Political Quotes

“long-time Montevallo, AL mayor Ralph Sears passed away on February 14, 1996 at the age of 73. A native of Nebraska, the young World War II veteran had come to Montevallo in 1948 to teach broadcasting courses at Alabama College, now the University of Montevallo. It was said that he had a golden voice, and he originally was lured to the south to teach a year or so and then move on. Thankfully for Montevallo, he never got around to moving on. Instead, he went on to serve for 16 years as a member of the city council and then for 24 years as mayor. During his nearly half-century in his adopted city, Ralph Sears and his wife, Marcia, raised three children; opened radio station WBYE, located between Calera and Montevallo; and bought and published two weekly newspapers, one of which was the Shelby County Reporter. As mayor, he came to be seen as an uncommon friend to his constituents. He accomplished things which had a direct impact on their daily lives. He saw that tall horse-and-buggy curbs and crumbling sidewalks were replaced by lower curbs, handicap ramps, flowering trees in planters, and litter cans. He oversaw the building of a 40-acre park with ball fields, playgrounds, picnic tables, walking trail, gazebo, recreation building, and Scout hut. He worked with black citizens to devise a district voting system that assured their representation on the council years before a Federal court decision ordered municipal governments to take such action.”