Hugh E. Crisp exclusively handles personal injury litigation, with an emphasis on medical malpractice and catastrophic injury cases in Arkansas and throughout the Mid-South.
Mr. Crisp is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating for an attorney practicing in the United States and selected by his peers for the highest level of professional excellence for his legal knowledge, communication skills and ethical standards. Mr. Crisp has been recognized on numerous occasions by the Arkansas Times as “One of the Best Lawyers in Arkansas” in the field of medical malpractice. He has been selected by his peers as a Mid-South Super Lawyers honoree for the past 12 years. Mr. Crisp has been selected to the Top 100 High Stakes Litigators in Arkansas by the peer-review process of America’s High Stakes Litigators and named by AY Magazine for many years as one of the top personal injury lawyers in Arkansas. Mr. Crisp has also been selected by Best Lawyers® peer review process recognizing the top lawyers in America in their respective fields of practice.
Mattie Taylor and Randy Hall
NOVEMBER 2024
30 SUNSET DREAMS
Legendary Sunset Tigers football Coach Ed Johnson, a father figure in Little Rock's South End for 50 years, steps away from the sidelines.
By Frederick McKindra
36 A PURPLE PASSION
A love letter to Grapette soda, the Depression-era elixir that sent a south Arkansas company into international markets (and a Walmart near you).
By Dave Anderson
9 THE FRONT
The Vault: A look back at the 1980 nuclear nightmare in Damascus.
Q&A: Congressional candidate Marcus Jones on gerrymandering, leadership and getting over the Hill. Big Pic: Civic pride flies high with these Arkansas city flags.
17 THE TO-DO LIST
Morrissey at the Robinson Center, Creed at Simmons Bank Arena, Hiss Golden Messenger at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, JD McPherson at the White Water Tavern and more.
25 NEWS & POLITICS POLITICAL MOOOVEMENT
Some farmers say selling raw milk shouldn’t be a crime. By Phillip Powell
A RARE WIN
Arkansas’s Supreme Court strikes a blow for democracy. By Matt Campell
76 SAVVY KIDS
How to keep your family's holiday stress to a minimum.
By Tricia Larson
82 CULTURE
Little Rock Repair Shop brings antiques back to life.
By Milo Strain
86 CANNABIZ
Budtenders’ holiday recommendations. By Matt
McNair
98 THE OBSERVER
Girls, music and the Prescott Sonic.
several substantial restoration projects around the state, including the
ON THE COVER: Michael Crenshaw, owner of the Little Rock Repair Shop, works his magic on an antique lamp. The shop is responsible for
Over-the-Jumps Carousel at the Little Rock Zoo. Photo by Brian Chilson.
THE NITE OWL: JD McPherson will perform at the White Water Tavern on Nov. 7.
JOSHUA BLACK WILKINS
EVENING WITH US! SPEND AN
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BOMBS AWAY
IN
1980, AN EXPLOSION AT A DAMASCUS NUCLEAR MISSILE SILO ENDED THE TITAN II PROGRAM.
BY WALTER PINCUS
Walter Pincus, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, provided the Arkansas Times with this special report on the Sept. 19, 1980, Titan II disaster near Damascus. On that morning, an explosion in a missile silo blew a 9-megaton hydrogen bomb 100 feet into the air, destroying the launch site and killing an airman. It was one of the most infamous and potentially catastrophic episodes of the Cold War, culminating more than a year later in the government’s decision to shutter the Titan II missile program.
This story, published in the January 1981 issue, serves as a reminder of the perils of the nuclear age.
John Stacks stood in the grassy part of the field on his farm near Bee Branch. Behind him about 1,000 feet was his barn and house. In front of him was a road, then a gully and up a slight rise he pointed to his “neighbor,” bounded by a 15-foothigh chain link fence. Stretching beyond was a flat, cleared area, in the center of which lay the visible part of John Stacks’ neighbor, an enormous rounded slab of cement, and the antennae and other equipment poking up from the ground.
John Stacks’ neighbor that morning in May 1980 was buried under the ground within that chain link fence, under the cement slab. It was one of the world’s oldest land-based, intercontinental missiles, a liquid-fueled, U.S. Air Force Titan II whose warhead contained a hydrogen bomb with the explosive power of
nine megatons. That’s the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT, or explosive power equal — roughly — to 750 times the bomb dropped on Hiroshima 35 years ago.
From John Stacks’ point of view, the Titan II had not been a very good neighbor. He understood it was there to help protect this country from the Russians. But his worry that particular May day was who was going to protect him and his neighbors from the Titan II missile?
Nearly two-and-one-half years before, on a snowy January morning in 1978, John Stacks and his hired helper, Barton Williams, had been out in that same field working with one of his cows. He saw a reddish-orange cloud coming from the missile site, and he smelled an unusual rotten eggs odor, but he didn’t think much about it. He and Williams worked several hours out there and it wasn’t until later
AFTERMATH: Crews clean up the Titan II missile silo in Damascus following a 1980 explosion.
an explosion during modification work on a silo near Searcy, but Titan II’s recent problems started really with the Damascus leak in January 1978. The Air Force doesn’t see it that way. Its commanders, for example, didn’t even convene an accident investigation board for the Damascus leak that dosed Stacks and Williams and others, including Van Buren County Sheriff Gus Anglin. But the people around the site began to worry and Sheriff Anglin first raised the question of a warning siren. Then in August 1978, a Titan II site near Rock, Kansas, had a serious accident. During a fuel loading, a hose popped off, the deadly oxidizer sprayed out and, when it was over, two men had died and 19 others were hospitalized. That brought an Air Force investigation and the beginning of concern on the part of people in Kansas as well as Arkansas about Titan IIs.
With the public concern came congressional interest. Senators and congressmen began raising questions about the Titan IIs. A Kansas Democrat, Rep. Dan Glickman, got the Air Force to admit in October 1979 that from 1975 through 1979 over 130 leaks on Titan II missiles had occurred that were serious enough to require the fuel and oxidizer to be downloaded. In addition, during the same period, what the Air Force described as 29 major health problems were associated with Titan IIs and another 61 minor ones.
in the day that he learned the colored fumes and the smell were associated with the leak of a deadly chemical compound, nitrogen tetroxide, one element that gives the Titan II the power to rocket into space. But, that same chemical vapor does terrible things to human cells. Now, more than two years later, Stacks and Williams both suffered from headaches and respiratory problems and both have filed lawsuits against the companies that made the Titan II and the equipment from which the vapors leaked. Under the law, they couldn’t sue the Air Force.
Stacks didn’t want the missile taken out. All he and many others who had survived the 1978 accident asked for was some kind of siren warning system. They wanted to know if anything went wrong so they could gather up their wives and children and aged relatives and get away before something happened that could cause panic or, worse, a catastrophe. That was his main concern last May. But the Air Force was opposed to a warning system. The reason, Stacks had been told, was that the missilemen were certain the Titan II was safe and that putting in a siren would just make people unnecessarily nervous.
But what occurred at the Titan II missile site near John Stacks’ farm at 3 a.m. Sept. 19 last year was far worse than the January 1978 leak.
We’ve all heard the story of how it happened. The 8-pound socket wrench fell, bounced off a portion of the missile near the bottom and hit the fuel tank, punching a hole in it. The fuel leaked, beginning at about 6:30 p.m.; the missile crew evacuated the underground control capsule about 8:30 p.m.; the missile exploded at 3 a.m.
The blasts came one at a time, two rapid explosions, according to the airmen who were standing at the perimeter fence waiting for two buddies who had gone down into the missile entrance about 10 minutes earlier to check the vapor levels. The 700-ton steel and cement door above the missile was blown off and the 14-foot-high warhead was catapulted into the night. According to witnesses, there was a momentary pause, and then a belch of liquid flame spread out from the hole that had been the silo and it rose like a licking red tongue 200 feet into the air.
Back in August of 1965, 53 civilians died in
A lot of people believe that the one thing to do with the Titan IIs is retire them. Proof the military has had no real use for them since the 1960s is that the Air Force has never seen fit to harden the cement that protects them, armor that can resist only up to 300 pounds per square inch of pressure. Meanwhile, the Minuteman missile silos have been hardened twice since they were deployed and now are supposed to withstand a Soviet missile explosion of up to 2,500 pounds per square inch pressure.
In strategists’ terms, the Air Force is ready to lose the Titan IIs to any Soviet first strike.
Why do we keep them? Primarily because, although there are only 52 of them, with their 9-megaton warheads, the Titan IIs represent just over one-third of the total explosive power in the U.S. land-based ICBM force. The 1,000 Minutemen represent roughly 820 megatons. Four hundred and fifty of the missiles have single 1-megaton warheads. The remaining 550 carry three bombs in the warhead, each with only 175 kilotons. (These are now being replaced with 340-kiloton payloads.) The total power for all U.S. land-based systems is about 1,300 megatons. The Russians with their 1,400 ICBMs have, according to intelligence reports, about 6,000 megatons. If numbers alone are considered important, as some people argue, the U.S. needs to keep the Titan IIs just to stay
GROUND LEVEL: A Titan II silo, with the blast door open and the tip of the missile visible inside.
within 20 to 25 percent of the total megatonnage in the Soviets’ arsenal. However, megatonnage alone is not that important. The Minuteman, although they have much smaller warheads, are much more accurate than the Titan IIs and so make up for in accuracy to a great degree what the Titans have in explosive power.
SAC commander Gen. R.H. Ellis likes to talk about the Titan IIs as the only thing we have to cover “economic and industrial targets,” which is another name for cities. Of course, under the new American targeting doctrine, those are not the first targets the U.S. would aim for under our limited nuclear war fighting plan. And by the time we got around to firing Titan IIs in such a conflict, they clearly would no longer be there.
To make Gen. Ellis and other strategists happy, perhaps the U.S. could aim some of our
new bomber-carried bombs at Titan IIs’ present targets and thus at least keep up the myth that there are some things in the Soviet Union that have to be covered for the third, fourth or fifth exchange of nuclear weapons.
But while the strategists in Washington and SAC headquarters in Omaha wrestle with their numbers and hypothetical targets, who is going to take care of the airmen who risk their necks every day patching up the Titan IIs? One wonders if Gen. Ellis and his high-ranking military and civilian colleagues would continue to think of Titan IIs only as numbers if they had to descend regularly into the silos, tools hanging from their suits, turning wrenches and twisting off connecting hoses, never knowing where the next one will pop or burst or puncture, letting out drops, a thin spray or a flood of deadly fuel or oxidizer or both.
ROCKET, MAN: A Titan II missile nestled inside its silo.
‘TIMES ARE DIFFERENT NOW’ A Q&A
WITH MARCUS JONES.
The first two people candidate Marcus Jones called when he decided to run for Congress in Arkansas’s 2nd District were state Sen. Clarke Tucker and former state Sen. Joyce Elliott. That choice makes good sense. Both Tucker and Elliott were promising Democratic candidates with formidable experience and a passion for policy — and both were unsuccessful in their attempts to unseat incumbent French Hill from the U.S. House seat he’s held since 2015. So what does Jones have that Tucker and Elliott didn’t? The retired Army colonel is, if you ask him, “a different kind of Democratic candidate with a different background.” His veteran status might help him get his foot in the door, Jones said, "in places other Democrats haven't been able to reach." His experience as a field artillery officer in Kuwait and as program director at NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway, he said, have equipped him with experience leading complex organizations in situations that demand careful strategy. “On top of all that,” he told us, “times are different now than they were in previous years, and Arkansans are ready for something different.” We talked with Jones about why it’s time for Arkansas to get over the Hill.
CURRENTLY READING: Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest.” It’s an interesting look at the few months between Lincoln’s election and the outbreak of the Civil War.
HISTORICAL FIGURE YOU’D HIT UP FOR ADVICE:
Ulysses S. Grant for strategy; the Vicksburg Campaign isn't studied nearly enough. Dwight Eisenhower for planning. Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln for advice about leadership in challenging circumstances. Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson on how to get things done in Congress. If I were able to ask a nonhistorical figure that's no longer with us, I'll say my dad.
What role do you think the 2020 redistricting will play in your race?
Clearly, it plays a large role. The gerrymandering of the 2nd District did exactly what the Arkansas Legislature intended it to do — it diluted the influence of Black voters in Pulaski County and gave my opponent a more solid footing. This is a prime example of representatives selecting their voters instead of voters selecting their representatives. But I'll say this: We've had incredible success campaigning and connecting with voters in Cleburne County and throughout the district.
What are your top three issues?
In Congress, I will prioritize reducing inflation and boosting access to affordable health care for families, women and seniors. Prices are too high and working families are struggling to get by. We need to reduce their tax burden and expand the child tax credit. Additionally, we have far too many hospital, ambulance and maternal care deserts. This impacts Arkansans' health and quality of life.
I'll prioritize veterans' issues and services. As a veteran myself, I am uniquely qualified to understand their concerns and champion legislation to have a lasting effect on VA improvements. And national security. Whether the issue is supporting our alliances abroad, protecting our national interests or our southern border, my experience makes me the most qualified candidate in this race to address these issues. I'm ready, on day one, to protect Americans and Arkansans.
What difference might the average Arkansan see if you were to win this race?
They'll see one of their own. I'm a public school-educated, middleclass, average Arkansan. Their values will be reflected in the votes I cast because I know how to meet them where they are, hear their concerns and represent our people, not corporations.
Being a Democrat in a red state is brutal. Why did you decide to run?
I get this question all the time, and it always makes me wonder if anyone asks my opponent why he continues to run. As for me, I was lucky that my final assignment brought my family and me back to Arkansas after serving across the country and around the world. The political landscape here had changed dramatically, and I saw a lack of effective representation and leadership. I made the decision to fill that void and work to deliver on opportunity and possibility for Central Arkansas.
—Lara Farrar
BRIAN CHILSON
FLAG SWAG
THE GREATEST AND STRANGEST CITY FLAGS IN ARKANSAS.
BY DANIEL GREAR AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE
The business of city flags in Arkansas is, to put it generously, inconsistent. Cities aren’t required to have them, so plenty of cities — even relatively large ones like Springdale and Jonesboro — have never gone to the trouble of coming up with one because, well, maybe they had better things to do? There also don’t seem to be any rules governing their aesthetics; designs have sprung from the hands of schoolchildren and professionals alike. And, we found, some of the best-looking flags floating around the internet are more aspirational than official. We’ve assembled some of our favorite finds, chosen either because they’re genuinely inspired, kinda goofy or somewhere in between.
SILOAM SPRINGS
It’s clearly time for an enterprising designer to update the Siloam Springs flag, y’all. While this gazebo — the flag’s main point of interest — is quaint enough, Siloam’s come a long way, baby. There’s a whitewater kayaking park there now, and a lakeside bike park, plus a charming downtown area with a great independent coffee shop called Pour Jon’s and a sweet little brewery called Ivory Bill. Our two cents: It’s high time Siloam’s flag extolled its non-gazebo glories.
FAYETTEVILLE
Of course Fayetteville — long considered the state's intellectual hive — would be the type to include classical language on its flag, right? Bunch of wiseguys. Then again, the Latin phrase etched across a mountainside in the flag's imagery is Arkansas’s very own state motto, “Regnat populus,” which translates to “the people rule.”
ROGERS
As city flags go, this one has it all: the clever use of foreshortening for perspective, the color cohesion, the nod to historic and modern architecture, the incorporation of important city landmarks like the Frisco locomotive and Osage Creek. The only way this Rogers flag could be more fitting is if you took the Bentonville flag and overlapped the two slightly at Rogers’ top left.
LITTLE ROCK
Unlike most of the other banners we came across, the symbolism undergirding Little Rock’s flag has an accessible explanation. Written into Article 1 of the city’s Code of Ordinance is a description that leaves little room for interpretation, one that, most importantly, identifies the mound in the middle as “La Petite Roche,” the protruding formation named by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe when he passed through Little Rock in 1722. Another detail from the oddly thorough city code: The intersecting blue and green stripes “symbolize the location and stature of Little Rock — a city serving not only as the crossroads of Arkansas, but a crossroad of the midsouthern United States as well.” Makes us sound important, eh?
HOT SPRINGS
Few things say “1993” like Hot Springs’ city flag. And while there’s nothing wrong with that aesthetic, can we all agree that it seems a little tame for a town that brews beer with steaming springwater, entertains the gambling masses at the horse races and hosts the ghosts of bygone gangsters?
SHERWOOD
No shade to Sherwood, but earlier iterations of their flag were a lot cooler. Now limited to merely stripes, blocky type and a modern flourish approximating a bow and arrow, the older versions actually depicted Robin Hood — tunic and all — shooting said arrow. The 1976 design even included what appears to be a handcrafted Gothic font. The connection between the Central Arkansas town and the famously unconventional philanthropist, for anyone unfamiliar with the lore: Early versions of the Robin Hood fable place him and his merry men in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. City of Mayflower Item Number: A012AM Salesperson: KK Artist: TW
MAYFLOWER
We only put two flags sporting trains on this list, but you’d be surprised by just how many locomotives show up on city banners throughout Arkansas. Maybe it’s that they quickly convey progress or auspiciousness? Of all the trains we encountered, Mayflower’s most resembles the childlike affability of Thomas the Tank Engine, which endears us to it. Like so many city flags, this one was designed by a student in the local district. Kudos, Tyler Weaver.
HAMBURG
The Hamburg flag pictured above may or may not be authorized. When we stumbled upon the quaint, Wes Anderson-esque banner on the Wikipedia page for the Southeast Arkansas town of fewer than 3,000 people, we were instantly charmed, only to be told by a Hamburg official that they don’t actually have a flag and that what we had discovered was the city’s seal, superimposed atop a flag-like rectangle. A 2020 article (with a picture and video, no less!) from monticellolive.com titled “Sue Nolan Presented Hamburg Flag, After Retirement from City Council,” however, suggests otherwise. Real or imagined, it might be our favorite city flag in the state.
MAUMELLE
According to the city of Maumelle’s website, there are no “confirmed definitions” for the slick trio of interlocking bands that bedazzle their flag. Many speculate, they claim, that the rings represent Maumelle’s “three values”: live, work and play. In our estimation, live, laugh, love might be a better fit, given what we might kindly call the “cultural homogeneity” of the affluent Little Rock suburb that bloomed in the 1970s and incorporated in 1985.
AMITY
With an estimated population of 676, the Clark County city of Amity is the tiniest town on our list. While the slightly amorphous tree dominating their flag is hard to identify, we appreciate their commitment to mustardy simplicity. We’ve never met anyone from Amity, but this flag communicates to us that its residents (Amitians?) are a modest group.
Complex. Painful. Provocative. These are a few of the adjectives used over the years to describe mononymous singer-songwriter Morrissey. The former vocalist for long-defunct Brit pop group The Smiths expressed some alarming views on race and other hot-button topics in his native England, leading some in the music press — not to mention more than a few fans — to question their admiration for the crooner of such controversy-courting tracks as “The Queen Is Dead” and “Meat Is Murder.” Famous for his edgy lyrics, Morrissey serves up sarcasm without limits, as demonstrated on his 2004 solo album, “You Are the Quarry,” which opens with the scathing “America Is Not the World.” Still, Moz packs an arsenal of beloved tunes dating back to the ’80s, when many considered The Smiths one of the world’s best bands. Truly dedicated Morrissey/ Smiths fans can hear Memphis-based Louder Than Bombs play a White Water Tavern cover show at 6 p.m. the night before. Get tickets at ticketmaster.com and whitewatertavern.com. DM
CREED
SUNDAY 11/3. SIMMONS BANK ARENA. 7 P.M. $39.50-$225.
Maybe Instagram and TikTok have fried my brain, but doesn’t it feel like the tide has turned on bands like Creed? OK, no one’s exactly bowing at the ultra-earnest throne of late ’90s post-grunge these days, but it does seem like what were once the objects of outright derision by the cool kids are now thought of with something resembling semi-ironic affection, right? Is it just nostalgia, or is sincerity back in fashion? The world may never know. All I can say is, for the first time in my life I wouldn’t mind having my face rocked off by a singer with the hilariously wholesome audacity to ask if someone — anyone — can take him higher, to a place where blind men see, to a place with golden streets. 3 Doors Down and Mammoth WVH, fronted by Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang, are set to open. Get tickets at ticketmaster.com. DG
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER
THURSDAY 11/14. ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. 7:30 P.M. $47.
The voice of MC Taylor, the songwriting engine behind acclaimed North Carolina project Hiss Golden Messenger, crackles like kindling in a backyard fire pit, alive with ruffled spontaneity but ultimately contained. While Hiss Golden Messenger’s early albums were quieter, more contemplative affairs, the group’s latest — which Rolling Stone called “a whirlwind ride of rock and folk elements that is both playful and bouncy, with a lightness of spirit” — provides Taylor and his band with more room to mess around. “When I was writing the material for ‘Jump for Joy,’” he told Nashville Scene last year, “I was trying to stack the deck a little bit and create music that actually could all be played live.” Tracks like “Nu-Grape” and “Shinbone” make it abundantly clear that he succeeded. Get tickets at arkmfa.org. DG
One of the great modern Halloween traditions entails a band donning the musical identity of another — perhaps one of canonical status, perhaps one that sounds nothing like the first — for a single night, performing a full set’s worth of cover songs in a manner somewhere between convincing and chaotic. If the whole thing ecstatically implodes, that’s not far from the point. Thanks to Crash Cast Podcast host Kurt Lunsford, a beloved Central Arkansas live music photographer with a reputation for shooting as many shows as humanly possible, you’ll have eight opportunities over two spooky nights to see a local act do their best (or worst) impersonation of a famous group they admire. Night one features Lumina as HIM, The Gumdrops as Radiohead, Buckshot Princess as Misfits, and Jon Bailey and the Heathen Revival as Tyler Childers; night two features Jupiter’s Flytrap as Tame Impala, Diet Sweets as Alice in Chains, Second Life as Hatebreed, and Stays in Vegas as Nirvana. Get tickets at the door. DG
In “Still Walking” (2008), Japanese filmmaker Hirakazu Kore-eda concocts a complicated family reunion that unfolds over a period of approximately 24 hours. The reason for the gathering is less-than-festive: an annual marking of the anniversary of the eldest son’s accidental drowning 12 years prior, which happened while he was saving the life of a young boy. Joining surviving brother Ryota on the pilgrimage home is his new wife, Yukari, and her son from a previous marriage. Unsurprisingly, tension trumps feelings of togetherness. Ryota’s parents disapprove of him having married a widow, believing it’s bad luck. And his father also harbors bitterness over his decision to disavow the family business and not become a doctor. An appearance by Yoshio — the now25-year-old who survived — makes it clear that Ryota’s parents not so secretly wish that he had died instead of their son. Get tickets at riverdale10.com. OJ
JD MCPHERSON
THURSDAY 11/7. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M. $30.
JD McPherson’s influences are all over his latest album, “Nite Owls.” On tracks like “The Rock and Roll Girls,” the Oklahoma native channels Dick Dale-esque surfer-dude guitars (think “Misirlou” from “Pulp Fiction”) while his vocal aesthetic dials up comparisons to Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. Just because McPherson has his heroes doesn’t make him unoriginal, though. You’ve never heard anything quite like this, and if a mashup of garage rock, blues, rockabilly and more might be your thing, you shouldn’t miss out. Get tickets at whitewatertavern.com. DM
JOSHUA
BLACK WILKINS
ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: ‘BEETHOVEN AND BLUE JEANS’
SATURDAY 11/2-SUNDAY 11/3. ROBINSON
CENTER 7:30 P.M. SAT. 3 P.M. SUN. $15-$93.
Remember the scene in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” where Harrison Ford, as intrepid archaeologist Dr. Jones, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as his goddaughter Helena Shaw, sing “da-da-da-dummm” in a cave? No? We don’t, either. (Terrible movie.) But the famous explorer and his less-well-known sidekick were quoting the most popular work of Ludwig van Beethoven, namely the composer’s legendary Symphony No. 5 in C minor, which maestro Geoffrey Robson, music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, will conduct alongside performances of contemporary Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s “Antrópolis” and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, which spotlights visiting cellist Andrei Ioniță. (Beethoven’s Fifth has also featured prominently in such films as “The Breakfast Club” and “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”) Before the performance, ticket holders can enjoy a street party on West Markham Street in front of Robinson Center starting at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Patrons are encouraged to wear their most classical music-friendly blue jeans. Get tickets at arkansassymphony.org. DM
VITAMIN STRING QUARTET
SUNDAY 11/3. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS, REYNOLDS PERFORMANCE HALL, CONWAY. 7 P.M. $20-$50.
Do you like Taylor Swift? What about Billie Eilish, The Weeknd or BTS? Of course you do. Now imagine these artists’ most popular songs reinterpreted by a classical string ensemble. The Vitamin String Quartet has been mixing genres for decades with some of the world’s most beloved FM radio hits and beyond. Nothing gets the blood pumping like their version of “Seven Nation Army.” Seriously. They’re pretty good at outside-the-box thinking. Vitamin String Quartet brings its unique crossover sound to the University of Central Arkansas for renditions of tunes across Swift’s gargantuan discography, as well as picks from their soundtrack work on Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” which includes Nirvana’s “Stay Away,” Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” and Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.” Get tickets at uca.edu/publicappearances. DM
‘SAY IT AIN’T SAY’S’ SWEET POTATO PIE CONTEST
SUNDAY 11/3. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER. 1 P.M. FREE.
“Making people uncomfortable is what Robert McIntosh does best,” wrote Mike Trimble in a 1989 Arkansas Times profile of the late Little Rock restaurateur, philanthropist and erratic political provocateur better known as “Say.” It’s a perfect description for McIntosh’s inspired antics as a public figure, but it fails to encapsulate his well-loved sweet potato pies, which were anything but discomfort-inducing. In celebration of McIntosh’s legacy and as an early kickoff to the Thanksgiving holiday season, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is hosting its annual “Say It Ain’t Say’s” sweet potato pie contest, which welcomes amateurs and professionals to submit scratch-made pies to be assessed according to their taste (“flavor should be the primary focus, with a well-balanced sweetness”), crust (“the crust should be well-executed, complementing the original filling”), creativity (“unique takes on the traditional sweet potato pie are encouraged”), presentation (“appearance matters; pies should look as good as they taste”) and overall impression (“the pie as a whole will be evaluated for its overall quality and appeal”). A panel of judges will pick the winners, but audience members will vote on their favorites as well, so come hungry. Attendees are encouraged to bring a toy for the Robert “Say” McIntosh Stop the Violence Toy Drive. DG
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Logan
easier for Arkansans to buy unpasteurized milk.
‘RAW MILK REVOLUTION’
SELLING UNPASTEURIZED MILK SHOULDN’T BE A CRIME, SOME FARMERS SAY.
BY PHILLIP POWELL
In October, Logan Duvall’s farmers market, Me & McGee, got a visit from the Arkansas Department of Health. Inspectors were there to investigate a complaint that the market was selling raw milk, albeit labeled for pet consumption.
Laws governing the sale of unpasteurized milk vary from state to state. In Arkansas, raw milk can be purchased only on the farm where it was produced, and farmers are limited to selling 500 gallons a month.
So Duvall had to throw out his raw milk stock to stay out of trouble with the health department. Now, he’s leading what he calls a “raw milk revolution,” aiming to roll back the regulations that make it hard for people to buy fresh milk that hasn’t undergone highheat pasteurization to kill potentially harmful bacteria.
“The catalyst for being here was that we got turned in to the health department for selling raw milk as pet’s milk,” Duvall said at a
rally at Me & McGee in North Little Rock on Oct. 17. That visit from the health department led Duvall to research Arkansas laws around local food sales, he said. "What is governing our food production? And how does that affect consumers and affect the access for people getting the food that they want?”
By labeling raw milk as a product for pets, Duvall said he was using a loophole that allows small markets to sell unpasteurized milk to customers. But he also clearly labeled the product in his store as raw milk, and he told the Arkansas Times that he would never try to mislead consumers about a product.
Raw milk is unpasteurized, meaning it hasn’t been heated to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says consumption of unpasteurized milk can lead to numerous health issues, from gastric distress to more severe outcomes like Guillain-Barré syndrome or even death. The CDC also says children under
RAW PASSION:
Duvall of Me & McGee aims to launch a ‘Raw Milk Revolution’ to make it
BRIAN CHILSON
A Traditional Pharmacy with Eclectic Gifts Rhea Drug Store
5, adults over 65, pregnant people and people with weakened immune systems are at a higher risk.
But raw milk aficionados consider raw milk to be more nutritious and tasty, and they want the freedom to buy it more easily.
Joy Ballard has eight dairy cows and initially began producing milk and cheese for her family. Her farm is in New Blaine, a small, unincorporated community in Logan County. She exclusively sells raw milk from her small dairy operation and says she has a waitlist for customers.
“Capping production at 500 gallons a month is kind of silly,” Ballard said. “A cap is unnecessary. If someone can produce a lot with good healthy standards, then more power to them. We have a waitlist. And when we have a customer who changes location and can’t come to me anymore, I have someone step into their
Ballard told the Arkansas Times that agriculture has evolved since the early 1900s, when raw milk consumption led to many health issues. She said she produces a high quality, natural product that people enjoy.
“Let people make their own choices! If I can go down to the store and buy cigarettes and alcohol that routinely kill people, why can’t I choose raw dairy?” Ballard said.
John Ballard, who is not related to Joy Ballard, also exclusively sells raw milk, which he produces at his farm in Bonnerdale in Hot Spring County. A young couple who spoke at the rally said they sometimes drive 160 miles roundtrip to buy milk at John Ballard’s farm. Joy Ballard and John Ballard hope the market for raw milk will become more open, giving small farms like theirs more economic opportunities and giving people who enjoy raw milk greater access to the product.
“We’ve made it extremely challenging for consumers that want raw dairy if we are limiting them by making them travel an hour, an hour and a half, three hours to get this milk,” Duvall said. “And again, I can’t see what that has to do with public health.”
Duvall emphasized that dairy farmers often do not have the time to sell directly from their farms, and that markets like Me & McGee support smaller, local farmers. He wants to help farmers sell their products locally, and limit regulations that prevent local growers and consumers from buying and eating locally.
Once the domain of hippie whole fooders, the raw milk cause is earning headlines nationally as it’s embraced by high-profile conservatives. Controversial U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), for example, recently tweeted that “Raw Milk does a body good.”
“I AM NOT TRYING TO FORCE YOU TO DRINK RAW MILK. WE’RE JUST TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE WHO WANT THAT CAN GET IT.”
But supporters of allowing easier access to raw milk in Arkansas say it’s not a partisan issue.
Duvall drafted a broad framework for regulatory change that he calls “The Arkansas Prosperity and Food Sovereignty Act.” It calls for allowing raw milk to be sold in farmers markets and retail outlets as long as it’s properly labeled as unpasteurized. He also called for liability protection for milk producers and retailers.
State Rep. Karilyn Brown (R-Sherwood) made an appearance at Duvall’s October rally and spoke favorably about the proposals. Arkansas lawmakers can begin filing bills for the 2025 legislative session as early as Nov. 15, and Brown said several draft bills were already floating around the Legislature.
“I am not trying to force you to drink raw milk. We’re just trying to make sure that people who want that can get it,” Duvall said. “Nobody is trying to make someone else sick. The safety and health and wellness are extremely important to me.”
How often do we face true, unforgiving wilderness?
How far would you go for the trip of a lifetime?
What would you sacrifice for adventure?
Broadcast Premiere Thursday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m.
PLOT TWIST: County election officials made the quote on the Crittenden County Courthouse seem Orwellian until the Arkansas Supreme Court got involved.
OCTOBER SURPRISE
THE STATE’S HIGH COURT STRUCK A SURPRISING BLOW FOR DEMOCRACY THIS ELECTION CYCLE.
BY MATT CAMPBELL
It is an understatement to say the Arkansas Supreme Court has not exactly covered itself in glory in recent years, with every hot-button issue seemingly resulting in a political decision poorly disguised as legal reasoning. Just look at the court’s contortion of the law this summer, when it kept the Arkansas Abortion Amendment off the ballot by a vote of 4-3. The halcyon days of a quiet, professional court with jurists like George Rose Smith and Tom Glaze and Don Corbin are barely visible anymore in the state’s rearview mirror.
Against that backdrop, it seemed likely the high court would find a way to reverse a lower court decision that established early voting in West Memphis ahead of the November election. Instead, the Supreme Court affirmed the ruling and went even further, ordering county election commissioners to operate not one, but two early voting sites in the city.
In so doing, the justices rebuffed the county and Attorney General Tim Griffin, chose democracy over helping a Republican legisla-
tive candidate, and ensured one of the largest Black population centers in the Delta can vote early like everyone else. It was a rare win for democracy in a state where such victories have been few and far between for quite a while.
‘THERE IS NO EARLY VOTING PLACE FOR WEST MEMPHIS’
The Crittenden County Board of Election Commissioners, like all such boards around the state, is composed of two Republicans and one Democrat. On Aug. 23, the three Crittenden County election commissioners — Chair Frank Barton (R), Anita Bell (R) and James Pulliaum (D) — discussed whether to move early voting in West Memphis from the First Baptist Church, where it had been held in 2022, to the West Memphis Library. Barton and Bell voted yes, but Pulliaum voted no.
Under state law, a commission’s decision on where to hold early voting must be unanimous. Pulliaum, the Democrat, pushed for early voting at the Seventh Street Church of Christ instead. Nobody budged. Chairman
Barton declared an impasse. "There is no early voting place for West Memphis," he said.
The next day, Michael Ford, chairman of the Crittenden County Democratic Party, asked Barton to call an emergency meeting so that Pulliaum could change his vote to support using the public library for early voting. But Barton declined, leaving West Memphis with no early voting site at all.
The Republican commissioners may have had their own impetus to keep early voting away from West Memphis: Commissioner Bell’s daughter-in-law, Tammi Bell, is the Republican candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives in District 63. Tammi Bell, who is white, is running for the open seat against Hughes Mayor Lincoln Barnett, who is Black. The largest city in District 63, by far, is West Memphis, where the population is 65% Black. Limiting voting in West Memphis only to Election Day would likely benefit Bell, since it would prevent Barnett from building a lead in the district’s heavily Black population center.
BRIAN CHILSON
Taking matters into her own hands, Crittenden County Clerk Paula Brown named the Seventh Street Church of Christ in West Memphis as an early voting site under a state law allowing the clerk to designate such a site irrespective of any sites established by the election commissioners. Barton quickly made it known that the county election commission would not provide ballots, equipment or staff for the Seventh Street location.
On Sept. 19, West Memphis voters Shirley P. Brown and Lavonda L. Taylor sued the county and the three election commissioners in their official capacities. The plaintiffs asked the circuit court to declare that early voting in West Memphis would be held at both the First Baptist Church and the Seventh Street Church of Christ. The women also asked the court to declare the commissioners’ determination that there would be no early voting in West Memphis unlawful and order the commissioners to take all necessary steps to ensure both sites were set up for early voting.
Following two days of testimony, Circuit Judge Chris Thyer ruled the county clerk had legal authority to designate the Seventh Street location for early voting and that the commissioners lacked jurisdiction to alter her decision. Thyer ruled against the plaintiffs, however, as far as opening up early voting at the First Baptist Church in West Memphis. Thyer also strongly encouraged both sides to appeal so the Supreme Court could clarify any ambiguities in the law and answer underlying questions about the relative powers of county clerks and county election commissioners.
‘UNFETTERED DISCRETION’
The Crittenden County commissioners appealed the portion of the decision related to the Seventh Street location. The plaintiffs cross-appealed on the First Baptist Church issue. The Supreme Court expedited the case and ordered all briefing completed by Oct. 14.
On Oct. 15, Attorney General Tim Griffin waded into the fray with a friend-of-the-court brief in which he argued a position even more extreme than the Republican commissioners’. In Griffin’s view, the county clerk could only designate an early voting location within her physical offices inside the county courthouse.
The circuit court’s order, Griffin said, “disrupts the balance of power between the county board of election commissioners and the county clerk, and grants unfettered discretion to one county official.” He asked the Supreme Court to reverse the circuit court and order no early voting to occur in West Memphis in 2024.
Two days after Griffin filed his brief, the Supreme Court shot his argument down along with those of the Crittenden County commissioners.
On the commissioners’ direct appeal, a unanimous court held that the county clerk
clearly had the authority to designate an early voting site anywhere in the county. Supreme Court Justice Courtney Hudson wrote the majority opinion.
While the commissioners and Griffin pointed to another part of the relevant statute that referenced the “offices” of the clerk, Hudson wrote, “no such limiting language is found in … the statutory provision that directly governs the authority of the county clerk to designate an early voting site before a preferential primary or a general election, and we will not add words to a statute to convey a meaning that is not there.”
That was good news for voting rights. But the real surprise in the opinion came next, when the court found the commissioners had failed to follow state law by canceling the First Baptist Church as an early voting site without ever taking a vote on it. The location had been used in 2022 and, according to the court, state law required it to be used for early voting in 2024 as well.
“This interpretation is consistent with the plain and unambiguous language in each statutory provision at issue and with our primary rule of statutory construction,” Hudson wrote, “which is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly.” Because “the Board did not vote to change the additional polling location it established for early voting in 2022 at the First Baptist Church, it remains an early voting site for the 2024 General Election,” she wrote.
The court’s decision on this second question was not unanimous. Justices Rhonda Wood and Shawn Womack each wrote dissenting opinions saying they would not have reversed Thyer’s decision regarding the First Baptist location, though they agreed with his decision on the Seventh Street Church of Christ location. Justice Barbara Webb joined the dissents on this point.
With the Supreme Court’s recent rulings keeping proposed amendments about abortion and medical marijuana off the November ballot, it is easy to assume the justices are little more than a rubber stamp for Republican chicanery, no matter how ridiculous. For the most part, that is true. And it’s a huge problem for this state, both in the short and long term.
But if you’re looking for a silver lining, you could do worse than a ruling that rejects another of Attorney General Griffin’s asinine, anti-democracy positions; reins in a county election commission that believed it was the last word on election laws; promotes democracy by expanding early voting in a majority Black city; and, most importantly, puts the interests of Arkansans ahead of the political whims of some of the state’s worst public officials.
It ain’t much, but it’s something.
Monumental Man
THE LEGENDARY
SOUTH
END
FOOTBALL
COACH WHO STEPPED UP NOW STEPS BACK.
BY FREDERICK MCKINDRA PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON
Sunset Tigers Coach Ed Johnson, a mainstay of South End Little Rock for more than 50 years, retired from the sidelines in August. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who grew up in the neighborhood south of Roosevelt and north of the railroad tracks, west of Interstate 30 and east of the State Fairgrounds, who didn’t play on Johnson’s teams or cheer from the bleachers. After a harrowing bout with prostate cancer in 2020, he’s set himself to handling administrative tasks for the team now, ensuring equipment is available and scheduling games.
WELL-EQUIPPED: Ed Johnson stands amid a collection of football equipment stored in his garage.
hen he returned from the war in Vietnam, Ed Johnson found he had very little to say. Perhaps that’s what community organizer Velma Gray noticed back in 1971: Without release, the emotions caught in the young war hero’s chest might suffocate him.
Little more than 20 years old then, he was already fluent in the language of men. He’d thought himself well-schooled by the streets of the South End, a veteran of the neighborhood since the age of 12. But the machismo he learned growing up in his single father’s household, the toughness boxed into him by his brother, by old heads and street toughs on the block, could not resolve what he felt upon his return. For what he felt was rage; rage that the one commodity he’d squirreled away for himself throughout a childhood of lack and motherlessness — his selfhood — had been plucked from him by a country that had only ever shown him indifference. The American war effort singled out his body to make literal this nation’s eternal project concerning Black men — cutting them down at the knees.
Three months into his first tour in Vietnam, the soldier in front of him stepped onto a landmine. Johnson, along with a half-dozen of his fellow soldiers, caught the blast, which blew his boot and foot open. Nine and a half months later, after his foot healed, Johnson eschewed a proffered support role working around the barracks as a cook in the mess hall, or in supply. He asked to go back and rejoin his unit in the jungle.
“I didn’t want to do that,” Johnson said about the prospect of leaving the battle lines. “I wanted to go back into combat. Young, dumb and stupid, I guess. I went in to be a Green Beret, and I flunked that off, then I ended up being a Ranger.”
Johnson resumed his place in the jungle. Then one morning, his unit went out to ambush the enemy and were ambushed themselves. Johnson was wounded in both legs, and seven soldiers were killed, including his best friend, John Fudge, who also attended Little Rock’s Horace Mann High School.
The service medals he’d earned — his two
A WINNING CAREER: Above, a sampling of awards Johnson's teams won over the years; at top right, a placard celebrating the golden anniversary of the Sunset Tigers; at bottom right, Johnson points out his players who went on to play professional football.
Purple Hearts, Silver Star, Bronze Star, presidential citations, Vietnam Bronze Star — and his medical discharge, he now added to his 1968 diploma from Horace Mann. But those seemed mere trinkets for the heel and two kneecaps they’d cost him. He could not run or jump anymore, and so what use was he? That’s the question he spent most afternoons staring down, wearing that same faroff, tremulous stare so many other boys were bringing back home from the country’s latest ill-fated attempt at empire. And then there was the twitchy way his body seized at sudden movements or awoke him from sleep.
It wasn’t any adolescent strutting or bom-
bast that would’ve caught Ms. Gray’s eye. She was too much a village elder for that. It was the mantle of Black manhood she must’ve seen weighing so heavily on him, the cruel deaf ear the world so often turned on the laments of men like him, the way that hurt carved their dark faces into winces etched in wood.
Ed needed a flock, a captive audience to hear what his mind and heart would say as he acquainted himself to his new circumstances, stripped of the one allowance America has ever lent with any charity to Black men: their bodies.
So Ms. Gray gave him a team. She insisted,
in fact. Beyond his initial rebuff, and the one that followed it. Beyond his reluctance to accept the uniforms she donated from her own purse. In this way, she stirred something in him, so that his rage would not fester into bitterness or contempt.
Manhood had not yet taught him that the treatment of large emotions — what we’ve learned to call trauma — comes mostly through misdirection, the trick of time and distraction, the mindless drain of physical toil, and talk. Her intuition revealed what traditionalism and ageism and patriarchy sometimes obscured from the village’s prouder gender: that boys can sometimes save men, too.
Ms. Gray gave him the idea and the uniforms, knowing that sometimes a vision begins from little more than a measly silhou-
ette. Louis Whitmore gave the land, a basin at the bottom of the neighborhood’s hilly terrain, land backed by train tracks, that grew so lush from floodwater its brush would require a bush hog to make a field for the neighborhood boys that came. Practices convened at Thrasher Boys Club in 1971. It took a whole year to instill enough to ready them for competition.
But once they were ready, their legacy grew. No other youth football programs in Little Rock could boast such a sustained record of success, 569 wins from 1972-2022. No other amateur field could boast Leslie O’Neal, Keith Jacksons, Sr. and Jr., Rickey Williams, Cedric Cobbs. No one else knew to teach Black boys that the secret to football, the violence of its collisions, was to know restraint. Or perhaps no one else knew to care for them
in that way, such as chauffeuring and then sponsoring them to weekly movie matinees. Whole stadiums in Fayetteville and Norman and Tulsa would cheer their names but would not love them in that way. Only Johnson had known to shuttle them out of the redlined ghettos in which the city’s fathers, its Chamber of Commerce, had meant to corral them. Only he’d know their worth was not dependent upon what their bodies could perform on a field before hordes of screaming white fans. That they could become documentarians and educators and writers and preachers and truck drivers, that they could become the fathers many of them had not themselves known, that they could become unbowed wards of the state, because at some point, they’d known they were regarded, and therefore loved.
His practices began by running the nerves out of them, two laps to imprint their footfalls into the tracks of those who’d come before them, and to clear seedlings for those who’d come after. And then they clacked into the bleachers, huffing the funk of adolescent boys from every socioeconomic stripe — the stink that was literal, and the one that America had always wished to consign upon them — into their noses while they stilled their panic over the day’s work.
They would face the Oklahoma drill — each player singled out in turn, lined up across from an opponent and sicced against them at
the cry of a whistle — and he would not save them from it. They’d know exhaustion and dehydration and bruising, and he would not save them from it. They were invited to peer at their less fortunate teammates, those who would revel in the collisions, because those boys knew it as a reckoning, the lone level playing field they might ever know. This was what Black community meant now, after integration fractured us from one another, after it granted the best of us an escape route, a flight to Barrow, and University Park, and Kensington.
But they better not look away. They better
not think. They better react the way Coach had told them to. And in that way, they learned to accept authority. Because he would not save them from it, though he might’ve wished he could, would have flung himself between each collision they would face, though now he’d been forced into listening, to spectating their attempts at surviving those barrages of enemy fire on their own.
Or perhaps Velma Gray had known, too, that his stare would grow this wise. That 50 years later, he’d still be stalking that basin in a white T-shirt, orange shorts, athletic shoes he boisterously bought at discount prices,
FIELD OF TIGERS: At top, the board of records is affixed to a fence at the Sunset Tigers’ practice field; at bottom, some of Johnson’s players gather for practice.
Ed knew that as always, presence would suffice. Nothing new under the sun for him who had seen the worst of America’s intentions.
wanting his boys to know their value did not hinge upon the marketing lures of their idols like “Primetime” Deion Sanders, whose cleats and do-rag and high-step celebration they fawned over and mimicked, or Michael Jordan, who cared as little for them as he did the Republicans who bought sneakers, too.
There’s the work, and the glamor, of advancing a race through achievement in medicine and law and professional sports and the performing arts. And then there’s the mundane, repetitive labor of showing up, of being visible, dependable and steady. To do so with constancy for kids other than one’s own is to honor an African ancestry, to deny the Eurocentric American ideal that only
one’s own household deserves the benefit of one’s labors. Ed Johnson did this for Black boys through the years when they were perhaps most reviled. Where other Black men balked or sought to rebuke these boys, and so estrange themselves from what gangsterism and crack had wrought on Black manhood, Ed knew that as always, presence would suffice. Nothing new under the sun for him who had seen the worst of America’s intentions. And so he would not be shamed, even for the character references he wrote for former players who’d been jailed, the alcoholics and addicts who returned to his door to be fed. Every Sunset Tiger story ain’t a success story. The misdeeds of his progeny he later
had to vouch for, even for those now facing life bids. He could not save them from it. But they better not quit. Such were the stakes of coaching Black men, for doing so stubbornly within a Black community, a toil from which he had learned two lessons: First, that all any kid wants is to be loved and for somebody to teach them something; second, that between God and his flock, he as coach had been tasked with serving sometimes as the missing link.
The Ed Johnson you meet in 2024 sounds and acts the way he did in 1971, his walk still somewhat labored and bowlegged, having survived a bout with prostate cancer first diagnosed in 2020, bearing the same strut he carried away from the South End at 18, before the war had its way with him. He’s a fixture against time, a monument. And so is the park he made.
Quotes are tacked like talismans to the trees that rise from the land throughout Sunset Park, placards scrawled in his hand like artifacts of vernacular art, aphorisms echoing through the dusk. The famed weatherbeaten board of records, a roster of the legendary athleticism of the South End, still hangs from the gate opposite the field’s crude bleachers. When the sun sets over Sunset Park, the arcing dragonflies so large they appear prehistoric and the late August heat still conjure the same tropics of Vietnam Johnson sees now only in dreams.
But in that dreamscape, he’s also seen Terran Berry dance between tackles, on a draw right, eye to eye. To have watched Keith Tucker or Tyfel Johnson or Corey Brownlee gallop a sideline was magic. To have watched Brandon Muldrow leap to catch an arching pass from Terrell Hammond, those moments were a salve to what Little Rock, or Arkansas, or the United States, might have broken in Coach Johnson.
His former players still approach him and lose all their poise, stuttering like schoolboys through attempts at expressing what he meant to their lives. He rescues them from their emotion with a joke, or by applying a heavy palm to their shoulder. Men often cannot say it; Velma Gray knew this. But it’s through their presence that they make their love known.
How
Grapette brought the taste of Arkansas to
the world.
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE ANDERSON
Before Walmart became Arkansas’s biggest export, there was Grapette, the punchy neon purple soda with a unique grape flavor that conquered America and beyond.
Still around today, Grapette has a story full of twists and turns — as unpredictable as a sugared-up 8-year-old. It’s also not just about grape soda. You could be enjoying a Grapette creation without even knowing it.
FOOKS FLAVORS
Kentucky-born Benjamin Tyndle Fooks moved to Camden (Ouachita County) with his family as a 13-year-old in the early 1900s. The ambitious son of a lumberman, Tyndle (as he was called) set out to become a Methodist minister before his 20th birthday before realizing it wasn’t his calling. Fooks gave up seminary in a matter of months, opting instead to follow his father into the family business. He worked in the field for several years before purchasing, in rapid succession, two sawmills and a gas station. All before turning 25. It was while running his filling station in early 1926 that Fooks had a customer come hoping to sell his small soft drink plant with a line of flavors. By the end of that very day, he had purchased the company. With meager savings and some local investor help, he sold the gas station and acquired an additional bottling plant.
Still in his late 20s, Fooks weathered the Depression and pivoted toward the development and distribution of more than 150 drink flavors. A sales team sold “Fooks Flavors” to businesses across Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. By the late 1930s, the grape flavor had become dominant and, in 1939, Fooks perfected his own unique grape soda recipe. The name Grapette was owned by another company but had never been produced. Fooks bought the
BOTTLES OF JOY: Vintage Grapette promises to satisfy thirst, 'thirsty or not.'
CANE-DO: A batch of Grapette in production. David Rice, at bottom left, is the company's vice president and director of sales and marketing. Above, Lorena Sanchez, left, and Maria Gonzalez work on the production line. On opposite page, Jason Pilcher, left, and Brittney Nodurft measure ingredients for the beloved soft drink.
As the brand grew, so did its lineup. Variations like Lemonette, Limette and the popular Orangette joined the family.
BRAND WIDTH: Arkansas-made Grapette expanded its lineup as well as its plants, growing its popular drink line to include such variants as Rica soda and Bananina. The company’s products incorporate a cross-species line that includes Lethally Addicting deer attractant.
rights to the name and launched the brand that same year.
SMASH HIT
Grapette was an instant hit. Its innovative clear 6-ounce glass bottle showed off the brilliant purple color of the drink, and the small size seemed perfect for any occasion. Most importantly: People loved the taste.
Thanks to a sophisticated franchise model and clever marketing operation, Grapette signs were soon almost as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola in the nation’s soda fountains and public spaces. When Little Rock’s brand-new War Memorial Stadium celebrated its renaming in 1949 with a visit from President Harry Truman, the distinctive purple Grapette logo was splashed prominently across the new scoreboard.
Paul May, an oilman friend of Fooks from Camden who traveled internationally, told the founder that he believed there could be a market for the drink in other countries, too.
David Rice, now Grapette’s head of sales
and marketing and May’s grandson, recalled, “My grandfather was doing a lot of work in Central and South America [and] he would come back to Camden and say, ‘The kind of drinks you’re making here are what’s popular down there: bright, sweet, fruit-flavored beverages.’ He started arranging meetings and facilitating deals.”
May was tapped to lead the Grapette Export Company, securing bottling agreements in Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and more. Soon, Grapette claimed to be “the fastest-growing beverage in South and Central America.”
The Arkansas-made concentrate was shipped to local bottlers across Central and South America. While the soda’s flavor was well-suited to tropical climates, distribution posed challenges. The rugged landscapes and lack of infrastructure made any product difficult to distribute. In Guatemala, where Grapette became particularly popular, shipments sometimes had to be loaded onto donkey carts and transported through mountainous terrain to reach remote towns and villages.
As the brand grew, so did its lineup. Variations like Lemonette, Limette and the popular Orangette joined the family. Later, Mr. Cola became a popular addition. Fooks’ company also began selling extracts and concentrates to other companies, resulting in products like Rica soda and Bananina — Arkansas flavors disguised as local favorites abroad.
Grapette reached the top 10 of American beverage sales in the late 1940s and remained there into the 1960s. But competition in the beverage industry was stiff, and changes to production and distribution caused sales to flag. Eventually, the brand was sold, and Grapette all but disappeared from American shelves, though it continued to thrive abroad.
RECEDING AND REEMERGING
Paul May continued as head of Grapette International before passing the reins to his son-in-law, Brooks Rice. Though the company operated under the Grapette International name, it was unable to produce its most iconic brands domestically. Production of the
concentrate for international markets continued, however, along with the development and sale of new flavors.
Alas, it seemed that Grapette would no longer be available in the United States. That was, until Sam Walton decided to crash a meeting.
Brooks Rice also ran a bottled water company called Diamond Water. In a mid-1980s meeting with a Walmart buyer, he was shocked to see Sam Walton himself suddenly enter the room. David Rice explained that, “Walton was such a hands-on CEO that he would literally open up the door and step into a buyer’s meeting every now and again. And he happened to do that this particular time.”
Walton inspected Brooks Rice’s business card, which listed both Diamond Water and Grapette International. Walton reportedly exclaimed, “Grapette?! Boy, I loved that as a kid! Can I get that in my store?”
Brooks Rice explained, “Well, yes and no. We’ve got the flavor, but at this point, we don’t have the famous name.”
Walton replied, “Well, that might be perfect for our new private label program.”
A partnership was born.
WHITE LABELING AND DIVERSIFICATION
Grapette and Orangette flavors became Walmart’s in-house grape and orange sodas under labels like Ozark Farms and Sam’s Choice. The company also provided other white label flavors for Walmart.
In the late ’90s, Brooks Rice reacquired Grapette’s U.S. trademarks and relaunched the brand, along with Orangette, in Walmart stores in 2005. The company agreed to sell the soda name to Walmart.
From its concentrate-only roots, Grapette has now expanded into flavors for soft serve ice cream, slushies, shaved ice, frozen daiquiris, powdered electrolyte mixes and energy drinks. They make white label products for major convenience store chains, cruise lines, coffee chains and quick service restaurants. In other words: You’ve had their products —
you just might not know it.
In 2020, Grapette acquired New Orleans Fruit Flavors, a staple of popular Cajun syrups, shots, concentrates, bar mixes, coffee and tea flavors. The number of flavors now being produced in the company’s 35-employee plant in Malvern is hard to overestimate.
And can you still get a legit Grapette or Orangette? It depends on the Walmart in town. Grapette doesn’t control that. But the original, real-sugar version of Grapette will once again be available in glass bottles at the Walmart Museum when its renovation is complete.
So, whether it’s a Grapette served at a Pizza Hut in Guatemala or a shaved ice stand in Hillcrest, chances are you’ve tasted an Arkansas flavor that traces all the way back to an enterprising rural Arkansas 20-something from almost a century ago.
Tyndle Fooks may not be the household name that Sam Walton is, but there’s a case to be made that he’s cut from the same cloth: a trailblazing Arkansas entrepreneur who brought the flavor of this state to the world.
ARKANSAS WILD
2025 BEST LAWYERS® IN ARKANSAS
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BL Rankings, LLC has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause. All listed attorneys have been verified as being members in good standing with their respective state bar associations as of July 1, 2024, where that information is publicly available. Consumers should contact their state bar association for verification and additional information prior to securing legal services of any attorney.
Copyright 2023 by BL Rankings, LLC, Augusta, GA. All rights reserved. This list, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission. No commercial use of this list may be made without permission of BL Rankings, LLC. No fees may be charged, directly or indirectly, for the use of this list without permission.
“The Best Lawyers in America,” “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch,” “Purely Peer Review” and “Best Lawyers” are registered trademarks of BL Rankings, LLC.
Methodology for The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America
This list is excerpted from the 2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America, the pre-eminent referral guides to the legal profession in the United States. Published since 1983, Best Lawyers® lists attorneys in 150 specialties, representing all 50 states, who have been chosen through an exhaustive survey in which thousands of the nation’s top lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America is based on more than 13.7 million evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.
The method used to compile Best Lawyers remains unchanged since the first edition was compiled more than 40 years ago. Lawyers are chosen for inclusion based solely on the vote of their peers. Listings cannot be bought, and no purchase is required to be included. In this regard, Best Lawyers remains the gold standard of reliability and integrity in lawyer ratings.
The nomination pool for the 2025 edition consisted of all lawyers whose names appeared in the previous edition of Best Lawyers, lawyers who were nominated since the previous survey and new nominees solicited from listed attorneys. In general, lawyers were asked to vote only on nominees in their own specialty in their own jurisdiction. Lawyers in closely related specialties were asked to vote across specialties, as were lawyers in smaller jurisdictions. Where specialties are national or international in nature, lawyers were asked to vote nationally as well as locally. Voting lawyers were also given an opportunity to offer more detailed comments on nominees. Each year, half of the voting pool receives fax or email ballots; the other half is polled by phone.
Voting lawyers were provided this general guideline for determining if a nominee should be listed among “the best”: “If you had a close friend or relative who needed a real estate lawyer (for example), and you could not handle the case yourself, to whom would you refer them?” All votes and comments were solicited with a guarantee of confidentiality ― a critical factor in the viability and validity of Best Lawyers’ surveys. To ensure the rigor of the selection process, lawyers were urged to use only their highest standards when voting and to evaluate each nominee based only on his or her individual merits. The additional comments were used to make more accurate comparisons between voting patterns and weight votes accordingly. Best Lawyers uses various methodological tools to identify and correct for anomalies in both the nomination and voting process.
Recognition in the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America is based entirely on peer review and employs the same methodology that has made Best Lawyers the gold standard for legal rankings worldwide. These awards are recognitions given to attorneys who are earlier in their careers for outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the United States. Our “Ones to Watch” recipients typically have been in practice for 5-9 years. Ultimately, of course, a lawyer’s inclusion is based on the subjective judgments of his or her fellow attorneys. While it is true that the lists may at times disproportionately reward visibility or popularity, the breadth of the survey, the candor of the respondents and the sophistication of the polling methodology largely correct for any biases.
For all these reasons, Best Lawyers lists continue to represent the most reliable, accurate and useful guide to the best lawyers in the United States available anywhere.
“LAWYER OF THE YEAR” 2025
Administrative / Regulatory Law
Zachary T. Steadman
Appellate Practice
William A. Waddell, Jr.
Arbitration
John Dewey Watson
Banking and Finance Law
Timothy W. Grooms
Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
Charles T. Coleman
Bet-the-Company Litigation
E.B. Chiles IV
Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships)
Brian Rosenthal
Civil Rights Law
Bettina Brownstein
Closely Held Companies and Family
Businesses Law
Bryant Cranford
Commercial Finance Law
Jay T. Taylor
Construction Law
David A. Grace
Corporate Law
Walter M. Ebel III
Criminal Defense: General Practice
Timothy O. Dudley
Criminal Defense: White-Collar
J. Blake Hendrix
Education Law
Christopher J. Heller
Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law
Joseph W. Price II
Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
Joseph B. Hurst, Jr.
Employment Law - Individuals
John L. Burnett
Employment Law - Management
William Stuart Jackson
Energy Law
G. Alan Perkins
Environmental Law
Walter G. Wright, Jr.
Family Law
Adrienne Griffis
Government Relations Practice
Dustin McDaniel
Health Care Law
Donald H. Bacon
Insurance Law
Bruce E. Munson
Labor Law - Management
Carolyn B. Witherspoon
Land Use and Zoning Law
Stephen R. Giles
Litigation - Banking and Finance
John E. Tull III
Litigation - Bankruptcy
Geoffrey B. Treece
Litigation - Construction
David A. Grace
Litigation - Environmental
Allan Gates
Litigation - Insurance
William Mell Griffin III
Litigation - Labor and Employment
Christopher J. Heller
Litigation - Real Estate
John Keeling Baker
Litigation - Trusts and Estates
Stephen R. Lancaster
Litigation and Controversy - Tax
Paul Parnell
Mass Tort Litigation / Class ActionsDefendants
Kimberly D. Young
Mass Tort Litigation / Class ActionsPlaintiffs
Brian D. Reddick
Mediation
Bruce E. Munson
Medical Malpractice Law
- Defendants
Benjamin D. Jackson
Mergers and Acquisitions Law
Price C. Gardner
Municipal Law
D. Michael Moyers
Nonprofit / Charities Law
Wilson Jones
Personal Injury Litigation
- Defendants
David D. Wilson
Personal Injury Litigation
- Plaintiffs
Robert Sexton
Product Liability Litigation
- Defendants
Thomas G. Williams
Product Liability Litigation
- Plaintiffs
Clyde Talbot Turner
Public Finance Law
D. Michael Moyers
Real Estate Law
Price C. Gardner
Securities / Capital Markets Law
Bryan W. Duke
Tax Law
Walter M. Ebel III
Trusts and Estates
Trav Baxter
Workers’ Compensation Law
- Employers
Lee J. Muldrow
Atlanta • Boca Raton
Atlanta • Boca Raton
Boston
Boston
Boulder
Charlotte
Chicago
Dallas Denver
Harrisburg
Houston
Houston
Las Vegas
Las Vegas
Little
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Atlanta • Boca Raton • Boston • Boulder • Charlotte • Cherry Hill • Chicago • Dallas
Minneapolis
Minneapolis
San Diego
New York
New York
San Francisco
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Santa Monica
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Seattle
Richmond
Denver • Harrisburg • Houston • Las Vegas • Little Rock • Los Angeles • Miami
Richmond
Washington DC
Minneapolis • New York • Philadelphia • Pittsburgh • Richmond • Salt Lake City
West Conshohocken • West Palm Beach
West
San Diego • San Francisco • Santa Monica • Seattle • Washington DC West Conshohocken • West Palm Beach • Wilmington
Across the US and Right Here in Little Rock, Cozen O’Connor Honors
Our Best Lawyers® Awardees
Our Best Lawyers® Awardees
Across the US and Right Here in Little Rock, Cozen O’Connor Honors Our Best Lawyers® Awardees
Congratulations to Dustin McDaniel, one of 242 Cozen O’Connor attorneys selected for inclusion in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch® in America. Dustin was also one of six Cozen O’Connor lawyers nationwide to be recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” for his Government Relations Practice.
Congratulations to Dustin McDaniel, one of 242 Cozen O’Connor attorneys selected for inclusion in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers®: Ones To Watch in America. Dustin was also one of six Cozen O’Connor lawyers nationwide to be recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” for his Government Relations Practice.
Congratulations to Dustin McDaniel, one of 242 Cozen O’Connor attorneys selected for inclusion in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch® in America. Dustin was also one of six Cozen O’Connor lawyers nationwide to be recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” for his Government Relations Practice.
Former Attorney General of Arkansas, Dustin heads our Little Rock office and co-chairs our State Attorneys General Group, the only Chambers Band One-ranked AG practice in the nation.
Former Attorney General of Arkansas, Dustin heads our Little Rock office and co-chairs our State Attorneys General Group, the only Chambers Band One-ranked AG practice in the nation.
Former Attorney General of Arkansas, Dustin heads our Little Rock office and co-chairs our State Attorneys General Group, the only Chambers Band One-ranked AG practice in the nation.
The Cozen O’Connor State AG Group serves clients facing attorney general (AG) investigations and litigation in Arkansas and across the US. We assist our clients with all aspects of their dealings with AGs, among the most powerful state officials regulating businesses today.
The Cozen O’Connor State AG Group serves clients facing attorney general (AG) investigations and litigation in Arkansas and across the US. We assist our clients with all aspects of their dealings with AGs, among the most powerful state officials regulating businesses today.
Dustin McDaniel
Dustin McDaniel
Wilmington (501)404-4000
The Cozen O’Connor State AG Group serves clients facing attorney general (AG) investigations and litigation in Arkansas and across the US. We assist our clients with all aspects of their dealings with AGs, among the most powerful state officials regulating businesses today.
Co-Chair, State Attorneys General (501) 404-4000 dmcdaniel@cozen.com
Co-Chair, State Attorneys General (501) 404-4000 dmcdaniel@cozen.com
925 attorneys | 33 offices cozen.com
925 attorneys | 33 offices cozen.com
BEST LAWYERS: ONES TO WATCH® IN AMERICA
Administrative / Regulatory Law
Emily Mizell
Conner & Winters
479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405 Fayetteville
Antitrust Law
Katherine C. Campbell
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Appellate Practice
Kael K. Bowling
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Katherine C. Campbell
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Charles C. Cunningham
ARlaw Partners
501-710-6500
415 North McKinley Street, Suite 830 Little Rock
Colt D. Galloway
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
479-464-5650
4206 South J.B. Hunt Drive, Suite 200 Rogers
Frank LaPorte-Jenner
LaPorte-Jenner Law
501-515-1692
300 South Spring St. Suite 418 Little Rock
Bo Renner
RMP
479-443-2705
5519 Hackett Road, Suite 300 Springdale
Molly S. Shepherd
PPGMR Law
870-862-5523
200 N. Jefferson Ave., Suite 500 El Dorado
Banking and Finance Law
Kael K. Bowling
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Lindsey Emerson Raines
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
Kael K. Bowling
Friday Eldredge & Clark 479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock Health Care Law
Elizabeth Andreoli Andreoli Law 501-690-5069
72 Pine Manor Drive, Suite 190 Little Rock
Donald H. Bacon Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Timothy Ezell Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Erika Ross Gee
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Megan D. Hargraves Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Ashley Welch Hudson Kutak Rock 501-975-3000
124 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000
Little Rock
Lynda M. Johnson
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
William T. Marshall
William T. Marshall
501-420-1766
P.O. Box 7419 Little Rock
Michael W. Mitchell
Mitchell, Blackstock, Ivers & Sneddon
501-378-7870
1010 West Third Street Little Rock
Lee J. Muldrow
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Harold H. Simpson
The Health Law Firm
501-221-7100
5224 Sherwood Road Little Rock
Jenny Teeter
Gill Ragon Owen
501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800 Little Rock
Bruce B. Tidwell
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Amber Wilson Bagley
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Immigration Law
Misty Wilson Borkowski Hall Booth Smith
501-214-3499
200 River Market Avenue, Suite 500 Little Rock
Missy McJunkins Duke Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
George R. Ernst Hall Booth Smith
501-214-3499
200 River Market Avenue, Suite 500 Little Rock
Asa Hutchinson III
Asa Hutchinson Law Group
479-878-1600
910 Southeast 21st Street Bentonville
Information Technology
Law
John M. Jewell
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
BEST LAWYERS® IN ARKANSAS
N. M. Norton
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Insurance Law
James C. Baker, Jr.
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Timothy L. Boone Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Mark Breeding Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
William F. Clark
Davis, Butt, Taylor & Clark
479-521-7600
75 North East Avenue, Suite 402 Fayetteville
David T. Donahue
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Elizabeth Fletcher Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Sarah Greenwood Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Mariam T. Hopkins
Anderson Murphy Hopkins 501-372-1887
101 River Bluff Drive, Suite A Little Rock
Margaret A. Johnston
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Jason Lee
Gill Ragon Owen
501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800
Little Rock
Jerry L. Lovelace
Roy, Lambert, Lovelace, Bingaman & Wood
479-320-2300
2706 South Dividend, Dr Springdale
Kathy McCarroll
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Kara Mikles Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Bruce E. Munson
Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Brian A. Pipkin
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Scott D. Provencher
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Steven W. Quattlebaum
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Emily M. Runyon
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
479-464-5650
4206 South J.B. Hunt Drive, Suite 200 Rogers
Derrick W. Smith
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
M. Evan Stallings
Barber Law Firm
501-372-6175
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3400 Little Rock
Zachary T. Steadman
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Shane Strabala Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Scott M. Strauss
Barber Law Firm
501-372-6175
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3400 Little Rock
Jeffrey H. Thomas
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Amy L. Tracy
Tracy Law, PLLC
501-712-5899
918 West Sixth Street Little Rock
Michael P. Vanderford
Anderson Murphy Hopkins 501-372-1887
101 River Bluff Drive, Suite A Little Rock
J. Andrew Vines Dobson & Vines
501-490-9906 P.O. Box 251763
Little Rock
Mark D. Wankum
Anderson Murphy Hopkins 501-372-1887
101 River Bluff Drive, Suite A
Little Rock
Mary Carole Young Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone 501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600
Little Rock
Labor Law - Management
J. Bruce Cross Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
John D. Davis
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Missy McJunkins Duke
Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Khayyam M. Eddings
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000
Little Rock
James M. Gary Kutak Rock 501-975-3000
124 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Michael R. Jones Gilker & Jones 479-369-4294 9222 North Highway 71 Mountainburg
Susan K. Kendall Harrington, Miller, Kieklak, Eichmann & Brown 479-751-6464
4710 S. Thompson, Suite 102 Springdale
David P. Martin Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Abtin Mehdizadegan
Hall Booth Smith 501-214-3499
200 River Market Avenue, Suite 500
Little Rock
Michael S. Moore
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000
Little Rock
Spencer F. Robinson Ramsay, Bridgforth, Robinson & Raley 870-535-9000
Simmons First National Bank Building, 501 Main Street 11th Floor Pine Bluff
Carolyn B. Witherspoon Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street
Little Rock
H. Wayne Young
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000
Little Rock
Labor Law - Union
John L. Burnett Lavey and Burnett 501-376-2269 904 West Second Street
Little Rock
Susan K. Kendall Harrington, Miller, Kieklak, Eichmann & Brown
479-751-6464
4710 S. Thompson, Suite 102 Springdale
Janet L. Pulliam Pulliam Law Offices 501-664-7405 15 Pinnacle Point North Little Rock
Land Use and Zoning Law
Stephen R. Giles Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Timothy W. Grooms Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
J. Cliff McKinney II Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
J. Scott Schallhorn Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Legal Malpractice LawDefendants
Donald H. Bacon Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
G. Spence Fricke Barber Law Firm 501-372-6175
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3400 Little Rock
Edwin L. Lowther, Jr. Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
David M. Powell Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Lee Moore Tax Law, Trusts and Estates
Alex Miller Business Organizations (including LLC’s and Partnerships), Tax Law
John Neihouse Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships), Tax Law, Trusts and Estates
“Best
Denton Woods Business Organizations (including LLC’s and Partnerships), Tax Law, Trusts and Estates
Joseph D. Reece Tax Law, Trusts and Estates
Collier Moore Trusts and Estates, Elder Law
John C. Lessel Tax Law, Trusts and Estates
Christopher Plumlee Litigation and ControversyTax, Government Relations Practice
Scott Tidewell Litigation –Insurance, Personal Injury Litigation –Defendants, Personal Injury Litigation –Plaintiffs
Wendy Johnson Litigation and ControversyTax
Paul D. McNeill Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants, Personal Injury LitigationDefendants
Tim Hutchinson Commercial Litigation
“Best
Trae A. Norton Trusts and Estates
Larry McCredy Commercial Litigation
Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law
Price C. Gardner
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Litigation - Banking and Finance
Suzanne G. Clark
Clark Law Firm
479-802-4834
121 West South Street Fayetteville
Richard T. Donovan
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Marshall S. Ney
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
John E. Tull III
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Kyle T. Unser Kutak Rock
479-250-9700
5111 West JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300 Rogers
David B. Vandergriff
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
William A. Waddell, Jr.
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Litigation - Bankruptcy
Betsy Baker
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Constance G. Clark
Davis, Butt, Taylor & Clark
479-521-7600
75 North East Avenue, Suite 402 Fayetteville
Charles T. Coleman
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
BEST LAWYERS® IN ARKANSAS
David A. Grace Hardin & Grace
501-378-7900
500 Main Street, Suite A North Little Rock
Judy Simmons Henry
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Johnathan D. Horton
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Kevin P. Keech Keech Law Firm 501-221-3200 2011 South Broadway Street
Little Rock
Harry A. Light
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Gary D. Marts, Jr.
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Lance R. Miller
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Jaimie G. Moss
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Marshall S. Ney Friday Eldredge & Clark 479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Stan D. Smith
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Geoffrey B. Treece Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900
Little Rock
Litigation - Construction
Russell C. Atchley
Kutak Rock
479-250-9700
5111 West JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300
Rogers
M. Stephen Bingham
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street
Little Rock
H. David Blair
Blair & Stroud
870-793-8350
500 East Main Street, Suite 201
Batesville
Jason J. Campbell
Gill Ragon Owen
501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800
Little Rock
Suzanne G. Clark
Clark Law Firm
479-802-4834
121 West South Street
Fayetteville
Junius Bracy Cross, Jr.
JB Cross Construction Law
501-221-9393
2228 Cottondale Lane, Suite 220
Little Rock
Max R. Deitchler
Kutak Rock
479-973-4200
1277 East Joyce Boulevard, Suite 300
Fayetteville
Richard T. Donovan
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street
Little Rock
Jack East III
Jack East III 501-372-3278 Cantrell Valley Plaza Building, 2725 Cantrell Rd #202 Little Rock
Matthew B. Finch
Gill Ragon Owen 501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800
Little Rock
Roger H. Fitzgibbon
Gill Ragon Owen
501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800
Little Rock
David A. Grace
Hardin & Grace
501-378-7900
500 Main Street, Suite A North Little Rock
Cyril Hollingsworth
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
David L. Jones
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
Stephen R. Lancaster
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
James G. Lingle
Lingle Law Firm
479-636-7899
110 South Dixieland Road Rogers
David S. Mitchell, Jr.
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street
Little Rock
Edward T. Oglesby
The Brad Hendricks Law Firm
501-550-4090
500 Pleasant Valley Drive, Building C Little Rock
David M. Powell Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
John M. Scott Conner & Winters 479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405
Fayetteville
Jason H. Wales Wales & Mikesch 479-439-8088
2909 E. Glory Dr STE 113 Fayetteville
John Dewey Watson ADR 501-804-4131 23 Iviers Drive Little Rock
LitigationEnvironmental
Mark H. Allison
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Joseph Henry Bates III
Carney Bates & Pulliam 888-551-9944
One Allied Drive, Suite 1400 Little Rock
Vicki Bronson Conner & Winters
479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405
Fayetteville
John R. Elrod Conner & Winters 479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405
Fayetteville
Allan Gates Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Julie DeWoody Greathouse PPGMR Law 501-603-9000
201 East Markham Street, Suite 200 Little Rock
Samuel E. Ledbetter McMath Woods 501-213-3448
711 West Third Street Little Rock
James G. Lingle
Lingle Law Firm 479-636-7899
110 South Dixieland Road Rogers
G. Alan Perkins PPGMR Law 501-603-9000
201 East Markham Street, Suite 200 Little Rock
Brian Rosenthal Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Litigation - ERISA
Brandon B. Cate Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 479-444-5200
4100 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 310 Springdale
E.B. Chiles IV Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Susan K. Kendall Harrington, Miller, Kieklak, Eichmann & Brown 479-751-6464
4710 S. Thompson, Suite 102 Springdale
Litigation - First Amendment
James G. Lingle Lingle Law Firm 479-636-7899
110 South Dixieland Road Rogers
Troy A. Price Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
John E. Tull III Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Litigation - Health Care
Jason B. Hendren Hall Booth Smith 479-391-6200
5001 W Founders Way, Suite 330 Rogers
Benjamin D. Jackson Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Steven W. Quattlebaum Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Amber Wilson Bagley Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Litigation - Insurance S. Shane Baker Waddell, Cole & Jones 870-931-1700
310 East Street, Suite A Jonesboro
M. Stephen Bingham Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Timothy L. Boone Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Mark Breeding Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Kevin W. Cole
Waddell, Cole & Jones
870-931-1700
310 East Street, Suite A Jonesboro
Niki Cung Kutak Rock
479-973-4200
1277 East Joyce Boulevard, Suite 300 Fayetteville
J. Cotten Cunningham
Barber Law Firm
501-372-6175
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3400 Little Rock
Barrett Deacon Mayer
479-396-2060
2434 East Joyce Boulevard, Suite Six Fayetteville
Mark W. Dossett Kutak Rock
479-250-9700
5111 West JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300 Rogers
Elizabeth Fletcher Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Sarah Greenwood Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
William Mell Griffin III
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Michael McCarty
Harrison
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Stephen A. Hester
Spicer Rudstrom
501-537-0845
425 West Capital Avenue, Suite 3175 Little Rock
Jamie H. Jones
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Cynthia W. Kolb
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Jason Lee Gill Ragon Owen 501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800 Little Rock
Amy C. Markham
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Gary D. Marts, Jr.
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Kara Mikles Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Bruce E. Munson
Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Edward T. Oglesby
The Brad Hendricks Law Firm
501-550-4090
500 Pleasant Valley Drive, Building C Little Rock
David M. Powell
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Jeffrey W. Puryear
Womack Phelps Puryear
Mayfield & McNeil
870-932-0900 Century Center Jonesboro
Emily M. Runyon
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
479-464-5650
4206 South J.B. Hunt Drive, Suite 200 Rogers
Michael G. Smith
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300
Little Rock
John Wesley Hall is included in the 2005-24 Editions of The Best Lawyers in America® for his work in Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. He wrote the book. Literally. Three of them. Now in their 4th and 5th editions. He was also named the Best Lawyers® 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025 Criminal Defense: General Practice “Lawyer of the Year” in Central Arkansas.
Tim Cullen was included in the 2025 Edition of
M. Evan Stallings
Barber Law Firm
501-372-6175
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3400 Little Rock
Shane Strabala Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Scott Tidwell
RMP
479-443-2705
5519 Hackett Road, Suite 300 Springdale
Amy L. Tracy
Tracy Law, PLLC
501-712-5899
918 West Sixth Street Little Rock
Kyle R. Wilson
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Kimberly D. Young
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Mary Carole Young Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone
501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Litigation - Intellectual Property
Kevin A. Crass
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Frederick H. Davis Kutak Rock
501-975-3000
124 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Mark Murphey Henry
Henry Law Firm
479-368-0555
P.O. Box 4800 Fayetteville
Adam Hopkins
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
BEST LAWYERS® IN ARKANSAS
Harry A. Light
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
N. M. Norton
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Litigation - Labor and Employment
Alfred F. Angulo, Jr. Robertson, Beasley, Shipley & Robinson
479-782-8813
315 North Seventh Street Fort Smith
John L. Burnett
Lavey and Burnett 501-376-2269 904 West Second Street Little Rock
Daniel R. Carter
James & Carter
501-263-9450
500 Broadway, Suite 400 Little Rock
Brandon B. Cate
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
479-444-5200
4100 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 310 Springdale
E.B. Chiles IV
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Suzanne G. Clark Clark Law Firm 479-802-4834
121 West South Street Fayetteville
J. Bruce Cross Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
John D. Davis
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Missy McJunkins Duke Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Joseph R. Falasco
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street,
Suite 1900 Little Rock
James M. Gary Kutak Rock
501-975-3000
124 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Audra K. Hamilton
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Christopher J. Heller
Friday Eldredge & Clark
501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Denise Reid Hoggard
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton
501-868-2500
801 Technology Drive Little Rock
William Stuart Jackson
Wright Lindsey Jennings
501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Sarah Keith-Bolden
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull
501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Susan K. Kendall
Harrington, Miller, Kieklak, Eichmann & Brown
479-751-6464
4710 S. Thompson, Suite 102 Springdale
Kerri E. Kobbeman
Conner & Winters
479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405 Fayetteville
Cynthia W. Kolb
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Eva C. Madison
Littler
479-582-6100
The Fulbright Building Fayetteville
David P. Martin
Rose Law Firm
501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Abtin Mehdizadegan
Hall Booth Smith
501-214-3499
200 River Market Avenue, Suite 500 Little Rock
Michael S. Moore
Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Elizabeth Robben Murray Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Marshall S. Ney
Friday Eldredge & Clark
479-695-2011
3350 South Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 301 Rogers
Dylan Potts
Gill Ragon Owen 501-376-3800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 3800 Little Rock
Janet L. Pulliam
Pulliam Law Offices
501-664-7405 15 Pinnacle Point North Little Rock
Spencer F. Robinson Ramsay, Bridgforth, Robinson & Raley 870-535-9000
Simmons First National Bank Building, 501 Main Street 11th Floor Pine Bluff
Benjamin H. Shipley III Robertson, Beasley, Shipley & Robinson 479-782-8813
315 North Seventh Street Fort Smith
Paul D. Waddell Waddell, Cole & Jones 870-931-1700
310 East Street, Suite A Jonesboro
Carolyn B. Witherspoon Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
H. Wayne Young Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000
Little Rock
Litigation - Mergers and Acquisitions
Suzanne G. Clark Clark Law Firm 479-802-4834
121 West South Street Fayetteville
Kerri E. Kobbeman Conner & Winters 479-582-5711
4375 North Vantage Drive, Suite 405 Fayetteville
Litigation - Municipal Missy McJunkins Duke Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Robert K. Rhoads Hall Estill 479-973-5200
75 North East Avenue, Suite 500 Fayetteville
Colby T. Roe Daily & Woods 479-782-0361
58 South Sixth Street Fort Smith
Litigation - Patent Frederick H. Davis Kutak Rock 501-975-3000
124 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Mark Murphey Henry Henry Law Firm 479-368-0555 P.O. Box 4800 Fayetteville
Litigation - Real Estate
Adrienne L. Baker Wright Lindsey Jennings 479-986-0888 3333 Pinnacle Hills Parkway, Suite 510 Rogers
John Keeling Baker Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Constance G. Clark Davis, Butt, Taylor & Clark 479-521-7600
75 North East Avenue, Suite 402 Fayetteville
Suzanne G. Clark Clark Law Firm 479-802-4834
121 West South Street Fayetteville
William F. Clark Davis, Butt, Taylor & Clark 479-521-7600
75 North East Avenue, Suite 402 Fayetteville
Cade L. Cox Cox, Sterling, Vandiver, & Botteicher 501-954-8073
8201 Cantrell Road, Suite 230 Little Rock
Thomas A. Daily Daily & Woods 479-782-0361
58 South Sixth Street Fort Smith
Don A. Eilbott
Don A. Eilbott 501-225-2885
P.O. Box 23870 Little Rock
Joseph R. Falasco Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
Timothy W. Grooms Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull 501-379-1700
111 Center Street, Suite 1900 Little Rock
L. Kyle Heffley Kutak Rock 479-250-9700 5111 West JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300 Rogers
Joseph G. Nichols Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Water Law
Brian Rosenthal Rose Law Firm 501-375-9131
120 East Fourth Street Little Rock
Jordan P. Wimpy Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard 501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Walter G. Wright, Jr. Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard
501-688-8800
425 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1800 Little Rock
Workers’ Compensation Law - Claimants
Gregory Giles Moore, Giles & Matteson
870-774-5191 1206 North State Line Avenue Texarkana
Jason M. Hatfield
Law Office of Jason M. Hatfield 479-361-3575
1025 E. Don Tyson Parkway Springdale
Kenneth J. Kieklak
Ken Kieklak, Attorney at Law 479-239-9948
3608 North Steel Boulevard, Suite 101 Fayetteville
Eddie H. Walker, Jr. Walker Law Group 479-783-5000
400 North Sixth Street Fort Smith
Phillip J. Wells Wells & Wells 870-782-4084
225 South Church Street Jonesboro
Philip M. Wilson
Philip Wilson 501-374-4000 1501 North University Avenue, Suite 218 Little Rock
Laura Beth York Rainwater, Holt & Sexton 501-868-2500 801 Technology Drive Little Rock
Workers’ Compensation Law - Employers
James A. Arnold II Ledbetter Cogbill Arnold & Harrison 479-782-7294 622 Parker Avenue Fort Smith
Constance G. Clark Davis, Butt, Taylor & Clark 479-521-7600
75 North East Avenue, Suite 402 Fayetteville
John D. Davis
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Betty J. Hardy Montgomery Wyatt Hardy 501-377-9568
308 East Eighth Street Little Rock
Amy C. Markham Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
Mark Mayfield Womack Phelps Puryear Mayfield & McNeil 870-932-0900 Century Center Jonesboro
Kara Mikles Munson, Rowlett, Moore & Boone 501-374-6535
Building One, Sixth floor, Suite 1600 Little Rock
Lee J. Muldrow
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Randy P. Murphy Anderson Murphy Hopkins 501-372-1887
101 River Bluff Drive, Suite A Little Rock
Joseph H. Purvis
Wright Lindsey Jennings 501-371-0808
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2300 Little Rock
Brian H. Ratcliff PPGMR Law 870-862-5523
200 N. Jefferson Ave., Suite 500 El Dorado
Michael E. Ryburn Ryburn Law Firm 501-228-8100
650 South Shackleford, Suite 231 Little Rock
Guy Alton Wade Friday Eldredge & Clark 501-376-2011
400 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 2000 Little Rock
R. Scott Zuerker Ledbetter Cogbill Arnold & Harrison 479-782-7294
622 Parker Avenue Fort Smith
RECLAIMING THE HOLIDAYS
HOW FAMILIES CAN FIND JOY BEYOND CONSUMERISM.
BY TRICIA LARSON
Holiday gatherings are a time to connect with extended family and friends, but they also come with challenges. Whether it’s navigating political differences, managing crowded environments or simply keeping children on their best behavior, these events can easily become sources of anxiety.
Lindsay Van Parys, a licensed and accredited medical and mental health care provider, said children are particularly sensitive to disrupted routines and heightened behavioral expectations during the holidays.
“Children thrive on routines and clear expectations of behavior,” Van Parys said. “It is important that caregivers prepare their child for changes in routine and provide general details of what their holiday schedule will look like.” A mother of three, Van Parys advises parents to maintain as much of their routines as possible and make clear what behaviors are expected, including consequences and rewards.
She said caregivers should be aware that kids pick up on their stress, so it’s important for adults to model good behavior and recognize that holiday gatherings can overstimulate even the calmest children.
Van Parys said excessive noise, unfamiliar foods or crowded environments
SETTING EXPECTATIONS: Lindsay Van Parys, a licensed and accredited medical and mental health care provider, reads to her children Myles, 8, Shelby, 4, and Grayson, 6. Letting kids know what is coming up and what is expected of them can make the holidays less stressful for parents.
can lead to meltdowns, especially for neurodivergent children or those with mental health conditions like anxiety. She encourages parents to “show some grace if overstimulation occurs,” and suggested having a plan for when events become too overwhelming.
Ragan Sutterfield, associate rector at Christ Church in Little Rock, offered a simple solution for reducing holiday stress: Learn to say “no.” His family sets aside one day a week free from screens and obligations, which helps them limit expectations.
“My family struggles like everyone else with all of the expectations around holidays, but we work to remind ourselves that we are finite. We can only do so much,” Sutterfield said. “By working hard not to be busy, we get closer than we would otherwise.”
Families should discuss which gatherings and traditions are most important and spend their time accordingly, ensuring room for relaxation and connection. “Avoid over-explaining why you may not attend a certain event or stay as long as usual,” Van Parys advised. By prioritizing time together over a packed calendar, families can avoid the exhaustion that often accompanies the holidays.
Gift-giving is another holiday stressor. Driven by desires to create picture-perfect
BRIAN CHILSON
PARTNERSHIP IS OUR FOUNDATION
Dan Felton has been referring his clients and friends to the Community Foundation for decades. As an attorney and community leader, he trusts Arkansas Community Foundation with his clientʼs needs, along with the needs of Lee County. We are proud to partner with him, along with professional advisors statewide to serve their clientʼs philanthropic goals.
holidays, parents and children often find themselves overwhelmed.
April Pollard, a Little Rock-based financial planner, advises clients with a focus on economic and psychological well-being. She explained that the season’s financial pressures often come with hidden emotional burdens. “There’s a lot of shame that comes with overspending,” Pollard noted. “It’s not just the act of spending, it’s the hidden regret that comes later when people realize the long-term impact of their choices.”
Pollard encourages families to reflect on their financial priorities before shopping. She suggests intentional planning throughout the year, such as setting up a holiday savings account. “If you know you’ll spend $1,000 on Christmas, start saving early and allocate funds throughout the year,” she said.
Pollard also highlights the importance of managing expectations, particularly when it comes to children. “Instead of saying, ‘We don’t have the money for that,’ I tell my kids, ‘We haven’t allocated dollars for that right now.’ It’s all about the language you use — it’s not about making them feel like their desires don’t matter, but helping them understand that finances are a matter of prioritization.”
“Iʼve been proud to partner with the Community Foundation for years, theyʼve done so much for Lee County.”
- Dan Felton
Learn more about how partnering with the Community Foundation can make a difference for you and your community.
This approach not only alleviates some of the financial pressure, but also teaches children valuable lessons about budgeting and patience.
Pollard also suggests moving away from consumerism by giving experiential gifts, such as park passes or volunteering as a family. “These create lasting memories that are far more valuable than the latest gadgets,” she said.
The pressure is equally intense for children, especially when they see peers giving and receiving expensive presents or posting about lavish gifts or trips on social media.
Carol Ballard, an elementary school teacher in rural Arkansas, has seen the toll that holiday gift-giving can take on kids, especially those from low-income families. “It’s not classic peer pressure, but internalized pressure from seeing their friends give when they can’t,” Ballard explained. This is particularly evident in school settings, where some children feel embarrassed or excluded because they cannot afford to participate in gift exchanges.
“There have been so many kids throughout the years who say to me, ‘Ms. Ballard, I really want to give you something for Christmas,’ after seeing their peers give, and it’s truly their heart’s desire to give, but they can’t afford to do so,” she said.
Ballard recommends that schools consider “no gift” policies or focus on crafts instead of gift exchanges to reduce pressure on children and parents. If parents really want to acknowledge a teacher, a gift can be given outside of the classroom. “This would ensure
that no child feels left out,” she said.
At home, Van Parys suggests focusing on gratitude and connection rather than materialism, teaching children to appreciate blessings and to shift from receiving to giving.
At the Sutterfields’ house, they keep gift-giving simple. “Each year, we give our daughters a book, a donation to the World Wildlife Fund to support the animal of their choice — usually accompanied by a stuffed animal as a representation — and something to empower their creativity, such as an instrument or art supplies,” Sutterfield said. He adds that the family practices daily thanksgiving and gratitude through prayer, which “can help ward off the dissatisfaction that drives materialism.”
Social media adds another layer of complexity, amplifying the pressure to present a perfect holiday. Van Parys encourages parents to model positive behavior by limiting their screen time and discussing the unrealistic portrayals found online. “Explain that social media posts usually are not an accurate depiction of real life,” she advised.
Sutterfield and his wife quit social media years ago and don’t regret it. “Our children have rich social lives with face-to-face contact,” he says, adding that they feel little need for online validation.
Fostering meaningful holiday traditions is another way to move away from consumerism.
At Christ Church in Little Rock, families like Sutterfield’s celebrate Advent by making wreaths together. This tradition helps them connect spiritually and center their holiday experience around gratitude and prayer.
“Those wreaths create a place where every evening, for the four weeks leading up to Christmas, families can gather to offer prayers and light candles,” Sutterfield explained. “Candles are part of the prayer tradition of many faiths through the winter. They can be a centering point for gathering, holy silence and celebration — whatever your faith tradition.”
For families looking to create new traditions, Sutterfield recommends keeping things simple. One of his family’s favorite holiday activities is decorating a tree in the park with natural materials. Using pine cones and birdseed, the family makes ornaments to decorate the trees for the animals. “It gives us a meaningful way to be in the community with others and offers a little gift to the creatures we love in our local ecosystem.”
Ultimately, the holidays are an opportunity to focus on what truly matters. By fostering open communication, setting boundaries around gift-giving and social media, and embracing traditions that reflect core values, families can more easily navigate this time of year and ensure the holidays remain joyous.
NOVEMBER AT RON ROBINSON THEATER
Film and Concert: Rocky Horror Picture Show + The Crumbs
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 | 6:30 PM | $15
Doors open at 6:00. Enjoy a big pre-show with prizes, games, and fun starting at 6:30, followed by an interactive film showing at 7:00. The night wraps up with a concert featuring Arkansas band The Crumbs at 9:00, performing “The Rocky Horror Pickin’ Show,” a bluegrass take on the classic film soundtrack.
Bridge of Spies with special guest Francis Gary Powers Jr. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4 | 6:30 PM | FREE
Join us for a free showing of Bridge of Spies followed by a presentation and book signing by Francis Gary Powers Jr., the son of the U2 pilot.
BINGOFLIX: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987, R) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9 | 7 PM | $5
A 1987 American road trip comedy film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy. It tells the story of Neal, an uptight marketing executive, and Del, a well-meaning but obnoxious salesman, who become travel companions when their flight is diverted, and embark on a three-day odyssey of misadventures trying to reach Chicago in time for Neal’s Thanksgiving Day dinner with his family.
Ron Robinson Theater | 100 River Market Avenue
OLD GOLD
LITTLE ROCK REPAIR SHOP REVITALIZES ANTIQUES.
BY MILO STRAIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON
GIDDYUP: Little Rock Repair Shop owner Michael Crenshaw stands with horses from the Little Rock Zoo’s Over-the-Jumps Carousel. His shop is completing an intensive restoration in celebration of the attraction’s centennial anniversary.
Tucked into an inconspicuous strip mall, the Little Rock Repair Shop seems to exist outside time. A passerby might easily overlook the historic restoration workshop responsible for vintage renovations at three Hot Springs bathhouses and Little Rock’s First Presbyterian Church.
Those who investigate further will find a cozy space stuffed with old chairs, vintage chandeliers, antique lamps and other relics.
Michael Crenshaw, founder and lead restorationist, fell into the craft in the early 2000s after taking a job with an antique lighting restorationist in Little Rock. Already an experienced woodworker taught by his carpenter father, Crenshaw cut his teeth working on chandeliers before striking out on his own.
“Sentiment is really important. I like to preserve beautiful things,” Crenshaw said.
After bouncing between a few workshops around downtown Little Rock, Crenshaw settled in at 1506 Macon Drive, near Rodney Parham Road, in February.
The new digs have “been a game changer,” Crenshaw said, giving his business more visibility and clients than before.
“It’s always some kind of a struggle downtown,” Crenshaw said.
Crenshaw also got a boost from the buzz around his work for the Little Rock Zoo, which hired his shop last year to complete an intensive restoration of its Over-the-Jumps Carousel in celebration of the attraction’s centennial anniversary.
The project is nearing the end of its first phase: restoration of the carousel’s 40 horses and four sleighs, each one deep-cleaned and stripped of its varnish before Crenshaw and his crew carefully recreate the centuryold equines’ hand-painted designs and woodwork.
Applying a primer coat on the horses with a spray gun is the only stage requiring a machine. Crenshaw and his staff do everything else by hand.
Authentic French Technique
Made with love and from scratch.
“SENTIMENT IS REALLY IMPORTANT. I LIKE TO PRESERVE BEAUTIFUL THINGS.”
NO MATTER THE SIZE: The Little Rock Repair Shop doesn’t exclusively do big projects. Lots of people come seeking restoration for their various antiques.
Crenshaw and the zoo are discussing the next phases of the restoration and a continuing maintenance program for the carousel, and he’s already got his eye on another Little Rock carousel in need of restoring at Camp Aldersgate, a nonprofit that runs summer camps for people with special needs.
Designed by the Herschell-Spillman Co., the same company that built the zoo’s carousel, Crenshaw said the Aldersgate carousel is considered a “sister carousel to the Over-the-Jumps Carousel” and that he’s been in talks with the organization about restoring it.
The Little Rock Repair Shop has also restored the Hale, Maurice and Quapaw bathhouses in Hot Springs, built in 1892, 1912 and 1922, respectively; the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Little Rock, built in 1921; the elegant Villa Marre, a historic house on Scott Street built in 1881 and featured as the home of Sugarbaker and Associates Interior Design in “Designing Women”; and many private homes in Arkansas.
Crenshaw doesn’t exclusively do big projects. Lots of people come with their various antiques, usually chairs, looking for somebody to bring them back to life.
“I should probably write a book on repairing chairs. I’ve repaired so many different kinds of chairs broken in so many different ways,” Crenshaw said. “They look a lot alike, but once they’re broken, chairs are like people. They’re all different.”
He won’t touch upholstery, though.
“I worked for an upholsterer for a while, and he was the best ever, but, man, if you ever want to suffer for a piece of furniture, be an upholsterer,” Crenshaw said, with the grimness of a man who’s done his time in the trenches of antique restoration. “That will tear your hands up.”
Crenshaw and his longtime clientele, some of whom have been coming to him for decades, simply have a deep love and appreciation for “things that are made in Arkansas and that are a part of Arkansas,” he said.
“How they’re shared amongst people in our community, the sentiment and the stories that are attached to them,” Crenshaw said. “We start conversations about these things and the conversations never end.”
One of the best parts of working in Central Arkansas, Crenshaw said, is the sense of camaraderie among the community of craftspeople in the area, “even among those of us who do some of the same things and overlap with our skills.”
“I send work to people, people send work to me,” Crenshaw said.
The community of craftspeople generously exchanges knowledge.
“I know a lot of different people around Arkansas with a bunch of different skills. Sometimes it’s ‘Can you show me how to do that?’ or ‘How did you do that?’ but at no point in time does anyone get apprehensive about sharing information,” Crenshaw said. “We all freely share information with each other.”
On the first Saturday of every month, the Little Rock Repair Shop hosts an open house where people can see in-progress projects, do some mingling and enjoy light refreshments.
“We get into different conversations and talk about all the different pieces and projects that are going on around the shop from room to room to room,” Crenshaw said. “It’s just four or five hours of fun once a month.”
The Little Rock Repair Shop posts blogs to its website, littlerockrepairshop.com, where you can learn more about what Crenshaw and the crew are up to.
MEET WILLOW: DAUGHTER, SPIRITED SIDEKICK, FRIEND TO ALL
It takes a different kind of service to handle pediatric cases. Other ortho groups don’t seem to provide the attention to detail it takes to cater to kids like Snell does.”
- Terri Tharp (Willow’s mother) READ MORE ABOUT WILLOW AND THE SPECIALIZED APPROACH WE TAKE TO PEDIATRIC CARE AT SnellArkansas.com
GIVING DANKS
BUDTENDERS ARE HERE TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS WITH AS LITTLE PAIN AND ANXIETY AS POSSIBLE.
BY MATT MCNAIR
Along with college football (a mixed blessing here in Razorback Country), county fairs (all blessing, unless post-corndog depression counts as “mixed”) and the onslaught of pumpkin-spice-flavored products in their locust-like horde, this time of year marks the beginning of the holiday season, with Halloween and Día de los Muertos teeing up the Big Ones: Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and secular get-togethers of every stripe.
To get a head start on getting into the proper headspace for the busy months ahead, the Arkansas Times proudly presents another round of cannabis recommendations from some of Arkansas’s best budtenders. Far removed from the old method of taking a chance with whatever your coolest and/or crispiest cousin offered to share out behind the garage, these days a person can talk to qualified professionals and procure some real medicine that might do a body some actual good. In that spirit, we present the following suggestions for getting the most out of our state’s medical cannabis — and your holidays — from the pros in the know.
IAN HALLAM
Budtender and customer service specialist, The Hill
Ian Hallam, a longtime patient and current budtender at The Hill dispensary in Fayetteville, recommends a more traditional take for holiday fare: a selection of top-shelf “flower,” or what the old-timers might refer to as “marijuana.” Hallam’s pick goes by the exotic and enticing nomme de ganja “Bacio Gelato,” a hybrid indica strain from River Valley Relief. Praising Bacio Gelato as his go-to since its introduction more than a year ago, Hallam notes the consistency of this strain’s quality and its propensity for a relaxing, full-body effect that sets in immediately. In a go-go world, being able to slow down at the drop of a hat is a virtue not to be discounted.
Bacio Gelato is a cross between the Sunset Sherbet and Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie strains, and is described by River Valley Relief as a flower whose combustion results in a “thick, creamy and rich smoke [with] a sweet overtone.” At 22.6% THC — fairly potent for flower — Bacio Gelato is another offering cultivated with more experienced patients in mind, and should ideally be consumed when one’s other obligations have been fulfilled — although, presumably, a friendly (congenially cutthroat) round of spades with a few cardsharp cousins can be safely undertaken.
AMETHYST NAVARRETE
Vault tech, Arkansas Natural Products
Starting out at Arkansas Natural Products in July of 2022, Amethyst Navarrete made her mark as a budtender before taking on the role of vault tech, in which she's responsible for getting medicine into the hands of ANP's many patients.
Though Navarrete may not be offering one-to-one recommendations to patients on a daily basis while she keeps the dispensary’s sanctum sanctorum operating, her experience begs a listen. She chose to highlight an edible product — appropriate for a time of year given over to food, fellowship and more food — in the form of Wana Mango gummies.
Produced by River Valley Relief, Wana Mango gummies have several varieties in which sativa, indica and hybrid strains are prevalent, along with those prioritizing a more balanced CBD-to-THC ratio. All of these are enriched with more than 30 terpenes.
IT TAKES ALL KINDS: Whether traditional flower or gummies, Arkansas dispensaries have multiple options to make the holidays better.
All of which is to say, it’s a boon for Arkansas cannabis patients to have not only a wide array of potential and specific medicines, but dedicated professionals like Navarrete to help one navigate the cornucopia of options.
NOVEMBER
11/2 DJ YK
11/9 PSYCHEDELIC VELOCITY
11/16 BILLY JONES BAND
OF CHRIS BAKER BAND
LIVE TRIVIA
COMEDY OPEN MIC
EVERY WED. AROUND 9:30 P.M. 1316 MAIN ST. • (501) 372-9990
NOVEMBER
1st - Jimmy Lynn’s Psychedelic Velocity w/ Mark Simpson Band
2nd - Hillbilly Casino w/ Justin and the Heavy Lifters (centralarkansastickets.com)
8th - Rock City Jukebox
9th - Chad Marshall Band
15th - EC Haynes and Hindsight Groove
16th - Jenna and the Soul Shakers
22nd & 23rd - KC Bones (Grateful Dead Tribute - new sets each night!!)
29th - Coyote Claw
30th - Whoa Dakota w/ Justin Banks
Check out upcoming bands at Fourquarter.com
until 2am every night!
A self-professed aficionado of edible cannabis, Navarrete makes a convincing case for considering Wana Mango as topflight medicine for the holiday season, highlighting effects that seem uniquely suited for the (mostly) happy trials and (more or less) welcome travails unique to this special stretch of the calendar.
“What sets these gummies apart is their unique ability to provide calm, focused energy,” she said, describing the resulting mindset as “clear and uplifting.” Top that off with a touch of the giggles, she said, and you have a “well-rounded edible that balances flavor, efficacy and a touch of fun.”
ROBERT KNIGHT
Budtender, Arkansas Natural Products
Robert Knight was an early patient of Arkansas Natural Products in Clinton, but it wasn’t long before General Manager Jennifer Morgan took note of his cannabis-related acumen. “I saw how educated he was on cannabis,” she said, and decided to put a paycheck behind that notion, hiring Knight as a budtender in July of 2023. After more than a year on the job, Knight offers a recommendation he believes will serve his patients well this season and beyond: ArkanRAW Full Spectrum Raw Cannabis Oil, manufactured by River Valley Relief out of Fort Smith.
By utilizing whole plant extracts, ArkanRAW cannabis oil comes out of the production process sporting a wide array of cannabinoids and terpenes (hence “full spectrum”) that is particularly suited to treating severe pain while providing relief from symptoms of high anxiety.
It is also quite stout, testing at a bit more than 76% THC. As such, it is a product more suited to experienced patients than those just beginning treatment. According to the River Valley Relief website, a full dose is roughly equal in size to a grain of sand, and it is recommended that patients start with a low dose and increase slowly if needed.
Along with ArkanRAW’s potency — he recommends it to patients that need a little extra help to manage pain — Knight is impressed with ArkanRAW’s efficient delivery system.
“It’s versatile and easy to use,” he said. “You can infuse some honey [with the oil] for a little kick to your coffee or tea — or just put it on your favorite hard candy and hold it under your tongue for quick relief.”
If you’re hankering for a remedy to help you wind down after a long day of visiting with the extended family (not arguing, and
SUBTLE MEDICINE: Cannabis oil and THC-infused cocoa allow patients to medicate discreetly.
definitely not arguing over politics) without packing such a wallop, Knight suggests Wana Spectrum Rosin gummies. These berryflavored, naturally sweetened gummies are made using an extraction method that leaves enough cannabinoids and terpenes intact for a full-body effect. At 10 milligrams of THC per dose, these gummies make it easy to take a little nap, but don’t pack so much of a punch you can’t sit up for the last football game of the day and talk a little pigskin with your tryptophan-saturated uncle, suspect political opinions and all.
BROOKLYN MOSS
Budtender, Natural Relief Dispensary
Yuletide 2024 will mark two years that Brooklyn Moss has been helping patients at Natural Relief Dispensary in Sherwood. When asked what product she would recommend to blend natural medicine with holiday cheer, she doesn’t hesitate to hype the THC-infused hot cocoa mix from Leafology.
“It’s great,” she said. “It tastes just like hot chocolate.”
Leafology Hot Chocolate Mix (according to the packaging, though some web searches list it as “Hot Cocoa Mix”) is an infused and flavored powder, sort of like a classic packet of Swiss Miss with a little added merriment. It can be prepared using any liquid suitable for making unleaded hot cocoa — water or milk, more often than not — but Moss goes on to suggest the true chocolate lovers out there can also opt to put the potent, tasty powder directly into a mug of their favorite (unmedicated) hot cocoa.
Now, should you or one of your holiday companions get a little too full of chocolate and need a change of pace, Moss has you covered there, too. When it’s time for a change-up in the taste department but the weather and the vibe still call for a piping-hot cup of cheer, she recommends a little slurp of SURP, a spiced apple cider simple syrup from Spring Lake, an imprint of Revolution Cannabis. A concentrated syrup available in 1.69-ounce bottles, SURP Spiced Apple Cider is perfect for adding to any number of holiday drinks. The small bottle and relatively low concentration of THC indica — 100 mg per bottle — also makes it easy to control dosages. “It’s a low dose,” Moss said, and does wonders to “calm and relax your mind and body.”
But the best thing about SURP might just be the fact that it’s a good and comfy fit with a time of year that, hopefully, has its share of good and comfy nights for everybody out there in the Arkansas wintertime. “During the holiday season, nothing is better than apple cider,” Moss said.
Well said and well met, and happy holidays to all from these excellent budtenders and everyone at the Arkansas Times!
GET YOUR SWINE ON AT PIG & SWIG!
IT’S HOG HEAVEN.
Calling all pork and whiskey aficionados! The Arkansas Times is once again hosting the ultimate culinary adventure, Pig & Swig: A Premium Whiskey and Pork Tasting Event. This annual greasy-fingered tasting is a hog heaven for foodies and a cocktail lover’s dream.
Gather your fellow swine-loving friends and prepare your taste buds for a night of culinary bliss. Sample high-end whiskey drinks from each of our event sponsors Knob Creek Bourbon, Knob Creek Rye, Jim Beam Black 7 Year and Basil Hayden Dark Rye. Plus, enjoy specialty cocktails featuring all four top shelf spirits.
Get ready to oink with delight as you savor the flavors of local roasters, smokers and grillers, including Fassler Hall, Draft + Table, Dust Bowl Lanes, Brick & Forge, The Spot, The Burger Chef, Problem Child Pizza and more. Indulge in mouthwatering pork-based delicacies from some of Arkansas’s finest restaurants, with something to satisfy every craving.
But wait, there’s more! Upgrade to a $100 VIP ticket and experience the event in style. Hang out in the exclusive VIP area, sample high-end whiskey from a private bartender, and indulge in a catered buffet with an original menu.
Pig & Swig is taking place Nov. 7 at Argenta Plaza in downtown North Little Rock. VIP entry starts at 5:30 p.m., and general admission begins at 6 p.m. General admission tickets are a great deal at only $40. Sponsored by Edwards Food Giant.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your tickets and prepare for a night of food, fun and libation! Remember, this event is strictly for hogs 21 and over, so leave the piglets at home. The event ends at 9 p.m. Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com.
BRIAN CHILSON
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
HOLIDAY GIFTGUIDE
GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT. WHAT THEY REALLY, REALLY WANT THIS YEAR.
WORDSWORTH BOOKS
Book Club Gifts!
A book is a gift you can open more than once. Give the gift of a great read, like Bill Clinton's new memoir Citizen, releasing Nov. 19, or a WordsWorth Books gift card! 5920 R St., Little Rock, 501-6639198, wordsworthbookstore.com.
Forthe art collector
Lightitup!
THE PUNCHBOWL
Excite the senses of your loved ones with this delightful, antique candle from The Punch Bowl. From French imports to locally sourced treasures, you’re sure to find gifts unlike any you’ve ever seen before. 1501 Main St., Suite 300, Little Rock.
AMFA
From the weird to the whimsical, you’ll have heads turning with every sip taken from one of these delightful, handcrafted mugs. Discover this and more among the carefully crafted curation at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Store. 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock, 501-396-0357, store.arkmfa.org.
CYNTHIA EAST
Head to Cynthia East for all your holiday gift needs. These custom-designed, handcrafted Rainbow Velvet Cones come in a variety of colors, including plum, yellow and teal. They make the ideal holiday mantelpiece. Or put together Liberty Puzzle’s stunning, 500-piece “Tree of Life” design with gold foil embellishments as a fun, festive activity. 1523 Rebsamen Park Road, 501-663-0460, cynthiaeastfabrics.com.
OZARK OUTDOOR
Whether it’s game day or gone fishin’, gift your loved ones the lightest camping chair around, period. But don’t just keep the load light, keep the ladies of your life toasty and warm with a Smartwool Thermal Merion Base Layer in classic gray. Made to stand up against hiking, skiing, running or everyday activities. 5514 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, 501-6644832, ozarkoutdoor.com.
KEEPIT CHIC!
RHEA DRUG
Stop by Rhea Drug this winter season to keep yourself festive and warm. These stylish black gloves with decorative trim are a great holiday gift for the ladies in your life. 2801 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, 501-663-4131, rheadrugstore.com.
Unwrap Adventure
ARKANSAS CRAFT GUILD
Beads: Colorful handmade lampwork beads by Sage and Tom Holland of Stone County. Each piece is expertly crafted and no two will ever be exactly the same.
Earrings: Pam Alexander of Melbourne, Arkansas, creates expertly handcrafted earrings in her own style using elements from the natural world for her P. Alexander Jewelry line.
Plates: Lisa Crews of The Flying Mermaid creates whimsical and unique pottery. These plates are just an example of the broad range of unique items she makes.
Find these artists and more at the 46th Annual Arkansas Craft Guild Christmas Showcase. 104 E. Main St., Mountain View, 870269-4120, arkansascraftguild.org/christmas-showcase.
BELLA VITA
You’re sure to charm everyone around you with these unique, personalized bracelets from Bella Vita. Stop by and create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry that’s filled with personality.108 W. Sixth St., Suite A, Little Rock, 501-396-9146, bellavitajewelry.net.
GASTON’S
There’s nothing like the gift of escape and adventure, so why not let your loved ones find that and more at Gaston’s White River Resort in Lakeview. With their award-winning restaurant and riverside views, you’ll be giving them a completely firstclass experience. 1777 River Road, Lakeview, 870-431-5202, gastons.com.
want it! Gift an arktimes.com subscription for as
LOCAL EATS & DRINKS
SOMETHINGFOR EVERYONEON YOURLIST...
JACKSONVILLE PARKS & RECREATION HOLIDAY
CRAFT & GIFTS SALE
Find the perfect gifts this holiday season from local vendors. Pictured: custom jewelry from Savvy Creations; scrunchies from 3 Chicks Farm; artwork from Handmade Treasures by Vallerie. 5 Municipal Drive, Jacksonville, 501-982-4171, Nov. 22-23.
BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT
Do you have a coffee aficionado in your life? Give the gift of a locally roasted cup every morning with Brave New Restaurant’s 12-ounce bags. Available for pickup or shipping! While you’re at it, throw in a gift certificate for a delicious night out. 2300 Cottondale Lane, #105, Little Rock, 501663-2677, bravenewrestaurant.com.
STOCKING STUFFER IDEAS!
THE CROISSANTERIE
Give the gift of locally baked croissants and more with a gift card to one of Little Rock’s favorite nooks. Now in West Little Rock and downtown, the options are endless and delicious! 14710 Cantrell Road, A5, Little Rock, 501-412-4244, thecroissanterielr.com.
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE® STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION
4. Issue Frequency: Monthly. 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 12. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $60.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock, Pulaski County, AR 72201. Contact Robert Curfman (501) 375-2985. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (not printer): 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock AR 72201 9. Publisher: Alan Leveritt, 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock, AR 72201. Editor: Austin Bailey, 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock, AR 72201. Managing Editor: Stephanie Smittle, 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock, AR 72201. 10. Owner: Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham, Ste. 150, Little Rock, AR 72201. 11. Known Beholders, Mortgagees, and Other Securities: None. 12a. Tax Status Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publication Title: Arkansas Times Newspaper. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: 9/01/2024. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months; No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date. 15a, Total Number of Copies (Net press run): 20,200; 20,200. 15b. Legitimate Paid and/or Requested Distribution (By mail and outside the mail): (1) Outside County/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541. (Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing and internet requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 113; 103. (2) In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541. (Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing and internet requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 40; 40. (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS®; 12,519; 12,463 (4) Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail®):0;0. 15c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation:
(Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4)):12,519; 12,463 15d. Non-requested Distribution (By mail and outside the mail): (1) Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources): 0;0. (2) In-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541(include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources): 0;0. (3) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail (e.g. First-Class Mail, nonrequestor copies mailed in excess of 10% limit mailed at Standard Mail® or Package Service Rates): 0;0. (4) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail (include pickup stands, trade shows, showrooms and other sources): 6,860; 6,774. 15e. Total Nonrequested Distribution [Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)]: 6,860;6,774 15f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and e): 19,379; 19,237 15g. Copies not Distributed 821; 963 15h. Total (Sum of 15f and g): 20,200; 20,200. 15i. Percent Paid and/ or Requested Circulation (15c divided by 15f times 100): 64.60%; 64.78%. 16. Electronic Copy Circulation 16a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies 0;0 16b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line16a) 12,519; 12,463 16c. Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15f) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) 19,379; 19,237 16d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100) 64.60%; 64.78%. I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies. 17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the 11/1/2024 issue of this publication. 18. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner: Alan Leveritt, Publisher. Date: 10/1/2024. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).
OLD SCHOOL
Jerry pulled his van off of Martin Street and into the empty parking lot of Prescott High, our alma mater. While high schools elsewhere in the state had expanded and renovated to accommodate swelling populations of students, PHS looked much the same as it did when we last set foot on campus 36 years ago.
The Nevada County seat — The Observer’s hometown — had been hit hard by a declining population, and a series of fires left the downtown area largely vacant, its oncesturdy buildings scraped down to bare, dusty concrete. So we set our sights on our old school. “We might as well get out and take a walk,” Jerry said.
It was a Saturday, with no one around to witness our excursion except for the people across the street, watching from the shade of their porch. Jerry and I had gotten together on this hot fall afternoon for two purposes: to listen to U2 and reminisce. In high school we had spent hours together, listening to Prince, The Police and Springsteen on cassette. When we talk these days, music is still what we talk about, though we’re more likely to share a link to Spotify than we are to swap a mixtape.
There’s not much to do in Prescott except buy a Coke at the Sonic, but a road trip to our old high school offered a rare diversion from our adult lives. A chance to close the circle. Two kids graduate, leave home, venture out into the world and return older and wiser. (Or maybe just older?) Maybe returning to the scene of faded jeans and covert tobaccodipping would trigger memories that time had obscured. Would trekking the lawn at PHS summon any ghosts to shed new light on the past?
It would not, as it turned out. But we did talk a lot about girls.
Girls took up quite a bit of our time and attention back then. We had no success with any, but figuring out how to get one to talk to us presented more pitfalls and tonguetwisters than third-period Spanish. The Observer could have taught a class on how to lose a girl. One broke up with me the week before prom; the other moved out of town before I had a chance to ask her out. Another has no idea, to this day, that I’d always had a crush on her.
Jerry’s luck was not much better. “This is where I asked Rhonda Powell to go out with me,” he said, pointing to a spot in the breezeway. “I walked up to her with my head down and couldn’t say anything. She never even looked at me. I asked her out, and she said, ‘No.’ That was it.”
I could not for the life of me remember Rhonda Powell, though I would not have been surprised to learn that Jerry actually asked her out by handing me a note to give to her with the question written on it. (He was pretty shy.) For my part, I recalled crushing on a girl who lived near my house. She cut my hair one summer, and though the work was predictably terrible, I wore it with pride (albeit sometimes beneath a hat).
Despite such questionable beginnings, things worked out for us. We went on to have families and careers and savings accounts and all the signposts of successful lives. I wouldn’t change my path and neither would Jerry. I’m pretty sure Rhonda Powell wouldn’t, either.
Further investigation revealed that our old elementary school building, just down the
street from PHS, had been razed. In its place was a spanking new parking lot, presumably to accommodate growth. The lunchroom where we used to buy hot ham and cheese sandwiches from the booster club had been turned into a monstrous cafe-gyma-torium. But there’s only so much a small school district can do, and for all that changed, much remained the same.
We finished our tour and got back in the van. Jerry pointed to a sign neither of us had noticed. “We forgot to check in with the main office,” he said, shifting into gear.
“I’ll call them on Monday,” I replied. “Hey, wanna drive past my old house?”
We did. It, too, looked much the same, except I no longer live there, and my parents are dead. Surprisingly, the folks who’ve lived there since the mid-1990s, when my parents split and moved out, have made few changes, though the addition of a storm cellar (with its whirlybird air remover on top) seemed a bit ambitious. We drove on, checking out the former residences of old acquaintances.
Sometimes the brain’s archivist elects to hang onto an unimportant detail or a mundane interaction, the significance of which remains a mystery. Other moments you’d think would stay firmly planted have been erased in favor of new, presumably more useful bits. Jerry mentioned a fire at a mutual friend’s house sometime in 1987. “We stayed up all night keeping an eye on it in case it flared back up. Remember?”
Alas, I had no memory of any such fire, but the truth is, nobody’s getting any younger.
Finally, we ran out of places to look — an easy thing to do in Prescott. We stopped at the Sonic for Cokes before pressing play on Kate Bush for the ride home.
