Clay County AlArchives News.....Tornado Leaves a Path of Death and Destruction May 3, 1953
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Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 September 20, 2023, 4:28 pm

Anniston Star May 3, 1953
By Cody Hall
It takes only a split-second leave behind enough death, sorrow and ruin to last 
a lifetime. One family climb almost from the ruins while neighbors mourn another 
family South annual tornadic rampages.
Many Clay County families were eating their evening meal when Friday night's 
storm mowed its destructive way in from the west. It struck first near 
Millerville, on the Bull Gap Road, at the house of Mary Fulks, 81, and her 
daughter, Sara Fulks Stevens, 60 of Talladega, Rt 3.
The frame house literally exploded under the tornado's force, killing the two 
Negro women, and hurling the body of one some 100 yards. Continuing its eastward 
course, the twisting black funnel hit next on Highway Nine about three miles 
south of Ashland at Harkins' Crossroads. Seven persons were gathered there in, 
the store operated by Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Brooks. They were Horace Brooks, Mr. 
and Mrs. Herman Mitchell and the Mitchells' three children, and Mrs. John 
Grizzell. "We heard it coming and look ed out and saw it coming over that hill 
there," Horace Brooks, HALL for a tornado's wrathful force to almost wiped out 
by one of the son of the owners said "We all ran inside and then in just a 
minute the balls blew in and the room came down." 
Credited with saving all nine from possible death was a pickup parked beside the 
building, which caught and held up the weight of the roof. Mrs. Brooks was 
admitted to the Clay County Hospital for treatment of back injuries and was 
reported in good condition last night. 
"God was sure looking out for us, Horace Brooks said yesterday. But the Brooks 
home, about 100 yards from the store, was completely demolished, much of the 
farm equipment wrecked and several cows injured by the storm. 
When the tornado dipped downward again it struck the home where Mrs. Sherman 
Stubbs, 87, and her daughter, Miss Ester Stubbs, 56, sought refuge. 
They were critically injured when their home, about three miles south of 
Ashland, was levelled and both died about two hours after they reached the 
county hospital. 
Gathered in their home on the Mellow Valley Road were Mr. and Mrs. John 
Lovelady, both about 65; her mother, 83-year-old Mrs. Rebecca Jones; the 
Lovelady's' two daughters. Viola, 35, and Mrs. Verdie Strickland; and Mrs.
Strickland's two young sons, Wayne and Stanley. 
The storm obliterated the house, leaving dead both Mr. and Mrs. Lovelady and 
Mrs. Jones.
In critical condition at the Clay County Hospital last night were all four other 
members of the family. 
Mrs. Aaron Mask, who lived about 100 yards down the road from the Lovelady home, 
heard the tornado coming and watched, horror-stricken, as it carried the house 
away. 
"It looked like a cloud of boiling, black smoke," she said. "It was rumbling and 
made all sorts of noise like you never heard before. It just seemed like it came 
running across the fields over there."  
The Masks' home was blown almost intact, off its foundations. Mrs. Mask and her 
husband were the first to reach the Lovelady home, only to find the crumpled 
bodies of six members of the family sprawled in the yard and across the road. 
"One of the little boys was standing down there by the highway," Mrs. Mask said, 
"We found all of the others. They were so covered with mud you couldn't tell who 
they were.
Mr. Mask and other neighbors rushed in the injured to the Clay County 
Hospital....

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