History Mysteries Solved!
Posted on November 30, 2016 by bob in History Mystery
Once again, Prime’s partnership with Alabama’s Department of Archives and History has identified a significant number of people and events from Archives’ photo collections depicting River Region life during the 1950s and ‘60s. WSFA-TV has also been helpful in this effort. To celebrate the project’s success, Archives held a November reception in honor of the individuals identified this year. Many were eager to share their reactions to the published photos, as well as their surprise at seeing pictures of themselves taken so long ago.
The photos are still available on the Archives’ and Prime websites. Please contact Meredith McDonough at 334-353-5442 (or email meredith.mcdonough@archives.alabama.gov, or Prime magazine at primemontgomery@gmail.com) if you see anyone you know! Thanks for your help in solving these mysteries from Archives’ vast photo collection!
Faye Rhodes Hart was a stylist at La Bella Beauty Salon on Madison Avenue (second from the left in vintage John E. Scott photo) when this late 1960s promotional shot was taken.
“I worked for Louise McKinney, who owned the salon…I went back later on and bought this salon. It became Claudia’s, 2200 Madison Ave.” — Faye Hart
Alzora Jordan was in her early 20s in Jim Peppler’s photo taken at Montgomery’s Laicos Club during the 1960s.
“Laicos is Social spelled backwards. It was a nightclub…on Holt and Day (Streets)…People started Facebooking me and telling me, ‘I think your picture is in PRIME magazine.’ It’s great to see what I used to look like!” — Alzora Jordan
Best friends Gladys Elmore Hatchett (left) and Dorothy R. Jackson at a 1967 Otis Redding concert, Montgomery City Hall. Hatchett (left) and Jackson (second from right). Jim Peppler photo.
“We had no idea that pictures were being taken. We cherish this.” — Gladys Hatchett
“And what is really so surprising is that we got to be there at all because my daddy was kinda strict and I’m just surprised I’m sitting there…I remember thinking how fortunate I was to have gotten to see Otis Redding before he died.” — Dorothy Jackson
Still best friends, Gene Golson Kirchhoff (l) and Ann Murfee Sullivan (r) were both selected as Crimson Clover girls in the early 1950s. Original photo by Horace Perry.
“It was a promotional event done for the Autauga County Crimson Clover…People don’t realize how much the Autauga County Crimson Clover has done for the state of Ala. and for the south by adding nitrogen to the soil.” — Ann Sullivan
“Hope’s Dress Shop in Prattville donated these two dresses for us…and they were matching dresses. Mine was yellow and Ann’s was blue. And we really thought we were something in those dresses sitting in that beautiful crimson clover.” — Gene Kirchoff
Rosemary Jager was one of Bill’s Dickinson’s “Bill’s Belles” (fourth from the left in original photo by John E. Scott) during the candidate’s 1964 Congressional bid.
“We were campaign workers for Bill Dickinson, who was running for Congress from Montgomery. And we wore the uniforms and stood on street corners and passed out folders about ‘Vote for Bill’…And he won the election.” — Rosemary Jager
Becky Acuff Sternenberg (middle, in vintage Horace Perry photo) spent portions of many summers at Camp Grandview in the 1950s.
“I had lived in Montgomery as a little girl and I went to Camp Grandview…but I moved away after the third grade…I would come back over from South Georgia to go to Camp Grandview and bring friends with me…Miss Ann McKey, the director of the YWCA at that point, would have someone meet us at the train station.” — Becky Sternenberg
Sharon Bender Coker (middle, in original John E. Scott photo) sported the latest fashions in haircuts and hairstyles during a Johnson’s Beauty Supply show at the Whitley Hotel.
“It was a beauty show… and we got our hair cut and styled and permed and so we were the little models for this show…I remember my mother made the dress…It was a fun day being the star!” — Sharon Coker
Sara Samson DuBose, a Robert E. Lee flag bearer during her senior year (left, in Horace Perry’s original photo), performed at Cramton Bowl in 1959.
“Because of the size of the crowd, I don’t know if it was a Lee-Lanier game, or it could have been the Blue Gray game…Our band director was the famous Johnny Long and everyone adored him, and we still do.” — Sara DuBose
Siblings Gloria Wardell Gregory (left, both photos) and Bobby Jerome Smith Sr. (right, both photos) hold a Jim Peppler image of Montgomery’s Clayton Alley in the mid-1960s.
“It brings back a lot of heartfelt memories…that we were a part of those days and that time and period.” — Gloria Gregory
“When I saw the picture, I was just shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, that’s 50 years ago. I’m 61 now. It shows me where we came from and where we’re at now. So it does a lot, and says a lot, so I’m very proud.” — Bobby Jerome Smith
Trombonist William Langford (far right) played in the King Tut Band for nearly two decades. Original photo by John Scott.
“That was at a nightclub down on Lee Street. It was in the first block off of Dexter Ave. behind the Elite Cafe and the Krystal Cafe. And it was upstairs over a bowling alley…we were playing up there every weekend.” — William Langford
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