Ivey Griffin, age 81, had come home to Thomasville in Clarke County in 1991 to live and, on May 10, 2025, to die. He leaves the city, county and the people a changed place, a better place.
He had graduated from Livingston State University, now the University of West Alabama. He had been a band director. A truck leasing salesman. A pilot.
In 1991, Ivey Griffin returned to his hometown of Thomasville in Clarke County. He became an agent of change for the good of the people. He bought radio station WJDB. His voice over the airwaves was colorful. He was never shy about expressing his opinions on local and state politics. He always looked out for the common man and rooted for the underdog.
Griffin’s lifelong friend was Bill Armistead, former state senator and state chair of the Alabama Republican Party.
Armistead made the following testimony about Griffin and his impact on life and Clarke County:
Ivey Griffin and I were lifetime friends (80+ years) and we stayed in contact with each other over all of these years. He became active in the Clarke County Republican Party many years ago at my encouragement and later served as Chairman of the Clarke County GOP executive committee. During his time on the committee and as chairman, he was instrumental in recruiting Republican candidates for office and working to get them elected in a once solid-Democrat county.
When I became ALGOP chairman in 2011, my top priority was to elect Republicans at the county level, specifically Probate Judge, Circuit Clerk, and Sheriff, as those are the three election officials in each county. When I explained my plan to Ivey, he took it seriously and in 2012, for the first time in the history of Clarke County, he recruited and worked tirelessly to elect a Republican Probate Judge, Circuit Clerk and Sheriff, plus the Superintendent of Education, multiple members of the Board of Education and County Commission. He persisted in his efforts until we had a majority on both the Board of Education and County Commission. Ivey also worked to recruit and elect the Revenue Commissioner and Coroner. The only countywide Democrat that we were not able to defeat was the License Commissioner, so Ivey convinced her to switch parties, and she did just a few months ago. I may be a little prejudiced about Ivey’s significant accomplishments, but I doubt that there is another county in Alabama (especially in the black belt area) that has converted from solid Democrat control to solid Republican control in such a short period of time.
Griffin’s competitor for gathering the news and for advertising dollars was Jim Cox, longtime publisher of the Clarke County newspapers.
Cox made the following statement in the Thomasville Times:
Ivey was in the radio business, and I was in the newspaper business. He was a staunch Republican and I lean Democratic. You would have thought we would have been at odds but we weren’t; we got along fine, even when we “discussed” politics we listened to what the other had to say. That is unheard of in today’s heated political environment.
Ivey was a gregarious person with a large personality.
Ivey had strong opinions on a lot of things and for years he had a morning on-the-air commentary on local and state politics and other topics. He didn’t pull any punches and he could frequently be at odds with municipal governments, county commissioners, legislators and on up the ladder. He zinged Democrats but sometimes his own Republicans, too.
Ivey was chairman of the Clarke County Republican Party for several years. He encouraged county candidates to run on the GOP ticket and can be credited with flipping a lot of offices. But his zeal also got him crossed up with some of his own party.
Ivey’s earliest years were spent in Campbell where his dad, Buddy Griffin, had a country store. Ivey liked to tell how he, Bill Armistead and Johnny Reid went to a one-room school house in Campbell in the first grade.
Armistead would go on to be a state senator and chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. Ivey recounted the one-room schoolhouse’s closing and the day he was put on the bus for the first time to go to school in Thomasville. “My mother stood there, waving to me, tears running down her cheeks. I don’t know if the tears were for me or the poor teachers who were going to have to deal with me.”
Ivey was always interested in local businesses, in economic development and in the community. We often lamented the changing times as old fogies are apt to do.
The Clarke County Republican Executive Committee passed a resolution honoring Ivey Griffin.
What a difference-making life Ivey Griffin lived. That legacy lives on.
A private graveside memorial service for his family and close friends was held on May 19 at the Choctaw Corner Cemetery in Thomasville, officiated by Rev. Steven Jenks.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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