By By Kerry Whipple Bean
publisher
A concert, outdoor movie and choir performance are just a few of the activities that will help celebrate a major birthday in Brewton this June: the 125th anniversary of the city.
A committee of local residents is helping to plan the June 18-19 event, which will coincide with the annual Alabama Blueberry Festival.
The “Celebrating Brewton” event will also coincide with the Alabama Department of Tourism’s push to honor “Small Towns and Downtowns” with a series of activities in cities across the state this year. The tourism department has offered to help market events that qualify for the theme.
In addition to the usual Blueberry Festival activities on Saturday, June 19 — which include blueberry sales, craft vendors and children’s rides — the weekend will kick off on Friday with a concert at The Ritz.
The Brewton Music Festival will be led this year by Rusty Golden, son of Brewton native and Oak Ridge Boys founder William Lee Golden.
The evening will include music from “Rusty Golden and Friends,” Ruzic said, with Rowell’s Bluegrass Band of Jay, Fla., set to perform along with Nashville songwriters Richard Lee, Jimbeau Henson and Golden. The evening will also include music from the trio of Jerry Salley, Carl Jackson and Larry Cordle. A finale will join everyone together onstage with Golden.
Tickets for the event are $15 and can be purchased from Ruzic, who can be reached at 363-2843.
Celebrating Brewton committee members are also working to include other events on Friday night, including the possibility of setting up Brewton’s new movie screen to allow children to play Wii games on the big screen.
On Saturday, the Blueberry Festival will begin in the morning, then the celebration will continue that evening with more music and an outdoor movie.
Ruzic said the community choir organized by Schwayn Bradley and Patti Neal has been invited to perform before the movie — “Sweet Home Alabama” — begins.
On Friday, there will also be a ceremony to honor the Bank of Brewton, the state’s oldest bank.
For Ruzic — who still remembers the Brewton centennial events of her childhood — being part of the planning for the celebration has been memorable in itself.