The Andalusia High School Outstanding Graduate Committee honored Greenville City Councilman Jeddo Bell with an annual award earlier this month.

But Greenville mayor Dexter McLendon said that Mr. Jeddo Bell was so nice, he had to be honored twice with a second presentation during Monday night’s city council meeting.

Bell, a graduate from Covington County Training School in 1947, has since spent 45 years as an educator within the Butler County School System and Lurleen B. Wallace Community College as a teacher of English, French and adult education. Bell is also an accomplished musician.

He further cemented himself within the Butler County community in 1996 when he was elected to the Greenville City Council, where he currently holds the title of mayor pro-tem.

Though Bell was unable to attend the luncheon due to medical reasons, McLendon accepted the award on his behalf.

“It was a great honor for me to be able to do anything like that for Mr. Bell, because he’s such a great guy,” McLendon said. “To hear all of them tell stories and everything about Mr. Bell and the other people who were awarded this, it was a really special day.  So I didn’t want to just take this back and take it over to his house and give it to him.  I wanted to present it to him at the council meeting. 

“I got to thinking about what I wanted to say, and I think the thing that comes to mind is that Jeddo makes us look good.  He just makes this city look good, and he makes all of us better.  We talked earlier about perception, and with him out front for more than 20 years on the council… everybody knows him, and everybody thinks he’s the greatest.”

“This says a lot about how people in Andalusia feel about you, and also I sure hope you know we all love you.  It’s a real honor.”

Bell said that the honor was his.

“But it is a great honor, and I want to thank the mayor for going down there, too, and accepting the award,” Bell said.

“I just want to let you know that Greenville is filled with great people.  I remember the first night I was on the council there was a little lady sitting right here with gray hair.  And I said ‘I’m from Andalusia, Ala., the greatest city under the sun.’ And she goes ‘tisk, tisk, tisk, you made a mistake.’

“I said ‘but then, I realized that Greenville is the sun.’ I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who are here.  And this might not be professional, but I’m going to say it; and I solicit all of your prayers that I will be able to do work for the City of Greenville and for God.  Thank you.”