They were married on Feb. 10, 1967.

The couple has lived in Maplesville, Plantersville, Demopolis, Tuscaloosa, Selma, Montgomery, Huntsville and Pelham.

Their children are Johnna Stafford of Killen and Jessica Sentell of Duncanville.

Their grandchildren are Josie Beth Sentell of Duncanville, Claire Mahone Stafford of Killen and Owen McRea Stafford of Killen.

They plan to celebrate on Feb. 13 at Disney World.

The post Jones 55th appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

On Dec. 17, 2021, Board Chair Richard Mathis, Tuskegee University nursing graduate Wilda Noel and 2nd Vice Chair William Mathis presented Emma Vaiton with the Alumni Association of Tuskegee University Inc.’s first honorary membership.

Vaiton was a trailblazer in the field of nursing. She finished in the Class of 1951, the first nursing degree class at Tuskegee University.

She also served her country proudly as a nurse in the United States Air Force from 1953 to Jan. 31, 1971.

Vaiton is shown with the certificate and the membership card, AIN#51, which coincides with the year of her graduation.

The post Tuskegee Alumni Association presents first honorary membership appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

Alan and Maranda Dixon of Leeds are proud and happy to announce the birth of their daughter, Evelyn Jane, born July 29 at Brookwood Women’s Medical Center.

Evie weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

Waiting to welcome her home was her big brother, Emerson.

Proud grandparents are Pam Lambert, Keith Lambert and Jess and Denise Dixon.

Great-grandparents are Jim and Charlotte Isbell.

The post Dixon girl appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

Angenette Meaney and Matthew Gerber, both of Charlottesville, Virginia, are pleased to announce their marriage.

The bride is the daughter of Angenette and Robert Meaney of Old Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the granddaughter of the late Jane and Robert Duffy and the late Helen and Thomas Meaney.

She is a 2005 graduate of St. Paul’s School and a 2009 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in history.

She is employed at Fintech.

The groom is the son of Kay and John Gerber of Birmingham. He is the grandson of the late Hazel and Charles Newer and the late Mary and Howard Gerber.

He is a 1995 graduate of Chelsea High School and a 1999 graduate of Auburn University, where he majored in forestry.

He works in investing.

The couple met in New York City in February 2020 and hit the COVID Express Lane when quarantine began.

They quarantined together in Charlottesville and spent the summer and fall together.

The groom proposed over the Thanksgiving holiday at Flat Neck Point in Greenwich, Connecticut, while visiting the bride’s parents.

The couple wed on June 5, 2021 in Charlottesville.

They reside in Charlottesville, where both attended business school.

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FROM STAFF REPORTS

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. H. Dale Gray of Alabaster, who are celebrating 50 years of marriage this month.
Dale and Priscilla, originally of Tullahoma, Tennessee, met while attending Tullahoma High School.

Dale was a track and basketball player and Priscilla was a majorette. Through fate and mutual classmates, they met while working together on homecoming floats, fell in love and the rest, as they say, is history!

Graduating in 1967, they went their separate ways to the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Memphis State in Memphis, Tennessee.  However, their love for each other never faded. Dale and Priscilla were married on Jan. 9, 1971, at St Paul’s Catholic Church in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

After a brief stay in the Huntsville area, Dale accepted a job with South Central Bell in Birmingham and they moved to Alabaster, where they have spent the last 45 years. They have two children, Valerie and Todd, and three grandchildren, Tyler, Brooke and Aiden. Both retired, they enjoy watching their grandchildren thrive in academics and sports.

Happy 50^th anniversary to two very special people—Dale and Priscilla Gray!

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By SCOTT MIMS / Staff Writer 

WESTOVER — Ethelene Hallman of Westover has witnessed something few of us have seen—she has lived a century of life. Hallman and her family are celebrating her 100^th birthday, which occurred on Nov. 12, all month long.

“I don’t know where the years went. They were all good years, every one of them,” said Hallman, who is not the first in her family to leave a legacy of a long life. Her great grandfather, Asa Amos Goodwin (1807-1915) lived until he was 108, and in fact was the state’s oldest citizen before he was buried on his 108^th birthday in 1915. Goodwin, who is interred in Ebenezer Cemetery in Westover, had more than 400 living descendants, according to a newspaper clipping from the era.

Hallman with some of her children.

Hallman herself has five children, four of whom are living, 17 grandchildren, 44-plus great grandchildren and 20-plus great-great grandchildren.

“I’m just really blessed, you know, with so many of my children, and all of them just mean so much to me,” she said. “They are all my joy. They always have been my blessed joy, and they still are.”

Many family members and friends gathered on Sunday, Nov. 3 at Mt. Tabor United Methodist Church in Westover for a special drive-by birthday celebration, held a few days early in anticipation of the big day. Hallman sat outside in front of the church as everyone drove by and shared well wishes.

“It was fun. I mean, it was a crowd of people, I don’t know how many. It was wonderful,” she said.

On the date of her birthday, Hallman celebrated with a smaller gathering out on the porch of her home, where she lives with her daughter, Bobbie Johnson. And of course, there was plenty of birthday cake.

“It was a very nice birthday that I had,” she said.

In fact, the house where Hallman currently lives is where she raised all five of her children. She has lost one daughter, Eleaine Lunsford, and her other four children are Bobbie Johnson of Westover, Embry Robertson of Harpersville, Betty Lee of Chelsea and Linda Vick of Childersburg.

“My husband (J.C. Robertson) and I, we got married and of course he was in logging,” Hallman recalled. “He did that until the power plant (in Childersburg) started, and he got a job there, and he worked there and we built our first house. Then, it caught fire and burned, and our neighbors and family helped us build the house that we’re living in right now.”

Hallman is the daughter of Ben and Addie Smith, but her mother passed away when she was only 4. Her stepmother who raised her from the age of 5 was Elsie Smith. The only living sibling is the youngest of the bunch, Kenneth.

Looking back to her childhood, Hallman said she can still see her father working out in the field, plowing behind horses or steers. She would help him by carrying fertilizer or feed out to him. Working the land with horses instead of modern-day machinery, she said, was one of the biggest ways the world was different in those days. While that might sound like hard work, Hallman indicated there was a certain sense of accomplishment that came with it.

“I look back and, you know, it was a pleasure,” she said. “I thought then it was hard, but no, to me it was good times. My daddy was always working hard, and of course we were always out there helping him.”

When asked her secret to long life, Hallman said that question had been posed many times. While she did not reveal a specific answer, she hinted that it might have something to do with homegrown food.

“We had our own food. We had a garden and we raised our vegetables and we canned them and kept them,” she said. “Daddy would kill the hogs, and we had all the meat that we could eat. People will tell you don’t eat fat meat; it’s not good for you. Our vegetables had a piece of fat meat cooked with them.”

She also talked about the gravy made from the fat meat, which she said was good on homemade biscuits.

“That’s what I was raised on,” Hallman said.

Hallman is pictured with her only living sibling, Kenneth Smith.

The post Celebrating a century: Hallman has sharp mind at 100 appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

Waylon’s parents are Natalie and Zac, and his grandparents are Thomas and Diana, Jayna, Bryan and Shannon Bishop.

His siblings are Davey and Cara.

Waylon will celebrate his birthday at a small family gathering with a theme centered around Waylon’s favorite TV show, “Stranger Things.”

Others attending the party include his aunt Brittany and Uncle Noah and cousins Marley and Maci.

The post Bishop 7th appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

Stephen and Rachel Dixon of Pinson are proud and happy to announce the birth of their daughter, Abigail Leigh Dixon, born July 8, 2020, at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Abbie weighed 5 pounds 15 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

Waiting to welcome her home was her big sister, Khloe.

Proud grandparents are Norman and Rhonda Carr and Jess and Denise Dixon.

The post Dixon girl appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

Before Richard and Linda Cook first moved to Shelby County in 1987, he told her about a framing business in Aliceville that the couple ended up purchasing. Richard, a woodworker, would make the frames and Linda would finish them off with glass. It was a business they brought to Columbiana and became known as Busy Hands Framing and Gifts, now located in the Shops of Columbiana.

“He’s the reason I’m in that business,” said Linda, Richard’s wife of 53 years. “It kept us even after retirement, it made us closer. We called it a mom and pop business as we aged. We said we’re becoming the people we used to talk about; the little old couple.”

Cook (Contributed)

Sadly, Richard’s health deteriorated to the point that he could not work with wood the way he used to. While he remained a beloved figure in the community and could carry on conversation as well as anybody, things were not the same.

“It was hard to watch him not be able to do that anymore because he loved that,” Linda said.

Richard passed away on Oct. 4, leaving behind a legacy of leadership and friendship known to many throughout Shelby County. He was a retired office manager with Alabama Power, where he worked for 37 years in Montevallo and Columbiana. Cook also served as president of the former South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, president of Columbiana Merchants and Professionals—which he and Linda formed together—and helped to form a local Rotary Club.

“I never heard any of the ladies that worked for him complain,” said Linda, adding that Richard was the kind of manager who could take a practical joke. The employees at Alabama Power even had a voodoo-type doll that looked like him, she said.

“He said, ‘Stick me all you want to, you’re still going to do your job,’” she said. “Everybody seemed to always get along.”

Linda said the Reform, Alabama native wanted what was best for his community. He wanted Columbiana to grow and was very concerned about the downtown retail district. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Columbiana Main Street program, even though at the time of its inception his health had started to decline.

Richard was proud of his alma mater, Mississippi State University, where he graduated in 1969. Linda said he had been asked if anything in his wardrobe was not maroon. Understandably, he could often be seen wearing a Dallas Cowboys hat because of his love of quarterback Dak Prescott.

About eight years ago, the family feared that Richard might not make it back to Starkville due to his health, but he rebounded and was able to go back on numerous occasions.

“The last time was two years ago this fall, and we made several family pictures,” Linda said.

In his later years, Richard would sit in a certain swing outside the Columbiana Corner Shoppes. It became such a routine that, when the swing was sold, he picked the nearest chair and started sitting there.

“He watched the traffic go by, and people would come by and visit him,” Linda said. “He would tell us the traffic was too loud, he would tell us people were driving too fast.”

Bonnie Atchison of Columbiana described Richard as “exceptionally hard-working.” She said he was supportive when the South Shelby Chamber was formed.

“Richard Cook was on my first board, and he and Alabama Power gave us our first $500 to help us to get started. He was on my board the whole time I was there, 10 years,” Atchison said. “Richard Cook was always there. If I called Alabama Power, he came right on up there to talk to me and I was always going by there to see him and the girls (at the Alabama Power office).”

Atchison recalls a lighthearted memory about Richard, when he and Johnny Lowe first walked into Jeanette Nivens’ house, which was to become an office for the then South Shelby Chamber and local civic organizations. Nivens had had pink carpet in the house.

“Richard opened the door and he looked in there and he said, ‘Oh, this pink has got to go.’ I never will forget that as long as I live,” Atchison laughed.

She said he had a memorable laugh that was a “deep chuckle, way down in his chest.”

“He was a wonderful man. His wife Linda was always very good, and they’re just special people to this community,” Atchison continued. “Our community, when he began to go down, we just lost really a big part. He was very bright and knowledgeable, and he was just a good friend, fun to be with.”

The post Cook remembered well in South Shelby community appeared first on Shelby County Reporter.

On Sept. 7-8, Martha Alexander Adams, a resident of Pelham, celebrated her 95^th birthday.

Adams, known affectionately as “Madear,” also celebrated being the matriarch of five generations—12 children, 31 grandchildren, 49 great grandchildren and 17 great-great grandchildren.

The joyous event was hosted by her children with family and friends joining in the festivities exercising social distancing. Adams was crowned the Queen Matriarch and adorned with a beautiful tiara. She radiantly sat on her front porch greeting well-wishers while posing for pictures with her children and their families.

Being from a large family, family and friends living in Texas, Ohio, Georgia and within Alabama were able to share in the celebration by connecting via Zoom to express birthday well-wishes with the matriarch. During the Zoom meeting, family members were asked to use one word to describe Madear. Some responses were “Iconic, beautiful, loving, caring, sweet, faithful, determined and God-fearing.”

Adams enjoyed her two-day celebration surrounded by her family and friends while receiving royal treatment, as she deserves. She wants everyone to know that she appreciated and thanks you for your gifts and birthday wishes.
Madear, your family loves you and thank God for you every day!

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