Dee Hollingsworth

My name is Dianece Nix Hollingsworth and I have lived and raised my family in the Shoals area for the past 66 years.  My family moved here from Michigan when I was five, to the little town of Leighton, AL, where I went all twelve years to Leighton Elementary and Colbert County High School.  My husband, David, and I have three children---Nicole, Kendall, and Justin Hollingsworth---and they have blessed us with seven grandsons, ages 9 to 20, who have mostly all lived and gone to schools around here.  Some of my grandsons have already broken into the music scene here and are excited to take every chance they get to perform publicly.  For more than a decade, I have been a member of the Shoals Concert Band in Florence, where we hold about five concerts per year, our favorite being the W. C. Handy Festival. We perform a lot of jazz music that week in honor of its namesake.  I am also a graduate of the University of North Alabama (UNA), where I graduated cum laude with a BA in Spanish and English.  During the past four decades, I have been a licensed investment agent, and an insurance company manager and trainer.  Also, I have been a teacher of Spanish to Pre-K through high school, and an English as a Second Language instructor to incoming foreign students at the university.  Additionally, I have been a small business entrepreneur for many years, having started and developed several businesses that employed other professionals in the area, and which I eventually sold.  The most well-known of those companies was North Alabama Nursing Agency, Inc. (N.A.N.A., Inc.), based in Killen, AL.  Initially, I started it so that my Mother who was terminally ill with cancer could be cared for around the clock by registered nurses, and have it paid for by her insurance company.  But as its great reputation quickly gained popularity and integrity, it became a much larger company than I ever dreamed it could, gaining patients from as far away as Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, AL, and Nashville, TN, employing as many as 22 RNs full time and a local physician who was always on call.  It was an amazing and very successful business, and I thank God every day for allowing me to discover a way to care for not only my own Mom but also for so many other patients who desperately needed our services.  It was undoubtedly the most rewarding, lucrative venture I have ever made. 

Now....back to the world of real estate, I've seen our wonderful area gradually grow into the thriving metropolis it has become.  Located in a mostly rural area in the northwest corner of Alabama, we are ideally located within just an hour's drive of the states of Mississippi and Tennessee, and also Huntsville, Decatur, and Madison, AL.  We are only two hours from Birmingham, AL, Nashville, and Memphis, TN.  Just a note>>>Huntsville, AL --- about one hour east of us --- has recently been named the best place to live in the whole United States!  However, because of the space industry there, it has grown so rapidly that buying property there has become quite challenging, so many people choose to live in our area because of the availability and price of homes, especially land and farms which are extremely difficult to find in the Madison County/Huntsville area.  But here in the Shoals area, just a few minutes away from Madison and Huntsville, we have an abundance of beautiful farmland, acreage, horse farms, and homes with smaller acreage that are much more available and cost less than those in the Madison County area, and with overall lower taxes and cost of living in general. 

We are blessed to live in a place that has so much to offer in the way of recreation, much of which is a result of having the beautiful Tennessee River running right through the middle of it, such as our highly-prized fishing tournaments held several times a year for not only adult fishermen, but also children and teens.  Plus we have world-renowned golf courses, some of which are on the river, and which draw many people from literally all over the world.  The river is also the source of fantastic waterfront living, with waterfront land and homes selling from under $200,000 to multi-million.  However, we maintain one of the lowest property tax rates in the whole country, which is also a drawing attraction for many visitors and potential home buyers.  Some of our other sources of attraction are the many festivals we have every year which also bring people here from all over the world, among which are the W. C. Handy festival, the Helen Keller Festival, the Renaissance Faire, etc.  We are also extremely proud of our music history and heritage, with several recording studios that have become a world stage as THE place where most famous musicians have come to record in Muscle Shoals and Sheffield, AL.  Many people come here for a visit and decide to stay because of our relatively mild weather and because of all the things that are to do here, and some move here simply because of all the music venues we have locally.  

Why not drop whatever you are doing and check us out on the internet?  Some suggested search inquiries would be:  Muscle Shoals, AL, FAME Recording Studio, Helen Keller home and festival, W.C. Handy Music Festival, North Alabama Bass Fishing, Huntsville, AL Space industry,  and Tuscumbia, AL.  Any of these make for very interesting reading and learning about history---especially Indian history and the Trail of Tears and Lauderdale County, Alabama.  Then, when you get restless, can't stand where YOU live, and decide to check us out for yourself to see what the big secrets are about this place, CALL ME WHEN YOU ARE COMING AND I WILL PERSONALLY SHOW YOU THE WHOLE AREA!!  FREE OF CHARGE!  I look forward to meeting you, and I'll see you when you get here!!