A pair of Sylacauga High School alumni were recently inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society chapter of the University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine (UABHSOM).
Levi Parker, Sylacauga High School Class of 2017, and Vyshi Rallapalle, Class of 2018, are both current third-year medical students at UAB Heersink School of Medicine. Both were bestowed the prestigious honor on Thursday, March 20 at Regions Field.
Parker and Rallapalle, along with six other medical students within their class, were inducted based on academic merit as the top eight from their first two years of medical school among a class of nearly 200.
AOA was founded in 1902 as an organization dedicated to honoring academic achievement, professionalism and exceptional teaching in the field of medicine. This honor will follow Parker and Rallapalle throughout their careers in medicine. Both are set to graduate medical school next spring in May 2026. At this time, Parker plans to pursue a career in Rheumatology by way of Internal Medicine and Rallapalle plans to pursue a career in Dermatology.
Coach Pete Rich grew up in Pell City and was a standout athlete, playing football for the all time winningest coach in Pell City High School history, Will Glover. That pair were to be honored during a very special exhibit in late March at the Pell City Museum. Coach Rich had to undergo emergency gall bladdr surgery, with another procedure the following day.
The exhibit will still be open at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 29th at the museum, located in the Pell City Municipal Complex, Suite 200 on the 2nd Floor. Rich’s birthday celebration will be rescheduled when he is up to attending the event, but Coach Glover will still be honored with an exhibit.
Rich’s daughter, Lori Rich Billingsley said, “The love that so many of you have showned for our Dad has been overwhelming. Your prayers at this time are greatly appreciated.”
There are a lot of Sylacauga people who fondly remember the Pell City legend for the time Rich and his family spent living in the Marble City as an assistant for Coach Tom Calvin at Sylacauga High School.
One of his former players at Sylacauga High, Wayne Stephens said of Rich, “He is loved and respected by athletes and students at two different schools across many years of coaching. He also has the respect and friendship of many other coaches over the years at Pell City and opponents.”
After high school, Rich went on to the University of Southern Mississippi before first coaching at Jones Valley High School. From there, he served in Sylacauga. In 1968, he retired from coaching, but only for one year before Pell City called him home. He served two different stints as the head coach at PCHS and many years as an assistant coach for several head coaches at his alma mater.
The Pell City stadium was named in his honor the 1990s. He is loved and respected by athletes and students at two different schools across many years of coaching.
His dedication to coaching is well known, as he found it quite difficult to step away from the game for good, but one of the things that sealed his legendary legacy as a coach were the values of character, discipline, teamwork, and leadership he shared with his teams!
Former Talladega Mayor Larry Hugh Barton passed away peacefully at his home on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, with the love of his life, Mary, by his side just as she has been since they married in December, 1956. He was 85-years-old.
The colorful and often controversial Barton served four terms as the mayor of his hometown. According to his obituary, his tenure as mayor included the city purchase of the Ritz Theater, development of a municipal golf course, the acquisition of two city parks, and the recruitment and expansion of over 100 businesses in the city.
Barton’s professional career began as a banker at Talladega National Bank, and he also served as a barber, and a self-taught musician with a Gospel group, The Pioneers, who produced over a dozen albums during his time with the group, as well as several stints as a media host with shows on television and radio.
The Sylacauga Board of ion opened their Tuesday, March 18 business meeting with approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with First Bank of Alabama for the Centennial Building donation. The building, located on the north-east corner of the Norton Avenue at 1st Street intersection, will be used by the school system as an alternative school location, among other uses to be determined.
In other New Business, the Board approved financials: Payroll, Accounts Payable and CNP Accounts Payable, along with New Teacher Mentors for second semester of the current 2024-2025 school year, as well as adoption of the K-12 Science Textbook/Supplemental Curriculum.
The Board approved a bid for $266,807.12 to Incare Technologies for the Network Switch and Wireless Access Point, required by E-Rate.
In Personnel matters, the Board accepted the following retirements: Sharon Futral, Full Time Bus Driver, effective June 1, 2025; Gail Duncan, CNP Worker, Pinecrest Elementary, effective April 1, 2025; Sheila Giddens, School Nurse, Pinecrest Elementary, effective June 1, 2025; and Tracy Green, Fifth Grade Teacher, Pinecrest Elementary, effective June 1, 2025.
The resignation was accepted from: Heather Collier, Indian Valley Elementary, Special Education, Self-Contained Teacher, effective at the end of 2024-2025 school year.
The Board also approved the following transfers of: Kelley Holbrook, Nichols Lawson Middle School Bookkeeper to Sylacauga High School Bookkeeper, effective March 31, 2025; Malesha Garrett, Nichols Lawson Middle School Secretary to Nichols Lawson Middle School Bookkeeper, effective March 31, 2025; and Skylar Patterson, Nichols Lawson Middle School Special Education Teacher to Sylacauga High School Special Education Teacher, effective 2025-2026 School Year.
Employment was approved for: Eula Renae Moon Walton, CNP Manager, Pinecrest Elementary, effective March 31, 2025; and Erica Harwell, Sylacauga High School, Attendance Clerk, effective March 19, 2025.
The Board approved a pair of Summer Programs for: Summer Literacy/Math Camp Staff, effective Summer 2025; and Transportation Summer Workers, effective Summer 2025.
Supplements were approved for: National Board Certified Teachers Supplements; additional hours for SHS Teachers for AP Review Sessions; Additional hours for SHS and NLMS Health Science Teachers; Isaac Jennings, Varsity Boys Volunteer Coach for Track, Sylacauga High School, effective immediately.
Leaves Of Absence were approved for Brenda Durden, Nichols-Lawson Middle School, effective immediately through end of 2024-2025 school year; and Lane Strickland, Nichols Lawson Middle School, effective March 31 through end of 2024-25 school year.
The Board approved Emilyanne Steers as a system-wide Substitute Teacher, effective immediately.
Prior to the meeting, the Board enjoyed a presentation celebrating Arts Education Month with highlights of the school system’s Fine Arts Programs. Also highlighted was the Sylacauga High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team and Coaches for their excellence during the just completed season, which ended as the 5A State Runnerup with a 30 – 4 overall record.
Since his days as a college freshman, Childersburg native Arttravious Twyman has found a growing love for designing hot new fashion trends. The Stillman College marketing graduate has been holding successful “pop-up” shows on college campuses across the southeast.
This weekend, he’s showing some love for his hometown by holding a special holiday season show and sale in Childersburg, “I’m bringing my “SkyBlue Inspirational Clothing” line home to downtown Childersburg.
The name came to him as a slogan back in college, “It served as an inspiration to me, motivation to follow my passion and love for creating new fashions. It’s time to spread that love at home.”
Twyman chose the downtown event center, The Patio at 906 1st SW in Childersburg. He’ll be setting up shop for the day from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The annual Holiday Bazaar to benefit the historic Butler-Harris-Rainwater House was a big hit over the weekend, helping raise funds for 2025 projects from the Childersburg Historic Preservation Commission.
“We gathered the best-ever group of vendors,” said Dianne Lester Newman, “And we had a steady flow of shoppers all day. And, I want to emphasize that they were buying from our vendors like never before!”
Newman said that 2024 saw the Commission complete landscaping around the historic landmark, along with automatic irrigation, “It looks better than we even imagined it would. thanks to help from Gina Hudson of Gina’s Greenhouse. This coming year, we’re looking to re-do our brick sidewalk, make it look better and be a safer walkway.”
December means several other annual holiday season traditions for the B-H-R House in downtown Childersburg. On Tuesday, December 3rd, they will host the 6:00 p.m. start of the downtown Christmas Tree Lighting festivities. On Tuesday, December 10th at 8:30 a.m., it’s the December Coffee from the Greater Coosa Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“We get so much help throughout the year from the Childersburg Street Department to make our downtown area clean and attractively decorated,” explained Newman, “we’ll be serving the entire crew a holiday dinner as our way of showing our thanks for all they do. And, yes, we’ll literally be “serving’ them. They’ll just come in, sit down, and enjoy the meal. They make such a difference, it’s important for them to know how much we appreciate the many ways they volunteer to help!”
It has happened only once in the history of the world. A meteor hit a person, a woman asleep in her home in the Oak Grove community, just outside of Sylacauga.
November 30 will be the 70th anniversary of Sylacauga’s Ann Hodges’ unique experience that she lived to tell about. Amazingly, she was not seriously injured.
A real-life history lesson on the meteoric event will be presented on Saturday at Sylacauga’s Comer Museum and Arts Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (It will be over in time for folks to get home and watch the Iron Bowl at 2:30 p.m.)
The principal speaker for the meteor seminar will be famed astronomer Dr. Lawrence Krumenaker.
The Facebook post about the seminar reads as follows:
“Dr. Krumenaker started professional life as an astronomer after growing up steeped in New Jersey’s Revolutionary War historical sites. The two influences eventually merged into a career that included scientific research and popular science, education and historical journalism. His articles and books in historical tourism are based on the idea that history is best understood both by telling the story part of history, and doing that by standing where it happened. It is done best seeing what’s left of the past and the difference between then and today, and traveling along with the event.
As an astronomer, Dr. Krumenaker is best known in the science community as the discoverer of the first microquasar in the galaxy, as a stellar spectroscopist and a planetary cartographer of the planet Mercury. He has been a science journalist and President of the International Science Writers Association. In addition to doing talks on historical events, Dr. Krumenaker has often done workshops and courses in astronomy education for teachers, and writes astronomy-based newsletters on Substack, notably the internationally-read The Galactic Times.
Among his books is ‘From River to River’”’ (2024) on General Lafayette in Georgia and ‘Nine Days Traveling’ (Lafayette in Alabama, 2020), ‘The Colonia Tour Book’ (Roman sites in Cologne, Germany, 2017), and ‘Walking the Line’ (The Atlanta Civil War defenses that kept Sherman out, 2014). Copies of these books and other creations of Dr. Krumenaker will be available for sale at Comer Museum. He has a Star Trek astronomy book, ‘Federation Space,’ due out next year.
After over two dozen address changes, in multiple Northern and Southern States, and residencies and travel in numerous countries in Asia and Europe, the peripatetic Dr. Krumenaker currently resides in Alabama.
Please join us on November 30 from 10-2.”
The Comer Museum also maintains an updated exhibit about the Hodges meteor.
Ann Hodges had been asleep under blankets on the couch in her living room. A meteor plunged through the roof of her house, hit her upright console radio, bounced and then hit Ann Hodges in her lower left side. It was a rude awakening.
Naturally, Hodges and her mother, who was also home at the time, did not know what had happened and did not know what the object was. It was sitting on their living room floor close to where it had struck Ann. The air in the room was suddenly full of dust.
The two women called the local police and fire department. Ann was transported to Sylacauga Hospital (now Coosa Valley Medical Center). Word spread through the community that something strange had happened at the Hodges’ residence, and crowds gathered.
Rumors abounded. Maybe the object had fallen off an airplane. Maybe a plane had crashed. Maybe the Russians, who were in a Cold War with the United States, had shot off something. Or maybe it was a “shooting star,” the common name for a meteor. That last guess turned out to be correct.
After inquiring and legal wrangling with landlord Birdie Guy about who owned the meteor, it ended up at the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
The meteorite that struck the 34-year-old woman weighed 8.5 pounds.
Ann Hodges became a temporary celebrity when she appeared on the highly rated TV quiz show “I’ve Got a Secret” with Gary Moore. Celebrity contestant Bill Cullen guessed it immediately, as the meteor story had national coverage.
Her photo, exposed bruise and all, appeared in “Life Magazine.”
Another piece, believed to be from the same meteor, landed a couple of miles away. As Julius McKinney of Sylacauga was driving his mules home, they balked. They would go no further. He then saw a black object in the trail. He went around it, got the mules home, and came back to get the object. He had the sense to retain a lawyer, and they ended up selling it to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He received enough money to buy a house and a car.
If this tale weren’t strange enough already, there is yet another ironic chapter. There was a locally popular drive-in movie theater across the street from the Hodge’s home where the meteor struck. It was named “The Comet.” Its logo, on an upright tower, showed a meteor with trailing flame. The Comet Drive-In Theater.
Many people think the Comet Drive-In was named for the meteor incident across the street. No. The drive-in had already been named for several years when the meteor struck. What are the odds?
You may have noticed that this story uses the terms “meteor” and “meteorite.” As the object was in the solar system (outside the Earth’s atmosphere), it was a meteoroid, a small asteroid. When it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it was called a meteor.
When it made it to Earth, it was called a meteorite.
As she slept, Ann Hodges, her mother, who was there, and her husband, who was not home and missed the whole thing, were completely unaware of all of this. They received a weeks-long course in meteor science that they were not expecting and did not want.
They thought they were learning “meteorology.” That is the incorrect term and means the science of the weather. We are familiar with weathermen on TV and radio — meteorologists. Has nothing to do with meteors and meteorites. The little-known name for the science of meteors and meteorites is “meteoritics.” Bet you did not know that.
The Hodges/Sylacauga meteorite and the conditions in the skies at the time it hit have been studied by scientists for decades. The case is cited in astronomy classes.
When you have a chance to visit the University of Alabama, go by Smith Hall, just off the Quadrangle. It houses the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Ask for the exhibit of the Sylacauga Meteorite. You will see a once-in-all-of-history display.
The Oak Grove Town Council met at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 12th at 6:00 p.m.
Councilman David Harris reported that the recent Oak Grove Fall Festival essentially broke even in terms of expenses and sponsorship revenues, “It was our smoothest and most successful festival, thanks to everyone joining in and working together.”
The Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department made their monthly report to the Town Council for October 2024:
Total Calls – 54 Structure Fires – 6 General Fires – 5 EMS-Only Calls – 41 Non-Fire, Non-EMS Calls – 2 Aid Given Calls – 4 Aid Received – 6 No-Aid Required – 44 Calls Inside Town Limits – 14 Calls Outside Town Limits – 40
The following are action items from their agenda:
William L. Taylor was approved to joing the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department.
The Council approved the 2025 Town holiday schedule for Town Hall and employees. The only change in the traditional schedule is for the Christmas holiday, with Friday (12/26) added to the schedule , along with Wednesday (12/24) and Thursday (12/25).
Repairs to the bumper of the Street Department’s 2022 Ford F-250 were approved at a cost of $1,700 by Collier Motors.
The Town Council approved the purchase of 2024 Gooseneck Trailer ($9,500) and hitch ($699). The 8.5’ by 30’ trailer will allow the Street Department to transport all three lawn mowers to job sites.
Resolution 617 approved declaring the 15-passenger Transportation bus as surplus and authorized disposal of the 2017 E350 Cutaway Bus.
The Council discussed a proposed 2.5-percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for town employees. The proposal will be formalized with a Resolution during the December regular meeting.
The Town of Oak Grove voted to approve Resolution 616, which joins the State of Alabama in approving a Sales Tax Exemption for Agricultural Fencing, up to $25,000.
A revision of the National Flood Insurance Ordinance had its first reading and will be considered during the December regular meeting.
The required Oak Grove Annual Safety Meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, November 27th at 2:00 p.m.
A contingency budget of $500 was approved for the annual Oak Grove Christmas Tree Lighting event, which is scheduled for Monday, December 2nd at 6:00 p.m. in Oak Grove Park.
Kara Eslinger opened the doors to “Fair to Middlin’ Gifts & Boutique” with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 7th, including both the Greater Coosa Valley & Sylacauga Chambers of Commerce.
Childersburg Mayor Ken Wesson welcomed the new downtown business, “The transformation has been nothing short of amazing. This is a shop that Kara and her family can be proud of creating, something special for the future of downtown Childersburg. It’s great to see such a crowd welcome her and her new shop.”
Eslinger got more than a bit teary-eyed as she explained the name she chose, Fair to Middlin’, “The name is a tribute to my GrandPa, using one of his favorite sayings. I was blessed to have such a supportive family. Everybody chipped in, allowing me to research what I wanted to include, while getting the building ready, and deciding how to display everything. I know he’d be so proud of everything about Fair to Middlin’.”
Here are some scenes for the dig day:
Check out “Fair to Middlin’ Gifts & Boutique in person at 705 1st Street Southwest in downtown Childersburg.
The Heritage South Credit Union Foundation has commissioned an original play about the reality of financial scams, “All Things Considered.”
The play is scheduled to be performed live at the B.B. Comer Memorial Library on Monday, October 21st at 11:00 a.m. A FREE Lunch will be provided for the first 100 guests.
“We wanted to do something to raise awareness of financial scams,” said HSCU’s Kevin Whitman, who is directing the play, “We obtained a grant to make the production possible, including having Sylacauga native Logan Chance write the script, along with myself, Beth Chance, and Jessie Vincent.”
Heritage South held auditions back in early September, and the troupe has been rehearsing since. They held a dress rehearsal for staff members on Monday, October 14th at the main branch in Sylacauga. The cast features:
Janie Giddens as Marjory Donna Walker as Sara Randy Clark as Ed Michael Giddens as Jon Robin Wallace as Stella
