Both smiled when they spoke of him. When John H. “Red” Dove left this life in February 1994, what remained behind him was a legacy of love. John Hal “Red” Dove was born to John and Vera Stallings Dove on October 7, 1909, in the little sawmill town of Shubuta, Mississippi. The story of his rise to the top of the transportation business is one that began when he was a young man. In his own words, told Alabama Trucker magazine in 1983, “We would take all the logs too large to handle through my father’s sawmills to the railroad siding and ship them to bigger mills in bigger towns. That was the 1920s. At that time, I hauled forest products with teams of mules and oxen. Then in 1926-27, we started using Model T Ford trucks to haul the lumber and logs too big for our mills.”
In 1931, Red, 24, and his bride Sybil Bentley moved to California to seek relief from the Great Depression. When the automobile plant where he was working shut down, the Doves headed back South penniless – and with 6-month-old son Earl. By 1932 Red Dove’s father had settled in Dothan, Alabama, so Red moved his family there and began hauling pulpwood and produce, forming his own company, Dove Truck Lines. With the advent of motor carrier regulation in 1935, he hauled produce and other commodities until forced by ill-health to sell out. When his health returned, Red formed his second company, John H. Dove Transportation, which hauled livestock, produce, and other commodities between points in Alabama and Florida. He later merged this operation into D&D Transportation Company, Incorporated, which was based in Dothan. The company established branch offices in Atlanta, Andalusia, and Mobile, and specialized in less-than-truckload shipments.
He sold his interest in D&D in 1950. In 1955, he purchased two small Alabama trucking companies and combined them to form AAA Motor Lines, Incorporated, based in Dothan. In 1969, the rapidly growing company bought the Brewton-based firm of Cooper to Transfer, Incorporated. AAA Cooper Transportation was formed to operate both companies. When sons Earl and Mack came home from college with degrees in transportation, as the story goes, Red calculated that they probably knew more about how to take the family business into the future than he did, so he sold his interest in the company to the two young men.
That is the chronological history. It is the man who lived it that makes the story unique. Red Dove is considered a pioneer in motor freight transportation in the state of Alabama. When he began his career, the highways of the South were mostly mud or sand. In fact, he helped pave U.S. Highway 80 between Selma, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi. Bridges in those days were rare to non-existent – even over the Mississippi River. In the 1930s and early ’40s, trucking meant long, hard hours and small, under powered equipment on primitive, poorly marked roads. As late as 1945, the 200-mile haul from Birmingham to Dothan took eight hours, driving through the center of each of the cities and towns en route. Again, Red’s own words from 1983: “There’s no way for anybody to start like I did in ’31. It’s just too complicated with computers and everything else. You didn’t have anything then but a shoebox. You put what money you collected into it, and you paid for everything out of that box. Whenever the box was empty, you were broke.”
Red put in long hours on the road during the week and built flatbed trailers in his backyard on weekends. But he always took time for and enjoyed his growing family: wife Sybil, boys Earl and Mack, and daughter Faye.
Remembering Red, Alabama Trucking Association Director Jim Ritchie points to the H. Chester Webb Distinguished Service Award the man received from that organization, of which he was past president and chairman of the board. The Award, the highest presented by the body, recognizes distinguished service by an individual associated with the trucking industry in Alabama for his or her outstanding record of service to the industry, the Association, and to his community. Inscribed on the Award are the words of Sophocles: “This is man’s highest end/ To other’s service/ All his powers to bend.”
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby recognized that life of service in a tribute he paid to the late Red Dove on the floor of the United States Senate Tuesday, March 1, 1994. Entered into the Congressional Record, the testimony said: “He was a man of faith and family who exemplified the best of the American character in both enterprise and community service … he truly exemplified the American spirit of commerce, thrift, and hard work.”
Along with other members of the Alabama Trucking Association, Red was a charter sponsor of a Chair of Transportation in that organization’s name at The University of Alabama and was also honored in 1984 with the naming of The John H. Dove Chair of Transportation at the University of Tennessee. He served as a member of the Board of Directors and as Alabama vice president for American Trucking Associations, Incorporated, and was an active member of his home community of Dothan, serving as chairman of the board of the Salvation Army, as a member of the First Baptist Church of Dothan, the Dothan Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic Lodge, and the Exchange Club.
John Hal “Red” Dove died February 7, 1994, survived by his wife, three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. There is a building on the grounds of AAA Cooper dedicated to the memory of its founder, inscribed: “As we carry on, may we continue with the vision and vigor that he represented.”
But it is, perhaps, the letter son Mack, now president and chief executive officer of what was once his father’s company, wrote to firm employees a month after Red’s death that best captures the essence of the life of the man.
“At the funeral, the preacher, who had known Pop a long time, said Pop brought ‘color and music’ to the life situations of those who knew him. He observed that Pop fit in and was an influence on all types and classes of people. To him, everyone was an individual and he had great respect for each individual. The calls and letters I have received certainly verify this observation.
“He was remembered by those who knew him a long time ago. A driver who worked with Pop at D&D Transportation in 1948 brought in a tattered picture of him and Pop taken in front of his truck. Mrs. Andrews, a former customer who ran a food warehouse in Dothan in the ’40s and ’50s, came to show her respect.
“Both smiled when they spoke of him.”
For family, friends, and the business community of the state of Alabama, memories of Red Dove – and the good times, as Mack put it so well – will surely last forever.
