Sam Phillips History 101: Chapter 1~ Florence Daze

Samuel Cornelius Phillips came from humble beginnings. His life began on January 5, 1923 in the Lovelace community of Lauderdale County, Alabama. The house were Sam was born (no longer there) was located off County Road 16, about 7 miles west of Florence. The family settled in the north side of Florence when Sam was about 7 years old. The family lived at 1057 Royal Avenue (presently owned by a local merchant). Like Elvis Presley and many of the stars whose careers he launched, Sam grew up poor. He was the son and grandson of generations of farmers and honest hard working people. It was those early beginnings that helped to influence him to become one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th Century.

He learned early on as a child to make things with his hands. He experimented and diligently studied how to make these new creations work. He did not learn to do these things from any text book. He was a thinker. In a Florence Jr. High yearbook of the late 1930's, a section entitled "What we are thought to be," said of him, "You Sam Phillips hath a mean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous!" Sam was dangerous in a way that because he was always thinking, experimenting, creating and doing that he put his own personal expereinces to good use. This gave birth to so many wonderful and instrumental things that he created in music and radio.

There are so many words that are used to describe this very special man from Florence, Alabama. Those words are son, brother, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, husband, brother-in-law, uncle, cousin, companion, friend, teacher, preacher, storyteller, inventor, thinker, counselor, citizen, psychologist, anthropologist. He was indeed a "Rebel WITH a Cause!" He was on a very important mission to share with the people his ideas, his creations and to make sure that the poor white and black were given a chance to be heard.

Sam never forgot his Alabama roots, family and the upbringing that he received as a youngster during the 'Great Depression' era of the 1930s. His experiences of living with a deaf-mute aunt, a father who was a disciplinarian and who worked on the Tennessee River and farmed, a God-fearing loving mother who raised her children, his close friendship with 'Uncle' Silas Payne whom the family took in as their own and worked as a sharecropper, listening to the gospel singing coming from the Armstead Chapel C.M.E. Church located at the corner of Chisholm Rd and Simpson St., listening to the early broadcasts of the world famous Grand Ole Opry, learning to play the tuba, sousaphone, drums and any instrument that he could find, working in a funeral home where he learned to deal with the variable emotions that a person experiences and working in radio. These experiences polished his natural skill and talent to share with the whole world in the early 50's and beyond---a social revolution in America for music, in radio, a newer way of life. This would be the beginnings of 'equal opportunity' for both men and women; black and white. He was definitely an important and instrumental figure in the early days of Civil Rights for blacks, women and the blue collar workers of the south.

Liz Scott is a life-long native of Florence, Alabama and was raised in the same section of Florence as Sam known as Seven Points (then known when Sam lived there as Needmore). She established and coordinates the official Sam Phillips U.S. Postage Stamp Campaign (authorized by the Sam Phillips Family) and in 2005 she established the Sam Phillips Music Celebration. To contact Liz for more information on the stamp campaign, email her at nissangirl60193@hotmail.com