However, our middle-sized and small town papers in
Alabama are surviving. This is welcome news to me because my column appears in
most of these papers throughout the state.
Home folks subscribe to and read their local paper to
find out what is going on in their community as well as to learn who got
married, who died and who won local sporting events. This is especially true
when the paper mentions their grandchild’s homerun or touchdown in the victory
over their neighboring rival. Hopefully, they also read my take on Alabama
politics.
Over the years I have gotten to know and become
friends with many of the editors, publishers and writers for these local
papers. It is very rewarding to get their calls and subsequently visit with
them and talk politics.
One of the editors/publishers I always enjoy
visiting with is the legendary Joe Adams of Ozark. Our relationship goes back a
lot further than the decade I have written this column. I have known Joe since
the late 1960s. My hometown of Troy is next door to Joe’s beloved Ozark. Over
the last 50 years, Joe has followed high school sports with a passion,
especially throughout the Wiregrass. He particularly loved the 1960s. I played
football and basketball during that era. We played Ozark in every sport. Joe
was always there.
It is a treat to sit down with Joe and listen to his
stories about legendary football stars from south Alabama. His favorite story
is about Troy’s famous Bobby Marlow. Marlow was a product of the Alabama Baptist
Children’s Home, which was located in Troy. Joe’s memory will drift back to a
Friday night in Ozark in 1950. You can almost see the scene when Joe describes
how Marlow ran over all 11 members of Ozark’s team as he rambled for one of his
many touchdowns.
The story of Joe Adams and the Ozark Southern Star
is remarkable. His family has owned the Southern Star since 1867. Joe’s
great-grandfather, Joseph A. Adams, a confederate veteran with no journalism
experience, started the paper. Today, the Southern Star is the oldest newspaper
owned continuously by one family in Alabama. It is also one of the oldest
newspapers with this distinction in the nation.
Joe is the fourth generation of his family to
publish the paper. He is Alabama’s longest serving active editor. Joe
celebrated his 50th year as editor of the paper in 2007. Earlier this year the
Alabama Press Association bestowed their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award
on Joe. Over the past 55 years Joe has had a hand in getting over 2700 issues
of the Southern Star to press.
While in college at the University of Alabama, Joe
was sports editor of the Crimson White. One of his fondest memories is of
following Alabama’s legendary “Rocket 8” basketball team. In 1987, the
University of Alabama School of Journalism named Joe the outstanding journalism
alumnus.
In recent years, Joe has slowed down some. His golf
buddies, Kells Carroll, Dr. Dudley Terrell and Jimmy Clouse have either passed
away or given up golf. Mr. Jimmy’s son, Steve Clouse, has now represented Ozark
and Dale County in the legislature for two decades.
Longtime Ozark folks used to refer to Joe as
“Newspaper Joe,” because a prominent Ozark lawyer was also named Joe Adams. He
was called, “Lawyer Joe.” In the landmark 1970 governor’s battle between Albert
Brewer and George Wallace, people took sides and grudges still exist today.
Newspaper Joe took the side of Brewer. He endorsed Brewer in the Southern Star.
Lawyer Joe was kin to Wallace and backed his relative. Thereafter, old time
Ozark folks called Newspaper Joe Adams, “Joe Brewer.”
Joe Adams is an institution in Alabama newspaper
lore. Those of us who know Joe well also know him as a sports - and especially Alabama Crimson Tide - aficionado.
See you next week.
About the author: Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading
political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama
newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached
at http://www.steveflowers.us.
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