Couple finds the perfect lake home in Southside
Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Bob Crisp
Dale and Ronnye Kendrick failed at downsizing. When they moved to Neely Henry Lake from Memphis eight years ago, the plan was to get something smaller than the 3,800-square-foot home with two levels that they were leaving. But the minute Ronnye stepped foot into the house in the Lake Forest subdivision in Southside that they eventually bought, Dale knew their plan was out the window.
“As soon as Ronnye walked into the foyer, she started saying, ‘Oh, I love this house,’” Dale said. “I told her she hadn’t even seen the house – we had just walked through the front door. We were trying to downsize, and we didn’t need all this space.”
Now that they have it, though – all 5,300 square feet and three stories – neither one of them could imagine being anywhere else. They’ve filled their home with family mementos, treasures from all over the world, and their very own indoor golf course.
As much as they love the inside, they both agree that the best feature is just outside the window. “The first thing I do in the morning is walk straight to the windows and look at the lake,” Ronnye said. “It’s just beautiful.”
Tucked below the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Neely Henry has been a balm for their souls, especially when they were battling cancer at the same time about seven years ago. The beautiful view brought a sense of peace and helped to ground them each day. “We get the most beautiful sunsets right over those mountains,” Dale said. “And when we get a full moon, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
Joining forces
Although this is the first time either has lived on the water full time, Dale and Ronnye are not strangers to lake life. Dale grew up on Old Coal City Road, about halfway between Coal City and Pell City, home to Logan Martin Lake. Ronnye’s family had a lake house in Mississippi when she was growing up.
Dale left home at 18 after finding work with a railroad company in Georgia, and he worked most of his tenure there in sales. The bulk of his career was with a transportation logistics company, and his job eventually took him to Memphis, where he met Ronnye.
They each had two children, and Dale’s daughter, Sonya, and Ronnye’s daughter, Jodi, went to school together and became great friends. At some point, the girls arranged for Sonya to spend the weekend with Jodi at her grandparents’ house, and Dale called Ronnye “to make sure nobody was pulling my leg.”
They began dating shortly after the phone call, when the kids were 14,15, 16 and 17, and Ronnye and Dale married five years later. Now they’ve celebrated their 33rd anniversary, and the kids are grown with families of their own and are scattered all over the South.
Jodi is in Milton, Florida, and Ronnye’s daughter, Mindy, lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. Sonya lives in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, while Dale’s son, also named Dale, is in Knoxville. Although the house is larger than they were looking for, Dale and Ronnye said it’s great to have plenty of space when the whole family comes to visit.
Ronnye and Dale break out their favorite family recipes when they come or whenever there’s a neighborhood cookout. Everyone loves Ronnye’s Frozen Cranberry Cups, and a recipe for baked beans they got from a dear friend is always a hit. “Even people who say they don’t like baked beans love them,” Dale said. He has a rice dish that earns rave reviews, as well. Sometimes he serves it as a side dish, and sometimes he adds chicken or shrimp to it to make it a main dish.
Treasure trove
Recipes aren’t the only things that are special. A number of the treasures in the Kendricks’ home were collected by Ronnye’s parents, Murray and Edye Reiter, on some of their many travels. Her father owned a travel agency and art gallery, so many of the paintings adorning the walls have special meaning.
Ronnye followed in her father’s footsteps and worked in the travel industry for 47 years, and she owned her own travel agency for 13 of them. “She’s planned all of my guilt trips,” Dale quipped.
A porcelain Lladro elephant from Spain has a place of honor in the foyer while a huge teak elephant from Thailand takes up residence in Dale’s office. Hand-carved from one piece of wood, the statue is so heavy, it’s nearly impossible to slide it across the floor.
“Her father told me, ‘I’d love for you to have something of mine,’” Dale recalled. “We were just dating at the time, but I told him if he was serious, I would love to have this elephant. I am just amazed at the detail.”
Among one of Ronnye’s most treasured collections is her assortment of decorative ostrich eggs. The hinged eggs are hand-decorated and feature ornate carvings, velvet linings, jewels and crystals. “Every time I really messed up, I had to buy her one,” Dale said with a laugh.
Figuring out where to display their collections seemed daunting at first. The weekend after their furniture and all their boxes were delivered from Memphis, Ronnye and Dale had to leave town for their grandson’s college graduation. The thought of coming back to their unorganized home seemed overwhelming.
Paula Robertson, owner of Twigs and Roses Homeplace in Gadsden, came to their rescue. She had helped the Kendricks select some new furniture for their home, and she wanted to help. “Paula told us to leave her a key, and she’d unpack everything and put it away,” Ronnye said.
They came home to a perfectly-styled home, organized kitchen, artwork that was hung, and linens on all the beds. “We owe everything to her,” Ronnye said. Paula hung two of Ronnye’s favorite pieces in bathrooms – one in the powder room and another over the tub in the primary bath. “I never would have thought to put them there, but to me, they’re just perfect.”
Paula also found two large egret prints that she hung on the stairwell, and Dale bought Ronnye a painting of a heron for her birthday that is displayed in their bedroom. “Since we moved here, one of our favorite things is the birds,” Ronnye said. They especially love the pelicans that show up at Neely Henry each spring. “They’re fascinating to watch,” Dale said.
A matter of course
Moving to the lake was especially fun for Dale, who loves to fish. About four years ago, though, he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and his doctor told him he didn’t need to be out in a boat by himself anymore.
Tasked with finding a new hobby, Dale built a putting course that’s 21 feet by 16 feet in one of the garages. Ronnye already had a “she shed,” a room where she wraps presents and stores all of her decorations for various holidays, so Dale decided to fix up a spot of his own. “When I started building it, I had no drawings and no plans,” Dale said, adding that he figured it out as he went along.
He decided to put three holes on each end of the green. He knew he didn’t want it to be completely flat, so he fashioned an incline from 2-by-12 boards that he shaved down at an angle on both sides. He was nearly finished with the construction when he realized it would be necessary to drill through the concrete floor to make the holes. That was a headache Dale didn’t want, so he built each end of the course up about 4 inches with wood to accommodate the holes.
“Every morning, we play three rounds of Hollywood Gin (a card game similar to gin rummy), and then we come here and play 18 holes,” Dale said. He explained that he and Ronnye putt from each hole on one end of the course to all three holes on the other end, which makes 9 holes. Then they cross to the other side of the course and do it all over again, making a total of 18 holes.
Dale and Ronnye aren’t the only ones who enjoy a good game of garage golf. It’s a big draw whenever they entertain family or friends. “We even had scorecards printed up,” Ronnye said. “Everybody loves to play.”
These days, though, Dale is back to splitting time between golf and fishing. His health has improved, and his doctor gave him the OK to fish again earlier this year. That meant he was on the hunt for the perfect boat.
“I knew I wanted a boat with stick steering so I could go to a fishing spot, push the lever down and put the poles up,” Dale said. “I’d never even have to get out of the seat.” The boats he looked at cost more than he wanted to spend, though. “At my age, I didn’t think I’d get that amount of use out of it,” he said.
He eventually met a young man who had inherited a boat from his grandfather. The boat was just what Dale was looking for, but the man didn’t want to part with it. Dale offered to lease it, fix it up, and one day return it to their family.
When the man learned that Dale was a Vietnam veteran affected by Agent Orange, he decided that no money would be exchanged. “His grandfather was in Vietnam and was also disabled from Agent Orange. “He told me he and his wife had talked about it, and they thought his grandfather would want me to have this boat,” Dale said. “It was heartwarming.”
Dale added a new electric trolling motor and will eventually return the boat in great condition. Until then, he’s enjoying every minute of being back in the water, reeling them in. “I have hundreds of crappie stake beds out there,” he said. “I call them crappie condos. The bait fish come in, and the crappie and bass follow.”
In sickness and in health
Dale always knew he wanted to move back to Alabama when he retired, but leaving Ronnye’s family and the friends they made in Memphis was difficult. Ronnye’s father passed away shortly before they were married, and Dale made a promise to his mother-in-law, whom he loved dearly, when she was in her mid-70s. “I promised I would never take Ronnye away from her,” he said, adding that they were blessed that she lived to be 99.
Although Ronnye knew Dale wanted to return home, and she was fully on board with the plan, leaving Memphis was harder than she imagined. “I cried every day for two months, but I started loving it after that,” she said.
Much of the reason is because of their neighbors, friends, and the sense of community they’ve found in Southside. That became more important than they’d ever imagined one day in March 2019.
“We found out she had breast cancer, and about an hour later, we found out I had lung cancer,” Dale said. “At the time, we had been married about 27 years, but this really brought us closer together. It was a terrible time, but she knew I was here for her, and I knew she was here for me. The only thing we had was each other.”
While it was one of the most trying times they faced, their family and friends made it easier. “All of the neighbors started bringing food and checking in on us,” Dale said. “One woman we’d never seen in our lives showed up at the door with food. She told us, ‘You don’t know me, but my daughter is your neighbor, and she told me about the problems you’ve been having.’ ”
Although Ronnye and Dale both recovered, they will never forget the kindness they were shown by friends who have become family. “They are here for you,” Ronnye said. “I don’t ever want to live anywhere else.”
Joy’s Best Baked Beans
- 1 28-ounce can Bush’s Maple and Cured Bacon Baked Beans
- ½ bell pepper, chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ bottle of barbecue sauce
- ½ pound cooked bacon
- ½ pound of ground beef, cooked
- 8 ounces of brown sugar
- A touch of honey (2-3 squeezes of the bottle)
Mix all ingredients together. Cook in slow cooker for one hour in high and then cook it at least 4-6 hours on low.
Frozen Cranberry Cups
- 16-ounce can jellied cranberry sauce
- 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 8-ounce Cool Whip, thawed
- 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
- Pecan chips
Line muffin pan with 12 paper cupcake liners. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well with an electric mixer.
Spoon mixture into muffin cups, filling very high, and freeze. Cover with foil. Remove cups as needed and allow to thaw about 5 minutes before serving.
Dale’s Rice
- 1 ¼ cup long-grained white rice
- 1 can beef consommé
- 1 can French onion soup
- 1 stick butter
- 1 ounce sherry
- 1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained
- Parsley for garnish
Mix rice, soup and mushrooms. Cover with pats of butter and sprinkle with parsley. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. You can also add canned or cooked chicken or shrimp to the dish.
Sadie’s Noodle Kugel
- 1 can apricot or apple pie filling
- 12 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 12 ounces wide noodles
- 1 ½ lemons
- ¾ pound cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, melted
Cook noodles and drain. Beat eggs. Add softened cream cheese (cut in chunks), butter, sugar and juice from lemons.
Butter a 13×15-inch dish and line with noodles. Pour half the batter in dish, and spread the pie filling over that. Top with remaining half of batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes.
