Having a Ball:
By Donna Cornelius
Edgar Welden will reign for a night as king of the 46thannual Beaux Arts Krewe Ball.
But for a year, he was king of the road.
The retired Birmingham businessman is the Krewe’s choice this year to serve as king at the Feb. 8 ball at Boutwell Municipal Auditorium. His main duty at the event will be to escort the ball’s queen, whose identity won’t be revealed until that night.
While Welden said he was happy to be a part of the ball, he’s likely more comfortable wearing a baseball cap than a crown.
Several years ago, Welden fulfilled a longtime dream by taking a year off from his real estate business and traveling the country to attend sports events.
He traveled more than 120,000 miles to all 50 states. He started his journey Dec. 26, 1996, in Sacramento, Calif., attending an NBA game between the Kings and the Vancouver Grizzlies. He ended his trip a little closer to home at the 1997 Christmas Day Blue-Gray Football Classic in Montgomery.
“I ran away from home,” Welden said.
Welden is chairman of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s board of directors and was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. But sports have been a part of his life since his childhood in Wetumpka. He played football, basketball and baseball at Wetumpka High School, he said.
“I love Wetumpka and still go back there to see cousins and friends,” he said. “I’ve taught my grandchildren its history until they’re sick of it. If I ask them a question and they don’t know the answer to it, they’ve learned to say ‘Wetumpka.’”
After high school, Welden left his hometown to enroll at the University of Alabama and earned a bachelor’s degree there. He still has deep ties to UA, he said.
“I met my wife, Louise Cleve, there, and both our children went to Alabama and met their spouses there,” he said. “I’ve very active with the university and with sports and the business school there.”
Welden and his wife moved to Birmingham after college and have lived there ever since, he said, except for a short stint in Montgomery.
“We love Birmingham,” he said. “It’s a great place to raise children.”
He started a real estate and property management company, WeldenField, some 40 years ago with his older brother, Charles, and the late Pete Field, he said.
“I’ve been fortunate to have good partners in life, starting with Louise,” he said. “I’ve had good partners in business, too.”
For years, Welden took an active role in Alabama’s Republican Party.
“I started as a young age as the state chairman of the Republican Party,” he said. “That was in the 1970s. I served 12 years as the Republican National Committeeman representing Alabama.”
During that time, Welden met several U.S. Presidents, including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and “both the Bushes,” he said.
He was never tempted to run for office himself, he said, but “always enjoyed supporting other people.”
“When I first got involved, there were only a few elected Republicans in Alabama,” he said. “I’ve watched the party go from having almost no elected officials in Alabama to having many.”
When Guy Hunt was elected governor in 1986, Welden took time away from his business to serve on Hunt’s transition team.
“That was an exciting and historical time, from a political standpoint,” Welden said. “It was the end of the George Wallace era. Hunt was the first Republican elected governor in Alabama since Reconstruction, and I was active in that transition.”
Welden has been director of the Alabama Development Office and ADECA, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
He was also head of the Alabama Humanities Foundation. During that time, he set himself an unusual goal.
“I enjoy playing tennis, so I decided it would be good to play tennis in every county in Alabama,” he said.
Doing that in one county proved to be a challenge.
“Coosa County didn’t have a public tennis court, so the probate judge arranged for me to play in the hallway of the courthouse,” he said.
A Year on the Road
During his year-long sports odyssey, Welden went not only to games but to each state capital.
“I love history and politics,” he said. “I’d tour the capitol buildings and get a real sense of history.”
He couldn’t make an exact itinerary, he said, because some events were tournaments or playoffs.
“Sometimes, where I’d go next would depend on who won certain games,” he said.
Louise joined him on some occasions, including a memorable Major League Baseball game.
“On our wedding anniversary, I was in Denver, so my wife flew out to join me, and I took her to a Rockies game,” Welden said.
He and his wife were sitting in the stands behind third base when slugger Larry Walker hit a foul ball in their direction.
“It hit Louise and broke her arm,” Welden said. “She’s a great sports fan and has put up with my foolishness and my trips. That time, she took a hit for me.”
He chose to schedule his cross-country adventure during an opportune time.
“My daughter was getting married that year,” he said. “Nobody asked me what I spent on my trip, and I didn’t ask what the wedding cost.”
Welden documented his year-long experiences in a book called “Time Out! A Sports Fan’s Dream Year.” That book led to the formation of Will Publishing, which Welden calls a “mom and pop publishing company.”
“It’s for self-publishing,” he said. “It was the year my first grandson, Will, was born, so we named it after him.”
Among the books published by the company are “Hearts of Dixie: Fifty Alabamians and the State They Called Home” by James L. Noles Jr. and “Taku,” the story of four people and their connection to an Alaskan wilderness lodge.
“We partnered with Tom and Jan Bailey’s Seacoast Publishing to publish books about famous Alabamians for fourth graders,” Welden said. “We’ve done 47 of these.”
One Will Publishing book that’s particularly dear to Welden’s heart is “Wetumpka: The Golden Years.”
“The book’s time frame, 1942 to 1965, includes the years my principal, high school coach and band director served,” Welden said. “It includes every football lineup, where the players are now and a little about what was going on in the city, state and country at the time.
“I call it ‘War and Peace’ because it’s more than 700 pages long.”
As the Krewe King this year, Welden said he’s looking forward to the ball.
“I’ve been involved with the Krewe for a number of years,” he said. “We’ve enjoyed it because its purpose is to support the Birmingham Museum of Art. The ball is good for the community because the museum is so important to Birmingham. I’m very proud to be partnered with them.”
The Weldens’ daughter, Ann, was presented at a Krewe ball in the early 1990s, he said.
Although he couldn’t divulge the name of this year’s queen, “Let’s just say that her beauty, dignity and intelligence will make up for any deficiencies on the part of the king,” he said with a smile.
At the ball, Welden’s trainbearers will be his grandchildren — Jamie MacKinnon Holman Jr., Welden Williams Holman, Joy Louise Holman, Allen Cleve Welden, William Edgar Welden III, Robert Evan Welden and Ann Derby Welden. The eighth trainbearer is Mary Frances Robertson, whom Welden calls “my adopted granddaughter.”
Welden loves sharing not only Wetumpka tales but his love for the University of Alabama with his grandchildren.
“Recently, I took one of my grandsons to Tuscaloosa,” he said. “We took in a tennis match, toured the new softball indoor facility and went to a swim meet and then a basketball game.”
The Weldens’ son Ed, daughter Ann and their families all live nearby, said Welden. He and Louise live in Mountain Brook. Their home is a replica of the Gorgas House, a well-known structure on the University of Alabama campus. The house was already built when the Weldens bought it, “so that was just a coincidence,” Welden said.
He’s pleased that those closest to him will be at the ball to support him in his royal role, he said.
“Nothing is more fun for me than to have a good excuse to have a party and to be with family and friends,” he said.
