James Elbert Peters, 90, of Huntsville, AL, who used his middle name, passed away peacefully at his daughter’s home on December 28, 2023, after a brief illness, caused by congestive heart failure. Most of his immediate family were with him. Also present was his special friend, Sue Alexander.
Elbert was born in Geneva County, Alabama, on March 2, 1933, to the late Matthew Sylvester and Willie Snow Hagan Peters. He grew up on the family farm, which was about eleven miles southwest of Samson, and very near the Florida line. He attended Hacoda Junior High School, which was in the western part of the county. He then attended school in town and was a 1950 graduate of Samson High School where he was the class Salutatorian.
After high school, he served four years in the Air Force with basic training at Lackland in San Antonio, Texas, technical training at Keesler in Biloxi, Mississippi, and more training at Brooks also in San Antonio. He was then assigned to the Aleutian Islands where he participated in electronics surveillance activities as part of intelligence gathering by the Air Force Security Service Command. He was honorably discharged in 1954 and immediately enrolled in Auburn University.
He and his late wife, Melba, who was also from Geneva County, were married on May 31, 1956. They were married for more than 55 years and more than 50 of those years were spent in Huntsville. During their early years together, they lived in Auburn where she worked as a secretary for the professors in the Engineering Drawing and Design Department and he was a student in the School of Electrical Engineering. Elbert graduated from Auburn University in 1958 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He was a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical engineering honor society, and Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.
As an electrical engineer, he first worked for Vitro Services at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He then came to Huntsville in the summer of 1961 to work for Brown Engineering. He worked there for about four years and then began his longest employment with Boeing, which was in two parts because they had very few employees in Huntsville for several years beginning about 1973. He worked for eleven years with TVA at Browns Ferry, Bellefonte, and Sequoyah nuclear plants. He then returned to Boeing and retired from there in 1995 at the age of 62.
In 1987, newly elected Governor Guy Hunt appointed Elbert to the Statewide Health Coordinating Council, a 35-member group of volunteers responsible for the State Health Plan. They did this under the oversight of a state agency, the State Health Planning and Development Agency. A year or so later Governor Hunt asked Elbert to serve as Chairman of this group and he did this until Governor Hunt was removed from office in 1993.
Fob James became Governor in 1995, and when he learned that Elbert planned to retire, asked him to go to Montgomery as the Executive Director of the state agency he had been associated with during the Guy Hunt Administration. He did this until 1998, after which he retired for good.
Elbert was a well-known Republican activist in the Huntsville area. He was a member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee and the Madison County Republican Executive Committee for many years. He and his late wife attended their first Republican National Convention in 1964 and many thereafter. He was the Presidential Elector from the 5th Congressional District in 1988 and at least four other times. For many years he was an associate member of the Republican Women of Huntsville and an associate member of two other Republican Women’s clubs in Madison County.
He also served in all elected Republican Party positions, which included Madison County Republican Chairman, 5th Congressional District Chairman, North Alabama Vice-Chairman, Senior Vice-Chairman, and State Republican Chairman. He was State Chairman in 1994 when, for the first time, Alabama elected more than one person to statewide office. That year there were seven. A few days after the election, Senator Richard Shelby switched to the Republican Party.
He served on the 21-member Republican Party Steering Committee for many years. His last meeting with this Committee was in February 2023, just before his last term ended as 5th Congressional District Chairman. He was almost 90 years old at the time. He had served many years as the District Chairman.
Elbert was best known for his work with the Madison County Republican Men’s Club, one of the biggest such clubs in the country. He was instrumental in starting the club in 1985 and was active until 2022 when poor health forced him to retire. His activities included obtaining more than 30 volunteers to call more than 500 members for more than 400 consecutive monthly meetings between 1985 and 2022. He was the club president for many years.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Melba; his brother, Bill Peters of Lakeland, FL; sister-in-law, Verna Hagler of Samson; brothers-in-law, Wesley Hagler of Samson, C.T. Raines of Slocomb and J.P. Raines of Milton, FL.
He is survived by his son, James ‘Jim’ Elbert Peters, Jr. of Huntsville; daughter, Carol Wisdom and son-in-law, Brian Wisdom, of Huntsville; grandson, David Wisdom, his wife, Amanda, and their son, Samford, of Auburn; granddaughter, Caroline Wisdom Mayfield, her husband, Tanner, and their sons, Emmett and Theodore, of Huntsville.
Elbert is also survived by sister-in-law, Gloria Peters of Lakeland, Florida. And many other relatives, primarily in Auburn, other parts of south Alabama and northwest Florida.
Elbert was a member of the Chase Park Church of Christ (formerly Memorial Parkway) in Huntsville for more than 50 years. Prior to that he and his young family were members of the Lincoln Church of Christ in Huntsville for about ten years. He became a Christian at the age of 17 and remained so for more than 80 years. He loved God, family, and country, in that order, and exhibited that love during a life of love and service to others.
He received many honors and recognitions for his service that are too numerous to mention here. Elbert always thought they were more than he deserved. Humility was just one of the Christian traits he tried to acquire.
Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Thursday, January 4, 2024, at Mayfair Church of Christ. The funeral service will follow at 1:00 p.m. with Ron Williams, the preacher for the Lincoln Church of Christ, officiating, although several others will speak. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Auburn Christian Student Center, 439 South College St., Auburn, AL 36830, or a charity of your choice.
