiser Yet, despite Montgomery being the city that gave birth to many historic changes for Black Americans, Browder said the city remained silent. Alabama's ...

Birmingham's Greyhound bus terminal returning to its 1950 glory: 'There's history here' al.com You've got Fire Station No. 1 across the other street. It's near Alabama Power. There's history here.” The bus depot opened in 1950, a brick and glass ...

Historical Hike explores the history of the Gould Coke Ovens Shelby County Reporter “Billy worked in several areas of Alabama, sending coal down the Coosa and Alabama rivers to eager buyers. When the Civil War broke out, he came ...

Walking tour shares Mobile's rich Mardi Gras history FOX10 News We did not get far before the rains pushed us back inside the History Museum of Mobile. "Moon Pies replaced Cracker Jack boxes. Today we throw 3.1- ...

Alabama Original: Town of Mooresville WAAY WAAY 31 Reporter Luke Hajdasz holds a three-week-old ewe at 1818 Farms in Mooresville. Disney used Mooresville as the shoot location for their 1995 ...

City looks to expand commercial historic district Andalusia Star-News Structures determined by the Alabama Historical Commission as eligible for listing in the National Register, or those individually listed in the National ...

Two Frat Brothers Met In Alabama, Made Fashion History With Luxury Hats Birmingham Times ... have met in Alabama, but their friendship has taken them places they could only dream about—and enabled them to make history along the way.

Area students learn from two prominent book authors Moberly Monitor Index Both Watt Key, author of Alabama Moon and Deep Water, and Dusti Bowling, author of 24 Hours in Nowhere and Canyon's Edge, were keynote ...

Is Captain Phillips Based on a True Story? The Cinemaholic The cargo ship Maersk Alabama was hijacked by four Somali pirates on ... The book is co-authored by Richard Phillips, who was Captain of the ship ...

13 times Alabama took over the Oscars al.com Steven Spielberg's spectacular science fiction adventure earned eight Oscar nominations for directing, supporting actress (Melinda Dillon), ...

Ten years later, April 27 tornado outbreak still scars Alabama landscape and hearts Alabama NewsCenter About 20 minutes later, the single deadliest tornado in Alabama history – one that reached EF5 strength, with winds speeds reaching 210 mph ...

Chelsea Star's New Book, 'Peter and the Book of Wisdom,' is an Adventurous Tale of Peter and His ... Digital Journal Chelsea Star, an excellent writer, a loving mother, and a resident of Prattville, Alabama, has completed her new book, "Peter and the Book of Wisdom": ...

New book is a nifty collection of Southern stories and essays about small-town nostalgia and ... PR Web The book also includes other newspaper features that Huffman has written over the years, between West and East Alabama, sharing genuine ...

Alabama Air National Guard to honor 4 airmen who died during failed Bay of Pigs mission WIAT - CBS42.com ... lives of four Alabama airmen. The service will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Birmingham at the gravesite of Thomas “Pete” Ray.

Alabama Author: Gladys Baker

I recently wrote a blog post on a poet with Alabama connections, Sara Henderson Hay. In the course of researching Hay, I discovered her relationship in the 1930's with another state author, Gladys Baker. 

Here's what I wrote in that blog post about Baker: "In 1935 while at Scribner's Hay was able to tour Europe as secretary to Gladys Baker, a syndicated newspaper columnist. Baker had moved to the Magic City in 1926 to begin working for the Birmingham News. Small world, isn't it? I've yet to discover how the two women met, but on the tour they met with Pope Pius XI, Mussolini, Ataturk and other notables."

Unfortunately, I still haven't discovered how Hay and Baker met. Let's investigate.

Baker was born around 1900 in Jacksonville, Florida. Despite a fair amount of searching, I have yet to find an exact date. Her parents were Arthur Herbert [1869-1926] and Johnnie Niblo Baker [1873-1936]. They were married on December 23, 1890, in Glenn, Georgia. 

Before her death on December 18, 1957, Baker had published countless  newspaper articles in papers around the world and two books. Her first book, I Had to Know, was published in 1951 and chronicles her life up to that point and her conversion to Catholicism and from a Southerner to a "Damyankee" in Vermont. She retired from newspaper writing in 1942. 

She landed her first newspaper job at the Jacksonville Journal while in her late teens. According to the 1919 Jacksonville City Directory the family lived at 1849 Riverside Avenue, and her father worked as a clerk at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Her next job was at the Birmingham News Age-Herald, "where that great editor Charles A. Fell created a job for me--special New York correspondent." Her contract called for a full-page interview with a celebrity or newsmaker for the Sunday edition.

In her autobiography she tells us she soon moved to NYC and had her pieces appearing not only in the Birmingham paper but also publications in Dallas, Charlotte, Atlanta and Jacksonville. Before long she had national syndication. Baker met H.L. Mencken, who introduced her to fine dining at the 21 Club, downstairs where celebrities ate. "Our table was the mecca of the literati," she declared. Unfortunately, she does not name a single one of them. By this time Mencken had met, but not yet married Sara Haardt, an author and native of Montgomery, Alabama. 

Baker often fails to offer names and dates. For instance, she discusses her childhood and parents, but does not give us their names! We learn them from the New York Times notice of her marriage to automotive executive Howard Coffin on June 2 1937: the late Mr. and Mrs. A. Herbert Baker of Jacksonville, Florida. The parents names also appear in Baker's "Alabama Authors" entry linked in the second paragraph.  Strangely, Baker is not named in Coffin's Wikipedia entry; at any rate the marriage did not last long. He died later that year. Oh, and he's not mentioned in her book, either. She also didn't bother to name her four siblings. 

She wrote two syndicated serial fiction stories, "Sallie's Temptations" and "Mr. and Mrs. Sallie" The first installment of "Sallie's Temptations" can be found in the Carbon County [Montana] News on January 8, 1925. Syndication to various newspapers had begun the previous year. Like so many such serials, neither was ever published in book form.

Baker had four husbands: William H. Oates, William H. Kellig, Jr., Howard E. Coffin and Roy Leonard Patrick.

Her first book, dedicated to her fourth husband, is mainly a record of two things: all the celebrities she interviewed during her newspaper career and her search for spiritual fulfillment that ends in Catholicism. One chapter also chronicles her battles with a mysterious illness in 1946. All well and good, but for my purposes very disappointing. There is little mention of her time in Birmingham or even the years she spent in Jacksonville. There is no mention at all of Sara Henderson Hay. 

I have not read her novel, Our Hearts Are Restless, published in 1955. You can find her first book at the Internet Archive. 

So my search for information about Hay in New York in the 1930's was fruitless. I did learn more about Baker, but she did not seem to be much interested in giving many details of her life before her conversion. Her connection with Alabama is also pretty slight. Another thing I found frustrating was the lack of information I found in census and other records about her parents and siblings. 

That "Alabama Authors" entry on Baker gives as sources "files" at the Birmingham Public Library and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Research at those two places might produced more details. I was also unable to view her obituary in the New York Times; it's behind their paywall. 

Oh, well, you never know where these journeys down a rabbit hole will end up....

Published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1951

Baker may have been famous in her day, but she's forgotten now. 

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1955

Source:

Files at Birmingham Public Library; Alabama Department of Archives and History; and from New York Times, December 18, 1957.

Publication(s):

I Had to Know. New York; Appleton Century, 1951.

Our Hearts Are Restless. New York; Putnam, 1955.

Alabama History & Culture News: April 17 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

BOOKS: Abandoned Wiregrass: Brian L. Braden Valdosta Daily Times ... North Florida, South Georgia and parts of Alabama. Some backroad travelers may literally recognize some of the places photographed for this book.

The Montgomery County Historical Society Hosts Ribbon Cutting for The Oakwood Cemetery ... Alabama News Network This project is open to volunteers who want to help find the exact location of all of the people buried in this local cemetery. The Montgomery County .

Author Gregory N. Whitis' book “Nighthope” is a riveting story of a humble trucking executive who ... PR Web His midlife crisis entails moving his family to an Alabama catfish farm, leaving behind unfinished business with a Mexican drug cartel. GREENSBORO, ...

Sweet tea: When did the South start drinking it? al.com It reveals Alabama's history and culture through 14 iconic foods, dishes and beverages including -- you guessed it -- sweet tea. Drawing on historical ...

THE ALABAMA HISTORIC CEMETERY REGISTER   [PDF] Alabama - Alabama.gov THE ALABAMA HISTORIC CEMETERY REGISTER. AS OF FEBRUARY 5, 2021. Click on the county name below to go directly to beginning of each ...

Alabama is about to have a new state vegetable: The sweet potato al.com The idea for a state vegetable came from a group of North Alabama homeschool students who, while researching state history, came across the fact ...

Bernie Madoff's year at the University of Alabama was 'low-key,' classmates say WKRG News 5 (WIAT) — For one year, the man behind the biggest investment fraud in American history was a student at the University of Alabama. Bernie Madoff ...

The Auburn family that owns half of Camp Hill's empty units seeks to restore them one by one The Alexander City Outlook In addition to her small business ventures, Emberly is trying to get downtown Camp Hill deemed a historic district by the Alabama Historical Commission, ...

Final football games being played at legendary Legion Field 247Sports Best known for its Iron Bowl history, Legion Field hosted Alabama-Auburn every year from 1948 to 1988 and saw many of the greatest games in the ...

Preserving history: Bloody Sunday billy club finds new home at voting rights museum Wetumpka Herald When Elmore County NAACP President Bobby Mays first got the call about a billy club that was used by an Alabama trooper during Selma's Bloody ...

BPL's Jim Baggett Honored By State Historical Association, University Of Alabama Patch.com On Friday, April 9, Birmingham Public Library Archivist Jim Baggett received top honors from both the Alabama Historical Association and the University ...

Michael Donald's 1981 Mobile, Alabama murder to be featured on CNN's 'The People vs. The Klan' al.com That book gives a detailed account of the murder and the slow-moving investigation that followed. It also covers the court proceedings in detail, with ...

Ray Lambert, D-Day survivor, WWII torch bearer, Alabama native, dies at 100 whnt.com “I did what I was called to do,” he wrote in his book, “Every Man a Hero,” published shortly before the 75th anniversary. “As a combat medic, my job ...

Book Review: Photographer Andrew Feiler documents the Rosenwald Schools of the Jim Crow ...

Chattanooga Times Free Press

John Lewis, who attended a Rosenwald School in a small, whitewashed church building in Pike County, Alabama. Lewis' school lacked running water ...

Benton County in 1852

Alabama has had several county names that are no longer in use, and Benton is one of them. Let's investigate.

On December 18, 1832, the state legislature created Benton County. The Encyclopedia of Alabama entry notes, "The county was initially named Benton County in honor of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, an arch defender of westward expansion and slavery. After Benton declared himself an opponent of slavery in the 1850s, Alabama supporters of slavery voted to change the county's name to Calhoun in honor of radical secessionist John C. Calhoun."

Benton was an important figure in antebellum American history. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1821 until 1851. During that time he supported what became known as "Manifest Destiny", the idea that the United States should expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He supported slavery and owned slaves himself, but after the Mexican-American War he began to oppose it and the domination of slave interests in the nation's political life. After he rejected the Compromise of 1850 as favoring slavery interests, the Missouri legislature refused to re-elect him to the Senate. He did serve a term in the U.S. House before his death in 1858.

Benton had practiced law in Tennessee beginning in 1805, and served a term in the state senate. Andrew Jackson noticed him and appointed him lieutenant colonel and aide to represent him in Washington during the War of 1812 Benton wanted to see action, and the two ended up brawling in 1813; Jackson was wounded. In 1815 Benton moved to the new Missouri Territory. 

Benton, a town on the Alabama River in Lowndes County is also named after Thomas Hart Benton to honor his efforts in the Creek War. His later apostasy on slavery did not trigger a name change. A post office was established there in 1833, and the town incorporated in 1964. Bill Traylor, the famed African-American self taught artist was born in the town around 1853; he died in 1949. 

The map below of Benton County in 1852 was created by Jerry A. Daniel in 1975. The name was changed on January 29, 1858, a few months before Benton died on April 10. 

Created in 1975 by Jerry A. Daniel

Source: Jacksonville State University Digital Commons

Thomas Hart Benton [1782-1858] 

Photograph taken by Mathew Brady sometime between 1844 and 1858. Brady later became famous for his Civil War photos. 

Source: Wikipedia