Wattsville Freewill Baptist Church will hold their annual homecoming Sunday, August 7th.  The all-day service will begin at 10:30 a.m.  There will be no Sunday school.  Guest singers are “Latter Reign.”  The church pastor, Rev. Paul Dockery, will bring the homecoming message at 11:00 a.m.  covered-dish lunch and fellowship will be at 12:00 noon.  The church pastor and church family welcome everyone.

Revival Services will be held Monday, August 8th through Friday, August 12th at 7:00 p.m. each night.  Rev. Wayne Chamness is the guest evangelist.  Everyone is invited to attend the Revival Services.

“The Old Paths of Georgia” will be in concert at Seddon Baptist Church, Pell City, Sunday Night, August 7th at 6:00 p.m.  Seddon’s Choir will also be singing.  Everyone is invited.  Rev. Dale Foote is the church pastor.

Jim, Redena and Landon King of the Pell City-Coal City area attended the 100th annual King Family Reunion Sunday, July 24th at the Stephen Jonah King Community Park on Berry Mountain in Blount County.  There were about 300 people present at this very special reunion.  In the park is the one-room schoolhouse, built in 1920 on land donated by Stephen Jonah King for the purpose of building a schoolhouse.  It is where Jim King attended the first and second grades in school.  It is now on the National Historical Society Register.

Stephen Jonah King and Sara Ann Murray, Jim King’s late Great-Grandparents, married in 1876.  They lived in Asheville, North Carolina, on land that eventually became a small portion of the huge Biltmore Estates.  The Kings left North Carolina to move to Alabama in the early 1880s, traveling for 21 days in a covered wagon.  When they settled on Berry Mountain, they farmed the land.  Stephen Johan King was known as “the apple grower” for his large apple orchard, which he began with tree sprouts brought with him from North Carolina.  They were charter members of Daily’s Chapel Church organized in 1897, where several of Jim King’s family still attends.

Stephen Jonah King and his wife, Sara, reared 15 children.  His family tree has been traced back seven generations, with his ancestors coming from England and Sara Ann Murray’s ancestors coming from Scotland.

Congratulations and happy anniversary to Billy Joe and Clara Smith who will celebrate August 10th!

Happy birthday to my young friends, Olivia Scogin, daughter of Renee Scogin and Granddaughter of Irby and Shirley Scogin, who celebrated July 30th, Dalton and Dylan Hallman, twin sons of Darren and Ena Hallman, who celebrated July 31st, my friends, Fayenell Thomason and Sharmon Cash who will celebrate August 5th, Rebecca Faith Moss, August 6th, and my great-grandson, son of my grandson and granddaughter-in-law, Kiley and Amanda Kemp of Georgia, my brother and sister-in-law, “Cliff” and Beverly Black, Renee Parker and Kristan Wilkerson who all will celebrate August 7th and my friends, Rita Moore and Cindy Cornelius who both celebrate August 8th!

Kaleb Kemp who will be 10 years old August 7th is the Grandson of my daughter, Ramon Joy Scott-Kemp of Georgia and is the Great-Grandson of Wallace Scott of Pell City.

Those of you who have recently gone on vacation, had guests in your home, birthdays, anniversaries, church announcements, weddings, birth announcements, family reunions, etc., please call me and give me your information and I will be glad to include it in this column.  I appreciate those who contribute to this column from time to time.

Let us keep a continual prayer vigil for the sick and shut-ins, the recently bereaved, our troops, their families, leaders of our state, nation and local officials, residents and the personnel of nursing homes/assisted living centers.

School bells will be ringing very soon.  Let us pray for all school/college students and all personnel.