July 28, 2022

It was an honor for the Florence Electricity Department Employees and TVA to recognize and provide funding to organizations that support and serve our community daily! Recipients included: Shoals Habitat, The Help Center, Salvation Army of the Shoals, Community Action of North Alabama, One Place of the Shoals, Cramer Children's Center, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, and North Alabama Christian Children's Home.

In Florence’s impressive Walk of Honor located at River Heritage Park, there are four of the many honorees who are from the 1967 Senior Class at Coffee High School. Though the four were not inducted the same year, over time they were chosen by the committee in charge and they are now permanently recognized with bronze plaques on the brick pillars at the Walk. In alphabetical order, they are:

1. Hank Klibanoff, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for the book entitled The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation;

2. Mike Mobbs, who was a leader in negotiations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the 1980’s, resulting in the most complex arms control treaty in history;

3. Lynn Middleton Sibley, whose career involves the goal of reducing childbirth mortality among women and newborns around the world, specifically in low-resource countries; and

4. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding, who flew more than 90 worldwide reconnaissance missions and, in 1990, set a coast-to-coast speed record of 67 minutes, 54 seconds flying the SR-71 spy plane. The plane is now on display at the Smithsonian.

While the Walk of Honor has many other distinguished people from Florence and Lauderdale County enshrined in this very impressive display, it’s both interesting and significant that four were graduated from the same high school in the same year. A trip down the Walk is truly an inspirational experience.

--Billy Warren, City Historian

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