50 years ago this week
The reigning Tuscaloosa County Maid of Cotton, Barbara Britt, was named the top Corolla beauty at the University of Alabama. Britt was a Holt High School graduate.
Tuscaloosa city police in force asked the City Commission for a 40-hour work week. Police were then working a basic 44-hour week.
The Holt Lock and Dam was more than 90 percent complete.
Alabama football coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant accepted the Nashville Banner’s annual Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year award for his team — “the best bunch of kids I’ve ever coached.”
Deaths this week included Mary Emily Maxwell, office manager of Perry’s Pride Inc. for
25 years and a member of an old Tuscaloosa County family. Also, Anna Springer, 83, and her daughter, Mary Springer, died in a house fire in Elrod. Their home was one of the oldest in the Elrod community. Mrs. Springer’s late husband, Milton Springer, had served as a community leader and a justice of the peace at Elrod for many years.
M.T. Ormond was elected president of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association.
W. Tandy Barrett was elected president of the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce to succeed Jack Warner, president of Gulf States Paper Corp., who had served two terms.
25 years ago this week
Two new long-term residential units with 156 beds were dedicated at Bryce Hospital; one was named in honor of Sen. Ryan deGraffenried Jr., D-Tuscaloosa, and the other for Rep. Jack Biddle III, R-Gardendale, both of whom worked to approve funding and improvements in the state’s mental health system.
The Fayette County Commission met to clear up grievances of Sheriff James Lenard, who claimed commissioners were uncooperative in the day-to-day operation of his department. Lenard was appointed to the post by then-Gov. Guy Hunt after former Sheriff Hubert Norris resigned while the target of a criminal investigation.
William A. “Dub” Lindsey planned to retire after 37 years as lockmaster of Oliver Lock on the Black Warrior River on Dec. 31, ending nearly a century of continuous service to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by his Tuscaloosa County family. The family service dates back to 1895, when Lindsey’s grandfather, Samuel D. Lindsey, started working with the Corps, building the original locks on the Warrior system. His father, William A. Lindsey Sr., worked as lockmaster at old Lock 14, near Holt Lock and Dam. That lock, along with locks 15 and 16, were knocked down when the new Holt Lock was built.
The state’s case against a transient man charged with the murder of Roman Catholic priest in January suffered a setback when a key witness recanted some of her testimony. The Rev. Francis Craven was beaten to death and his body was burned on a dirt road in north Tuscaloosa.
The purchase of 60 dilapidated housing units on 3.5 acres off 30th Avenue in west Tuscaloosa was finalized and the area, known as Belcher’s Quarters, was officially owned by Community Service Programs of West Alabama. Plans were to replace the existing structures with 32 new duplex units of subsidized low-income housing.
10 years ago this week
The Tuscaloosa County Commission voted to hire an engineering firm to develop cost estimates for extending Brookwood Parkway north from George Newell Road. The four-lane parkway, which now extends north from Interstate 20/59, is designed to eventually tie into Alabama Highway 216 near Brookwood.
Paul Bryant Jr., a prominent Tuscaloosa businessman, influential University of Alabama trustee and son of the Crimson Tide’s famed football coach, applied to federal and state regulators to form a new bank to be based in Tuscaloosa.
The Tuscaloosa City Board of Education voted to close Stillman Heights Elementary School at the end of the school year, leaving students to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.
Richard D. Adams stepped down from the Tuscaloosa city school board after two decades of service.
The Alabama gymnastics team would start the 2005 season ranked fourth.
The Crimson Tide football team was back at practice to prepare for the Music City Bowl against Minnesota on Dec. 31.
Five years ago this week
Officials were scrambling to save the New Era Cap manufacturing plant in Demopolis and its 355 jobs.
The Tuscaloosa City Council voted unanimously to enter into a 20-year lease agreement with Christ Episcopal Church for the Spiller Building. The city would renovate the vacant building into the region’s first cultural arts center and preserve one of the area’s oldest structures.
The Tuscaloosa Police Department, along with the FBI and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, opened an undercover pawnshop in Alberta from April to November, recovering about $40,000 in stolen items.
Proration forced the two-year college system to increase tuition. The cost of attending classes at Shelton State Community College and Bevill State Community College would rise nearly 20 percent in the following two years to $111 per credit hour by the fall of 2011.
The Holt street where blues great Johnny Shines lived for more than 30 years was renamed in his honor.
One year ago this week
Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron was the Heisman trophy runner-up.
Mercedes held a grand opening for the new Mercedes-Benz Logistics Center, a $70 million facility designed to streamline logistics operations and support and receiving, handling and sequencing of parts.
Salvation Army Red Kettle donations were down
50 percent; officials blamed the shorter Christmas shopping season caused by a late Thanksgiving.
The Tuscaloosa City Council approved a $16.57 million incentive policy to benefit a new retail shopping center to be built in the former Cedar Crest neighborhood.
Travis Parker, the longtime division chief of Tuscaloosa’s Emergency Medical Services and spokesman at Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service, retired after serving in the department for 27 years.
Compiled by retired News librarian Betty Slowe.