Hundreds of people gathered Friday morning at the Church of the Highlands to honor the life of Lovelady Center founder Brenda Lovelady Spahn, who died Dec. 18 at age 75.

Spahn helped rehabilitate nearly 20,000 women, many of them former prison inmates or drug addicts, who stayed at the Lovelady Center that she founded in Birmingham in 2004.

Many of the women, who call themselves “the Loveladies,” were in the auditorium for the memorial. But Spahn spiritually rehabilitated others too, including a legendary Birmingham rock musician who sang one of his original songs as a tribute to her.

Kevin Derryberry, former singer and keyboardist for the band Telluride, told his own story of redemption. Derryberry was a songwriter for Telluride who penned one of the band’s best known songs, “Birmingham Tonight.” Telluride was a popular regional rock band that played Birmingham clubs and venues across the South through the 1980s and 1990s.

Derryberry said he met Spahn during his rock and roll days, when she was a tax preparer. He drove to a trailer in Springville and waited in line for her to do his taxes. Like many people Spahn met, they became friends.

“I met the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met in my life, Brenda Lovelady Spahn, ” Derryberry said. “She did my taxes for years.”

Although she made a living preparing taxes, Spahn handed out spiritual advice for free.

“One day when I went in to get my taxes done, I told her, ‘Brenda, I’ve messed up my life. I’m in a rock band and I’ve been drinking and partying. The doctors are giving me six months to live.’ She just sat there and cried and prayed with me.

“She said, ‘God’s got a plan for you, Kevin.’ I said, ‘Brenda, I’m too far away.’ And she said, ‘You’re not that far.’ We sat there and cried and prayed.

“I walked out and I was crying and everybody in line waiting to get their taxes done, they saw me crying and thought, ‘He must owe a lot of money.’ Later that day, it was April 6, 1996, I was in my car. I pulled over to the side of the road. I cried out to God and asked him to forgive me. He did. He changed my heart and gave me a firm place to stand, my Jesus Christ.”

Choking up as he sat at a keyboard telling the story, he held back tears. “I don’t know where I’d be right now if God hadn’t sent Brenda to rescue me.”

He then played a song he wrote recently, “Coming Home, Sweet Jesus,” which he felt inspired by God to write.

“Today I realized it was for you, Loveladies,” he said.

Among the other speakers was Brandi Mizell Jackson, who went to the Lovelady Center in 2008 after she was released from the Tutwiler Prison for Women. She later worked on the staff from 2011-2016.

“She always saw the best in people, no matter where they were in life,” Jackson said. “We are Lovelady strong,” she said, as the women in the audience cheered.

State Sen. Linda Coleman Madison also spoke. “She was a trailblazer,” Madison said. “Her light has not gone out. It shines in you and me.”

Spahn founded the ministry to women in 2004 by inviting seven former inmates of the Tutwiler Prison for Women to live in her home.

She later converted the former East End Hospital in East Lake into a residential center to help women rehabilitate and recover, while also housing their children.

Three years ago, Spahn turned day-to-day leadership of the Lovelady Center over to her daughter, who had been helping her since the beginning of the ministry. Melinda MeGahee now serves as executive director.

MeGahee spoke and recalled when her mother first showed her the old East End Hospital and proposed renovating it as a home for women. It seemed crazy at the time, MeGahee said. “To watch Mom in action was fascinating and sometimes scary,” she said. “She said, ‘Do you know how many lives God can change in a place like this?’”

Her mother could not be persuaded otherwise, she said.

“She had a fire and zeal that only comes from God,” MeGahee said.

You can watch the memorial service on this YouTube video, with Derryberry taking the stage at the one-hour mark of the two-hour service.

Legendary Birmingham rocker sings tribute to Lovelady founder at Church of the Highlands memorial