In the summer of 1958 the Selma Cloverleafs (the city’s legendary baseball team) were in their prime, winning the championship that year and making the citizens of the Black Belt proud indeed. Wednesday morning, March 25, the Old Depot Museum welcomed home a member of that team when Jerry Clifford brought his wife Linda to introduce her to the town “that I shall always recall fondly. The people were wonderful to me,” he said, eyeing the Cloverleaf baseballs in a display case. “Even when I went in a barber shop for a haircut, the barber would never let me pay,” he recalled. “Every time I hit a home run, one of the local businesses would send me a gift. Once it was a new suit of clothes.”

“Jerry was absolutely right about Selma. I have so enjoyed your marvelous library, the houses and all the friendly people,” Linda Clifford added.

The Cliffords live in Escondido, Calif. in a retirement resort on Lawrence Welk Drive. They flew from there to Jacksonville, Fla., traveled on to Savannah and thence to Selma, “still the same wonderful place,” Clifford said.