09/14/2024
Penning this fond farewell to Mr. Columbus Sanders. Sending up prayers for Monica O. Sanders 💚🔗, Patrick and Carlton Sanders as you lay your father to rest today.
It feels almost like the end of an era, for strong, innovative businessmen like Thornton Stanley and Columbus Sanders, partners in the REGENCY APARTMENTS, a groundbreaking real estate development and apartment complex built in the 70’s on Wi******er Road near A&M University. Mr. Sanders was the ‘cool one,’ namely an ICE COLD Alpha, figuring the finances with my Dad, the iconic Kappa with the Construction Company.
Another partner with Columbus masterminded the building of the Alpha House on Oakwood Avenue. That was their politically astute friend, also an Alpha man, Bob Harrison, the cool colleague with the Kawasaki and the Ford Dealerships, who went on to become a Madison County Commissioner.
Stanley and Sanders sold the REGENCY APARTMENTS, using the proceeds to start a new venture, The Downtown Office Plaza on Church Street with renowned insurance agent Hundley Batts. These businessmen broke untold barriers from their youth in the segregated south, pursuing college degrees, marrying wonderful, resourceful and intelligent women (Mary Stanley, Libby Sanders, my 💚🔗 sponsor, and Izora Harrison, my ❤️🔺reference) raising their families in loving and nurturing, God-centered environments. I say farewell with a heart of gratitude that we are, without a doubt, .
