A love of small towns, family and friends anchors a father-daughter team of doctors in Tallassee.
Since 1984 Dr. Randal Herring, whom everyone knows as Doc, has been a chiropractor in Tallassee. Nearly 30 years later, Dr. Caroline Herring, Doc’s daughter, followed in his footsteps, joining Herring Chiropractic.
The father-daughter duo wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Every day he comes over to my side and hugs me and tells me he loves me before he leaves,” Caroline said. “You wouldn’t expect that from a manly guy. Over the years our relationship has gotten stronger and more sentimental.”
It’s a relationship that got stronger as Caroline was a teenager in Tallassee — especially surrounding sports; Doc has served as the Tigers’ chiropractor since coming to town in 1984.
“It was a lot of fun as a kid,” Caroline said. “He was always very involved in sports. When I got into cheerleading in school, it got really fun. We would be on the sidelines together. I enjoyed that a lot. It was something we bonded over in athletics with dad not having any sons and me being a typical girly girl.”
That’s not to say the two don’t have their differences. Doc readily admits to never having owned a cell phone and doesn’t have a computer in his home on the Tallapoosa River. It was Caroline who finally updated her dad to computer charts and started marketing the practices on social media and beyond.
“I was in practice the first 30 years with one assistant,” Doc said. “Then Caroline came in September 2013. She promptly hires three or four.”
While technically maintaining separate practices, the Herrings do share in the overhead of their Friendship Road practice. Doc is a sole proprietor and Caroline is a limited liability company (LLC).
“The number of patients has doubled or tripled since she has come on,” Doc said. “She has made a big practice for herself. We probably average 60 to 80 patients per day. Caroline and I together have seen as many as 107 in one day here.”
It was challenging when Dr. Caroline first came on board. The office was just 1,800 square feet as Doc didn’t expect his family would follow in his footsteps.
“For the first six years she was here, we shared the hallway and had just one adjusting room,” Doc said. “We were all over each other.”
Caroline doubled the size of the building providing more room for both practices.
The Herrings’ practices are different. Most of Doc’s patients are between 20 and 60 years old and still in the workforce while Caroline sees mostly infants to 35 years old.
“She has developed a very large pediatric practice,” Doc said. “Probably a third of her patients are under 15. I didn’t target that. I pretty much targeted the varsity football team as a public service.”
Despite developing a large set of practices now, Herring Chiropractic in Tallassee almost didn’t happen. Doc grew up in Port St. Joe, Florida, and graduated with a pre-veterinary medicine degree from Auburn; he intended on going to vet school.
“I didn’t get in,” Doc said. “I could have gone back and worked on my masters and reapplied. When I failed to get in vet school, I applied for chiropractic college.
“I had been exposed to chiropractic all my life. My dad coached football and taught for 10 years. He was a principal for 30 years. He would take us all through school to a chiropractor. If we didn’t need stitches or cast we went to a chiropractor.”
It was a similar path for Caroline. After graduating from Tallassee, she went on to Troy with intentions of going to dental school.
“Something just didn’t seem right about it,” Dr. Caroline said.
She worked a summer with her dad, Doc, and visited her Dad’s alma mater, Life Chiropractic College.
“I loved it and never thought about dentistry again,” Dr. Caroline said.
After getting licensed in chiropractic, Doc went to Lake City, Florida for a year before coming to Tallassee; he didn’t want to return to Port St. Joe because of potential hurricanes.
“We lived one block off the bay and five minutes from the beach,” Doc said.
In August 1984, Doc returned to the area and was waiting for equipment to open his practice. Before he even opened, Doc was already involved in the community as he attended the Tallassee football games on Friday nights.
“I met a couple of the players' fathers,” Doc said. “Some of the boys had some different dings here and there. One of them couldn’t play.”
The player was expected to be out for at least two weeks with a hip pointer but the player’s father hoped Doc could work a little magic.
“For four straight days, he came to my apartment we stayed in for two years before buying the farm,” Doc said. “I started adjusting him on Sunday and adjusted all the way through Thursday.”
The player was able to get back on the field Friday night, but he got hit a few times and his hip locked up.
“We would limp off the sideline to the locker room,” Doc said. “I would adjust him and he would jog back out on the field. He never missed another ballgame.”
That player was his first patient in Tallassee, and he has kept his connection with the football team since that day.
“I was always very interested in the weight room and high school football,” Doc said. “I have been adjusting the football team for 38 years.”
Not only did Caroline follow in her father’s footsteps by joining the chiropractic world, she also had a passion for helping Tallassee students.
“I told him when I got out of school I wanted to do with the cheerleaders what he did with the football team,” she said. “I told (then-cheerleading coach Felicia Jackson) I would love to work with the girls. She has always helped facilitate that.”
With 38 years now under his belt, Doc’s next goal is to make it to 50 years. Even that isn’t as long to be a chiropractor as one might think. According to Doc, Dr. Tom Patterson practiced in Tallassee until he was 97, after a 62-year career. The lengths of service is evident at chiropractic conventions.
“It is not uncommon for 20 to 30 chiropractors every year in Alabama to be between 70 and 90 still practicing,” Doc said. “It’s not a manual labor job. It’s a labor of love. You don’t get hurt adjusting patients.”
With the hours of the practice — Doc works 8 a.m. to noon and 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday — it is a perfect job to accommodate his farm life too.
“I get outside on my farm for two hours everyday,” Doc said. “I lock the door at 6 p.m. for peace and quiet.”
Doc will leave the computers at the office and escape to the farm with five to six different varieties of chicken, Watusi cattle, goats, Guineas, homing pigeons and five dogs.
That’s all on the farm Caroline grew up on with sister Stephanie and mom Elizabeth.
She could have gone anywhere to start her practice but her return to Tallassee has been great. Ten years later, she said it has been a great decision to work with her father.
“It has helped make us really close,” Caroline said. “We talk about business things, personal life. We are going to make sure everyday to hug and say we love each other. He isn’t going to leave without telling me he loves and I value that a lot.”