Full sun?

Florida Anise-tree (Illicium floridanum) up to 10'
Ebbing's silverberry (ELAEAGNUS x ebbingei)
Devilwood (Osmanthus americanus)
Myrtle holly (Ilex myrtifolia)

The problem with fast growing tall shrubs is that they do require maintenance to keep them from taking over. A shorter shrub, say 6-7' will be easier to cut back periodically.

You must be near Mobile or Dothan? Will your hedge be in full sun? Do you intend to keep it 'flat' and manicured looking, or just want a row of something to do its' thing and block a view? How wide can it be?

You can have flowers as well as evergreen foliage, like Camellias, fragrant olive (Osmanthus,) Azalea/Rhododendron, some of the most common.

Your desired appearance may be for a more uniform appearance, but if you have a hedge of varied genera/species, a disease would be extremely unlikely to wipe the whole thing out.

i like southern wax myrtle, myrica cerifera. said to grow to 10'-20' tall and about 10' wide. i have not seen one taller than that. good source of food for birds, too. can take many site conditions but needs good sun. can also form a colony by suckering.
i would avoid leyland cypress for the reasons you mentioned such as disease and they also can get very large (over 50' tall).

I'd be very interested in knowing how wide the plants can be to suit your purpose. Leylands can and will grow much taller than 50 feet and a very broad width. The pictures you've seen are young plants, very young.

Give us more information on your preferred size and how willing you are to prune on a regular basis.

Old post but I was on here for ideas so I'll bump it. Loroptalum is my top choice bar none, just make sure you don't get a dwarf 3 foot variety. In fact I just planted six at our house that I got from the local farm co op. They had two per pot and I had to subdivide, not bad for 15$. They will grow to about 6-8 with trimming. I also vote for the holly, meyer lemon tree, satsuma, little gem magnolia, banana Magnolia, etc.