The Alexander City Outlook

Thomas Marbury

Thomas Marbury, known to most as Toot-Toot, shouldn’t be underestimated.

On most days Toot-Toot, or Too-Too as he is more often called, can be seen greeting people from a bench in front of the police department and for more than five decades he has been a fixture in downtown Alexander City. He is familiar to almost everyone in town and first began coming “up town” when he was about 7 years old.

“Even when he was a little boy he would come downtown,” his sister Alice Thompson-Hall said. “He just loves people and everybody loves him.”

Thompson-Hall said she remembers when Toot, as she calls him, would come downtown to a string of black-owned shops that were then called “the alley.” The alley was a gathering place for the black community during the Civil Rights era.

It consisted of a shoe-shine station, a diner, a beauty supply shop and a taxi station. There, Toot-Toot spent hours with older residents and developed a life-long interest in politics.

“He could talk to an adult as if he was an adult,” former classmate Albert Benson said. “Everybody was just astonished at how he could relate to older people.”

Toot-Toot said his love for elderly people was developed at home.

“I had respect for old people because I was raised up right,” Toot-Toot said. “I was raised up to treat people nice.”

In those days Toot-Toot was a student at Laurel Heights, where he completed school in 1967. In school, like in Alexander City today, everyone knew Toot-Toot, Benson said.

“He trusts people and people just connect with him,” Benson said.

Toot-Toot and Benson still find time to stay in touch. He said one of the most remarkable things about Toot-Toot is his memory.

“Once he meets you and gets to know you, he never forgets you. He doesn’t even forget your name,” Benson said.

Toot-Toot is also known for his interest in state and local government.

His interest in government first began while talking with adults along Bibb Street and has grown ever since. His sister said that when she wants to catch up on what’s going on in the government, she calls him and she said that everyone else could too.

He rarely misses court or a city council meeting and has been on a first-name basis with Alexander City mayors for years. Toot-Toot is also a member of the Alabama Democratic Committee and the Martin Luther King Celebration committee.

“He is just like a neighborhood reporter,” Thompson-Hall said. “If others don’t get to come, but want to know what happened, he’ll tell them.”

These days Toot-Toot lives with his niece, Tomeka Frazier, who said having him for an uncle is like being related to a celebrity. When Frazier is out in town she is recognized, not because of anything she’s done, but because of Toot-Toot.

“Everybody knows Toot and if they don’t see him up town, they always come to check to see how he is,” Frazier said. “He can catch a ride like magic.”

“Toot-Toot, can’t do some things most people can do, but most people can’t do some of the things he does, like storing names like a computer and tracking politics,” Thompson-Hall said.

“He’s got disabilities and abilities,” she said.