Wednesday, October 5, 2022–Tina Marie Hosey
“Songs that Shaped Our Lives”
Songs are an important part of the story of our lives, beginning with early childhood and holding sway during the teen years. Songs propel us forward and help us survive adulthood with its responsibilities and dark periods. Songs express joy during the good times and sadness during the bad times, offering hope when we fail and reminding us that we are stronger than we think. They take us back in time, rekindling love and affirming the importance of family, religion, honor and duty. One musician called songs “the soundtrack of our lives, consisting of a playlist that relates back to events that have happened in our lives and recalling memories that we’ve forgotten, helping us to understand ourselves.”
Tina Marie Hosey—singer, songwriter, and recording artist—is just the person to sing some of the songs that have shaped lives. She plays the guitar and sings country, western, blues, pop, and gospel songs. While Tina’s talent is versatile, she is especially well known for her tribute shows to the Late Great Patsy Cline. She has celebrated the awesome Patsy with “Always Patsy Cline” at the Red Door Theater; “Remember Patsy Cline”, as well as “Elvis and Patsy Cline” at the Millbrook Theater. Tina has sung the National Anthem at the Alabama ProRodeo and God Bless the USA for an Atlanta Braves game. She has opened shows for the late Billy Joe Royal, Confederate Railroad, Molly Hatchet, John Conley and Mickey Gilley. Tina has been a Sitting Judge for seven years for Kowaliga Idol and for Kowaliga Country Radio.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022–Wayne Flynt
“Afternoons with Harper Lee: The Authentic Alabama Woman, Not the Marble Lady”
In a friendship that blossomed over a dozen years starting when Lee relocated back to Alabama after having had a stroke, Flynt and his wife Dartie became regular visitors at the assisted living facility that was Lee’s new home. The stories exchanged ranged widely over the topics of Alabama history, Alabama folklore, family genealogy, and American Literature, of course. Harper’s sisters, Alice Lee and Louise Lee Conner often joined the conversation and the hours spent in the intimate closeness of friends and family yielded revelations large and small that were cherished by Wayne Flynt and lovingly shaped into Afternoons with Harper Lee. Part memoir, part biography, this personal story from Dr. Flynt offers a unique window into the life and mind and preoccupations of one of America’s most private but best-loved writers.
Wayne Flynt, one of the country’s foremost historians, graduated from Anniston High School and Howard College (now Samford University) and took his doctorate at Florida State University. After teaching at Samford for twelve years, he became head of the history department at Auburn and retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2005. He has received numerous teaching awards and has written thirteen books that focus largely on the historical, economic and social fabric of Alabama, including Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites; Alabama in the Twentieth Century, and co-authorship of Alabama: The History of a Deep South State. Flynt’s friendship with Harper Lee was reflected in his book, Mockingbird Songs, and was expanded in his newly published book, Evenings with Harper Lee. He was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and was named Alabamian of the Year by the Mobile Register.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022–David Lucsko
“American Speed: Hot Rods, Hot Rodding, and the Hot Rod Business”
What exactly is a “hot rod”? When did hot rods first appear, and why? Who built them, and how? In this generously-illustrated presentation, Dr. Lucsko addresses these and other questions by drawing on material from his first book, The Business of Speed. He’ll cover early Model T-based racing, dry-lakes racing, and drag racing, as well as street rods, custom cars, and modern high-performance tuning. Along the way he’ll delve into the lives of several hot-rod pioneers, as well as those who built the specialized parts and components that made it all possible. The story of hot rodding in America is about creativity, showmanship, resilience, entrepreneurship, and more than a little bit of courage and luck — it is, in short, a quintessentially American story.
David N. Lucsko is Professor of History at Auburn University, where he has served as Department Chair from 2016 to 2022. In addition to The Business of Speed: The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990, he has authored Junkyards, Gearheads, and Rust: Salvaging the Automotive Past. He is currently working on a history of the automotive restoration hobby, as well as a brief history of the automobile during the 1970s.
Wednesday, October 26, 2022–Dr. James R. (Jim) Hansen
“SOLO AND TOGETHER: The Life and Legacy of Charles A. Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh”
Charles Lindbergh—an American aviator who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21 of 1927 in the “The Spirit of St. Louis”— gained immediate international fame. He was labeled “Lucky Lindy” or the “Lone Eagle” with both Americans and the Europeans idolizing the handsome young pilot. In 1929, Lindbergh married Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador to Mexico. She became a licensed pilot and made many long flights with her husband, but she was also admired as an American poet and essayist. Dr. Hansen will explore the towering achievements of both husband and wife, while also offering a look at the tragedies that dogged the couple during their long marriage, including the kidnapping and murder of their infant son in 1932.
A former historian for NASA, James Hansen holds a Ph. D. from Ohio State University and is the author of over a dozen books in aerospace history and the history of science and technology. He taught at Auburn University, served as Department Chair and director of its Honors College, and now is Professor Emeritus. His book, First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong (2005) is the first and only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. It twice spent three weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and garnered several major book awards. First Man has also been published in 25 foreign translations. It became a film of the same name for Universal Studios, starring Ryan Gosling, which was nominated for several major prizes and won one Academy Award.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022–Dolores Hydock
“Going the Extra Mile: The Journey of Two Extraordinary Women”
Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland made headlines as they raced, solo, in opposite directions around the world in 1889. The two daring young women, both reporters for New York newspapers, were determined to beat the fictional goal set by Jules Verne in Around the World in Eighty Days. That adventure turned out to be only a small part of a larger battle that each fought in her own way — a fight for financial independence for women at the turn of the 20th century. Dolores Hydock shares the story of their intersecting lives — a series of fascinating coincidences that had them racing against time, injustice, and each other.
Dolores Hydock is an actress and storyteller whose one-woman shows and stories have been featured at conferences, concerts, and special events throughout the United States. She was a Featured Teller for the 6th time at the 50th Anniversary of the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Over the years, Dolores has shared her talent in generous and creative ways collaborating with the Birmingham Museum of Art to blend stories with special exhibits, sharing her Christmas story special, and performing with Bobby Horton during the holiday season on NPR-affiliate WBHM in Birmingham. Originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, home of the Reading Railroad and Luden’s Cough Drops, Dolores now lives in Irondale, just four blocks from the Whistle Stop Cafe. If the wind is just right, she can stand on her front porch and smell the aroma of fried green tomatoes.
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