The Anniston Star du lieu suivant : Anniston, Alabama • Page 20

1 20A Eljf AmtWott tW Swday. Nov. 2, 1HI CHKISTM BAZAAR- St. Mark United Methodist Church "far rr ifn A'e'i fig lrt WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5th 9 A.M. Til 4 P.M.

Nursery Provided Willis relaxes-in one of mansiqn's 12 rooms MONDAY TUESDAY ONLY SALE FLANNEL SHIRTS TWTT.11. ITT 1 liiises open nermiiage LeBreeska Willis plays with a pet By TIM FUNK Star Staff Writer NANCES CREEK The crystal for the chandelier came from Czechoslovakia. The mahogany for the spiral staircase from Honduras. And the inspiration for such elegance and expense came from. Andrew Jackson, America's seventh president and Gerald Willis' hero.

In July 1978, Willis began building a replica of the ville home Jackson lived In almost ISO years ago. Today, the 40-year-old Willis presents his Alabama Hermitage to the public. Between noon and p.m., the state representative from the 57th District says he expects thousands of persons to POLYESTERCOTTON PERMANENT PRESS VERY LARGE Selection of -outstanding Plaids in a Rainbow of colors. Quality U.S.A. Maker V00 Value.

Sizes S-M-L- XL. walk past the completed mansion's six front columns (each of which required 24 gallons of paint) and tour the 12 rooms within. Gov. Fob James is scheduled to get the guided tour at 2 p.m., Willis says. The five-member Willis family moved into the house last July 4.

but the "final touches" driveway and yard work totaling $14,000, (he painting of a scene from Greek mythology on the entrance hallway I wall and the arrival of huge mirjrors for the two parlors were not applied until recently. The trouble Willis went to to copy the painting that graces the hallway wall af the Jackson Hermitage is but one indication of how committed he is to, the project hatched in his mintf 21 years ago when he first saw house" si a Hollywood movie about Old Hickory. A Tennessee state law forbids the taking of pictures inside the Hermitage, which was designated a Registered Historic Landmark in 1961 by the National Park Service. So, to get prints of the mythological scene which depicts four of the adventures of Telemachus in search of his father, Ulysses Willis had to contact a Boston library that has preserved the only other copy of the lush Greek scene. "I had to pay $504 for one of their (the library's) photographers to get some prints and then I had to make a $300 donation to the Willis says.

With the prints in hand, Willis then commissioned 20-year-old White Plains artist Maria Robertson to do the painting. She completed the job In 680 hours at $6 per hour and $9 for every overtime hour. Willis even sent Miss Robertson to Nashville a few times to inspect what she was supposed to be copying. Despite the expense, Willis says he's gratified with the results. He Is especially taken with an optical illusion featured in the painting.

To the person walking past the painting, the" steps of a Parthenon-like temple appear to shift in his direction as he passes. Willis says his Hermitage cost slightly more than $200,000. Had he not been able to make much of the furniture, at own lumber business, be says he probably' would not have been able to afford his new residence. Though Willis and his wife, destroyed nuch of it. And, of the Willis family was not Interested in living ki a museum.

So they have bathrooms and closets neither of which existed during Jackson's time and the kitchen in Willis' home is adjacent to the dining room. In Jackson's home, the laundry is next to the dining room. Willis hat 11 fireplaces, but he heats the home with a wood-burning furnace and cools it with well water-powered air conditioning. In one key area, Willis has perhaps copied Jackson more closely by not copying, him technically. Jackson built his Hermitage for his wife, Rachel, and placed a portrait of her over the mantle In their bedroom.

There is no portrait of Rachel Jackson In the Willis' bedroom. The portrait is of Frances Willis. built this bouse for her, just like Jackson built his for bis wife," says Willis. Frances, spent "hundreds of hours" at auctions and antique shops looking for furniture, many of the antique-looking beds, dressers and cabinets in the house were made at Willis' company. "Cutting comers" made the house affordable, he says.

For example, Willis was told by a company that makes columns that the 37-foot-tall columns he wanted would cost $7,860 apiece. By designing the columns himself and then having them made at his lumber company, Willis ended up paying about $1,000 for each of the 12 columns. Willis' Hermitage is not an exact replica of Jackson's pre-Clvil War Southern colonial structure in Tennessee. The most obvious difference is that Jackson's Hermitage Is white and Willis' is red brick. But, according to Willis, the Jackson mansion was red until it was repainted after an 1834 fire BIG MEN'S TALL MEN'S 6" ANDY'S REG.

8" Big Men's XL, XXL, XXXL Tall Men's XL, XXL LENLOCK SHOPPING OPEN 10-6 M0N. THRU SAT. CENTER ANNIST0N Exercise trail donated PffiCP RflESJ Representatives from the the City of Amiston and the American Heart Association today will dedicate an exercise trail -at the Golden. Springs Community Center after the late Amiston businessman and civic leader who originated the concept for the area. The Fred 0.

Couch Sr. Parcourse will be dedicated in ceremonies at 2 p.m. at the center. Sarah Cummings, regional field director for the heart association, said Mrs. Fred 0.

Couch Sr. will be on hand to place the first shovelful of dirt around the magnolia trees to be planted In memory of her husband. Mrs. Cummings said the public is invited to walk the one-mile trail and refreshments will be served, she said. Ron Gomez has load of mail According to Mrs.

Cummings and some members of the An- niston Recreation Department, the trail opened Sept. 24, 1978. Couch came up with the idea of health and fitness course after he and his wife saw a similar trial while vacationing out ofv town. Couch, at the time, was recovering from open heart surgery, and through the trail would help people with heart disease by providing them with an area to exercise. Couch spearheaded a drive to raise money to build the trail.

Couch died in March 1979. He was 66. A native of Magnolia, he went into business in downtown Amiston in the 1940s after managing a credit bureau in 1942. He bought a gift shop for his wife that year and built the business at 11 E. 10th St --into what is known today as Couch's Jewelers, now run by bis three surviving sons.

Short-armed carrier piles up man's rtiail and $3,000 in bills SAN FRANCISCO (AP) For two months, Ron Gomez didn't get much mall. When he finally found out why, be also learned he faceU foreclosure on his mortgage and $3,000 in bills. The Postal Service failed to tell him It was having trouble making deliveries. "We didn't do our job," said mail carrier supervisor Gary Fong. Gomez, a barber who works in San Francisco's financial district, says be had even called the post office looking for mail because deliveries were so infrequent and so spare, "I war getting maybe a letter a week, but I knew something was wrong," Gomez said Friday.

"I called the post office at least three times, but they always said they had no mail for me," A week ago, Pacific Telephone disconnected his phone, and Gomez decided to investigate. He visited his local post office, only to find SO pieces of mail, Including a mortgage foreclosure warning, notices from companies cutting off credit and $3,000 worth of bills with $300 in penalties. Gomez learned mat bis old mailman, Don Gilchrist, had been able to reach through an Iron security gate and place mail into his mailbox. But when a new letter carrier took over the route, he couldn't reach as far. Gomez' mail started to pile up at the post office.

"We neglected to inform him his mail was being held," said Fong. "We didnt do our Job." The letters that were "placed in his box were probably delivered by a more dexterous substitute tetter carrier once a week, Fong saidi '1 won't lie to you," said Richard Martin, manager of the branch post office. "We should have notified Mr. Gomez his mail was being heM." Usually, undelivered mail is held about 10 days before it is returneiWo the sender. But Gomez's letters stayed stacked on a letter tray.

Gilchrist, who has been delivering mail for 25 years, said, "I heard then: talking about it a few weeks ago, and I told them bow to reach the box. They didn't pay any attention." Gomez said be cannot sue the Postal Service because federal regulations exempt it from, liability in audi ind-denta. -i-r-r il It was not immediateh; known what would happen to the mortgage. But there was one bit of good news for Gomez. It cam by telephone.

A real buddy is somebodv vnn ran Ao- together like a Buddy System. And we pena on. More tnanjust a shoulder or want you to knew your buddies at a listener A buddy is somebody that Mil uubanc are someone you can bank oa Somebody who's there when iff if A mere wnn neip wnenypu need it That's why Gtibanc is reaching out making buddies with evervbodv. I SI It. II you need them.

Fisherman catches $2,750 in soggy wallet It 1 Jfl So, vvhen someone com Gtibanc Is on VOU. fet acauainted. bu Vfe believe hywandwhat you're1 doinfi. Ifou are imoortanL That's the riever 'know when the Buddv Svstem way we want to do business, working can be a lifesaverforyou. FRANKFORT, Mich.

(AP) That wasn't a boot on the end of fisherman Kenneth Herring's line in the The soggy lump Herring redol In earlier this month was Harold DeWitt'i wallet, tod it held $2,750. Herring, who is unemployed, returned the wallet to DeWltt aul fcU levari nhia' vriLh lb Cdy Syrfsa crriBANC VbtJ OF ALABAMA Touched by uomer pngni, a none iaepowe spuEo- Member FDIC i said iua kwuj icMuiea iwwiH u-irge..