Newest mural depicts parade on Three Notch

Not long ago, Andalusia’s mural committee was working on two ideas.

The first was a tribute to law enforcement; the second, recognition for the city’s oldest businesses.

Then mural artist Wes Hardin pitched another idea – combine the two and make it a parade.

The result is Andalusia’s newest mural, Parade on Three Notch, on the side of the Boyington building on East Three Notch (next door to the post office).

Pat Palmore, who chairs the murals committee, said this one is altogether different than previous ones.

The background includes storefronts of some of Andalusia’s oldest businesses, with owners or workers out front. The foreground features a parade led by law enforcement, with J.D. Sh

akespeare out front directing traffic.

“We’ve taken some poetic license with the placement of the businesses,” Palmore said.

Among the representatives of law enforcement and the judicial system are the six women and six men who sat on the first Covington County jury to include women, believed to

also be the first Alabama jury to include women. The 12 individuals – six women and six clergymen – were Mrs. Abner Powell II, Mrs. Guy Carmichael, Mrs. Lester Thagard Jr., Mrs. L.J. Reeves, Mrs. Dige Bishop, Mrs. E.E. Anthony Jr., the Rev. Sheppard Bryan, the Rev. Arthur M. Carlton; the Rev. Walter E. Kilburn; the Rev. W.O. Phillips; the Rev. Jack Clark; and the Rev. John Jeffers. They, along with Judge Bowen Simmons, who presided, are among those “watching” the murals parade.

Former Mayor J.G. Sherf is there, a

s is longtime Star-News editor Ed Dannelly.

Former Miss America Yolanda Betbeze – the first Miss Alabama to earn the crown – is featured in the parade. Betbeze, who was crowned in 1951, actually participated in an Andalusia parade once. Rounding out the parade are members of the AHS band, including the 1959 majorettes – Margo Russell, Suzanne Brown Fornaro, Anita “Butch” McDonald Jefferies and Barbara Meredith Nichols – and former drum major Tom O’Neal.

In total, there are portraits of 93 people in the mural, Mrs. Palmore said.

Other mural committee members are Bob Anderson, David Fuqua, Hazel Griffin, Mary Lee Howard, Maggie Jones, Elaine Manning, Sara Catherine Patrick, Nancy Robbins, Willie Thomas, Joe Wingard and Barbara Tyler.