Tag: Featured Stories

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Like many students before her, Janna Malone entered college hoping to find a career in the music industry yet also wondering what opportunities might be available to someone who wasn’t after the spotlight. “I had a musical family,” she said. “I had played piano since I was six, I sang in church, all

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Pam Fleming remembers when her fellow Kiwanis Club members voted “yes” to appoint her as the first female vice president of her Sheffield Chapter, but that memory is bittersweet. Although enough members backed her, one member strongly voiced his disapproval with a warning: If they allowed a woman to serve as vice president,

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Kevin Lamb had stopped teaching at the University of North Alabama by the time Blake McDaniel enrolled as commercial music student in the fall of 1992. Still, McDaniel, who went on to work as a talent agent for Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Nashville, Tennessee, before founding his own company, Daps Landing Media,

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus On the brink of turning 50, Trinda Owens decided it was time for a career change, so she re-enrolled at the University of North Alabama in 2018. Owens had dropped out of college in her early 20s and spent over 15 years in manufacturing at the former SCA “tissue plant” in Barton. Though

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Teri Neesmith started her career with the YMCA of the Shoals almost 20 years ago as a fitness instructor. Since that time, she’s donned many other hats and taken on several roles to aid others on their health journeys at the “Y.” Neesmith’s own journey starts back in 2000, when she and her

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By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus Shari Mathews tearfully snuggled a tiny Yorkie named Zoey as she walked into the Florence-Lauderdale Animal Shelter. Mathews had been fostering the dog for about a week before Zoey had found a loving home with another foster in Wisconsin. “She was a breeding dog, and her breeder retired her,” Mathews said. “When dogs

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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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