Lineville swells in size with huge annual car show and swap meet

The small town of Lineville (population 2,549), located about 24 miles south of Anniston on Alabama Highway 9, is known as the hometown of three noted Alabamians: Byron Cockrell, rocket scientist and engineer; Joe Edwards, astronaut and test pilot; and three-star Gen. Flem B. “Donnie” Walker, who recently retired after a 35-year career that included serving as Redstone Arsenal’s base commander.

But did you know the city also hosts Alabama’s biggest antique car show and swap meet each year, benefiting the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina?

The Clay County Car Show and Swap Meet is always held on the first Saturday-Sunday weekend in November. Lineville’s population swells in size as people from Alabama and at least six states attend the swap meet on Saturday, and the car show on Sunday that has attracted as many as 1,000 vehicles.

The 55-acre Lineville City Park and Recreation Area, filled with harsh hardwoods and towering pine trees, had more than enough room for the hundreds of families with children of all ages to walk the seemingly endless trails or spread a blanket for a picnic.

Antique cars of every vintage were on display, including one area set aside for owners who wanted to sell their car. Among that group was a rarity, a 1950 Bentley with 70,000 miles, listed for (gulp) $55,000.

Dr. Robert Steele, one of the event’s founders, told how it started: “It was in the early 1980s when a local child was badly burned and taken to a Shriners Children’s Hospital in Ohio for treatment of his almost fatal injuries. The Shriners don’t charge a penny for what they do, no matter how extensive the treatment.

“My friend, Tommy Hicks, and I were both avid car show enthusiasts and decided to hold a local event to raise money to donate to the hospital," he said. “The first year, we held it in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot in Ashland (neighboring city 5 miles away) and had over 100 antique cars and a huge crowd. The next year, we moved to their ballfield for an even bigger event. Since then, we’ve had the show in Lineville’s City Park which is a much larger venue.”

Steele laughed while recalling that he, Hicks and a few volunteers worked the first few events, but soon had to call for help. He said volunteers from near and far, including numerous members of the Zamora Shrine Center of Birmingham, are vital in staging the event.

Greg “Bird Dog” Denny, a former Clay County commissioner, is president of the event’s board of directors. He said $50,000 was raised last year and again this year for the Shriners hospital in Greenville, chosen because it’s the closest of the 19 Shriners hospitals in the U.S. to Alabama.

Total donations over the years have been about $925,000.

Paul Finelli, Shriners Children’s director of philanthropy, said the hospital had been treating children throughout the U.S. for 97 years. “If it wasn’t for events like the Clay County car show and the Zamora Shriners,” he said. “we wouldn’t be able to treat the kids for another five years.”

Finelli said that donations from the show over the past 36 years have helped countless children get the care they need. Not just in the Southeast, he said, “We’ve been able to help kids from all around the world.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Massive car show and swap meet raises money for hospital