POWERGRAMS

24 courthouse career. "I gained a real sense of how people were hurting, how you can make things better for some of them. The courtroom was really laid back in the '70s, like Andy and Mayberry … a lot more informal than today. But I admire anyone in public service. People just don't realize what a sacrifice it is to do that." For 40 years, people have recognized Rane's face and voice from the television commercials that first featured Auburn football coach Pat Dye, then Alabama's Gene Stallings and later other coaches across the South. "If it doesn't say Osmose on the yellow tag, believe me, you don't want it," each coach told his regional audience. "No one was interested in the quality of our product, all they cared about was the price," Rane says recalling the dilemma he faced in getting people to buy YellaWood instead of other lumber products. "I needed to find an emotional thread that people could latch onto." The loyalty of college sports fans eventually created a marketplace championship for Rane. The yellow of Great Southern became the wood equivalent of Coca-Cola's red soft drink logo. A brand was created that other lumber companies couldn't compete with, "and it's served us well for a long time," Rane says, "but you still have to provide customers the quality products and services to match the advertising." As he downplays his role in transforming his hometown, Rane's wife, Angela, joins him at a Huggin' Molly's lunch table. "Most people, when they think of Abbeville, they think of you," she says, as Rane responds that a lot of people have taken part in the revitalization. When thinking of Rane, many people can't help but see a man dressed in a yellow cowboy outfit, riding Lemondrop the horse in a Wild West scenario to defeat bad guys. That was his identity for years in YellaWood television commercials. "They said, 'We want you to dress up like this cartoon cowboy,' and I said, 'You got to be kidding!'" Rane recalls of an advertising agency pitch. "But it worked out well …" and he still has the horse, whose real name is Duke. Rane can't bring back the Central Drug Store where he read Superman comic books, or the theater where he reveled in John Wayne's western adventures, or bicycle rides to the depot to watch Southern Railway freight trains drop off packages. There truly is no Utopia, Rane admits, while not backing off trying to get there. "I feel like I still have a duty to serve: It goes back to getting my ticket punched," he says. "As long as He has something for me to do, I want to do it. "I can't change the world, I can't change America, I can't change Alabama, but I can sure change Abbeville." But don't expect the Yella Fella to saddle up again. "I think I saw him riding over the hill into the sunset," Rane says with a laugh. The $40 million initial investment for Abbeville Fiber was the largest in Henry County history. Great Southern has its own trucking company, Greenbush Logistics. PHOTOS COURTESY GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD PRESERVING

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