A 'perfect southern lady'
Mar. 6—Editor's note: March is Women's History Month and The Times is featuring some of the women who have shaped Cullman County's history. We begin with Jamelle Folsom, who was the wife of one Alabama governor and mother of another, and locally regarded as an icon in her own right.
Seventeen-year-old Jamelle Moore was a Fayette County native who met "Big Jim" Folsom — 20 years her senior and a widower with two young children — during his first gubernatorial term in 1946.
"She used to tell the story that Jim was standing on the back of a flatbed truck, doing a campaign speech in Berry, Alabama — which was Jamelle's home town," Cullman City Council President Jenny Folsom told The Times in a 2012 article following Jamelle's death. "She was in the crowd and caught his eye, and he went over to her and asked her if he could buy her a Coke over at the drug store."
Two years later, the couple eloped. Jamelle carried out the role of First Lady for the remainder of Folsom's first term, then moved to Cullman, where "Big Jim" had already taken up residence in the name of claiming North Alabama as a political foothold. State law at the time forbade consecutive runs at the governor's office, but the couple was back in Montgomery after Folsom won his second and final term in 1955.
"She was this girl from a small town in Fayette County, but she just moved right into the mansion and took over," her stepdaughter Melissa Boyen told The Times in 2012. "She became a wonderful hostess — and here were me and [sister] Rachel, a four year-old and an eight year-old, who just had this wonderful woman in our lives.
"She danced beautifully, and she always — and this is something I remember more from Montgomery than here — but she always entertained beautifully. She was always very much at ease entertaining, whether it was the British ambassador or talking with regular people. She was a gracious woman, but this was a tough woman who absolutely wanted everybody to do the right thing."
In a 2004 interview with The Times, Jamelle said she felt humbled to have served as first lady of Alabama. "I come from a real small town, just 750 people, and I felt so proud that he was elected by the whole state of Alabama," she said.
"With our seven children — we have three sons and four daughters —and then two by his first wife, he said it was like a poker game, to have seven and raise two," Jamelle Folsom told The Times in 2004. "That was the way he always joked about it."
She was proud when her oldest son and Jim Folsom's namesake, Jim Folsom Jr., entered politics and became lieutenant governor and eventually, governor.
"I think Jim really accomplished more in his terms as lieutenant governor and governor than some governors that stayed in 20 years," she said.
After her husband died in 1987, Jamelle took a job outside the home. For 11 years, she traveled the state as the executive to the Commission of Agriculture and Industry. She would inspect grocery stores and make sure vendors at farmers' markets had the right permits.
She was also very active in the community and her church, First Baptist of Cullman.
At her funeral in 2012, Meghan Folsom summed up her grandmother Jamelle Folsom: ""She was the most perfect southern lady ever."
