Archive for January, 2021

Paul “Bear” Bryant

Posted in Elmwood Cemetery with tags , , on January 25, 2021 by Cade

September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983

Legendary college football coach, Bear Bryant, is widely regarded as the best coach in the history of the sport. His 38 year head coaching career garnered 6 National Championships and 15 Conference titles. He is most closely associated with the University of Alabama, where he played as a student and spent 24 years at the helm of the Crimson Tide program. He remains the youngest head coach to reach 300 career wins and 30 winning seasons. He only had one losing season in his entire career. Bryant was named conference coach of the year 15 times. Though most of his on-field success was at Alabama, he also was the head coach at Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A&M.

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Jimmie Rodgers

Posted in Oak Grove Baptist Cemetery with tags , on January 18, 2021 by Cade

September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933

“The Singing Brakeman”
“The Blue Yodeler”
“The Father of Country Music”

Jimmie Rodgers learned to play music at a very young age. His father, a railway foreman, tried to deter young Jimmie’s wont to become a traveling entertainer by getting him a job at the railyard. Jimmie spent his rail days learning to better play guitar from other workers and passing hobos…as one does. The urge to travel and play never left him and when tuberculosis ended his railroad career at the age of 27, it was all the confirmation Jimmie needed to take a real shot at being a musician.

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Donna Douglas

Posted in Bluff Creek Community Cemetery with tags , , on January 11, 2021 by Cade

September 26, 1932 – January 1, 2015

Doris Ione Smith – known professionally as Donna Douglas (and pop-culturally as Elly May Clampett) – was born and raised outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The local beauty queen moved to New York to pursue a career in modeling and acting. By the time she was 25, her television career was underway. After appearances on shows like The Steve Allen Show and The Perry Como Show, Douglas eventually made her way to Los Angeles and gave a crack at movies.

For the next several years, she appeared in films like Career and Li’l Abner and numerous TV shows including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and The Twilight Zone. In 1962, she landed a starring role on the new situation comedy, The Beverly Hillibillies, and the rest was history. Continue reading →

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Percy Sledge

Posted in Heavenly Gates Cemetery with tags , on January 4, 2021 by Cade

sledge2November 25, 1941 – April 14, 2015

Percy Sledge was a popular R&B and Soul singer in the 1960s and ’70s. He worked as an orderly in an Alabama hospital in his early years. Providential encounters through the hospital led to his distinctive and soulful voice getting discovered and he was offered a record contract. Sledge’s first recording produced what would become the signature song of his career: 1966’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Continue reading →

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