Roy Henry Drinkard (born July 12, 1920, in Falkville, Alabama) is an American businessman who owns numerous properties and shopping centers throughout the Southeastern United States. [1] He currently resides in Cullman, Alabama, where he serves as president and CEO of Drinkard Development, Inc., [2] a company which provides management, leasing and maintenance services for commercial properties. He was named 2007 City Family Patriarch by the Committee of Cullman Farm-City. [2]
Drinkard's father was a business man and the mayor of Falkville for twenty years. [3] Drinkard has five siblings, three brothers and two sisters. [3] He attended St. Bernard Preparatory School in Cullman. [4]
Drinkard served honorably in the US Marine Corps [4] during World War II as a Private First Class [ citation needed ]. For a time, Drinkard ran a funeral home in Guntersville. In 1949, Drinkard returned to Cullman and became an autotrader. [4] Drinkard was a member of the “Flying 50,” a group of local Cullman leaders who traveled across the country recruiting businesses and industries to the area. Drinkard's work improving Cullman's economy led to him being named The Cullman Times Distinguished Citizen of the Century. [5] In April 2000, Roy H. Drinkard was appointed a trustee of Troy University [4] in Troy, Alabama by then Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. [1]
Many of the buildings owned by Drinkard are designed in German village-inspired themes, reflecting the German heritage and history of Cullman County, Alabama [ citation needed ].
Drinkard recited the Pledge of Allegiance ahead of Donald Trump's August 21, 2021 rally in Cullman. [6] [7]
Drinkard is a long-time resident of the Borkenau, one of Cullman's most historic houses. The Borkenau was constructed in 1909 by Austrian-born Cullman resident Ignatius Pollak. Drinkard bought the Borkenau when he moved to Cullman in 1949. [8]
The Pledge of Allegiance is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used at present, was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War who later authored a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools. In 1892, Francis Bellamy revised Balch's verse as part of a magazine promotion surrounding the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Bellamy, the circulation manager for The Youth's Companion magazine, helped persuade then-president Benjamin Harrison to institute Columbus Day as a national holiday and lobbied Congress for a national school celebration of the day. The magazine sent leaflets containing part of Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance to schools across the country and on October 21, 1892, over 10,000 children recited the verse together.
Cullman is the largest city and county seat of Cullman County, Alabama, United States. It is located along Interstate 65, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Birmingham and about 55 miles (89 km) south of Huntsville. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 14,775, with an estimated population of 18,213 in 2020.
Falkville is a town in Morgan County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area and Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 1,197.
Stephen Allen Schwarzman is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he established in 1985 with Peter G. Peterson. Schwarzman was briefly chairman of President Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum.
A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization or organizations mentioned in the oath. The U.S. Supreme Court allows the oath to be a form of legal document.
Area codes 256 and 938 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for North Alabama, as well as some eastern portions of the state. The two area codes form an overlay plan for the same numbering plan area. Area code 256 was created in 1998, and 938 was added in 2010.
Roy Stewart Moore is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judicial misconduct by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. He was the Republican Party nominee in the 2017 U.S. Senate special election in Alabama to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, but was accused by several women of sexually assaulting them while they were underage and lost to Democratic candidate Doug Jones. Moore ran unsuccessfully for the same Senate seat in 2020.
Cullman High School is the only public high school in the city of Cullman, Alabama as well as the largest high school in Cullman County, Alabama. The school is classified as a 6A school and belongs to the Cullman City School District.
Lawrence Alan Kudlow is an American conservative broadcast news personality, columnist, and political commentator. He is a financial news commentator for Fox Business and served as the Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration from 2018 to 2021. He assumed that role after his previous employment as a CNBC television financial news host.
Bradley Roberts Byrne is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 1st congressional district from 2014 to 2021. Elected as a member of the state Board of Education as a Democrat in 1994, he became a member of the Republican Party in 1997, and served in the Alabama Senate from 2003 to 2007, representing the state's 32nd district.
Thomas Edwin Drake was an American attorney, professional wrestler, politician, and member of the athletic staff of legendary football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. He was a Democratic member of the Alabama House of Representatives, serving as Speaker from 1983 to 1987. He was a resident of Vinemont, Alabama; his wife of over 55 years, Christine Mckoy Drake – also an attorney, stateswoman and former member of the Alabama Board of Education – predeceased him on September 26, 2011, following a long battle with brain cancer.
Morris Jackson Brooks Jr. is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 5th congressional district from 2011 to 2023. His district was based in Huntsville and stretches across the northern fifth of the state. A member of the Republican Party, Brooks was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.
William "Ed" Henry is an American politician who was a Republican member of the Alabama House of Representatives. He represents the 9th district, which includes portions of Morgan, Cullman and Marshall counties.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alabama. Incumbent senator Richard Shelby was first elected in 1986 and re-elected in 1992 as a Democrat before becoming a Republican in 1994. In his most recent election in 2016, he was re-elected with nearly 64% of the vote over Democrat Ron Crumpton. In February 2021, Shelby announced that he would not seek re-election to a seventh term, which resulted in the first open Senate seat since 1996 and the first in this seat since 1968.
The 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, in order for the winner to serve in the U.S. Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021. There was a vacancy that arose from Jeff Sessions' resignation, on February 8, 2017, to serve as the 84th United States attorney general.
Gordon Douglas Jones is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Jones was previously the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001.
Will Ainsworth is an American politician serving as the 31st and incumbent lieutenant governor of Alabama since 2019. He served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2014 to 2018, representing its 27th district.
The 2022 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Alabama. Incumbent Governor Kay Ivey took office on April 10, 2017 upon the resignation of Robert J. Bentley (R) and won a full term in 2018. She won her bid for a second full term in a landslide.