(1916 – 2004)
Wading through waist-high stalks on any of the many fields of the big cotton farms in Hillsboro, or Courtland, or Town Creek, helping the owner decide when to spray for pests. Explaining to a cattle farmer at Hatton or Speake or Five Points how to mix feed rations or answering any number of questions on the hot beef topics of the day. Testing the growth of newly established grazing crops on a Mt. Hope dairy farm. Or maybe visiting with a homemaker in Moulton who couldn’t get her tomatoes to grow.
You would find Sam McClendon in all those places in a day’s work as the county agent in Lawrence County. McClendon walked those fields, made those visits, doled out information and inspiration to Lawrence County farmers and gardeners for 31 years.
For those three decades, Sam McClendon was Mr. Agriculture in one of the state’s largest agricultural counties, representing the Extension Service and Auburn University — two institutions he truly loved and was proud to be a part of. He had graduated from Auburn in 1940 with a degree in agriculture and taught vocational agriculture before joining Extension in 1943 as an assistant county agent in DeKalb County.
Sam retired on February 28, 1977, after 34 years in Extension. He moved to Moulton in 1946 as an assistant county agent and spent the rest of his career there, most of them as a county agent.
He was a Moulton Lion’s Club member and a Sunday School teacher at the First United Methodist Church. Through his association with Extension, he was a life member of Epsilon Sigma Phi.
Samuel Perry McClendon, born in Boaz, on October 7, 1916, died August 7, 2004. He was survived by his wife of 64 years, Mildred McClendon; two sons, Sam McClendon, Jr., and John McClendon; four daughters, Frances McCullough, Nancy McClanahan, Jane Comadi, and Sara Simpson; 16 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. He was buried in Moulton Memory Gardens.
For his dedicated service to the citizens of Alabama, we inscribe the name Samuel P. McClendon on the dedicatory plaque of the Extension Memorial Chapel.
Chapel Plaque Inscription Number: 472
