Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, “Telling our Stories,” the SouthFirst Brown Bag Lecture Series, will begin with the story of jazz.

Four accomplished musicians will perform and tell the amazing story of the rise of jazz down to its golden age in the 1920s.

Everyone is invited to join with Sylacauga’s own Buddy Simpkins, who began playing the drums in the dance orchestra of his father, Lewis “Fess” Simpkins, and went on to become a renowned band director; Bob Phillips who led the outstanding Opryland Jazz Band and became known as one of the top trumpet players in Nashville recording with such greats as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis; Marvin McCombs who taught classical guitar at the University of Montevallo for 37 years; and Wayne Brown, freelance keyboard musician, who entertained for years with dinner music at the Galleria’s Wynfrey Hotel.



“It pleases us to start the New Year and the new series with such a great topic and such an outstanding group of musicians,” said Shirley Spears, director of B.B. Comer Memorial Library.

Jazz came of age in the South, and it has been called America’s only unique art form with the music spreading to other parts of the country by way of riverboats traveling up the Mississippi and Southern musicians traveling to cities like Chicago and New York.

Jazz is, like the country itself, a melting pot combining religious music, folk songs, funeral songs and street music with the rhythms of West Africa and harmony from European classical music. Jazz unites people across all boundaries and is considered one of America’s greatest cultural achievements.”

“The remaining eight programs in the “Telling our Stories” series have either direct ties to Alabama or to the South in general,” Spears said. “The presenters are outstanding and the topics will educate and entertain with a potpourri of stories that need to be told. We hope that our participants will mark their calendars for Wednesdays at the library to enjoy all of these programs.”

The series continues Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 with Dolores Hydock and “Dead Cats and Spunk Water: Superstitions and Strange Logic in the Writing of Mark Twain”

Hydock, an actress and story performer, will use her masterful storytelling to explore the magical thinking in the delightful stories of Mark Twain as well as the antics of Twain’s characters that often went beyond logic to make sense of an uncertain world, Spears said.

“2010 is the year of Alabama’s statewide ‘BIG READ,’ and Mark Twain and his work, ‘Tom Sawyer,’ will be widely read and discussed, so Dolores will give the Brown Bag crowd a head start on being in step with readers throughout the entire state,” Spears said.

The next program is Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 with John O’Malley and “Alabama War Dogs.” Alabama war dogs’ lives are always on the line and their love and affection as well as their sacrifices and glory comprise a story worth hearing, Spears said.

Used by the military since World War I, these military working dogs are deployed around the world with United States’ fighting forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. O’Malley, the founder of the Alabama War Dogs Memorial Foundation, is the man to tell the story of the dogs that protect our state’s troops. O’Malley, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, is the president of Strategic Visions in Birmingham,

The series continues Jan. 27, 2010 with historian and autor Hardy Jackson and “Alabama: Then and Now”

Jackson will explore the question of “How do you define “Modern Alabama?”

Is it just a slice of time, from1945 to the present and what made us modern?

Was it electricity, asphalt and interstate highways, or some other invention?

In Hardy’s talk, and with the assistance of photographs, Hardy will compare the state from1945 to the present, with what it used to be. Hardy, Jacksonville State University’s Eminent Scholar in History, has studied Alabama’s history extensively and won the prestigious C. J. Coley Award from the Alabama Historical Association for his latest book, “Inside Alabama: A Personal History of My State.”

Robert Bradley and “The Civil War in Alabama” come to Comer Library Feb. 3, 2010.

Bradley will focus on the events and activities that took place within the state from secession until the final days of war. According to Bradley, many of the most significant events which took place in Alabama are frequently treated as local history when, in fact, they were part of a much larger picture.

Bradley is the chief curator for the Alabama Department of Archives and History and is the author of “Documenting the Civil War Period Flag Collection.”

He is active in Civil War battlefield preservation.

Wayne Flynt brings “Storytelling: Alabama Style” to Comer Library Feb. 10, 2010.

Flynt, a connoisseur of folkways and music in Alabama, will discuss the state’s brand of storytelling which often teaches morals; preserves local, family and cultural history; and serves as an avenue to a glimpse of what past life was like in our families and communities.

Flynt, a minister, teacher and historian, is well equipped to talk about Alabama’s tradition of storytelling as an art form and is a rich source of education and entertainment, Spears said. Flynt served as Distinguished Professor of History at Auburn University and is author or co-author of 11 books, many of which pertain to Alabama’s colorful history.

He is Editor-in Chief of the “Online Encyclopedia of Alabama.”

Elizabeth Wade entertains with “Remembering Mrs. Rena: The East Alabama Soothsayer” Feb. 17, 2010.

Wade, assistant editor for “Alabama Heritage” magazine, will relate the story of the area’s most famous psychic, Irene (Rena) Vanzandt Teel.

Born in 1894 near Rockford, with a veil over her head, Teel was considered “marked,” and perhaps destined for prophecy. Her childhood seemed normal, but when Teel predicted the death of her healthy baby brother and later, the death of her own infant son, she was forced to recognize her abilities to foresee the future.

Teel resisted the image of “fortune teller,” and came to believe that her abilities were a divine gift. She lived out her years in Clay County where she helped locate misplaced personal items, dogs, and livestock, but her most frequent visitors were young women looking for information about their future husbands, Spears said.

Wade has stories about Teel which were gleaned when she wrote her article on Teel for the Fall, 2009 issue of “Alabama Heritage.”

Feb. 24, 2010,

Tom Walker visits Comer Library with “The American Village: Rediscovering the American Journey for Independence.”

Walker loves to tell the story of The American Village in Montevallo. Since 1999, thousands of visitors have walked the grounds viewing replicas of a colonial chapel, the Liberty Bell, Mt. Vernon, the oval office, and a colonial coffee house. The Village’s latest addition, a National Veterans Cemetery, will soon be joined by a $6 million dollar replica of Independence Hall.

The American Village is the first full-fledged civic education campus in the country which helps young and old alike rediscover the American journey for independence.

Walker is the founder and executive director of the Village and works tirelessly to nurture what he calls “a place to educate the future guardians of our liberty.” Spears said.

“American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA” is the topic March 3, 2010 with Nick Taylor.

Taylor will tell the story of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which helped put 8 million people back to work after the Great Depression.

The WPA, the largest agency in FDR’s New Deal, built roads, parks, bridges, schools and libraries. Almost every small town in America has a building, a piece of art, or some other visible reminder of the WPA.

Taylor wrote the first history of the New Deal Program, “American Made,” which was designated as a Notable Book by the American Library Association in 2008.

The program is sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and humanities and the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

The “Telling our Stories” Brown Bag Lunch Series is sponsored by SouthFirst Bank.

The refreshment room opens at 11a.m. and participants are invited to bring a sandwich and enjoy drinks and desserts provided by the library. Working people are invited to come by on their lunch break to enjoy the programs which will begin promptly at noon in the Harry I. Brown Auditorium.