This interesting old mansion at 805 Cloverdale Road sits at the south end of the huge but now vacant frontage that once held the estate of Coca-Cola magnet William A Bellingrath. The house had already endured several prior owners, but in the 1960s and ’70s the pictured structure was the home of Shearon Elebash, jeweler, entertainer and would-be politician. I think there were three Elebash boys and they came from a blue-blood Selma family. One was an insurance agent in Montgomery, one founded successful jewelry stores in Pensacola and Montgomery, and then there was Shearon. Somehow the latter was running the well regarded Elebash Jewelers on Court Square when I married here in 1953 (thereby suddenly becoming cognizant of jewelry stores), but he had an enticing sideline as toastmaster, pianist, vocalist and humorist. Beset with that distraction, Shearon paid less and less attention to the jewelry biz, and more and more to his gigs. Finally he was getting bookings all over the eastern US, and the jewelry store just succumbed from inattention. Toward the end of the 1950s, Shearon felt so in-demand that he decided to run for governor. He entered the crowded 1957 Demo field headed by John Patterson and George Wallace. If you remember your history, you know that Patterson won, and Wallace suffered his only ever political defeat. 25 years later, even after he had been elected governor four times, Wallace was still bemoaning his loss to Patterson. I think Elebash and Shorty Price (he was also in that race) got over it quite handily.

-Charles Humphries