Tag: Featured Stories

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus The day Billy Stallings and Trey Miller showed up on the doorstep of Tommy Van Sandt’s home in Killen, Stallings wasn’t certain they’d be warmly received. Still, he had a lead on a story he wanted answers to, and Van Sandt was the person he needed to see. “I believe the Lord lines

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Christmas dinner at the Flanagan house in Tuscumbia might resemble lots of other holiday meals typically served around the U.S. this time of year, but there are a few differences that make the Flanagan Christmas table extra special. While Anita Hornbuckle Flanagan often includes holiday staples like turkey and dressing, using cornmeal in most

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Eleven years ago, Glenn Rikard attended the funeral of Gladys Eley Harper, where he was inspired to pick up a Christmas tradition that his late friend had set in motion years earlier. Mrs. Harper, who had been a resident at the Lauderdale Christian Nursing Home for 10 or 15 years before her death,

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Linda Sherrod, 78, has sewn and quilted almost her entire life. It was something she said she picked up from her mother, who likely sewed more out of necessity than for fun, because not so long ago, quilting and sewing your own clothes and bedding was a way of life in the rural

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus As Stacey Putnam shows off the vibrant colors in a quilt that her grandmother made decades ago, she flips the quilt over to display the small, dashed lines that make up the stitching on the back. These are the tell-tale marks of a quilt that was hand stitched. “When you hand-quilt, you leave

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Nearly 45 years ago, Brian Beck approached Mary McWilliams with questions about restoring the historic Winston Home in Tuscumbia. At that time, the imposing antebellum structure located on the Deshler High campus, was used as storage space for some classes like home economics, but Beck had heard that the 1830s home was once

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Mary Donna Ott found her passion for working in elderly care by chance after she’d moved to Florence from Fairhope in 1984. Now a Life Enrichment director for The Renaissance senior living community, Ott stepped into the role at the facility in 1999 when it was known as Morning Star — and later Brookdale

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