Times Daily | Phils, Phyllis lend a helping hand

The group of 19 men traveled from Australia, England, Scotland, Alaska and throughout the U.S. and even included a Phyllis Campbell from Michigan.

The Phils became familiar with the town Friday after putting in a few hours of labor cleaning up around the community center under the watchful eyes of the New York Times, BBC, the big three national networks and other news outlets.

“I feel good but like my arms are coming off my body,” Nottingham Phil said.

Saturday, the Phils joined the rest of the town in their annual Hoedown Festival.

The day also marked the 100-year anniversary of the town named after an English engineer who built a railroad through the town.

What a difference 52 days can make. Flash back to April 27 when a tornado destroyed a third of Phil Campbell and 26 residents die. Flash forward to Saturday when the main street filled with a parade where the Phils sat in the backs of two F-150s.

Stacy Litteral, a volunteer with the Phil Campbell rescue squad who worked at the triage during the tornado, watched the parade with her children, Bethany and Jacob, and a family friend, Will Leathers.

“It’s neat they’ve come from all over the world to visit our little town,” Litteral said as fire trucks passed by with sirens full-blare.

The family lives in the northern section of town that suffered little damage. Their church, Mountainview Baptist Church, was destroyed and now church services at the junior college force them to travel through the destruction zones.

“We have problems driving on that part of town,” she said of a section that now consists of dusty hills and the remains of several homes. “We have a little anxiety driving through that.”

Before the parade, reminders of the tornado drove through Main Street, including a flatbed truck carrying a smashed SUV and trailers trucking away debris.

The 30-minute parade started in the heat of the clear morning skies with Girl Scouts, the Scottish-styled bagpipe troupe Alabama Pipes and Drums, trucks of graduates of Phil Campbell High School followed by fire trucks from Haleyville, Pebble and Blue Springs.

At first word went out that only Phils showed up, but unexpectedly, Phyllis Campbell arrived late Friday evening from near Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was one of the participants in the original Phil Campbell Convention in 1995.

She and her mother attended the first convention in honor of her father, Phil Campbell, who died in 1984.

She read about the 2011 convention in a national magazine and raced 80 miles an hour non-stop to join her brethren.

“I just got here and got swept into this,” she said about the parade. “I was having breakfast and seeing it on the TV. It’s an honor to be part of this, I wish I was here yesterday to help volunteer.”

She turned around the saw Wisconsin Phil, another original participant. “Hey, I was hoping I would see you,” Phyllis said as she hugged him.

The Phils had their fun, but many of their spouses on hand formed a wives’ club of sorts.

“This is a happy day and a sad day for all of us,” Phil Campbell Mayor Jerry Mays told the audience of about 100 people. “We lost 27 people, a lot of them would have been here.

“The thing about 27 people in a small town is, you know all of them.”

“We will build Phil Campbell back afresh and anew,” Mays said to applause from the crowd.

Mays gave Brooklyn Phil a proclamation of thanks and at one point used the name “Phil Campbell” so many times in succession that he caused laughter from the audience.

Brooklyn Phil first heard of the town through the television show Hee Haw and said, “What’s that?”

He called the town hall and found out the city clerk at the time kept a record of all the Phil Campbells that visited the town. That call was an inspiration for the first Phil Campbell convention in 1995.

The first convention attracted 23 people who shared the same name ­­— a novelty that fizzled until Brooklyn Phil decided to resurrect the idea for the 100-year anniversary of the town’s formation.

Then the tornado hit.

Alaska Phil from Juneau was one of the half dozen Phils from the 1995 convention who returned.

He decided not to come to this year’s convention, but, “I realized we had an opportunity to help the town because of the name we share.”

His church, Northern Light United Church, where he is a pastor, raised $5,000 of the near $35,000 raised for Habitat for Humanity that will help build homes in the town.

“After the tornado, it became a real thing where we could help,” said Adeleide Phil, who came with his wife, Diane.

The novelty intrigued several children, including Anna Beth Mitchell, who had all the Phils sign her T-shirt. “Did I get 20 of them?” she asked her mother, Beth Rhea. “I’m still not sure; I keep asking them to sign it and some of them I’ve asked three times.”

Finally, she found London Phil who gladly signed her shirt, making the total 20.

Louisville Phillip Campbell, 17, was the youngest attendee and arrived late Friday night with his father.

“My mom is from a small town and it’s got the same small town feeling here,” he said, and added he and his father were going to make a Father’s Day weekend fishing in nearby Bear Creek.

The festival almost didn’t happen. Rita Barton, organizer of the Hoedown, said at one point the festival was canceled. “I felt like there wouldn’t be a festival because our town was gone,” she said.

“We had to step up and do something,” Brooklyn Phil said.

The town, though not as populated as other tornado-hit places like Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and even Hackleburg, has received plenty of attention after the tornado hit April 27. High profile visitors to town included Gov. Robert Bentley; Janet Napolitano, U.S. secretary of homeland security; William Fugate, administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Session; Luther Strange, Alabama attorney general and Rep. Robert Aderholt.

Add to that the 19 Phil Campbells and one Phyllis.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 256-740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.

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