(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - A piece of grit inside an oyster transforms over time into a beautiful pearl.

So it is with women of true grit.

You'll hear inspiring stories about women.

Join us as we celebrate the true grit sisterhood experience.

(upbeat music continues) "Women of True Grit: First Ladies" is brought to you in part by Holos Hope, providing hope and healing to survivors of human trafficking.

Hi.

I'm Edie Hand.

I'm the founder of Women of True Grit, and I wanna welcome you to this Women of True Grit series.

I'm gonna be sharing stories about two former first ladies.

We're gonna share some insights into their personal life, into their contributions to their governors, being mothers, wives, grandmothers, and the things that they're passionate about that made a difference in our state and how important it was to both of these ladies to keep our beautiful mansion in Montgomery ready for tourism.

You won't wanna miss what each of these ladies has to say, but coming up first is Marsha Folsom.

Take a listen.

(gentle music) - I grew up in Cullman County in a little community called Walter.

My father owned the country store and the cotton gin.

One of the things that I enjoyed the most when I was growing up is the fact that, during cotton season, schools got out for cotton picking.

The children would help pick cotton and then they would ride the cotton wagons to the cotton gin.

Well, of course, that was playtime for me.

There were more boys than there were girls, so I guess you could say I was pretty much a tomboy.

(Marsha and Edie chuckles) My father ran for his first political office when he was 28.

We would go to these rallies as a family and he would have me to go and collect all the cards that were passed out.

You know, like when you go into an event, you'd pass out the cards, you know, to everybody.

Well, if somebody left them on the table or drop them on the floor, it was my job to go pick 'em all up because we would use them again at the next rally because my dad said, "Those things cost money, Marsha, so we're gonna get those and use 'em again."

My dad had just been elected to the legislature.

Big Jim had just come out of the governor's office, and the Folsoms moved back to Cullman, and my father ran against the incumbent House of Representatives, and he had been Big Jim's floor leader.

They called my dad the plowboy.

You know, "Oh, we're not gonna elect that guy.

He's just a plowboy."

Well, the plowboy won, and so the first thing that my father did though was he contacted Governor Folsom and he said, he told him, he said, "Governor, I didn't defeat you.

I ran for the office, and I just want you to know that you are my governor.

You are my former governor, and I would like to see you be governor again, and I'm gonna go to Montgomery and be your state legislator."

So Big Jim and Jamelle invited us as a family to come to the Folsoms' house and have a meal, and so when we got there, I met Jim in a water balloon fight.

He and his brother Jack were having a water balloon fight.

So I got in the midst of all that, me and my brother did.

So that's how I met Jim, but never did I ever think that I would marry him.

I had graduated from college and was working in Tuscaloosa.

I worked for the University of Alabama for three years after I graduated.

We started dating then.

It was just like, you know, that was reintroduction.

We dated for about three years.

He did not ask me to marry him.

He said, "Marsha, when will you marry me?"

Is how he phrased it.

(Edie laughs) Pretty sure of himself.

- Pretty sure of himself.

Well, I guess after that period of time, he knew.

- Yes, he did.

He ran for his first statewide office in 1978, and we married in 1977.

Two terms in the Public Service Commission, And then he ran for lieutenant governor and was elected twice and then became governor, and then he also ran for the US Senate in 1980.

He was the Democratic nominee for US Senate.

So, it was quite a run.

You know, my family is unique in that not only are there more than one governor in the family, but there are four first ladies.

(Marsha chuckles) - That's amazing.

- And this picture shows my father-in-law's sister served as first lady during his first administration because he was single.

His wife had died and he was a widower.

His sister Ruby served as the official hostess or first lady.

Then he married Jamelle.

She was the mother of seven children.

My husband is the oldest of the seven, and then Cornelia Wallace is there, and Cornelia married George Wallace, and that's my husband's first cousin, and that's Ruby's daughter.

(Marsha chuckles) - Wow.

- And then there's me.

(Marsha chuckles) - Now, that's a bit of history that a lot of people don't know and I'm glad we're able to share.

- I am too, because all those women were quite unique.

If you care for your state, if you care for your community, partisanship should not get in the way.

With Patsy and I, we were always great friends, and she and I share a love for this state, but we also share a love for doing things and for hospitality and making people feel comfortable and welcome, and, you know, really, that's what Alabama is all about.

You know, as Catherine Tucker Windham said, Alabama's just one big front porch, and I love that.

- And that's true.

It's a great line.

- It is.

It is.

- It's not just a line.

It's a reality.

- It's a reality.

- [Edie] But, you know, what I love about this and about putting the first ladies together is that what you all had in common was making sure that that governor's mansion would look better than you found it.

- When we got there, the carpeting on that beautiful staircase was just ragged.

I mean, it had seen its better days.

Larry Oaks said, "You know, Marsha, we've got some extra carpet that we've used in the Capitol.

I think it will fit these stairs."

Well, sure enough, we had it measured and we were able to use that remnant to recover the stairs.

Because the house is a historical property, we fell under the new asbestos and lead law at that time.

So all the paint that was chipped, we had to remove it.

The house was stabilized and it needed to be done and it had to be done, so we were able to get a federal grant to do that too, but we had to be creative.

We wanted people to know that that was their home, their house too.

- [Edie] Right, I mean, so many children came for school tours.

- Oh, yes, yes.

We had school tours and we had another.

We had the Alabama Open House, which we had 14,000 people to come through in one day.

I've traveled the state with Mary Jolley, Mary Jolley came on staff also to head up the Governor's Office of Children and Families, and that was the first time that there was an office for children and families, and part of that was that she and I traveled the state and we had listening sessions.

We had 18 listening sessions across all over the state, and talked to stakeholders and children and teachers and all types of caregivers about the status of children in our state.

That all culminated in a summit for children.

It was the first summit for children that has ever been held and I think it's the last, unfortunately.

- Unfortunately.

- But what grew out of that was the Alabama Network for Family Resource Centers, where families can come who need resources, and they can come to one place, be treated with respect, and be directed into the services that they need.

In our society today, there are so many other challenges that, oftentimes, children don't have two parents in the house.

- That's true.

- And, oftentimes, there's challenges from a physical standpoint or a mental standpoint.

So, by having these resource centers, families have a place to go.

I've always wanted to be creative.

You know, creation and creativity.

I'm not an artist, but I am a creator, I think, in a lot of ways, and a lot of that creation is around people.

So, about 12 years ago, I was inspired by a woman who was a scientist who had conducted a great deal of research on bamboo, and I discovered that the Black Belt of Alabama was an ideal place to grow bamboo on a commercial scale.

The black belt has always been a region that has called to me.

I don't know why.

I think it's because, during my early years, when we first moved to Montgomery, I worked for the American Red Cross, and the Black Belt was my region that I traveled in, and I saw things firsthand, not as a political wife, but as a person who worked with the Red Cross.

So when I was looking at bamboo, I thought, well, this is a great way to turn a region that was once the most prosperous region in the state because of cotton, and, unfortunately, on the backs of slave labor, but the resources, the natural resources are still there.

The water, there's an abundance of water.

The climate and the soil.

So why not bring a new crop to a region that was once where agriculture was king?

Because agriculture is in our culture.

So we formed a company.

We had raised monies.

We were really doing well, and we had a company that wanted to buy us out, and so we thought, "Great!"

They were gonna keep the management team intact, and so I was still gonna be involved, and we had two investors who refused to meet the terms.

They wouldn't sign a change of control.

The company back backed off and wouldn't buy us, and we had no other recourse other than to file for bankruptcy.

During that same time, this is in '21, 2021, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I have such a wonderful network of women friends who rallied around me, and they're not all here, but the night before I had my surgery, we all did a Zoom, all these friends that I have made throughout the country, and we all came together, and going into that surgery, knowing that I had their love, and then another thing that someone advised me to do, and I was so glad I did it, is that I prayed for everyone that was going to see me on my surgery day.

I prayed that they had a peaceful morning.

I prayed that they had an easy ride to work, that they, you know, that they kissed their loved ones, because I wanted to be in that love that... - That's beautiful.

- And I think it really helped me.

I know it did, and it helped me to be strong and also to face the next steps, because, you know, after you have surgery, then there are other steps that you have to address after you have your surgery.

- And are you healthy now?

- Yes.

Well, it's been three years, and so, you know, it's a waiting period too, but I exercise every day.

I eat right.

I'm an avid walker.

You know, that's my thing.

And I also do yoga every morning and I meditate.

So, and, of course, devotion is important too, to set this tone for the day.

- Do you think that you and Jim are probably, at this season of your life, are you enjoying this season of your life?

- Yes, we are.

You know, we've been married 47 years.

- That's a long time.

- That's a long time.

(both chuckles) He's put up with me for a long time.

- Now, he's a lucky guy.

- Well, you know, I think that, because we knew each other as friends first, I think that's really been beneficial to us as a couple, but his mother really gave me some great advice one time, and, you know, because she was a political wife and she knew, you know, how you can get caught up into all that, and she said, "Just remember that you and Jim were before all of this, and that to keep your feet on the ground and stay focused on your relationship and the love you have for each other."

(triumphant music) - Coming up next is a former first lady, Patsy Riley.

She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and she is passionate about making a difference for abused women and children.

Take a listen to what she has to say.

(gentle music) - I was born in 1945.

My dad was the town's pharmacist, Bob's dad owned the grocery store.

I graduated from high school.

I walked off the stage and started planning my wedding.

Outside of having my children and seeing my beautiful eight grandchildren be born, that was the happiest day of my life.

I thought I was marrying a poultry farmer.

We would move right back to little Ashland.

I would become a mother.

Life would be very gentle, very calm, not a lot of excitement.

but God had such a life planned for both of us that I had no idea.

For the first time, really, in our married life, we were empty-nesters.

I had all kinds of plans of things that I thought we were going to be able to do.

Bob's older brother David had passed away suddenly at 50 years old.

It really was something Bob was dealing with.

If I'm going to make a change, it's time for me to do something to give back to the state that has given so much to me, and he never discussed any of this with me.

Like the stars fell on Alabama, well, it fell on me, and he said, "I'm running for Congress."

I will have to say, I said, "Well, are we Democrats or are we Republicans?"

(both softly chuckle) I had just raised four children.

He had many businesses that he was running.

I was not in the political world at all.

Very soon, I began to really put up the barriers.

I said, "No, I don't think that's something you should do," but God began to send me signals.

The last sign was so unmistakable that Bob was at work and I called him and I said, "I can't fight you and God both.

Y'all win.

I'm in."

And I started campaigning the next day, and I campaigned for Bob Riley until we turned the lights off in the governor's mansion in 2011.

- Tell everyone what it was like for you.

One of the hardest things you'd ever gone through in your life was when you all were campaigning as a family and you found out that your daughter was very ill with cancer.

- Jenice was diagnosed right just a few weeks after she turned 30.

She fought it for three years, and she passed away just after she turned 33.

Jenice's faith in many things could change your world, but her faith in her father becoming governor was so strong that you just never doubted that that was going to be what would happen.

Bob announced on our courthouse lawn, July 4th, 2001, Jenice went to her new home August 18th, 2001, six weeks after her dad announced that he would run for governor at her beckoning.

There were many times we really asked, "Is this really where we need to serve?"

And Jenice never doubted, not for one moment, that her daddy would be governor of the great state of Alabama.

The first time I stepped in the front doors as a first lady was the night before Bob took his oath of office, and there were about 35 of us close family, and we stepped in and it was like a dream come true for me, and yet, as I looked around, I thought, "This is going to be our home, but this is the home of every citizen, youngest to oldest, of Alabama, and I want to make it feel like a very welcoming home."

No one does anything alone, great or small.

I had an incredible team of women.

We ended up having 11 different fundraisers, from Kiss My Grits, which we had caterers to come in from all over Alabama and did a different grit recipe, to Do Not Dessert Me Or My Darling, a Western dress-up to help save the hill house.

The annual tea parties, which I did eight, that was the talk of Alabama.

Everyone wore gloves and beautiful hats and we had it there on the grounds of the mansion.

So we had a great time, a great eight years of raising money, and it was astounding, the difference.

Once I got that part of it, then tourism was able to come in because I was opening the doors for tourism across the country as well as our citizens of Alabama, and for the first time in 10 years, the fourth graders were coming back.

As a wife and a first lady, we still have to vote for who we feel like will be the best governor.

They're our governors and they're our husbands, so I decided to take the 10 first ladies that had moved there with their husbands.

- Well, it's a great book, and I think that it is a wonderful thing you did to honor the other first ladies and the fact of what they went through.

- Marsha and I would both agree.

There were several first ladies ahead of us that really blazed the trail.

We had Mrs.

Brewer, who actually made drapes and cut 'em on the dining room table.

We have Mrs. Patterson, who found a furniture manufacturer, and that beautiful, gorgeous, long dining room table and those gorgeous chairs, that was Mrs. Patterson's dream.

So we have a lot of first ladies who thought, "I want to make this a better place when I leave.

I wanna leave my mark on doing something great for my state of Alabama."

- [Edie] I also love, Patsy, when you were a first lady, is that you did other charities, especially to, I think, enhance Bob's dream of education.

- We had a reading initiative that really took Alabama from being way down in the bottom to almost way up to the very tip top.

We skirted the top 10 in the nation.

My job was to go to as many elementary schools as I was invited to go.

I was a very poor reader in elementary school, so I made it a point to read to my children.

I wanted them to love books.

I also wanted to make sure, if there's some children in elementary school, maybe they're falling in that last reading circle, I wanted to introduce the joy of books.

You can go anywhere your mind wants to take you if you can read a book, and so I'd always ask, "Now, who likes to read?"

And the hands would shoot up and I'd say, "Well, who kind of likes to read?"

A few hands.

Then I'd ask that question, "Who just does not like to read?"

And there would always be about four or five, and I would say, "Remember now.

You can be anyone you want to be.

You can go anywhere you want to go if you can read."

(gentle music) I wanna be an encourager.

I have inherited a lot of wonderful gifts, the gift of hospitality, the gift of friendship, the gift of supporting others, but I want to be an encourager.

There are young girls out there.

There are young girls out there that will be governor.

There are young girls out there that will be called to be a first lady and will love the mansion and will take care of a now 117-year-old home.

I want to be an encourager to not doubt.

I was the doubter as to, am I capable of doing this?

I know I'm capable of being a great mother and a wife and a homemaker and a party-thrower, but am I capable of representing the state of Alabama wherever I go, whatever I do?

Am I capable of pulling off these fundraisers?

And the gift of belief and faith, it is a gift.

Not everybody has the gift of faith.

It's a gift from God.

We just need to accept it, but to be able to dream and not be afraid to step out into that dream or to have the goals to make, If it's your county, if it's your city, if it's your small town, if it's the state of Alabama, to have the courage to believe that, yes, I can give back, and, yes, I can be successful as a first lady.

(uplifting music) - Thank you all for tuning in and learning more about our state of Alabama from our former first ladies.

Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, what's important is finding that right mixture of love, kindness, and a little bit of grit to make better tomorrows.

Thank you.

(uplifting music continues) ♪ We share this place ♪ ♪ We all belong ♪ ♪ Light the way ♪ ♪ 'Til dark is gone ♪ ♪ Walking away ♪ ♪ Still means you're strong ♪ ♪ Rise above ♪ ♪ Hope isn't gone ♪ ♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ We have to restore this planet's soul ♪ ♪ Restore the planet's soul ♪ ♪ Teach it something more than what we know ♪ ♪ Give it water, give it sun, and room to grow ♪ ♪ Let the garden of peace invade your soul ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ I can see a brighter tomorrow ♪ ♪ Tomorrow, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ I can see a better tomorrow ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪