Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

What was the name of the first "enclosed" mall in Huntsville? Where was it located and when did it open? Do you remember any of the stores there and any classmates who worked in any of the stores? Class year and school with email answers please.

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Carolyn Taylor, Class of 64 - I don't remember if it was The Heart of Huntsville (also call Sears' Mall), no longer standing or Loveman's Mall. Where Toys R Us and the Home Depot area is.

In The Heart of Huntsville was Sears, Woolsworth, Eckards Drugs and I don't remember.

The Loveman's mall was Loveman's(of course) on one end and J C Penny on the other end. At one time I believe there was a Sax in there. There were other stores but I can't remember what they were.

Parkway City has always been my favorite and even though it is Parkway Place now, it will always be Parkway City to me. I even miss Miller's and Miracle City. Do you remember them?

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Paula Kephart, Class of '65 - Nice article. I remember the tornado destroyed part of it on April 3, 1974. It also blew all the glass out of Carriage Cadillac across the street. Have lived here for 61 yrs, so I remember quite a bit. I am very upset they want to tear down Lincoln School built in 1929 and one other one. I am getting tired of this; the buildings are still very sound and look very good from the outside. We should preserve some of the older buildings and be sure we instill respect for our schools in our students.

That tornado was a mile wide at points. I drove out to Harvest to check on my Mother and saw a newly plowed field with a single white toilet sitting in the middle of it. That was different. She drove me all around the county and it looked like bulldozers went across the tops of the trees. It was horrible. I think the only fatality was just a mile down the road from my parents farm. It was an elderly man; when we drove by his hone, there was only a rocking chair sitting in the middle on the foundation. Nothing else was gone.

Our farm sustained some damage, but spared the home and all the expensive stuff and did not hurt any of the cattle. That date is unforgettable to those of us who are native Huntsvillians. The November 1989 tornado did more damage and took more lives but '74 was a national day of tornadoes as you are fully aware, I am sure.

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Joy Rubins Morris, Class of '64 - I am guessing here but was the enclosed mall the Loveman's Mall? I know my sister (Judy Rubins) worked in the music store there right after she graduated from Lee (1966). If it was not Loveman's, then it may have been the Sear's Mall?. Getting old is not the problem, it is the memory loss that goes with it that is the problem.

So looking forwrd to this year's reunion. If anyone needs any help with the planning or whatever, please count me in.

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Michael Griffith, Class of ‘66 - For my memory, that is kind of a trick question. I wanted to say that the name of the first fully enclosed mall in Huntsville was both unimaginative and redundant. It was located at the corner of Memorial Parkway and University Avenue, and named “The Mall.” In a previous life, I worked at the Loveman’s department store (one of the anchors), and spent many a dollar at Bill’s Menswear and Bill’s hipper store “Bill’s London Transit.” I don’t remember the year it opened, but it seems like it was during the mid-sixties.

Then I remembered the more imaginatively named “Heart of Huntsville Mall.” If memory serves this was partially enclosed, with the primary store being a Sear’s. As this was built in the early sixties, on Memorial Parkway, near Governor’s Drive, the could be the answer. So, my qualified answer is that the first enclosed mall was “Heart of Huntsville” and the first fully-enclosed mall was “The Mall.”

By the way, on Facebook there are some very interesting pictures of Huntsville, at: “Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama”

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(Editor's Note) From Wikipedia:

The Heart of Huntsville Mall was the first enclosed shopping mall in Huntsville when it opened in 1961. The 250,000 sq ft single-story complex was built just outside of downtown at the intersection of Clinton Avenue and Memorial Parkway. Its major tenant was a 48,000 sq ft Sears at the southern end of the mall.

Heart of Huntsville hosted many community events over the years including several Scout Expos and craft fairs. The long-running Delta Zeta Arts and Crafts Show began in 1967 with roughly 100 booths at Heart of Huntsville Mall.

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I Could Write a Book -

If Only I Had the Time

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

During the events that happened during last week's 75th birthday celebration for Elvis Presley, there was an article in the local paper about a new book that was written by one of his high school friends.

Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley by George Klein

"When George Klein was an eighth grader at Humes High, he couldn’t have known how important the new kid with the guitar—the boy named Elvis—would later become in his life. But from the first time GK (as he was nicknamed by Elvis) heard this kid sing, he knew that Elvis Presley was someone extraordinary. During Elvis’s rise to fame and throughout the wild swirl of his remarkable life, Klein was a steady presence and one of Elvis’s closest and most loyal friends until his untimely death in 1977."

That got me to thinking about who I would write a book about if I were to write one about someone I knew at Lee High School during my school days. The funny thing is that I sat there for several minutes thinking about who I would write about and what I would write before I had one of those senior moment "duh's." When the lightbulb came on, I remembered that I had done that already - twice even.

For you old readers, most of you have heard of my first book, "A Million Tomorrows...Memories of the Class of '64", because I have been writing about it and quoting it for many years now. It was really about me and my senior year at Lee and "all" the friends I had and what we did during that senior year.

Many of you may not be aware that I also wrote a book about just one friend, and the friendship we shared for over 40 years. The book was "Goodbye to Bob" and the friend was Robert Kennedy "Bob" Walker, also a member of the Lee High Class of '64 - even though he did not graduate until after summer school thanks to his poor performance in Mrs. Faulkner's English class.

It was written as a tribute to Bob, following his lost battle with cancer in 2007 and was published in a small run that I sent to his friends and family when they held a memorial service for him in Florida. I did the tribute in lieu of spending money on flowers. I did give some of them to a few of our mutual friends at a mini-reunion the next year, but only a few commented on the book and so I do not know for sure how well it was accepted. I do know that his son, daughter, and significant other thought highly of the work.

Before I go any further, I want you to know that it was a small book but I still consider it a book. When I converted it to full size pages it even seemed smaller. I consider it small but powerful. If you would like to read it, then all you have to do is click on the photo above and you will be able to get a PDF version of it to read or save.

All that being what it may, that was me and my books. The real question that hit me the day that I read about Elvis' friend writing a book about him in high school was..."I wonder who would be the subject if others from my school wrote such a book."

I know most of you do not feel like you have the time, or the ability to write a book and I have to tell you that writing the first one is the hardest task. I'm working on my ninth one now which I hope to have done by August 2010. But, if you did have the time and skill, and were given the assignment of having to write about someone you knew in high school who would you write about? It wouldn't have to be your best friend, but would just have to be someone you went to school with.

Who's story would you like to read? Which classmate has led a life that you would love to know more about. Who's done what, met whom, etc.

So, I'm asking you to take a moment and think about that. And then email me your answer. If you don't want you name released, then just say so. But tell me who would be the topic of a book you wrote about if you had the time and energy?

This is open to all of my readers, from whichever year and whatever school. I hope some of you will participate.

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