Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The South Trip, Marion, Alabama (Day 2)

There's something in the air in Perry County, Alabama. Or the water, or the soil. Whatever it is, it's causing some of the young people who grew up in the Black Belt of this deep South state -- so named for the rich dark soil that characterizes a wide swath of the land -- to come back home again, or not to leave in the first place.

At least, that's what one young woman who's decided to stay -- for now -- believes: She is 20-year-old Allison Beckett, who grew up in a tiny dot on the map named Faunsdale, in Marengo County, next door to Perry County. But Allison's life has been anything but circumscribed by the place where she spent her childhood. As a student, she excelled at just about everything she tried. But it was her talent for ballet that propelled her from home, at just 13, to the big city of Birmingham, and to the highly competitive Alabama School of Fine Arts.

After four years there, during which she studied ballet across the United States, she enrolled at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, while some of her classmates headed to colleges like MIT and the Juilliard School of Music.

"I guess I felt a tug in the direction of home," said Allison, tall, slender, dark haired. Even when wearing a pony tail and blue jeans, she carries herself with the posture of a ballerina. She quickly grew to dislike the University of Alabama, and so when her uncle contacted her, half way through her freshman year in college, she jumped at the chance to move back, close to home -- to help run the family cheese business, an adjunct to their very successful dairy farm. Overnight, she put her math skills to work, learned to balance the books, and today -- two-and-a-half years later -- Southeastern Cheese Corp. has doubled in size.

When I asked why the family had reached out to her, she looked down and said modestly, "I'm good at math and science."

But her accomplishments don't end there: Today, even as she attends Judson College and aims for a degree combining science and business, Allison is deep into talks with investors over how to convert some of the cheese byproducts into ethanol, a highly desired alternative fuel.

In addition, just one year ago, she teamed up with a young friend and Perry County native, John Allan Clark, to buy and revive the weekly county newspaper. As a publisher and editor team (she's the business person, he's on the news side), they've seen circulation climb, even as they've taken on some entrenched political interests in Perry County. (You'll hear more about John Allan in our television and online reports.)

Ask Allison what she wants to do in the future, and she talks about how gratifying it is to own a newspaper that can transform a community. "I'd like to buy several more papers in this area," she told us. "It's a way of making a real difference."

Allison turns 21 this November.

-- Judy Woodruff