Last weekend we hosted the Texas Playboys from Austin, Texas. The baseball club made up of artists, architects, musicians, photographers and entrepreneurs joined us for a weekend of great music, food, cocktails, and baseball. We were thrilled and honored they voted to visit Florence, Alabama for this year’s travel game (see ballot above) and flattered they challenged our not-too-shabby Billy Reid + Alabama Chanin team in Barnstorm2013.

The Playboys roster includes some of Austin’s most innovative and gifted makers, including friend and Playboy manager Jack Sanders of Design Build Adventure, center fielder Robert Gay of Thoughtbarn, and out fielder and musician Dan Dyer, who performed a few songs Thursday evening as part of our ongoing Visiting Artist Series.

Thursday evening at the Factory kicked off the weekend with dinner for the crew by The Front Porch Revival, a group of young Alabama chefs who gave their time and talents, serving an impressive spread of signature dishes like Snapper ceviche on Bon Secour (Alabama) oysters and chicharrones, sweet potato and collard green tamales with merguez sausage and beet “hot sauce,” and Alabama smoked catfish dip on homemade crackers: everything handmade, everything fresh and local, and everything we love about the new Alabama cuisine.

Gin and tonic cocktails (handmade tonic by Chef Wesley True), Alabama handcrafted beer from Back Forty Beer Co., and Mountain Valley Spring Water accompanied the spread and kept spirits high as guests from the Shoals community, many of whom are artists themselves, arrived to meet the Playboys.

Billy Reid hosted the Playboys Friday evening at his flagship store in downtown Florence with music by Shoals songbird Shelly Colvin and more hospitality by the Front Porch Revival.

To say the Saturday afternoon Barnstorm was friendly is mostly correct. Adrenalin flowed while the competitive edge in everyone grew a tad sharper. Our Alabama Slammers, with the raucous Alabama Slammerettes cheer leading squad behind them, had the game until the seventh inning. Sadly, the Slammers lost (just barely).

A post-game pot luck, BBQ, and Cracker Jack ice cream from the Shirey brothers sated all and finished out an awesome weekend. Watch for the Slammers in Austin next year – rumor has it there’s a revenge game in the works. Playboys, bring your Icy Hot. Y’all are going to need it.

Thank you again to all who came out to support the Texas Playboys and the Alabama Slammers and to everyone who contributed to such an amazing weekend.

Friends and Contributors, Thank You:

The Front Porch Revival
Chef David Bancroft of Acre
Chef Wesley + Bobbi True of Midtown Kitchen and True Montgomery
Chef Leonardo Maurelli III of Central
Caroline Rosen of Mountain Valley Spring Water and EatEasyMGM
Brent Rosen of MADE Paper
Brad Wilson of Back Forty Beer Co.
Belle Chevre
Shirey Ice Cream
Magpie + RUTH
Shelly Colvin
Zkano
University of North Alabama Baseball
Billy Reid

And thank you to all the dedicated ballplayers:

The Playboys Roster:

Jack Sanders
Robert Gay
Taylor Tehan
John Hughes
Howard Carey
John Algood
Brent Humphreys
Adrian Larriva
Sam Douglas
Wade Miller
Cory Clifton
John Spong
Dan Dyer
Bradley Beesley

The Slammers Roster:

Billy Reid
K.P. McNeill
Katy McNeill
Jeff Colvin
Griffin Blake
Hal Hughston
Will Trapp
Kyle Knight
Drew Botts
Bradley Dean
John Ehl
Jamie Barrier
Jonathan Oliphant
Daniel Crisler
Quint Langstaff
Steven Smith

*And a special thank you to everyone who took these awesome Instagram photos of #Barnstorm2013.

Click on grid image to enlarge.

This weekend marks the 15^th year of the Doo-Nanny festival, simply called ‘Doo-Nanny’. The folk art festival has grown and evolved into a temporary community filled with creative expression that occupies Butch’s 80-acre farm once a year.

When Butch speaks of the history of Doo-Nanny, his story begins with a turnip root that was plowed up in his garden by friend John Henry Toney. The turnip “had a face in it,” so he drew a picture of it and sold in a nearby junk shop to a folk art collector. And so, in 1996, Doo-Nanny was born out of a roadside art show. Years later, the folk art festival merged with a “lo-fi” movie festival and is now complete with solar showers, an outdoor community kitchen, art vendors, and culminates with a burning effigy for the celebration on Saturday night.

Ready for art and making, campers, artists, musicians, and free spirits arrive here for fun, food, music, and experimental architecture. Children run free (but supervised). I’ve heard first-time attendees say nothing could have prepared them for the spectacle of the weekend; this year’s event is certain to be another good one.

As the website says:

Come all ye inventors, movie makers, ballerinas, bikers, morticians, bakers, artists, conspiracy theorists, scientists, foodies, eco-whatevers, moonshiners, comedians, fire-spinners, yodelers, he-shes, animal-trainers, pickle-makers, party girls, sock monkeys, stackers, jugglers, musicians, whittlers, spankers, fisherpersons, beggars, wanderers, and map-makers….

Rain or shine, we will see you at the Doo-Nanny.

*Images above from my time spent in Seale and the Museum of Wonder website.

We’ve been talking about friend and collaborator Anna Maria Horner all week, featuring a DIY A-line Tunic with her Little Flowers stencil, a Greek lunch in her honor, and a review of her new book, Anna Maria’s Needleworks Notebook, which we wrote about on Monday promising a giveaway later in the week. Details below on how to enter to win a copy of Anna Maria’s book, but first, a Q&A with the lady herself.

Anna Maria Horner’s Newest Book, Anna Maria’s Needleworks Notebook, is a beautiful addition to the library of anyone interested in embroidery, whether beginner or expert. We love all of Anna Maria’s work and feel a special kinship to her. So, while she is waiting patiently for the arrival of baby number 7, we took the opportunity to ask a few questions. Here’s what she had to say:

AC: You manage to balance a growing and impressive body of work with an equally growing and impressive family. We’re all looking for the secret to that work/life balance. Do you have any wisdom to pass along?

AMH: I like to joke that tackling what I try to tackle each day doesn’t come recommended, so I don’t know if you could consider any insight actual wisdom or just a recipe for a little chaos.  In all seriousness though, it is a happy chaos that I wouldn’t trade for anything.  I think so much of it boils down to personality.  I have learned that I am happiest when I am busy and I just make better work when I am happy.  My family and my work are very intertwined because of working from home but also because what I tend to be designing, making, teaching, or producing centers around the comforts of life: handwork, quilting, clothing, and so on.  So the very nature of the work marries itself to family life well.

The larger challenge is running the business that has to be in place to facilitate the creative work that I do- which is about half the time.  This all consists of lots of emails, phone calls, going over manufacturing contracts, planning time with my assistant, coordinating events and shows, etc.  With the children ranging in age from not-born-yet to 21, I have different expectations of each of them in terms of how they are able to handle letting their mom get some work done.  Most of them can be in my space when I work.  Then some days there are certain tasks where I need complete solitude and concentration, so I think teaching your kids some boundaries to respect is so important and really beneficial to them as individuals.  There is a bit of a payoff to there being a crowd of children… they tend to occupy each other quite well and do for one another very naturally.  It’s more work for one of the older ones to march upstairs and tell me that Roman (3) wants some juice than it is for them to just get Roman some juice. I guess, in general, teaching kindness and helpfulness in your kids will encourage a smoother home life whether you work full-time or not. That, in conjunction with not expecting too much of myself in certain circumstances, is what helps me most.  If I feel the household wilting without me, I try to switch to some work I can do in the midst and work in their space instead of my own.

AC: We think that so much of your brand is “you.” How would you describe your brand?

AMH: If I had to describe my brand on an aesthetic level I would say that it is modern, but with a charmed memory.  Everything that I make comes from someplace within me that has been stored for years, and it just gets changed and extracted with new experiences.  It’s as though  my design work is a contemporary reaction to images or sounds or smells that I’ve had in my mind since childhood. I guess in that sense it is very me. I like to think that I am in the inspiration business these days. I never realized the impact that making beautiful fabrics and other creative products would have on an individual’s actual desire to make. And that is huge to me. My goal with my brand is that my interpretation of very personal ideas and memories is similar enough to the experience of other‘s that it remains very relatable.  I am really just the first step in someone else’s creative process and that feels like a privilege.

AC: What was the inspiration for writing Anna Maria’s Needleworks Notebook? It is written in such a warm, personal voice.

AMH: Thank you! Those kind words were exactly my goal! It was a book that I thought of self-publishing because I wanted to have a lot of control over how it felt in the end. (Though I am so glad I did not go that route, because I have no need to be in the publishing business right now.)  I wanted to touch on the basics of four main types of needlework, but offer anything-but-basic patterns and projects. I think the first goal with a new stitcher is to arm them with confidence, so I wanted the book to be very approachable. This informed me to make it unlike an encyclopedia of stitching (and those already exist anyway!). I think the second goal is to make projects for the stitching that are interesting enough to keep the stitcher inspired. This informed me to think of unique ways to integrate handwork in to every type of sewing and crafting. When I am shopping I am always drawn to clothing that looks (or is) handmade- so why not arm the stitcher with the confidence to do that themselves? A final goal I wanted for the book was for it to honor tradition and encourage ignoring the rules in equal doses and with equal enthusiasm. Both are very rewarding and beneficial to the creative process.

AC: This book addresses a number of embroidery techniques. Do you have a favorite?

AMH: I have a favorite that constantly changes depending on my mood- so I guess the real answer is they are all my favorites.

AC: You have your hand in so many pots that it’s almost mind-boggling. How has your work changed since you first began making?

AMH: My first work out of college was a collection of clothing that I handmade myself. My work has taken many turns over the years but I think the single biggest change is that, for the most part, my creative process involves inspiring the same in others, rather than simply handing them a completely finished good.

AC: What are your biggest challenges as an artist? Designer?  Mother?

AMH: As an artist involving oneself in the mass manufacture of goods, there is always the comparison to that “other way” of being an artist….. as in a fine artist selling only original works. While that is romantic, the shorter reach can be frustrating. The challenge is to continue to work in that fine art, in a very focused and dedicated way, but to allow a graceful reach of my work to extend to more than just gallery goers.

As a designer, the challenge is ALWAYS that the goods arrive on store shelves exactly as they first arrived in my mind. Making sure that there are as few road blocks as possible in the realization of a collection keeps me on my toes.

As a mother, what isn’t a challenge? Giving my children an equal dose of independence and nurturing is the daily balance that we try to maintain here, I suppose. In regards to being a working mother, my greatest hope is that they view my work in a positive light and that my dedication to it (and them) will inspire them to think anything is possible in their own lives.

AC: Given that you have so much to offer – books, fabric, housewares, and more – what are your plans for the future? Perhaps to relax?

AMH: Oh that sounds nice!  And yes, I do plan to take a good bit of time with our new baby this summer. But beyond that, I am happy to continue following my notions of creating and sharing. I have tried to go about my business intuitively and only respond to new opportunities as they make sense and interest me. For instance that has been the beauty in working with Natalie and everyone at AC! A friendship blossomed into a collaboration and it was not something that I could have guessed or gone on the search for. It just happily arrived on my doorstep and soon in my heart.

AC: Early Bird or Night Owl?

AMH: Night Owl.

AC: What is most important to you as a business owner? As an artist?

AMH: As a business owner it’s important that the success return matches what I invest in terms of time and dedication. I could lead a very full life without work, so it has to be worth it. As an artist, it is important that I am being true to my own vision and that it remains entirely intact and unique among a sea of similarities in the industry.

AC: Whom in your industry do you most admire? And in life?

AMH: There is of course my friend Natalie; she always amazes me with her depth of focus. Specifically within the quilting & textiles industry I have such a love and respect for my friend Denyse Schimdt. She is the reason why so many have taken up the craft of patchwork and the whole industry owes her a debt. In life? My mama, Mary Lynn.

AC: Besides the obvious (and beautiful belly)… what are your plans for the next year?

AMH: Yes, if I could stop knitting for the baby I just might be able to get to some of my other plans!

I have lots to launch on the fabric horizon this year: next month I will be introducing my first collection of linen fabrics; in July I will re-introduce some favorite prints from my past Drawing Room & Garden Party collections in one collage of quilting cottons called HandDrawn Garden; in October I will be introducing Dowry which is all new and so lovely; also in October I will launch my first “basics” collection called True Colors which are more tonal prints in a spectrum range of 20 fabrics. The True Colors launch is a new concept with my partners at Free Spirit and the fabrics are designed to go with all of my collections and will stick around as in stock a lot longer than our regular collections.

I will also be rolling out some new projects, patterns, and kits in the Anna Maria Needleworks collection of goods which I’m thrilled about.  And, I will be continuing my work with Creativebug video workshops and my friends at Janome.

Much of Anna Maria’s work and inspiration comes from her upbringing and early introduction to art and handcrafts, which brought beauty into her family’s life.

We will be giving away a copy of Needleworks Notebook next Monday, March 25th.

*Leave a comment on how needlework has brightened your life (or how you would like to learn the craft and why) for a chance to win a copy of Anna Maria’s new book.

We will put the best stories in a hat, draw a name randomly, and announce a winner next Monday, March 25th, 2012.

No previous winners, employees, friends and family of Alabama Chanin are eligible for this giveaway.

It was such a delight to speak with Anna Maria Horner today. If you aren’t yet familiar with her work, please visit her website and shop the pieces from our Anna Maria Horner @ Alabama Chanin collaboration. We think you will find her as enchanting as we do.

**Thanks to everyone who shared memories of how needlework has inspired you (or how you would like to learn the craft and why). It was wonderful to hear each of your stories.

And the winner- from the draw of a hat- is Wendy.

Congratulations Wendy on winning our extra copy of Anna Maria’s Needlework Notebook.

We hope you find the stories below as compelling as we did. Happy Reading!

In 2005, I was inducted into The Council of Fashion Designers of America.  Long before that time (and during my days as a stylist in Europe), I didn’t really know what the CFDA was (or did). However, the organization was founded in 1962 by Eleanor Lambert as a not-for-profit trade organization to support American womenswear, menswear, jewelry, and accessory designers. Today, the CFDA consists of over 400 members across the nation (we have 2 from Alabama). Their mission statement has grown to reflect a desire to “advance artistic and professional standards within the fashion industry, establish and maintain a code of ethics and practices of mutual benefit in professional, public, trade relations, promote and improve understanding and appreciation of the fashion arts through leadership in quality and taste, and to support the overall growth of American fashion as a global industry.”

Some of the programs growing out of this agency include the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund for which Alabama Chanin was a finalist in 2009 and which Billy Reid (the other CFDA member in the state of Alabama) won in 2010. Other programs include CFDA Fashion Awards, Made in Midtown, and the great {Fashion Incubator} program, among many others.

In March of this year, the CFDA is preparing to launch their third “You Can’t Fake Fashion” campaign to raise awareness of counterfeit goods and spotlight issues surrounding intellectual property and design. The idea is to celebrate beautiful, original design and discourage buyers from purchasing “knock offs.” As CFDA CEO Steven Kolb said, “Authentic and original design is so critical to the industry’s livelihood.” In 2010, Billy Reid and I shared a flight to Washington D.C. on behalf of this initiative to speak with our Alabama representatives about legislation that would help protect designers against Design Piracy.

The CFDA is partnering with eBay to auction off very limited-edition bags specially tailored and personalized by nearly 100 designers. Each bag features the tag line, “You Can’t Fake Fashion,” and is customized by a range of American designers who use their individual bags to celebrate their own aesthetic, brand, or style.

This year’s collection launches today, March 18th, in New York City, with an eBay auction. The past two collections have sold out quickly, so those interested in buying should bid early.

Our bag from last year was appliquéd using 100% organic cotton jersey in the Anna Maria Horner “Little Flowers” stencil. Come back tomorrow for more on this stencil.

This year’s bag is appliquéd all-over with our Paisley stencil in Alabama Indigo fabric. The bag handles are covered with 100% organic cotton jersey pulls.

Each designer’s bag will be sold at auction, with bids starting at $100, through eBay’s Fashion Vault. But, if your favorite bag sells out before you can buy it, the CFDA is offering standard versions for $50. We recommend buying one and customizing it with your very own design. You can also download patterns from our Resource Downloads page and use it to make a bag that’s your own individual style. And look for our DIY take on the Paisley Tote coming on May 2nd.

Proceeds from the sale of “You Can’t Fake Fashion” bags will benefit the CFDA Foundation.  Bid here for a chance to buy the original Alabama Chanin bag designed specifically for this event.

There are a growing number of programs tailored to adults in the workforce who want to advance their careers or earn a degree. These days, it’s not unheard of for someone to earn their bachelor’s or master’s degree online. There are also entirely new platforms emerging, called MOOCs, or massive open online courses. The expectation is that these new platforms for learning are going to change online learning, opening up opportunities to those who thought they’d never have the chance to further their education. While many of these courses offer no credits, the demand for them isn’t waning. People are looking for outlets to learn – simply for the sake of personal growth.

The trend is expanding into fields outside of higher education. Google search or visit YouTube and you will find an incredible number of courses in all imaginable subjects. Some courses are free; others require a fee or subscription. Still, the possibility of learning something – a skill, a subject, a language – all in your living room has a certain appeal to those of us who can’t imagine the thought of sitting in a classroom again. These classes can be taken on your time, fit between loads of laundry or after the kids have gone to bed. This time, it’s perfectly acceptable to go to class in your pajamas.

Open sourcing is being embraced on a larger scale. It has moved beyond watching TED talks and into full-fledged organizations, like Academic Earth, Open Courseware Consortium, and Open Culture – all online locations where you can take a course or earn a certificate.

Alabama Chanin and our partners have been embracing this concept for years, recently starting a discussion called Makeshift that creates a conversation between the user and the maker, the crafter and the designer, the designer and the manufacturer. What we have seen is that this is opening doors for more communication and sharing of ideas – more opportunities to open source information between parties with similar goals in mind.

Participant Abigail Doan said, “Being a part of Makeshift 2012 made me realize that sometimes being very far away geographically and seemingly out of the loop is such an archaic notion when people are connected by their truest intentions and passions.” We believe that open sourcing education, thoughts, and materials can bring together like-minded people, but also can create a community of all types and backgrounds. As we’ve seen: people have a desire to learn at all levels. Sharing information can make our culture and people smarter, better, more innovative than we’ve ever been before.

Alabama Chanin has also ventured into the online learning community with virtual workshops on Creativebug and a class that launched a couple weeks ago on Craftsy entitled “Hand Embellishing Knit Fabric.” In some cases, as with Creativebug, you can take brief classes on either a subscription or per-class basis. In others, as with Craftsy, the class is more advanced, in depth, and requires a bigger commitment of time and materials, and has a higher subscription rate. There are also options for virtual workshops, similar to those that we present here at our Factory and around the country, and we must admit that we find this idea very appealing.

Whatever your interest, you are sure to find a group of like-minded individuals who want to learn the same thing. Want to study Photography? There’s a web class and even an iTunes app. Perhaps the Ancient Greeks are your passion. Find others with the same passion here. You can even take a class on Nonviolence: From Gandhi to Martin Luther King. People often say that technology has made our society more disconnected as people. That doesn’t have to be the case. We can use this technology to reach out to those like us and those we have to learn things from. We can create a larger community of learning.

Online learning and finding a community of common souls allows technology to bring us together.

“Change the pen and change the ink. Change the way you talk and think.” – #37 of 50:  a love letter to change came in the mail from our friend, builder, and artist A.J. Mason.

P.S.: The quote is part of a lyric from “Changing World” from the New Multitudes recordings by Jay Farrar and Jim James in celebration of Woody Guthrie’s100th birthday.

Heirlooms aren’t created overnight, and it’s the time that goes into embellishing and constructing an artisanal garment that gives life to its one-of-a-kind beauty. Join me, Natalie Chanin, for my new online Craftsy class, Hand-Embellishing Knit Fabric: Stenciling, Appliqué, Beading, and Embroidery, and enjoy the process of creating a timeless piece of clothing.

In our first lesson, we’ll look at an assortment of our beautiful hand-embroidered swatches and discuss a vast array of embellishment options for the included Vogue coat pattern. Then, together, we’ll practice a variety of hand sewing techniques to make your coat come together seamlessly. Working with cotton jersey, we’ll cut out, mark, and prepare the pattern pieces for embellishment, using techniques to minimize fabric distortion. Now we are ready to embellish. We’ll create a stencil using the included PDF stencil pattern, and paint designs onto your fabric. After that, I’ll walk you through a multitude of techniques for appliqué and reverse appliqué. We’ll also explore how to sew bugle, chop, seed beads, and sequins onto your garment, and combine beads with embroidery stitches. In our final lessons, we’ll talk through constructing the coat, plus learn finishing details such as adding topstitching, ribbing, and more. Enroll in Hand-Embellishing Knit Fabric: Stenciling, Appliqué, Beading, and Embroidery, and mix and match hand sewing and embellishment techniques, creating a stylish garment that will be treasured forever.

Though my mother once gave me a gorgeous Elna sewing machine, my initial forays into sewing were consistently shaky. Yet, the memories of my grandmothers sewing and creating had long ago taken root deep within my consciousness; these memories eventually bore fruit when I set out , at eighteen years old, for a life away from home to study fashion and design, live abroad, and gain valuable experience as a stylist and designer. When I eventually returned to the ranch-style house my grandfather built in rural Alabama, it was to start Alabama Chanin, my lifestyle clothing and design brand. Alabama Chanin maintains and celebrates the traditions and materials of my grandparents, creating garments by hand, using sustainable practices, and exclusively featuring hand and small lot-dyed organic cotton and recycled materials from local artisans. I look forward to sharing the unique Alabama Chanin process with you in my new Craftsy class.

My class was filmed at the Alabama Chanin studio in Florence, Alabama, but you can join me for these lessons from anywhere in the world. Just like the skills you’ll learn, my class is yours to keep—you can watch it whenever and however many times you like. Plus, the Craftsy classroom lets you pose questions, so that your classmates and I can get back to you with answers. You can also use Craftsy’s video notes to mark and return to important techniques easily, plus you can utilize the thirty-second repeat feature to loop a technique without taking your hands off your sewing. My class has a wealth of information that I know you will enjoy, but if for any reason you aren’t satisfied, you can receive your money back with no questions asked.

Sign up for Hand-Embellishing Knit Fabric: Stenciling, Appliqué, Beading, and Embroidery, and learn a collection of enduring sewing techniques for unique garments with invaluable appeal. All supply bundles are discounted on our website, here.

P.S.: Photo of Maggie, Stella, and Natalie by Joe Baran.

When I look at this picture, I laughingly think of The Death of Roy Batty in Blade Runner:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain….”

However, those moments will not be lost. Knowing and dining with Les Blank gives me a connection to the stories and tiny details of human nature that make me a bigger, and better, person.

His contribution to the genre of documentary film is exceptional; his contribution to my life is priceless.  His clear vision of humanity (like that of The Kitchen Sisters)  helped mold the designer, story lover, and human being I am today.

I am so sad to write that my friend, and hero, is very ill with a protracted cancer.  The City of Berkeley, California declared January 22nd the official Les Blank Day and wrote this:

“With a soft spoken demeanor, an eye for beauty, an insightful mind and great enthusiasm, Les Blank has captured the essence of aspects of American culture,” and “through his respectful, quiet presence, and non-didactic style created films that allow his subjects to reveal their true selves in a unique way.”

Well deserved.  The world is a better place because of Les Blank, visionary wayfarer.

P.S.: Photo above with Les and Alice Waters from April 2008 at The Edible Schoolyard (where Les first filmed and then cleaned everyone’s plate).

The hometown will be rooting for a Sundance win.

Read the story here.

In 1942, Rebecca “Becky” Burns Phillips met her future husband, Sam Phillips, while they were both working at WLAY radio station in Sheffield, Alabama. They were both in high school. She, 17, had a radio segment with her sister where they played music and sang; he was a 19-year old radio announcer who was on his way to making rock and roll history. The Kitchen Sisters, in an article honoring Becky, quoted Sam as saying, “I fell in love with Becky’s voice even before I met her.”  Becky described her first encounter with Sam to journalist Peter Guralnick: “He had just come in out of the rain. His hair was windblown and full of raindrops. He wore sandals and a smile unlike any I had ever seen. He sat down on the piano bench and began to talk to me. I told my family that night that I had met the man I wanted to marry.”

The two were married in 1943. Sam worked feverishly to establish Memphis Recording Service and, later, Sun Records. It is said that, during that time, he suffered two nervous breakdowns – which Becky gracefully helped him through. Becky and Sam had two sons, Jerry and Knox, but motherhood never took away her desire to work in radio.

Sam proudly spoke about how Becky’s talent inspired him to co-found WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts, referred to as “The First All-Girl Radio Show in the Nation.” He would say that he wanted women, wanted his wife to have a chance that no one had ever given them before – and he co-founded WHER with the money he made from selling Elvis Presley’s contract. He would say, “Becky was the best I ever heard.”

Her son Knox remembered that, at the time of WHER’s conception, women weren’t even allowed to attend the Columbia School of Broadcasting. “But, because of my mother,” he said, “when Sam started the station (WHER) he made it all female: all female air talent, all female executives and sales staff,” he told The Commercial Appeal.

At WHER, Becky was able to shine – writing scripts, organizing segments, managing the station, and presenting in her own beautiful way. She was in charge of approving each record that was played. Though her husband was a rock and roll legend, there were no rocking records at WHER. And there were NEVER to be any curse words allowed over the airwaves. Over the years, she hosted a number of radio shows and carefully curated every day’s segments. Becky told the Kitchen Sisters, “I played music to work by – all the beautiful music like Jackie Gleason and Doris Day, and I gave household hints.”

Phillips broadcast on the radio for over 40 years, until the mid-1980’s, always with her distinctive sign-off: “A smile on your face puts a smile in your voice.”

Mrs. Phillips died in September of 2012 at the age of 87.

Becky Burns Phillips carefully preserved WHER’s record library for well over 40 years. Many of those recordings can be heard on the Peabody Award winning segment by the Kitchen Sisters, “Lost and Found Sound: 1000 Beautiful Watts.”

Listen to Becky Phillips talk about her husband, Sam, and WHER Radio for the TV Segment, “The Lives They Lived” here:

There were few like her, a true pioneer in her field. Her fearlessness and her devotion to her family and her profession are inspirational. We are proud to be part of a community that fostered a woman like Becky Phillips, a pioneer in spirit and part of the heart and soul of Alabama Chanin.

P.S.: I never met Becky Phillips.  After moving back home in 2000, I was “busy.” Building a business and sorting through my own life, closed me off to some of the great treasures (and families) of my own community. My loss.  Resolution: take time to work less and belong more.  xoNatalie

*Photo above found on The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee