The Remarkable Gift of Irene Teel: Clairvoyant of Clay County, Alabama

Irene Teel, or "Miss Rena," as she was often called, was a well-known and respected member of her small community in east central Alabama. She had a special gift. In her day, some people called her a fortune teller, but that went against her Christian upbringing, so she preferred instead to be called a mind reader. Today, Miss Rena would be considered a psychic or claivoyant, and some of her predictions and insights are inexplicable. This is the story of the remarkable gift of Irene Teel, the clairvoyant of Clay County, Alabama.

Irene Teel, "Miss Rena," circa 1919Photo byClay County Alabama Historical Society Facebook Page

She was born in Coosa County, Alabama, in 1894 as Irene VanSandt, one of four children born to James and Mary "Molly" VanSandt, sometimes spelled VanZandt. They were hard-working people and second-generation farmers. Irene was said to have been born with a veil over her face. This occurs when a baby is born with the amniotic sac intact over their face. In southern folklore, it's believed that a baby born with this "veil" will have special psychic abilities. Irene proved at an early age that she had "the gift."

According to her family, in a 1965 interview for the Anniston Star, Miss Rena's gift became evident to her family when she was very young. When she was four years old, she remarkably told her father exactly where to find a cow that had wandered from the family farm. At age twelve, when Rena cautiously told her mother that her infant brother was going to die, her mother didn't take the warning very seriously as the baby seemed perfectly well. Sadly, three days later, when the baby passed away suddenly, Miss Rena's mother knew that her daughter had indeed had a premonition of his death and that her gift was something to be taken seriously. From that point forward, Miss Rena was encouraged to develop her gift, although in the midst of the Bible Belt of the South, little attention was given to a young woman who could supposedly see the future—something that many likened to witchcraft.

At another point in her life as a young woman, Miss Rena tried to stop a local hanging. The man sentenced to hang had been convicted of rape, but the young Miss Rena insisted that he was innocent. Her pleas fell on deaf ears, and the justice system rolled forward with the hanging. Two years later, another man confessed to the crime. Once again, Miss Rena had been proven correct, and word of her abilities began to spread in the rural communities of east central Alabama.

Miss Rena married Benjamin Riley Teel, and they had two children. The couple was very well respected and loved in their community, mostly for their generosity and willingness to help anyone in need. In a 1977 article in the Anniston Star, one local who knew the Teels said that they had the first and only telephone and car in the rural community of Millersville for quite a while. It wasn't uncommon for them to receive a phone call of an urgent nature with a message that needed delivery to a distant neighbor. Without fail, Mr. Teel would take the message and then ride his mule or take his car and deliver the message promptly. They also drove people to doctor visits and other needed trips. Miss Rena was said to help anyone and everyone who ever presented a need. Her special ability was often called upon.

Teel Homeplace on Highway 9 Millerville, Alabama circa 1977Photo byAnniston Star Archives (via Newspapers.com)

Miss Rena seemed especially proficient in helping people find missing things. She was known for locating animals, such as lost livestock and hunting dogs, with pinpoint accuracy. In the same 1977 Anniston Star article, one local recalled how Miss Rena helped him find a lost sheep. She told him that the next day during dinner, two men would arrive at his house with news of where to find the animal. Amazingly, that's exactly what happened. Miss Rena's abilities went far beyond the scope of a lost animal, however, and in some of her most famous readings, she helped locate a missing child and directed authorities where to find the bodies of two drowning victims. Her accuracy in those readings was astonishing.

A man named Stockley Gravet was one of the drowning victims that Miss Rena helped locate. Although searchers knew the approximate area where he had drowned while fishing in Coosa County, they had been unable to recover his body for several days. When the decision was made to consult Miss Rena, she told them precisely where his body could be found and included several details about the condition of his body. Searchers followed her instructions, recovered the body of Mr. Gravet, and confirmed that the accuracy of her reading was remarkable. Later, when a Sylacauga infant drowned and officials could not recover the body, the mother of the infant requested that Miss Rena be consulted. Miss Rena gave a specific place in the water where the body of the infant would rise from the depths of the water. The mother of the child waited patiently in the exact spot that Miss Rena had given. Two days later, the infant's body rose to the surface of the water at the location and was recovered. Miss Rena also gave readings that led to much happier endings.

In 1949, two-year-old Ricky Tankersly wandered off with his father's hunting dogs in the thick brushy forests that surrounded their home in Sylacauga, Alabama. Little Ricky had been missing for over 15 hours without a trace. After an exhaustive search and with temperatures expected to dip to freezing that February night, the boy's father, in desperation, made the call to consult Miss Rena. Relatives of the boy later recounted that Miss Rena had drawn a map with an X on it to locate where the boy could be found. When her directions were followed, it was exactly the spot where the missing toddler was located. Searchers credited the two dogs with keeping the boy from succumbing to the cold. The boy's father credited Miss Rena with saving his son. Miss Rena's family said that Ricky Tankersly, kept up with Miss Rena throughout his life and visited her often into his adulthood.

Ricky Tankersley, age 2Photo byAcme telephoto uploaded by Gerald Wilcox (findagrave.com)

From 1929 until her death in 1964, Miss Rena did readings for anyone who visited her home in Millerville on Hwy. 9. Over her lifetime, she became very well known for her gift of having visitors from all across the U.S. and from countries as far away as Canada, Japan, and India. That's quite a feat considering that Miss Rena never advertised her services or gave interviews to the media. Her reputation spread simply by word of mouth, from the testimony of the people she helped and the few articles written about her assisting local authorities.

Interestingly enough, Miss Rena's gift and readings were often a point of great controversy, and she was accused of doing "the devil's work" by local townsfolk. That never deterred Miss Rena. She helped anyone who asked—even the very people who dismissed her gift as something evil. Today, sixty years after her death, many people remember Miss Rena. She certainly had an amazing gift - one that she shared freely with her Alabama community and with the world.

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