HALL OF PRIDE
2025 Hall of Pride Inductees
Dr. Catherine James-Peters
October 17, 1971 – February 6, 2023)
Class of 1990
Dr. Catherine James-Peters was the 8th of 9 children born to Mitchell and Ethel (Lewis) James.
When she was in the second grade, she declared her love for medicine and said that she wanted to be a doctor.
Dr. James-Peters grew up in Tallassee and graduated from Tallassee High School in 1990. Her academic work gained her a scholarship to the University
of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). She graduated from UAB in 1994 with top honors with a B.S. in biology and was awarded a scholarship to medical school. She graduated from the UAB School of Medicine in 1999. Dr. James-Peters was the first African-American physician from Tallassee High School.
The next stop in her career was a Family Practice Residency program at the University of Tennessee in Jackson, graduating in 2002.
Dr. James-Peters and her husband, Junius, and son, Keytrio, moved to Dothan in 2003, where she opened her own clinic, Total Family Care. She especially
loved working with her pre-natal patients that she had the privilege of following through their pregnancy and post delivery. She was a “true example of
a family physician as she often followed her patients from birth on up.” Dr. James-Peters ran a very successful practice, helping many patients and gaining
the praise of her colleagues and others who crossed her path. She continued her professional development, studying and gaining numerous board certifications.
Dr. James-Peters ran the clinic until 2010.
Dr. James-Peters transitioned to a medical directorship practice in rural Georgia in March, 2010, which she led until March, 2015. She not only took care of her patients but had to manage the financial operations of the practice. She pursued an MBA from Auburn University so that she would be better able to understand the complexities of running a medical organization. She completed her MBA in 2014. In 2017, the American Association of Physician Leadership certified her as a Physician Executive.
She was very passionate and concerned not only about patient health and wellness, but health and wellness among physicians as well. She formed a committee
within the American Academy of Family Physicians for physician advocacy. The Employed Physician Member Interest Group was approved by the AAFP in 2019. Dr. James-Peters served as founding Chair and Vice-Chair of the MIG.
Dr. James-Peters was a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, where she served 7 years on the Practice Management Committee. She served
as the Georgia Academy delegate to the National Chapter Constituency Leaders Program. Her licenses and certifications included Georgia Medical License, Alabama Medical License, Tennessee Medical License, Louisiana Medical License, and Texas Medical License, American Family Board Medicine, and LEAN Healthcare 101. During her time in Georgia, she served patients at East Georgia Healthcare in Swainsboro, Kaiser Permanente Town Park in Kennesaw, Comprehensive Healthcare in Jasper, and Oakhurst Medical Center in Lithonia. She also worked for CompHealth in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a preceptor at ETSU Family Medicine Residency program in Johnson City, Tennessee, Medical Doctor Associates in Norcross, Georgia, Veterans Administration in Dothan, Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Ole Health West Fairfield in Fairfield, California, and Village MD in Lithonia, Georgia.
Dr. James-Peters was on the Infection Control Committee at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, and the practice management committee for the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians. She was a member of the American Association of Physician Leadership, the American College of Healthcare Executives,
the Georgia Association of Healthcare Executives, the American Academy of Professional Coders, the Medical Group Management Association, the Healthcare Management Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. James-Peters died unexpectedly on February 6, 2023. She is survived by her husband, Junius, and her son, Keytrio Denmark, 5 brothers, 2 sisters, and a host
of family members, professional associates and friends.
Dr. James-Peters considered her greatest accomplishment was dedicating her life to God and getting baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1997. She
worked tirelessly in the ministry with her husband and son, helping many people “find joy in life by teaching the Bible to them, assisting many to improve the
quality of their life in a spiritual way by teaching them how to apply Bible principles in their life…It was her hope that all would study the Bible and learn
about Jehovah and Jesus and their purpose for the future of this earth.”
Coach Dencil Duane Webster
(June 18, 1931-January 31, 2022)
Class of 1949
Coach Dencil Duane Webster, a native of Tallassee, was one of 6 children born to Charlie W. Webster and Josie Lee Foster Webster.
Coach Webster was orphaned when he was 12 years old, and arrangements were made for him to board with a family in the community. He attended Reeltown High School from 1943 to 1948 but enrolled in Tallassee High School and graduated there in 1949. During the school year, he would work from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Mt. Vernon Mills and then attended school, where he played basketball, making the All-District team, and played football under legendary Tallassee coach J.E. “Hot” O’Brien.
He began his military duty with the United States Air Force on June 23, 1949, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was honorably discharged on December 19, 1952 at Craig Air Force Base in Alabama.
Coach Webster used the GI Bill to attend college and graduated from Auburn University in 1956. His first job was at Union High School in Tallapoosa County
as the B-team basketball coach. He then interviewed at Reeltown High School, and was hired as the basketball coach but was told he would also have to coach football. Coach O’Brien was instrumental in helping Coach Webster get the program off the block.
Coach Webster started studying books about football to prepare for his role as coach. He took a team that had a 5-36-2 record over 5 seasons and turned the program into a winning one. The Reeltown Rebels won 6 games that first season and, over a 14 year period, they compiled a 98-33-8 record.
He left Reeltown to take a teaching and coaching job at Tallassee High School, but returned to Reeltown in 1976, where he remained through the 1987 season.
His 1969 Rebel squad finished 9-0-1 and his final team (1987) went undefeated (15-0) and won the Class 2A state championship. The 1984 Rebels were Class 2A runners-up with a 13-2 record and his 1986 team reached the semi-finals, finishing the season with an 11-3 record.
Coach Webster’s record stands for itself: 208-64-8 in 26 seasons at Reeltown, and a career record of 218-93-9.
Coach Webster has achieved many accolades in his life, including being honored at the State Fair in Birmingham in 1956 during Alabama Teachers Day.
Governor Fob James awarded him the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) for being one of Alabama’s “unsung heroes” and also named him an Honorary Alabama Colonel, charging him with the duties of “performing all manner of things which benefit the citizens of Alabama, such as influencing the
best young men and women in Alabama to serve in the Alabama Army and Air National Guard.” He received the Alabama Football Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 for “excellence in inspiring and influencing his students, players, coaches and community; for his loyalty and dedication
to high school football in the State of Alabama.
Coach Webster was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1994 and part of Alabama Highway 120, which runs past
Reeltown High School, was renamed “Coach Duane Webster Highway” in 2020. The stadium at Reeltown High School also bears his name.
