A Visit to the Fayette Art Museum

Alabama has many lesser known treasures, and on a recent weekend my brother Richard and I visited one of them--the Fayette Art Museum. 

The museum is located in the town and county of Fayette in northeast Alabama. Fayette is the county seat, so there is an impressive old courthouse to be seen. More about that and the town in another post.

A former school building is the site of the museum. The Fayette Grammar School opened in 1930, but by the early 1970s was abandoned and in disrepair. An art museum had opened in city hall in 1969, and newspaperman Jack Black was named director. An effort began to restore the school and in 1982 the Fayette Art Museum and Civic Center opened. Black remained director until his death in 2004. The current director is Anne Perry-Uhlman. The museum houses over 4000 works of art. Also located there is the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame.

So how did all that art end up in the small town of Fayette? The core of the collection originated with Lois Wilson, who in 1969 donated some 2600 works of art by her and other artists she had collected. Wilson [not the film actress who grew up in Birmingham] was a Fayette native who died in Yonkers, New York in relative poverty in 1981. Over a sixty year period she created 3000 works herself. 

The restored school exhibits and stores her surviving collection and the numerous pieces by others added in recent years. The museum currently houses works by a number of additional Alabama artists such as Jimmy Lee Sudduth [1910-2007], Sybil Gibson, Jessi LaVon, Doug Odom, Wanda Teel, and Mose Tolliver [1920-2006]. Also from Fayette County are the Rev. Benjamin Perkins [Bankston] and Fred Webster [Berry]. One artist included who is not from the state is impressionist Sam Barber.

Sudduth is an internationally known folk artist born near Fayette. Tolliver is equally well-known; he was born near Montgomery. The Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins [1904-1993] a Vernon, Alabama native, is another folk artist represented in the museum. Fred Webster [1911-1998] was a wood carver. Sybil Gibson [1908-1995, Dora], Jessi Lavon [Forkland], Doug Odom [Headland], and Wanda Teal [Montgomery] are additional folk artists. 

In 1999 National Geographic chose the museum as a regional attraction. Since 1970 the annual Fayette Arts Festival has been sponsored by the museum. The museum is well worth a visit; it may house more folk and other art by Alabama artists than any other place in the world. 

Further Reading

Kathy Kemp, A town's tiny treasure. Jack Black put Fayette on art map. Birmingham Post-Herald 9 August 1993, p B1,, B4

Harold Kennedy, If it was discarded, Lois Wilson would paint on it. Birmingham News 7 February 1982, p B1. 

Lots of art is to be seen as soon as you enter the museum.

While Richard and I visited, set up was underway for a wedding to be held the next day. The facility is also an event center. Art adorns the walls of meeting rooms [former classrooms] and the auditorium.

One of the downstairs galleries is devoted to Jimmy Lee Sudduth. 

The museum displays many of Wilson's large and small works. 

Lois Wilson

An entire gallery is devoted to art by the Rev. Benjamin Perkins.

Here's a reminder that you are in a former school building.

Even the director's office serves as a gallery.

Wilson served as a private in the Army Air Force during World War II. She enlisted in Yonkers on August 16, 1944, in the Women's Army Corps according to that record. 

Source: Ancestry.com

Wilson is buried in the Fayette City Cemetery.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Huntsville Ice Storm on March 2, 1960

I recently came across the items below while going through some family photographs. They are undated, but were snapped by dad presumably on March 2, 1960, when a severe ice storm hit Huntsville and the rest of north Alabama. I would have been eight years old and younger brother Richard four, so that fits our appearances here. At the time we were living on Cloverdale Drive just off Jordan Lane. I'm not sure where these photos were taken, though. 

The storm was notable enough for Baker B. Williams of the U.S. Weather Service in Huntsville to write an extensive article about it for the Weatherwise journal and  published in the October 1960 issue. The first page can be seen below; the rest of the article is behind a paywall.

Three and a half inches of precipitation were recorded in Huntsville that day and the low temperature was 33. Lows were below freezing each day following until March 9. March 5 had a low of 12 degrees. 

If you have any memories of this ice storm, please tell us in the comments!

Richard and I pose in the ice wilderness. 

Here's yours truly and mom.

Weatherwise October 1960 pp 196-203

Source: Taylor & Francis

Townley Rest Area

On a recent Saturday my brother Richard and I visited the town of Fayette; a pair of blog posts about that trip will be coming soon. Along the route we passed the Townley Rest Area seen below. The stop has achieved a certain amount of fame; the website Roadside America even has an entry with photos of earlier incarnations. A three year-old YouTube video also shows a very different look to the attraction and includes some history in the comments. 

Townley is an unincorporated area in Walker County. The former coal mining town was incorporated from 1895 into the 1920s. In the 1920 U.S. Census the town had about 1500 resident, but the mine soon closed, and Townley gave up or lost its incorporated status. The nearby Boshell's Mill, site of a grist mill and sawmill, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975. The first mill was built in 1885 by William R. Boshell and the site operated by the Boshell family until 1963. 

Two U.S. Congressmen from Alabama were born in Townley. Carter Manasco [January 3, 1902-February 5, 1992] graduated from Howard College and the University of Alabama law school. He set up a law practice in Jasper in 1929 and began running for office; he served in the Alabama House from 1930 to 1934. Manasco worked for William B. Bankhead, the powerful Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1933 until 1940. 

He ran for the U.S. House himself in 1941 and remained until January 1949. Manasco resumed his law practice and also worked as legislative council for the National Coal Association from 1949 until 1985. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jasper. As these things happen, our maternal grandparents, Tempe and Rev. John Miller Shores are also interred there. 

Near Townley is the ghost town of Manasco. Multiple families by that name lived in Fayette, Walker and Winston counties. Apparently only a few wells and a cemetery mark the spot today. 

Tom Bevill [March 27, 1921-March 28, 2005] also graduated from the law school at the University of Alabama. He served in the Alabama legislature from 1958 until 1966 and then the U.S. House 1967-1997. Bevill has another place in history. He answered the world's first 9-1-1 call made on February 16, 1968, from Haleyville by Alabama House Speaker Rankin Fite. 

One way to find the rest stop is take I-22 out of Birmingham toward Memphis, exit at AL-69 South and after a brief stretch take AL-124 West. The stop will be on your left.

Photo by Richard Wright 19 July 2024

The Boshell sawmill on the left burned in 1976 and the grist mill in 1986. The photo of the ruins below was taken in 1992.

Source: Wikipedia

Carter Manasco [1902-1990]

Source: Find-A-Grave

Tom Bevill [1921-2005]

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama Postcard: YMCA Camp Cha-La-Kee

I'm not sure how I acquired this postcard, but here we are. Camp Cha-La-Kee is a YMCA facility that opened on Lake Guntersville in 1957. You can click on that link to explore their programs.

This card probably dates from the 1950s, and was printed by the Artvue Post Card Company on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The company opened in 1948 and during the 1950s sold many black and white postcards instead of the more popular color cards. Between 1951 and 1963 the company issued a series of cards featuring the plaques of members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Wikipedia has a nice history of postcards here. 

Missiles at Redstone Arsenal in the 1950s

Recently I was going through some old family photos at mom's house in Huntsville and found a batch that included the ones below. Dad probably took them in the late 1950s or early 1960s. In fact, the same group developed at Walgreen Drugs [see cover at the end of the post] included ice storm photos that I suspect are from the March 2, 1960 event described here. One day I'll have to do a piece on those photos. 

My dad Amos J. Wright, Jr., was a civilian employee of the Army at Redstone Arsenal for many years. He retired on December 31, 1983, as Chief of the Systems Design, Programming and Integrative Division, U.S. Army Missile Command. I guess in 1960 one could roam the Arsenal taking photographs of whatever caught the eye. I have no idea why dad photographed so many of these U.S. Army missiles; perhaps it was a display for employees or the general public. 

I also have no idea, with two exceptions you can see below, which missiles these are. At least one [and perhaps more] is included in this listing. If you recognize any, please let us know in the comments. 

Is this one the antitank DART? More information is at the Wikipedia entry.

I did manage to identify this missile, the Lacrosse. Almost 1200 of the weapons were produced and deployed, but the project finally ended in the early 1960s when technical difficulties could not solved. 

Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally in 1935

For more than a year now my brother Richard and I have been conducting a deep dive into the massive amount of family memorabilia at mom's house in Huntsville. Much of it comes from dad's parents, Rosa Mae and Amos J. Wright, Sr., who lived in the Gadsden. I've previously written about my grandfather's World War I army training at Auburn and the contents of their daughter Beulah Vee's cedar chest. 

In a recent round of exploration, we've found a lot of material related to Amos Sr.'s years working for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. According to an entry in one of Rosa Mae's journals, he began his employment with L&N on May 15, 1923, and retired September 1, 1962.He was a yard foreman for many of those thirty-nine years. 

One item we found was the October 1935 issue of the railroad's employee magazine. Inside was an article titled "Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally". So what was that all about?

On September 26, 1935, the L & N Railroad held its third in a series of rallies in cities along its rail system. The event took place at the Municipal Auditorium n Birmingham. Both Vice-President T.E. Brooks and President James B. Hill addressed the 6000 employees and family members in attendance. Brooks had served for many years as division superintendent in Birmingham.

The anonymous author noted that the purpose was primarily one of entertainment, but apparently Hill had some extensive remarks before the fun. He noted that the "railroads are almost completely regulated in everything they do" unlike competitive forms of transportation by road, air and water. Plus, almost 7.5% of gross earnings were paid in taxes. Remember that in 1935 the nation was in the depths of the Great Depression.

The article does include a portrait of the L & N Railroad both nationally and in Alabama at that time. President Hill noted in his remarks that L & N operated in 13 states with 26,000 employees, 5000 miles of track, 1000 locomotives, over 50,000 freight cars and more than 700 passenger cars. In Alabama 4700 people worked for L & N, which paid $776,000 in taxes to the state, $350,000 of which went to schools.

So what about that entertainment? "Talented members of the L & N family entertained the large audience with 17 acts that would have done credit to the best vaudeville circuit," wrote the author. Most of them were from Birmingham or Boyles, a community that no longer exists but was the site of L & N's Boyles Yard. Others came from Kentucky. The audience enjoyed a piano trio, tenor solos, a tap dance, and baritone solos. Two male employees "provided many laughs with their blackface act."

Black employees appeared in "Darktown Strutters" accompanied by a pianist. "The finale featured the  Southland Colored Ensemble and Quartette, fifty voices directed by Paul Cooper." the author wrote. "This chorus was composed of many colored employes [sic] at Boyles and members of their families. They rendered an enjoyable selection of spirituals and melodies."

I don't know if my grandparents from Gadsden attended this rally, but perhaps they did. 

My grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., is on the left posing with his crew in the Gadsden L&N railroad yard sometime in the 1930s. 

Birmingham's Municipal Auditorium ca. 1937. The facility was later renamed Boutwell Auditorium after Albert Boutwell who was mayor from 1963 until 1967. 

Source: BhamWiki