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AFL Profile: Scotty Byrne
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Originally printed in the Brewton Standard, written by Lydia Grimes
Gladin Scott Byrne Jr. may not be a name that most of you are familiar with, but the name �Scotty� Byrne may be more easily recognized. Byrne has lived most of his life in Escambia County and the majority in Brewton. He is the son of another Gladin Scott Byrne who was the sheriff of Escambia County from 1931 until 1935 and the tax collector of Escambia County until his death in 1950. It is difficult to get the life story out of Byrne as he believes that his life has been little different from all others around him. But few have done the things he has over the last 75 years. Although life for him now is more relaxed, he is still not one to sit and do nothing. He got used to being on the move many years ago and old habits are hard to break. Byrne grew up in the depression and was a young man when World War II started in 1941. He rested on his laurels until 1943 when he told a little fib to the draft board – that he was 18-years-old. They didn�t question him about it too much and when his family found out about it, his mother and his father had different ideas about it. �My mother didn�t want me to go into the service,� said Byrne, �but my father told me to go ahead, if that was what I wanted to do.� Byrne soon found himself in South Carolina and after basic training, he was on his way to Africa and later to Italy. He doesn�t talk much about his time overseas, he says it was too long ago to think about. The truth is, he was right in the middle of some pretty intense times. He was in the 88th Infantry Division of the 351 Regiment, an anti-tank company that was used in clearing mine fields. He went to Casablanca, Morocco and to Anzio, Italy and was with the first troops that went into Rome, Italy. He was wounded and, in addition to the other medals he received, he was awarded the Purple Heart. �I was not too smart back then,� said Byrne, �I thought that I couldn�t be killed. It�s a wonder I came back at all.� After the was was over, Byrne came back to Brewton and finished high school at T.R. Miller with the class of 1947. He had some on-the-job training to help veterans obtain jobs. He went on to Southern Mississippi college although he didn�t graduate. He played some baseball and golf while he was at college. He went to Tupelo, Miss. to run the country club for about a year. He then came back to Escambia County, first to Atmore where he worked with the VA and then to Brewton where he sold cars for L & S Pontiac. In 1958 he ran for and was elected sheriff of Escambia County taking office in 1959 where he stayed until 1983. These years were �routine� according to Byrne, doing the necessary things to keep a county safe from crime. When pressed for some remembrance, Byrne brings to the surface some memories. One involved the case of the stolen milk. A lady called and said that her milk was being stolen. The sheriff suggested that she move her delivery place to the inside of her door so that the milkman could set it inside. She told him that she got her milk directly from the cow and the cow was not giving as much milk as she used to and she knew that it was being stolen. The sheriff staked out the pathway that the cow took to come to be milked and sure enough, the milk was being taken. �It was kind of funny,� Byrne said. �It turned out that a man was stopping the cow and milking her every day. It turned out that the man was poor and had a small baby that needed the milk. No charges were brought against him.� Other, not so comical, events of those years were the prison riots and the jail and prison escapes that happened. Those times, according to Byrne, are better forgotten. �It was a job and I did the best that I could,� he said. Perhaps one thing that everyone does not realize is the fact that Byrne played some semi-professional baseball years ago. In the late 1940�s he played with the Alabama State League which consisted of teams from smaller towns all over south Alabama. Some of those were Dothan, Troy, Brewton, Greenville, Ozark and Geneva. Byrne was a pitcher and played some outfield and infield utility positions with the Brewton Millers. Those were some fun years after the end of World War II and before the Korean War. There were other players in the league that are still members of our community including James Taylor. One other fellow that played in this league that some of you may have heard of was a man by the name of Chase Riddle. Now if this doesn�t ring any bells, he coached Troy State University baseball for many years. Byrne spends his days now doing the things he enjoys such as fishing, hunting and playing golf. He is a member of both the Atmore and Brewton Country Clubs and plays as much golf as he can. �It�s harder now than it used to be,� he said, �now I have to work to fish and hunt, but I still love to play golf.� He is married to the former Ida Brantley from Brewton and they have two sons, Gladin Scott �Chip� Byrne, III and Bradley Ellis Byrne. One son is a judge in Escambia County and another also works in law enforcement. Their grandchildren range from one being an assistant district attorney, one in banking, one a student at the University of Alabama and two who go to T.R. Miller, including the quarterback for the high school football team. They also have one great-grandchild. The whole family is interested in football, watching Patrick in high school and keeping a close watch on the University of Alabama and Southern Miss. Byrne thinks of himself as living an ordinary life, but compared to some, it has been pretty busy and he still likes to get out and about. He usually starts his day with his friends as they meet at McDonald�s for breakfast and as he says, �I am a busy man.� |
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I stumbled across this website and was trully amazed. I umpired in the Alabama-Florida
League for the 1960 season. My partner was Don Denkinger who of course went on to umpire in the American League for many years. I have many fond memories of my time in the league. We were in Montgomery when Martin Luther King was being tried for intergrating the buses, and the Alabama govenor’s race was in full swing. J.C. Dunn was managing Panama City that year. – Wayne Stutts Former AFL Umpire |