(From the Tuscaloosa News)
Happy days are here again in Brent. That was evident Monday as Brent celebrated the rebuilding of the town, which was destroyed in the May 27, 1973, tornado.
The shopping center area where thousands stood for hours to hear three of the nation’s top singers perform was leveled by the 1973 twister. Brent was virtually wiped off the map by the savage tornado. About 95 percent of the downtown business area was destroyed and 127 homes demolished in the twister which caused millions of dollars in damages.
It took a lot of hard work and a lot of money to make Brent the modern town it is today. One only need look at the aerial picture taken the day after the tornado to realize the remarkable job that has been done.
The new city hall is probably the nicest in West Alabama for a town the size of Brent. The new business area is a tribute to the men and women who had the faith to rebuild.
Fred Davis, a Brent businessman and former probate judge, thought Brent should have some kind of special day to celebrate the rebuilding of the town.
About three months ago he came up with the idea of a Brent Dedication and Trade Promotion Day. He did an outstanding job in planning and promoting the special day.
A Monday morning is probably the worst time of the week to draw a crowd and to have such national entertainers.
Freddy Fender, Tammy Wynette and Jimmy Davis (Gatlin Brothers added) will draw a crowd almost anytime of the day and most any place. That was true at Brent.
The temperature was in the 20s during the early morning and some law enforcement officer didn’t expect to have any traffic problems. They were wrong. The cars kept coming and just about every parking space within a half-mile radius of the shopping center was filled.
Although the weather was cold, Davis can be thankful it didn’t rain. It was a clear, sunshiny day. Had it rained there was no building in Bibb County large enough to accommodate the crowd estimated at 10,000 persons.
Davis said it was the biggest crowd for any event ever staged in Bibb County. Davis did well when he booked Fender, Wynette, Davis and the Gatlin Boys, to perform. Too often an event advertises that big names are going to appear and then when you get there a cancellation has been made and you hear substitute performers. That didn’t happen at Brent.
The former judge did have an entertainment problem early in the day. Fender is one of the hottest commodities in the entertainment field toady. He’s appeared on some of the top television shows and has more appearances schedule.
Jimmy Davis, the former governor of Louisiana and his wife Anna were appearing on the same program with Fender at Brent. Davis and his wife talked with Fender briefly. The conversation was mostly about the entertainment business. After the couple had left, Fender said, “You know I was in prison in Louisiana when he was governor.” “Why didn’t you ask for a pardon”, my wife Betty Jo asked. “I did” came the reply from Fender. There was no bitterness in his voice. A governor has an awful lot of problems, Fender commented and that ended the talk on prison.
Davis served two terms as governor of Louisiana (1948-1952) AND (1960-64). It was in Davis’ second term that Fender spent some time in a Louisiana prison.
In 1959 Fender penned “Wasted days and wasted Nights” edged onto the record charts and the next year his follow-up “Crazy, Crazy Baby,” began to do the same. Then in the middle of a tour date in Louisiana, police stormed into a Baton Rogue club and arrested Fender and the bass player for marijuana possession, interrupting both men’s careers with three-year jail sentences.