AY About You May 2022

A R K A N S A S ’ L I F E S T Y L E M A G A Z I N E | M AY 2 0 2 2 | AY M A G . C O M

AY’s Best of 2022 | Super Moms | Burger Bucket List $5.00 U.S.

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WHAT’S INSIDE 10 Publisher’s Letter 12 Connect 14 Top Events 204 Murder Mystery 208 Arkansas Backstories

HOME&GARDEN

Chandler’s Condo Curation Let’s Get Ripe Strawberry Fields Forever

16 22 26

FOOD&DRINK

he Real America T urger Recipes B Face Behind the Place: David Alan Bubbus Jr. 46 All Rise 32 38 40

TRAVEL 134 138

ot Springs Happenings H ummer Travel S

ARTS&CULTURE

Out of Africa rom Good Trouble F to Good Food 172 R aising Hell 144 162

MENTAL HEALTH 178

For Our Kids

Burgers Bucket List, page 36

HEALTH 184 A Novel Recovery 190 Go Red for Women

ABOUT YOU 52 AY’s Best of 2022 126 Lovin’ the Crew 149 Super Moms 168 This Side of Seven

ON THE COVER It’s finally time to celebrate Arkansas’ best with AY’s Best of 2022.

Special thanks to Yellow Rock Concepts for the beautiful cocktails.

Read more: page 52.

Photo by Jamison Mosley.

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Pulaski County Special School District serves nearly 12,000 students in Pulaski County covering more than 600 square miles.

Across this expansive county, PCSSD boasts four high schools in three different cities -- Joe T. Robinson High School and Mills University Studies High School in Little Rock, Maumelle High School in Maumelle and Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood. As we reflect one last time on the 2021-2022 school year, we want to send a special message to our graduating seniors - the class of 2022. The following messages are from each of the high school principals.

JOE T. ROBINSON HIGH SCHOOL

MAUMELLE HIGH SCHOOL

Class of 2022, The 2021-2022 school year has been a refreshing change from the past two years. Even with a second wave of a Covid variant, we have been able to get back to pre-pandemic life. I personally have enjoyed seeing your smiling faces in the hallways, not hidden behind protective masks.

You have been through some challenges during your high school years.

Every one of you had to endure at least one obstacle over the past four years. Those challenges have shaped you into the person you are today.

Those challenges will remain with you into adulthood and continue to shape the person you will become. Always remember how strong you are for all that you have experienced.

As you move on into adulthood, remember the lessons you learned as a student at Robinson High School. Know your why and set goals for yourself to attain your dreams. Make excellence your expectation in everything you do. Give 100% of yourself on a daily basis. Lastly, always remember it is a great day to be a Senator!

The Class of 2022 experienced plenty of high points: • 4 seniors scored high enough to join the ACT 30+ Club • This year we had 5 students accepted into Governor’s School • Over the course of four years, we had multiple championships in football, baseball, track, cross country, and girls soccer. Additionally, our student-athletes received high achievement for individuals in golf, as well as wrestling and cheerleading.

• Our Robinson football team was honored at the State Capitol • RHS Singing Senators earned a Superior Rating at Assessment • First Robinson Student to win a seat in the Arkansas Youth Symphony Orchestra • Highest number of concurrent credit students • 3rd place in Original Oratory, at Bentonville Tiger Classic, Forensics Competition I am proud to be part of your Robinson High story and serve as your principal for this year. I’m blessed to have known some of you since elementary school. It has been an honor to be a small part of your lives and I look forward to watching you navigate through what life has to offer. Go Senators!

Dear MHS Seniors ‘22, Congratulations on being a member of the 11th graduating class from Maumelle High School! You join an elite group of over 2,500 Hornet alumni that can call themselves graduates of MHS. This is truly a time of celebration for not only you but for your family, friends, community, and teachers who have poured into you and helped you along your journey.

While this chapter is now complete, your story is far from over.

As you move into the next chapter of your life, my hope is that you do not become defined by labels but embrace a spirit of service to your fellow humans. Society will want to define you and put you in a box but you are so much more than the work you do or some other label. Become involved in your community and give back so others can “label” you a volunteer, a giver, a servant. Never fail to acknowledge the most important labels you will ever hold: father, mother, spouse, friend. Continue to be “indefinable” but be sure the labels placed upon you are those that speak to who you really are. Labels not only have the power to build you and others up but they can quickly destroy the story you are telling.

In closing, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your story. You are my first graduating class here at MHS and you will always hold a special place in my heart. l wish you well, I wish you the best life has to offer, and I wish you continued blessings.

Regardless of where life takes you, I hope that you will always be proud to call yourself an alumni of the Maumelle High School family. Go Hornets!

Dr. Jason Pickering, Principal SYLVAN HILLS HIGH SCHOOL Class of 2022, The Class of ‘22 will do big things after departing the hallways of SHHS. Regardless of the obstacles you were plagued with, the Class of 2022 has been a special class. We have SEVENTY students from your class that are Honor Graduates with at least a 3.5 grade point average. You produced several Governor’s Distinguished recipients and a National Merit winner.

For many, you have conquered private challenges we could never have predicted. You all have truly excelled in outlandish times and because of that, the Class of 2022 has cemented itself as extraordinary.

I wish you all the best in your future endeavors! Go Bears!

Mr. Tracy Allen, Principal

Yours truly, Mr. Jason Young, Principal MILLS UNIVERSITY STUDIES HIGH SCHOOL Dear Comets Class of 2022, Wow. We are here. I hope that you can find some valuable memories and experiences that you have had as high school students. Now we look up and we find people that get caught up in the mix every day in every way but the right. We can’t run from reality luring us closer away to the same old snares and traps. We learn from our mistakes. Nevertheless, hopefully, all of the experiences have been teachable moments and learning experiences for us. We wear our failures and accomplishments with pride. Comet Nation!

There is no I in TEAM; what side are you on?

I challenge you to seize the moment. Do not discount challenges good or bad. Hopefully, there have been times that you relish the fact you have benefited from the life lessons. Embrace the awkward. Also, be persistent, for instance, do not let Instagram and the tv screen come in between your daily routines of you seeking the hidden treasure in pure literature.

Looking back, I ponder these questions: Have we set them up for success? Did they truly know that we cared for them? Who is your favorite teacher of all time? What educator changed your life?

What characteristics separated that person from others?

Comet Nation, there is no life worth living without generosity. Do justice and love mercy. Remember these things: plant, plan, prioritize, and live life on purpose.

Mr. Duane Clayton, Principal

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

Heather Baker hbaker@aymag.com SENIOR EDITOR

Dustin Jayroe djayroe@aymag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Mark Carter mcarter@aymag.com

STAFF WRITERS

Emily Beirne ebeirne@aymag.com Sarah Coleman scoleman@aymag.com Katie Zakrzewski katie@aymag.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mike Bedgood mbedgood@aymag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Jamison Mosley jmosley@aymag.com

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Kellie McAnulty kmcanulty@aymag.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Lora Puls lpuls@aymag.com

Joe David Rice, born in Paragould and reared in Jonesboro, probably knows Arkansas as well as anyone alive. The former owner of an outfitting business on the Buffalo National River and the state’s former tourism director, his Arkansas Backstories is published by the Butler Center.

Dwain Hebda is president of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths in Little Rock. A writer, editor and journalist of some 30 years, his work appears in more than 30 publications in four states. Nebraskan by birth, Southern by the grace of God, he and his wife, Darlene, have four grown children and two lovely dogs.

Janie Jones has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She and her husband, Wyatt, co-wrote two books: Hiking Arkansas and Arkansas Curiosities.

She is also the author of The Arkansas Hitchhike Killer: James Waybern “Red” Hall, a book that originated from a two-part article she contributed to AY About You.

Julie Craig began her magazine career while living in New York City as an intern at Seventeen. With fashion and home design as her forte for the past 15 years, Julie is a blogger, writer and editor who has reported stories for Us Weekly and written about and photographed New York Fashion Week.

Nic Williams, an Arkansas native, is a practicing lawyer and contributor to AY About You. He has developed original recipes for more than half a decade and considers Ina Garten as his inspiration.

Most importantly, he’s a proud doggy dad and is grateful for his supportive friends and family.

Ebony Blevins After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from Arkansas State University, Ebony Blevins has worked for and with numerous publications and marketing companies around Arkansas.

Along with freelancing, she is currently developing her fine art photography body of work.

Angela Forsyth lives in Northwest Arkansas.

Her articles have been published in AY About You, Arkansas Money and Politics, Food & Drink, Modern Home Builder, Manufacturing Today, Inside Healthcare, Retail Merchandiser and many more magazines.

She’s a happy wife and mom to four kids and a dog.

Jason Pederson spent 20 years as KATV’s Seven On Your Side reporter.

He is now Deputy Chief of Community Engagement for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

He and his wife, Mary Carol, have two biological children and one bonus son. They are long-time members of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock.

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Linda Burlingame lindaaymag@aol.com Tonya Higginbotham thigginbotham@aymag.com Mary Funderburg mary@aymag.com Tonya Mead tmead@aymag.com Amanda Moore amoore@aymag.com Colleen Gillespie colleen@aymag.com

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Jessica Everson jeverson@aymag.com

ADVERTISING COORDINATORS Austin Castrellon ads@aymag.com Virginia Ellison ads@aymag.com

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Ginger Roell groell@aymag.com

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ADMINISTRATION Casandra Moore admin@aymag.com Vicki Vowell, CEO

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AY Magazine is published monthly, Volume XXXV, Issue 1 AY Magazine (ISSN 2162-7754) is published monthly by AY Media Group, 910 W. 2nd St., Suite 200, Little Rock, AR 72201. Periodicals postage paid at Little Rock, AR and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to AY Magazine, 910 W. 2nd St., Suite 200, Little Rock, AR 72201. Subscription Inquiries: Subscription rate is $20 for one year (12 issues). Single issues are available upon request for $5. For subscriptions, inquiries or address changes, call 501-244-9700. The contents of AY are copyrighted ©2021, and material contained herein may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher. Articles in AY should not be considered specific advice, as individual circumstances vary. Products and services advertised in the magazine are not necessarily endorsed by AY. Please recycle this magazine.

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WWW.WONDERSOFWILDLIFE.ORG

publisher's letter

The Best Around Can you believe it’s already May? Most of us talk about how the months are going by faster and faster every year, but 2022 just feels different. I don’t know about you, but everything after New Year’s for me has just been a blur.

We’ll be putting up Christmas decorations before we know it.

If you can find a few restful moments between all the hustle and bustle that has been the start of this year, we’ve got quite the May issue of AY Magazine for you to enjoy.

We’ll save the best for first — AY’s Best of 2022, that is. For months, you’ve been nominating and voting for your favorites in dozens of categories — to the tune of tens of thousands of votes — to determine this year’s class.

Now, it’s finally here. Enjoy looking through this year’s listing, which includes the “Best” three in each category. In the June issue, we’ll take it one step further by listing the overall winners in every category. If you’d like to watch the special awards ceremony announcing those winners (starring yours truly, David Bazzel, Roger Scott and RJ Hawk), go to aymag.com to get all the details.

Speaking of the best, this month’s AY’s Arkansas Bucket List includes the best burger joints in the whole state — or some of our favorites, anyway.

You can watch me and Hunter Hoagland venture off on the Bucket List tour every Wednesday morning on KARK, when we will make in-person visits to some of this month’s bucket list honorees.

For more bests, check out this month’s special feature on Serenity Farm Bread in Leslie, which Food & Wine just named the “Best Bread in Arkansas.”

This issue also includes a special section that is near and dear to my “heart.” We’ve once again partnered with the American Heart Association to help get the word out about its annual fund- and awareness-raising campaign, Go Red for Women, for which I have been graciously honored a seat on its distinguished Circle of Red. To complement this coverage, we also paid a visit to the Arkansas Heart Hospital’s new Post-COVID Pulmonary Rehab Program, the first of its kind in the state, and one of only a handful in the whole country.

And that’s not even half of all the great things to read in this month’s issue of the magazine.

Take your time, (try to) slow down — and don’t forget to breathe. We’ll make it through this warp speed of a year together.

Enjoy!

Heather Baker, President & Publisher hbaker@aymag.com / heatherbaker_ar

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Thank you for voting AY Magazine one of the top 5 PUBLICATIONS / BLOGS / PODCASTS of the Year in the 2022 Arkansas Country Music Awards.

Patio weather is back, so we headed to Red Moon Tavern in Little Rock to celebrate.

Contest deadline is May 14! Go to aymag.com and click on the “Contests” tab.

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Embrace the finer things in life with a trip to Cigar Republic, the premier destination for cigars and whiskey in Little Rock. Boasting the largest walk-in humidor in Arkansas and more than 450 unique cigars, there’s something for all tastes.

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There’s a little boutique in #HotSprings that has a story to tell you. Read more about Glamouraazi at aymag.com.

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April WINNERS Rock N Roll Sushi: ANN CARTER Turpentine Creek: SHARON NORTH Cigar Republic: TRACY PERRY

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agenda

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Top

you just can't miss!

MIRANDA LAMBERT & LITTLE BIG TOWN May 8

Walmart AMP — Rogers Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town are riding into Northwest Arkansas this month in a “little red wagon.” They’re joined on this stop of “The Bandwagon Tour” by The Cadillac Three.

MAGNOLIA BLOSSUM FESTIVAL May 14 - 21 Magnolia A full slate of events is in store for this year’s festival, including live music, the 70th Annual Sidewalk Art Show, Miss Magnolia Blossom Festival Pageant and, of course, the beloved World Championship Steak Cook-Off.

CATS

May 20-22 Robinson Center — Little Rock The Tony Award-winning, legendary musical CATS is on a tour across North America that is bringing it right through the heart of Arkansas. It is a purr-formance you don’t want to miss.

YADALOO MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL May 21

North Little Rock Riverfront Park The banks of the Arkansas River will once again play host to a day full of entertainment for this year’s Yadaloo Festival, with music by the likes of Anna Brinker, Tyler Kinch, Midnight South, Texas Hill, Randy Houser and more.

HALSEY May 25

Walmart AMP — Rogers One of the latest additions to the Cox Concert Series lineup, Halsey, is also taking the Walmart AMP stage this month. She has quickly become one of the most influential names in pop music since their debut album in 2015.

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events

May 8

29-8

1

Arts & The Park Hot Springs

501 Fest Main Street, Little Rock

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6-7

10-15

Cinco de Rhino Little Rock Zoo

Mountain View Iris Festival Courthouse Square, Mountain View

Fiddler on the Roof Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville

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20, 21

Central Arkansas Go Red for Women Luncheon Benton Event Center

FreshGrass The Momentary, Bentonville

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aymag.com

home feature

Chandler’s

Condo Curation

By JULIE CRAIG // Photos By JAMISON MOSLEY

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aymag.com

T

om Chandler and Tim Ellis have spent the past 10 years curating what is now not only a three-bedroom condo that overlooks the Chenal Country Club golf course in Little Rock but a hidden treasure full of distinct details with an unparalleled display of local artwork rarely observed in one place, a collection they’ve been working on for 44 years.

And it’s not surprising. Chandler, the now 82-yearold interior designer (and often dubbed the “dean of design” around Central Arkansas), has owned his business, Tom Chandler and Associates, Inc., since 1980. Together, the group boasts more than 100 years of experience in the industry. The design firm, located in the Riverdale design section of the city, lends advice to clients all over the country relying on his keen expertise day in and day out.

This time it’s “Tom’s turn.”

An Arkansas native who graduated in Oklahoma with

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a business degree, Chandler quite immediately discovered his love for not only the art of design but also for teaching it. In 1981, after starting out at South Central Career College, he set out on his own and began teaching interior design, and two years later opened the Chandler School of Interior Decorating. He has now taught more than 12,000 students, with a new semester starting this fall on Tuesday nights, and continues to remain humble about the number of top-tier Arkansas designers who started with the class.

“Teaching is an important part of my life,” Chandler says. And once you begin to get to know him, you realize that’s his character and his being — naturally gifted with a definite eye for detail and a spirit full of modest charm, and one who also enjoys passing on his exceptional expertise to others.

Just like fashion, music and culture are constantly evolving, so is this couple’s curated condo. What started as merely a “white box” 10 years ago has developed into an eclectic, ever-evolving “retreat,” as Chandler calls it. The Italian-style villa is complete with two beautiful balconies that add even more interest and luxurious appeal before stepping inside what Chandler describes as a space filled with a “mixture of contemporary, French, Asian and antique pieces” with an impressive art collection.

He says, “Our condo is and always will be a work in progress, and this brings so much joy.”

One of the goals for the condo was to eliminate any exterior responsibilities and, instead, continue to build on an awe-inspiring artwork collection that the duo is quite satisfied with these days, now totaling pieces from 31 Arkansas artists, displayed with delight.

“We are very proud of our art by Arkansas artists,” Chandler says, “including the works of: George Dombeck, Sammy Peters, Kevin Kresse, Scott Carle, Kyle Boswell, James Hayes, Brent Miller, Scott Ashcraft, Denise Ryan, Randy Groden, Gayle Batson, David Bailin, Henri Linton, Judith Hudson, Samuel Gray, Robert McGehee and Karen Harms.”

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Most of the firm’s clients have a color preference. But Chandler’s motto is always, “The client’s favorite color is our favorite color!” Ironically, Chandler has used his own favorite paint color, Sherwin-Williams “Stone Lion,” as the perfect backdrop in his last three personal homes for the past 30 years. He believes this “warm and inviting” neutral hue really sets the tone for the striking accessories that play against it.

“I love black accents, and they work beautifully with that,” Chandler says. “The details [in our own condo] are a collection of a lifetime, which is hugely important.”

Among those domestic details of Chandler’s is his partner, Tim’s fabulous closet, which he says is “as big of a deal as all of the artwork.” It’s a third bedroom, but he turned it into his “collection of a lifetime,” full of floor-to-ceiling clothing and shoes and an awe-inspiring blown glass light fixture composed of serpentine by artist James Hayes.

And Chandler believes his work goes right along with his love for art. “I have spent my life painting — with books and accessories.”

aymag.com

Glazed porcelain tile flooring flows throughout the condo, combining with the subtle quartz countertops that mirror concrete. Although Chandler lightheartedly mentions, “The kitchen is not important to me. Tim and I lived in the penthouse at Lakewood House in North Little Rock for years, and when we moved, the instructions were still in the oven.”

What Chandler does believe is always supreme to a space’s design is the lighting — and simple is key.

“It’s one of the most important elements of design,” he says. “No lightbulb is bigger than 40 watts here, and the overhead lighting has a dimmer. Plus, I have one halogen floor lamp for reading.”

Even after being in the business for more than 40 years, working six days and 50-60 hours a week during this time, Chandler says he’s still proudly available to clients 24/7. And these days, the hard-working designer often gets asked when he will retire. To that, he happily answers, “No, why would I retire? I have the best job in the whole world.”

And so perhaps the next 10 years will bring an entirely new addition of artwork we can all look forward to ogling in Chandler’s classic, yet changing world of style.

Stay tuned.

W

why would I retire?

I have the best job in the whole world.”

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TOM CHANDLER & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Chandler School of Interior Decorating With tips from this insightful 10-week course you will hone your own decorating style and learn hundreds of Do’s and Don’ts

Design Consultation We can help you design your home from the floor plans up. We provide custom window treatment and bedding consultation, outdoor living consultations, and design consultations for your entire home complete with furniture, art, and accessories.

One Day Home Makeover

Tom Chandler and Associates, Inc

Tom and his team come into your home and rearrange all of your existing furniture, accessories and art to make your home the best that it can be!

A design firm which has been in business since 1980. Our clients span the country ranging from Hawaii to Washington DC and all points in between. Our design style is as varied as the states we travel.

2210 CANTRELL ROAD | LITTLE ROCK, AR 501.372.4278 | chandlerassoc.com

Let’s Get Ripe: Make This Fruit Season Your ‘Berry’ Best

T

By Sarah Coleman

he Arkansas strawberry season is officially making its appearance, as it is the peak season for fruit growth in the state. While buying local fruit from small commercial growers is always a wise decision, it can be a fun experience to take your own turn at growing fruit from home.

According to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Research and Extension Service (UAEX), growing fruit crops in a home garden can be a pleasurable and rewarding experience.

Not only do they add to an overall aesthetic that screams “warm weather” but they also can produce flavorful and nutritious fruit over time.

It’s important to note that while aesthetic all the time, most fruits won’t start producing until one or two years after the initial planting, according to UAEX. It’s also important to understand that while commercial crops can make the growing process look easy, there are a number of factors that can cause issues for home growers.

These problems include fruit diseases, insect pests, birds and weather extremes that can cause crops to not fully produce.

“It is important to plant only what you can care for prop-

erly,” UAEX says. “A small, well-tended planting is better and will produce more fruit of higher quality than a large, neglected planting.”

Eric Herget, an insurance professional by trade and the owner of Heights Corner Market in Little Rock, also speaks of the importance of this, as he also grows tomato crops, as well as others, that help to supply the corner market.

“We went way too big last year.

In lieu of 1,800 tomato plants, this year we have 100 — so it’s more manageable,” Herget says. “Folks need to understand what they’re getting themselves into.”

The store relies on a network of produce farmers in order to stay stocked. Because of this, Herget often uses his own crops as a way to backfill, in case there are unforeseen circumstances with his suppliers’ crops. Herget also makes sure to plant a few for his neighbors, as well. During this time of learning the ins and outs of growing fruit, Herget has found that the best way to learn about how to grow plants “fruitfully” is to talk to successful local produce farmers.

Spending time learning about gardening, Herget has learned a lot about what can cause crops to fail. Glove wearing, weather and pest prevention are at the top of his list

“A small, well-

tended planting is better and will produce more fruit of higher quality than a large, neglected planting.”

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when talking to others about growing their own produce.

“A lot of rain can delay things; you have to control weeds, watch out for deer, birds and hornworms,” Herget says.

“Mostly, you just have to make sure you’re keeping up with your plants.”

There are a lot of resources available for those interested in starting their own plants in hopes of growing their own fruit. With that being said, fruits that UAEX recommends for home growers include the following: blackberries, blueberries, grapes, muscadines, raspberries and strawberries.

Berries in Arkansas are idyllic for those looking to test their green thumb with home fruit production.

In the “Arkansas Small Fruit Management Schedule for 2022,” a report published by UAEX, researchers lined out the month-by-month guidelines on what to watch for and how to perfectly grow the fruits of your choice.

Integrated pest management practices outlined in this report include the steps home growers should take during the dormant, pre-bloom, bloom, post-bloom, fruit ripening to harvest and post-harvest stages. As mentioned before, it can take a couple of years to see the fruit of your labor, leaving a lot of steps between planting the seed and gathering the fruit.

While there are lots of tips in this guide, some of the top ones mentioned were to take soil samples in January and to start a disease management program in March, right as pests begin to present themselves. Some of the most common nuisances that run wild in home gardens include strawberry clippers, spider mites, APhids, leaf spots, powdery mildew, leather rot and anthracnose. All of which can create less than ideal growing conditions for produce.

Dr. R. Keith Striegler, who has research on strawberry production that can be accessed through the UAEX, mentions several other factors that can contribute to successful strawberry production.

Striegler notes that Earliglow, Noreaster, Cardinal, Delmarvel, Lateglow and Latestar are the varieties recommended for a matted row system in home gardens, mentioning that Everbearing strawberries are not well suited for Arkansas.

In his research “Strawberry Production in the Home Garden,” Striegler also outlines the importance of selecting the correct site, soil, planting, blossom removal and more.

Among these tips, he mentions avoiding soddy land and choosing soil that will help to limit disruptions to growth.

Strawberries are particularly sensitive to herbicides. According to the guide, Dacthal, the only herbicide that can

23

be applied to soil after the strawberries have been planted, is recommended. For this method, four ounces of the Dacthal 75 percent wettable powder in addition to one gallon of water will take up 1,000 square feet, and will be effective for between four to eight weeks. Poast can also be used in strawberry production to limit weeds anytime, excluding harvest — where it should never be used.

In addition to weed prevention, pest control is equally important in keeping crops healthy.

“Birds are one of the biggest pests in the home garden strawberry planting. It may be necessary to cover the plants with plastic netting to keep the berries from being eaten before harvest,” Striegler outlines, while also mentioning the local county agent as a good resource for information on strawberry diseases, insect pests and control measures. “Successful strawberry production in the home garden will require efforts to manage diseases and insects.”

For harvesting purposes, Striegler explains how to recognize when fruit is ready to be harvested.

“In the home garden, strawberries should be allowed to attain an overall red color and become fully ripe before harvesting.”

According to Striegler, this is because the sugar content is highest and the flavor is the best, making harvest necessary every day during the peak of the season.

For raspberries, grapes, blac kberr ies, blueberries and other fruits like plums, nuts, peaches, pears and apples, applying a weed strip to the base of the plant will do wonders to prevent weeds from growing.

The management schedule also recommends keeping the area mowed, mulched — at least three inches thick — and using a preemergence herbicide will also help prevent weeds from taking over.

With preemergence herbicides, such as Princep or Surflan, the mixture should be sprayed to the base of the crop plants, with an increase in effectiveness if mixed into the soil surface.

Growing fruit can be a long process depending on a lot of factors, including sun exposure ability, use of herbicides, how well the plants are tended to in dormant states and more. To reiterate Herget’s biggest tip for being successful in starting your own home fruit production: Learn from local people — they know what works best for the soil, area and climate you live in.

“On behalf of local businesses, support local businesses,” Herget says. “Keep small businesses in mind. There is so much you can learn from them.” aymag.com

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Get the family hooked on a new tradition. The Family and Community Fishing Program regularly stocks ponds, including many in central Arkansas.

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y r r e b w a r St otos b IRNE // Ph E B Y IL M E By

y JAMISO

N MOSLE

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r e v e r o F s d l e Fi Holland Bottom Farm is ‘Berry’ Glad to Meet You The hot July moon isn’t quite here, but the strawberries definitely are.

Wines, jams, pies, cakes or straight off the vine, strawberries are undoubtedly a versatile fruit and a favorite of many. For any strawberry lovers looking for a fruity fix, Holland Bottom Farm in Cabot is the place to go.

Planted in the soil for almost 30 years, the family operation at Holland Bottom Farm has grown from a mere seedling to sweet success.

“We were row-cropping back in the late ’60s and ’70s while my father was renting the [farm] from a man in Dallas, and he said that he would sell it to my father, and that’s how we got the farm,” says Tim Odom, owner of Holland Bottom. “Long story short, we started growing strawberries in 1982 and continued on from there.”

The family switched to strawberries and other produce from rowcropping after interest rates increased in the ’70s. According to Tim, strawberries saved the farm.

“Trying to pay rent on the property and the mortgage just wasn’t working with row-cropping, so we switched to strawberries. We did ‘u-pick’ berries up until ’96, when we switched to a pre-picked operation,” Tim says. “When my father passed away in 2015, I inherited the farm and kept it going.”

Part of keeping the farm going is rolling with the typical obstacles farmers run into — this year’s rainfall, for example, and building a new structure when the highway was widened. But Tim confidently says, “We’re making it.”

This new building had helped Holland Bottom Farm make room for some updates that guests can enjoy when they stop by for their fill of strawberries and other produce items.

“People used to just come and get their produce, but now we got this bigger store where you come inside and it’s decorated. We’ve got an ice cream machine, we’re making shortcakes, we have a commercial kitchen where we can eventually make pies and breads, and we’ve upgraded to bathrooms — no more porta-potties,” Tim laughs. “[The farm] just kind of grew, or morphed.”

Strawberries tend to produce berries for four to six weeks, and Tim says that if they’re lucky, they can get eight weeks out of their crop.

“Rain is a headache for strawberries. We do an irrigation drip so we don’t need rain in strawberry season,” Tim shares. “I don’t mind it raining once in a while, but I just have to make do with what God gives me.”

For decades, the Odoms have worked long days year-round to prepare for growing seasons.

The Bubbus boys.

On top of strawberries, Holland Bottom Farm grows just about anything that can go in the ground. Next on the vine is the cobbler’s best friend, blackberries.

“I have two acres of blackberries that we’ll start picking this summer. I grow a little bit of everything from blackberries to blueberries, watermelon and cantaloupe, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes — I’m probably forgetting something, that’s what happens at my age,” Tim says with a laugh.

For decades, the Odoms have worked long days yearround to prepare for growing seasons, nurturing their produce and helping the farm continue to blossom.

“From February on, we are nonstop. People don’t see it because we’re busy and getting everything together before we open,” Tim says. “Right now is a busy time, and it’ll go all the way into November. Then we’re doing paperwork.”

Like two peas in a pod, Tim’s wife, Leslie, is right alongside him taking the farm to new heights. The two have a daughter who helps out when things get busy, and the Odoms have grown a close-knit group of workers. All of these hands play a significant role in making a visit to Holland Bottom Farms unforgettable.

“We’re going to try to open at about 10 a.m. every day as the season progresses and stay open until 6 p.m. We are going to try to stay open more throughout the year, maybe three or four days a week all year long,” Leslie says. “We’ll have breads and pies in the fall, and we worked hard on getting the strawberry shortcakes together for this year; maybe we’ll have strawberry pies in the future.”

After picking out their pre-picked Chandler or Ruby June strawberries, guests can settle down with a few shortcakes, pick out some jams and maybe even buy some jars of fresh honey from the Odom family’s beehives.

“We always want to keep changing, keep adding to the farm,” Leslie says. “We’ll soon have grab-and-go fresh fruits and vegetables rolling out this year, fresh frozen foods, salads — [we] like to keep people interested.”

Both Leslie and her husband agree that their fruits, especially the strawberries, taste best straight off the vine. Pies, cakes and all the other sweets are good, but Tim says, “There’s nothing like having a strawberry as soon as it’s picked.”

Leslie and Tim Odom.

People come from all over to get a taste of what the Odoms are growing.

Brandt from Adona.

Growing up with the farm, the Odoms have 10 acres full of memories — and then some.

“I guess every year brings new favorite experiences,” Tim says. “I enjoyed growing up out here on the farm.

We meet people, so many people that we can’t remember all their faces, but we’re excited by every person that comes through. I’ve experienced going from a little kid to working in the cotton trailer to the building we have now. We’re blessed.”

Located off Bill Foster Memorial Highway in Cabot, the Holland Bottom Farm Family is ready to serve ‘any-berry’ that grants them a visit.

Luna enjoys a ripe strawberry while waiting on her mother.

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at your .”

food

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DeLuca’s.

THE REAL AMERICA

A Country Between Two Buns

By Dwain Hebda // Photos by Jamison Mosley and David Yerby

A

s varied and diverse as America has become, there are precious few things we can all say we’ve experienced at least once, regardless of background, religion, culture or race. This is especially true of food, where disparities in access and economics often keep some dishes out of reach or tucked away with one culture’s experiences while bypassing the rest of us.

The magnificent burger is the exception.

As food goes, burgers are the great reconcilers, and may just be the one thing that every solid-food-eating person in the country has tried at least once. It’s usually blasphemy to paint with a brush that broad, but between the proliferation of fast-service restaurants, the introduction of meatless patties (hello, vegans) and the cult of burger-as-hipster-art, anyone who claims to have never had one is either lying or not telling the truth.

Of all the staple dishes that hold together the American experience — culturally, economically, gastronomically — it’s hard to think of anything more closely associated with this great Republic than the burger. Name your favorite food category — Mexican, Chinese, Southern, etc. — and you won’t find the real deal everywhere you go in the USA. Not so with the burger, which you can find coast-to-coast from midtown Manhattan to some lonely diner perched by a desert highway to a million backyard grills on any given summer’s night.

Like most foods, burgers are cultural barometers and can tell you a lot about the terroir of where you are and who cooked it. That’s certainly the case with two of Arkansas’ most talented burger wizards,

Little Rock’s Scott McGehee and Hot Springs’ Anthony Valinoti, whose respective takes on the burger provide a fascinating glimpse into their lives as people as well as chefs.

“Three of the things that I love the most are burgers, pizza and pasta. I mean, that’s what I grew up on,” Valinoti says. “I’m a straight-ahead guy. I want a cheeseburger on a good bun, medium-rare and that’s it. Just give me good meat.”

If you more closely associate the Brooklyn, New York-born Valinoti with pizza than burgers, you’re not alone. His Spa City pizzeria DeLuca’s is routinely ranked the best in Arkansas and has been listed among the best pizzas in the country by national publications. But if you haven’t been by his landmark restaurant lately, you might have missed his addition of a cheeseburger to the menu, a minimalist sandwich cooked in a pizza oven that’s sending diners and critics alike into a swoon.

“That thing that looks so simple to do, really isn’t that simple to do,” he says. “It’s the same thing with a hamburger. I don’t like things that are laden in toppings and this and that. It’s all hard to do, but it’s worth the effort in the end to see the satisfaction that people have. Once they taste it, they’re like, ‘How can this be this good?’”

A burger that’s served up with only a crown of cheese and a few pickles on the side has no place to hide inferior ingredients.

Which may explain why Valinoti has gone to such exorbitant lengths to marry the best meat and bun in existence, shipped weekly to Arkansas from back east.

“I found a butcher in New York that’s working with me.

They’re a company in Brooklyn that has been in business for a long, long time. A hundred years or something like that,” he says. “The meat is a very special blend that he makes for me. I

can’t find it anywhere. I even tried to do it myself. They just make it better than everybody else. Then we found the bun, which comes from Pennsylvania, and that’s overnighted to us as well.

“Sometimes, you have to go out of your way to give people something great. I don’t believe in that idea of it’s ‘good enough.’ I want to give my customers the absolute best thing I can give them.”

McGehee, executive chef and partner with Yellow Rocket Concepts, similarly shares his backstory with every burger served in his Big Orange restaurants.

“I love restaurants where anyone can walk in, any age, dressed up, dressed down, people that want to make noise and just relax, or people that want to order the truffle burger and a good glass of Bordeaux,” he says. “It’s just a relaxing environment, and that’s something I really go for in all my restaurants.

“We try to conjure up something that’s a little different. I want everything to be slightly elevated, unique. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing.”

As with his other restaurants, Big Orange is as much an homage to Arkansas culture as a place to get a good meal. A quick scan of the menu yields a lot of local references and purveyors that together help tell the story of McGehee himself.

“We lean into local produce as much as we can,” he says. “We also developed a bun recipe at Boulevard Bread Company when I owned that, which was somewhere in between challah and a brioche.”

“It was very important to us to have very high-quality beef. We blind taste beef all the time, and we like the beef to be coarsely ground and have a decent amount of fat.”

Coming up, McGehee worked in one of the finest restaurants on the West Coast, Chez Panisse, which offered a luxe burger that taught the young Arkie how even simple dishes can be elevated. Today, he’s the first to point out the local talent who are carrying on that mentality.

“I like a thick burger. I like my burger pink in the middle. Anthony [Valinoti] has the really thick burger, which I love, and I think his is fantastic,” he says.

“Among thin burgers, and you can quote me on this, the best thin burger I’ve ever had in my life is from Excaliburger by Kyle Pounders. If anyone makes a better burger than me, it’s probably Kyle and probably Anthony.”

********************* No one really knows the exact origin of the hamburger as we know it today, but America has as much claim as anybody. One theory says Wisconsin Charles Nagreen was struggling to sell meatballs at his stand at the 1885 Outagamie County Fair, so he squashed them flat and sold them between bread slices under the name ‘hamburger.’ That same year, Ohioans Frank and Charles Menches, who were known for their sausage patty sandwiches, ran out of pork and substituted beef during the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York, for which they named their new creation.

Louis Lassen of New Haven, Connecticut, also claims the sandwich. Unlike the other two, which were adaptations of other dishes, Lassen is said to have designed the hamburger from the ground up in 1890 to sell at his luncheonette.

Incidentally, you can taste exactly what Lasson came up with today at Louis Lunch, the New Haven burger restaurant that’s operated since 1895 and still uses the same recipe prepared on the original cast-iron cooking apparatus.

And it wouldn’t be a controversy if there wasn’t one of those pesky Texans involved, in this case, Fletch ‘Old Dave’ Davis, who came up with something that sounds pretty close to a patty melt — fried hamburger steak on Texas toast — which was the hit of the 1904 St. Louis World Fair.

He served them with a side of crispy potatoes, thereby also staking his claim to have invented French fries. Or maybe that’s just the Texas talking.

No matter where it came from, the burger today is one of the undisputed icons of American culture. Not only do we eat a smooth 50 billion of them a year in this country — or three a week, per researchers — but thanks to McDonald’s, we’re towing the world right along with us. The fabled brand reportedly sells 75 burgers a second, around the clock, to 69 million people a day through 38,000 global locations. And every bite of that delivers a little taste of the red, white and blue to the far corners of the globe.

Sure, it’s just a burger — and probably not the best one you’ll ever eat, at that. But in a world where so much drives us apart, isn’t it nice to know there are still some things that can bring us together, if just for a moment? A burger is all that and a bag of fries.

“We try to conjure up something that’s a little different.”

Big Orange.

Burger AY’s ARKANSAS

Bucket List

PRESENTED BY DeLuca’s

enson’s Grill l B Fort Smith

eltner Brothers l F Fayetteville

orth Bar l N North Little Rock

ig Orange l B Little Rock, Rogers

eltner’s Whatta-Burger l F Russellville

ark General Store l O Oark

rood & Barley l B North Little Rock

adwall’s Grill l G North Little Rock

zark Cafe l O Jasper

uffalo Grill l B Little Rock

amburger Barn l H Arkadelphia

ock Bottom BBQ l R Roland

ulldog Restaurant l B Bald Knob

ugo’s l H Fayetteville

alem Dairy Bar l S Benton

iao Baci l C Little Rock

urley House Cafe l H Hazen

horty’s l S Conway

J’s Butcher Boy Burgers l C Russellville

l J ackrabbit Dairy Bar Lonoke

opper Grill l C Little Rock

l J erry’s Steakhouse Trumann

kinny J’s l S Conway, Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Paragould

otham’s in the City l C Little Rock

l J J’s Grill Various Locations

avid’s Burgers l D Various Locations

l J ude’s Delight Little Rock

eLuca’s l D Hot Springs

Hall & Sons Produce l K Little Rock

oe’s Eat Place l D Bentonville, Fayetteville, Little Rock

eo’s Greek Castle l L Little Rock

ugan’s Pub l D Little Rock d Walker’s Drive-In l E Fort Smith J’s Eats and Drinks l E Little Rock

idtown Billiards l M Little Rock ike’s Place l M Conway orrilton Drive Inn l M Morrilton

toby’s Restaurant l S Conway, Russellville he Box l T Little Rock he Croissanterie l T Little Rock he Ohio Club l T Hot Springs he Root Cafe l T Little Rock he Smokin’ Bull l T Emerson usk & Trotter l T American Brasserie Bentonville wo Sisters Catering & Cafe l T Little Rock, Sherwood

3C heck off the Burger Bucket List as you visit a small sample of our favorite new places.

AY About You

Arkansas Bucket List Every Wednesday morning on KARK 4

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Recipes

The Umami Burger

Sometimes you just want a thick, juicy cheeseburger packed full of flavor. Now you can have one to satisfy your cravings no matter the time.

This burger is loaded with umami, our fifth taste behind sweet, salty, bitter and sour.

Umami is best described as a savory and hearty flavor, and this burger is packed with umami in every bite.

Hamburger patty recipe adapted from www.aspicyperspective.com

INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon unsalted butter ½ pound mushrooms, stems removed and sliced 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 yellow onions, halved and sliced 2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided 2 pounds ground beef (80/20) ½ cup panko breadcrumbs 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 egg 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon black pepper 12 slices colby jack cheese (or any cheese you love) 6 hamburger buns (good quality) 8 ounces Japanese yum yum sauce (available at most grocery stores)

DIRECTIONS 1. In a large skillet, add butter and mushrooms, sautéing over medium heat until cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Wipe out skillet, and add 1 tablespoon olive oil, onions and salt.

Toss onions so they are evenly coated in oil. Stir onions — making sure to scrape sides and bottom of pan — only every 4-5 minutes for 25-30 minutes. When brown, soft and slightly sweet, set aside.

3. While onions caramelize, add ground beef, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, egg, milk, salt, garlic powder and pepper to a large mixing bowl. Using clean hands or a wooden spoon, mix together until ingredients are evenly distributed throughout meat.

Evenly divide meat and form into six patties, making sure to not densely pack the meat.

4. In a large skillet over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat until shimmering. Working in batches, add patties and cook for 4 minutes. Flip patties, add two slices of cheese to each, and cover with a lid. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.

5. Remove patties to buns. Add mushrooms, onions and about 2 tablespoons of yum yum sauce to each burger. Serve warm.

By Nic Williams

Cheesy Ground Turkey Jalapeno Burger with Avocado Relish

This is a burger that my brother-in-law, Larry, makes all the time. We decided to add some big flavor with avocado relish.

We cooked these on the grill, but they can be done on the stovetop as well.

2 ripe avocados, halved, pitted and cubed ½ jalapeno, seeded and finely diced ¼ cup red onion, diced 2-3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped 2 tablespoons lime juice Dash of garlic powder Salt and pepper to taste

BURGER INGREDIENTS 1 pound of ground turkey, seasoned as you like ½ jalapeno, seeded ½ white onion 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 ½ cups Mexican shredded cheese Buns of your choice Sliced pepper jack cheese Lettuce 1 tomato, sliced

By Kaitlin Barger

AVOCADO RELISH DIRECTIONS Combine all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

BURGER DIRECTIONS Season ground turkey as you prefer.

Mix jalapeno and white onion in food processor until minced.

In a large bowl, combine turkey, jalapeno and onion mixture, Worcestershire and shredded cheese.

Shape meat into patties for grilling.

Grill for about 20 minutes, or until meat reaches a temperature of 165 degrees.

Top with sliced cheese, lettuce, tomato and avocado relish

Recipes

AVOCADO RELISH INGREDIENTS

food

Face Behind the Place:

DAVID ALAN BUBBUS JR.

of

DAVID’S BURGERS

By JENNY BOULDEN // Photos By JAMISON MOSLEY When Alan Bubbus talks about his businesses — 10 David’s Burgers locations in Central Arkansas, plus a new restaurant concept, Jess’s Chicken, opening soon in Little Rock — he can’t help but get excited. The man not only loves his work, he knows all the intricate details and will explain things like maintaining optimum sugar levels in potatoes at length if you ask him. (Seriously, ask him about testing a potato with a diabetes test strip. That’s a good story.)

But what brings an added warmth to his demeanor is talking about his employees, and what he sees as his and his managers’ roles in their lives. He practically shines when he talks about his team.

“They become like family to us,” he says. “You don’t have that division between your personal life and your professional life. They really bleed over, because the relationships are so strong at work.”

David Alan Bubbus Jr.

The Bubbus burger boys.

Building positive relationships is at the core of everything he does.

From Kent, his Idaho potato supplier with a wallful of Arkansas’ Best Fry awards Alan has sent to his farm; to Eric, an outgoing fresh face who radiates enthusiasm at his west Little Rock store, Alan knows his people.

“I was telling a friend the other day, ‘Your business is not really your business. Your business is getting the people. If you can get the right people, and you can maintain the relationships, coach them, inspire them, lead them and keep them engaged, that’s really your job,’” he says.

“That’s the challenge, to keep up our company culture. So people come to work and they’re excited to be there. That’s what we want.”

Engagement is critical, he says. “If you come to work and you don’t see a purpose or a goal or something exciting — and we’re dealing primarily with young people, and they need constant engagement — you can lose their focus and attention pretty quickly. So it’s part of my job to make sure people stay focused, engaged, excited. They need to feel a purpose in their job, need to understand that coming to work needs to be fun, and want to put others first.”

In the restaurant industry, Alan says, employees are usually young, and some come from “difficult situations,” as he puts it. “You want your kids in an environment where they’re going to be taught good values

42

and integrity and respect and responsibility and character,” he says. “We counsel our kids on relationships to finances to everything in the world.

For some, you may be the only mentor in that person’s life; how we treat them and the habits we teach matter very much. … It’s a blessing and a responsibility.”

He particularly enjoys when employees who started working for David’s in high school stay local for college. “Sometimes we’ll have them all six years. We get to see them graduate and go off into their career, with David’s Burgers on their resume, which employers respect. We want to shoot them out into the world and see them do well.”

He’s done well, himself. The Pine Bluff native grew up the son of a restaurateur.

David Bubbus Sr., a colorful figure who is still highly active in his son’s business, pops in and joins the interview. David Sr. became a master butcher at 16 and founded Chicken Country restaurants in the 1970s and early 1980s. He’s taught his son all he knows.

“Dad started 67 restaurants in 8 years,” Alan says with awe. “That’s almost one every 45 days! He knew how to keep things moving.” (Most of those were franchises, his father is quick to add.)

“I think he’s a genius,” David Sr. says with pride. “He didn’t get that from me. I was blessed and lucky. He’s blessed and smart. He’s got it all.”

“

For some, you may be the only mentor in that person’s life; how we treat them and the habits we teach matter very much.

”

Alan earned a bachelor’s degree in math and economics from Vanderbilt University and a law degree from the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law. In between those, he test-drove careers in health care recruiting, banking and mortgage consulting, but he eventually found his way back to the family career path he’d shunned: restaurant ownership.

“It’s much more personal. I worked at a lot of companies before we did this, and I never had the kind of relationships we have here. And being able to work with Dad has been one of the best parts.”

Alan and wife, Jessica, the company’s vice president, now count their own family as eight, their kids ranging in ages from 3 to 22. Half of their children came to them through the foster system. It’s something Alan says he and Jessica deeply support. After they had difficulty conceiving their second child, they heard at church a speaker from The Call, an organization that recruits and supports foster parents, talk about how many children in the county needed foster homes. “For lack of a better word, we felt ‘the call’ to help these kids,” he says. Though he and Jessica would go on to become pregnant twice more, that Sunday at church changed their family forever.

At the time, Alan was not only launching his businesses, but going to law school at night. So, they certified as a foster home, then they started providing short-term “respite” care.

44

“I think we probably had around a dozen kids in a year,” he says. “I really enjoyed being a foster parent. I had the gift of being able to love the kids and understand that it was for them, and then when they left, I was OK. I think the mindset of being able to do that has to center around the kids, not around yourself. That’s what you hear, ‘Well, I’d get too attached to the kids.’ But at the end of the day, it’s not about you.”

They ended up adopting two young brothers. Another foster teen who was working at David’s and temporarily living with them ended up choosing them as family when he aged out of the foster care system.

Alan enjoys staying active and says he tries to line up his hobbies with the kids’ activities. That means, besides being “loaded up” with kids’ ball games, the family spends time biking, boating and sometimes skiing together. The kids also spend time helping out with the family business.

Alan says even their youngest, now three, likes to “help.”

Alan’s a die-hard Chiefs fan, and enjoys kicking back to watch all sorts of sports. He and Jessica also love to go out to eat when they get date nights.

“Dad says I’m a terrible restaurant critic because I like everything,” he laughs. “I just love to eat.”

He says the competitive advantage his stores have is his hub-andspoke model. Within an hour’s drive of each of his restaurants is their 30,000-square-foot facility in North Little Rock. The warehouse processes the ingredients for his stores right there. They butcher and grind the meat on site, after the immense shoulder cuts (100 percent Grade A chuck) cure in a cold room, hanging from hooks like David Sr. says butchers did before the industry began cutting corners to work faster and cheaper. He says many restaurants depend on meat that may be at least months old. In contrast, their company’s process from the pasture to the plate is about a week.

They form the beef into patties, then drive it to the stores, along with cut potatoes, sliced tomatoes and onions and all the fixin’s. The ingredients arrive at restaurants fresh and customer-ready. The facility also has company offices and a dedicated training facility so every employee receives the same onboarding.

Alan’s new restaurant concept, Jess’s Chicken, which he says should launch at its Rodney Parham location in the next “couple of months,” similarly will benefit from that centralized facility. Jess’s will focus on fried chicken, with savory or sweet chicken salad options, as well. If the restaurant is a hit, he’ll open more Jess’s locations throughout Central Arkansas. But because of the huge advantages their warehouse facility provides, he has no plans to extend the David’s brand beyond Central Arkansas.

Alan talks a lot about the hub and spoke model. And it’s not always direct. He also wants his restaurants to be a hub of positivity for employees and customers, who then take that out into the world with them. Besides award-winning food, David’s is known for its staff verbally welcoming each customer who walks through the doors. He says they strive for customers to leave feeling happier than when they arrived.

“We focus on doing the little things right in our store, creating good habits in our personnel that hopefully will help them long-term, and loving on our guests and loving on our people,” he says. “At the end of the day, that feels good.”

CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF SERVING UP SOLUTIONS

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Because No Arkansan Should Ever Go To Bed Hungry.

Serving Up Solutions June 16, 2022 6-9 p.m.

Albert Pike Masonic Center 712 Scott Street, Little Rock

In conjunction with the Arkansas Legislative Hunger Caucus.

Learn more at arhungeralliance.org.

food

A Small Shop in Leslie May Have the Best Bread in the State

O

ther than using an electric mixer and a cooler, the workers at Serenity Farm Bread in Leslie could make their sourdough bread with no power.

It’s fitting the company is in a rural northern Arkansas town that was a popular site for a “back to the land” campaign created in the 1970s when folks shunned mechanization and grew their own foods.

Serenity Farm Bread has been making its breads for 30 years now; employees knead the ingredients by hand, cook the dough in a brick oven fueled by burning firewood and set the finished loaves on racks in the flour-covered work area.

“It’s so low-tech here,” says co-owner Adrienne Freeman. “We could finish the product after using the [electric] mixer if we were without power.”

The concept has worked for three decades. Serenity Farm Bread has sold its breads from the bakery on AR 66 in downtown Leslie since 1992, and at its pastry shop on U.S. 65 just

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All Rise

By Kenneth Heard

Photos by Lacey West

south of its intersection with 66. Some customers come to the store, but much of the sales come through orders across the country; Freeman says she’s sold bread to all states but Hawaii and Alaska — and that’s only because it takes longer than the maximum three days they allow to ship bread to those two states.

Tucked in the edge of the rolling Ozarks, Leslie is somewhat obscure. The locals refer to their town as “Arkansas’ hidden secret” or even “Mayberry,” in reference to the fictionalized town made popular by The Andy Griffith Show that featured down-home, trustworthy residents.

As an example of that trustworthiness, a clerk at the pastry shop recently told a customer who phoned in a large order that if she arrived after the store closed to pick up her goods, the clerk would merely leave them on the porch.

Even the pastry shop is a throwback to a bygone era. It’s housed in a

1920s Sears and Roebuck kit house, and the bakery is located in one of the town’s first brick buildings, which was built in 1907 and originally served as a bank.

Doug Wilson of Little Rock recently made the 90-mile trip to Leslie on a “whim” one day. Retired, Wilson headed out on his journey on a rainy day to eat at the Skylark Cafe in Leslie, and then to buy bread.

“I come here every so often,” he says. “I eat the bread for health.

There’s this atmosphere here. There’s a homey feeling. It’s like coming home to rest.”

Leslie was incorporated in 1906, but even before that, it gained a reputation as a peace-seeking area. In the late 1850s, the area became a habitat for the Arkansas Peace Society, an anti-Civil War organization.

In November 1861, Col. Sam Leslie of the 45th Arkansas Militia was ordered to arrest Union army sympathizers who moved there. Histori-

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ans differ on whether Leslie was named for him or for his brother, “Old Jack” Leslie.

H.D. Williams Cooperage Co. moved to Leslie from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in 1906, and became the largest barrel producer in the world.

The town thrived; at one point early in the century, there were nearly 10,000 living in and around Leslie.

But then Prohibition happened, and the barrels, used mostly by whiskey makers, were no longer needed and people moved away.

In the 1970s, though, the area had a rebirth, of sorts. Advertisements in Mother Earth News magazine created a movement that focused on living off the land and rejecting mass production. The ads featured Leslie as a place with plenty of land and little industry. A utopia, if you will.

About 350 live there now.

Both the parents of Freeman and Daniel Burlison, her partner, moved to Leslie in the 1970s from California and New Mexico.

“We’re not about industrialization,” Freeman says. “We’ve seen how the mass-production of bread has caused health conditions. Bread must be fermented, and that takes time. Carbs need to be partially digested by bacteria when fermenting before you eat them.

50 minutes in the oven, and it takes about an hour and a half to bake a 4-pound loaf.

She also prepares orders for shipping with UPS; tucked in the corner of her small office are dozens of shipping boxes.

They have to maintain the temperatures of the oven and of the bakery once the bread is out and cooling. Generally, temperatures between 74 and 76 are preferred. It’s difficult, Burlison says, on winter days when it’s much colder. If it’s too cold, the bacteria slows in eating microbes in the fermenting process. When it’s too warm, the bacteria “eats faster.”

“After a while, you get a feel for the temperature,” says Burlison, who, like Freeman, worked at the bread company before becoming a co-owner. “There’s science and there’s intuition. We fire up the oven in the winter and use ice water in the summer.”

“It’s like a game of musical chairs,” he says. ‘We do things to keep it right.”

In all, they make four main varieties. The Country French is the most popular sourdough. They also experiment with flavors. They feature cranberry pecan breads, sunflower-seeded breads and blueberry-laced loaves.

“I eat the bread for health. There’s this atmosphere here.

There’s a homey feeling. It’s like coming home to rest.”

“We nourish people with our bread. We don’t just feed them.”

The business began in 1992 when Dr. Morris Keller, a Dallas podiatrist, opened Serenity Farm Bread, touting the healthy benefits of the sourdough breads he made. At that time, there were only three shops in the country that made that kind of bread.

Freeman, 38, worked at the store from 2003 to 2006, and then returned in 2018. She bought the store in 2019. Burlison, 31, became a co-owner earlier this year.

“This is the way people began making bread since ancient Egypt,” he says of their process.

In January, Food and Wine magazine named Serenity Farm Bread as the best bread-making company in the state. The magazine listed similar companies in all 50 states. Many were chosen from larger cities. In Hawaii, for example, a shop in Honolulu was named the best in that state.

Florida’s was in Tampa. A shop in Evanston, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, was chosen as Illinois’ best bread-maker. Minnesota’s was in Minneapolis.

And then, there was tiny Leslie representing Arkansas.

“There are enough health nuts, hippies and other assorted converts to keep the business alive through many owners,” the magazine wrote about Serenity Farm Bread. “[Freeman and Burlison] inherited … a pretty darn loyal clientele, who stop in for all classic favorites, along with more experimental loaves like molasses rye loaf brightened up with a hint of orange.

“Far from your average morning piece of toast.”

Freeman says of the review, “We had no idea about that.”

She received a very early morning text from someone who saw the Food and Wine article. She was already at work.

The day does start early at Serenity Farm Bread.

The baker arrives at 2 a.m. each day to fire up the brick oven and get it ready for baking. He then mixes about 100 pounds of sourdough to be used for the various types of bread.

Freeman comes in at 5 a.m. and weighs the loaves for baking. A 1.5-pound loaf takes about 40 minutes to bake. A 3-pound loaf needs

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Downtown Leslie is deemed a historical area; visitors stroll the main street, shopping in an antique store next door and stop in to see the bakery’s famed oven.

At least they used to. The front entrance to the bakery is now cordoned off with construction fencing. More than a year ago, a log truck barreling down the steep incline of AR 66 couldn’t negotiate the turn onto the street. The cab turned, but the trailer carrying the lumber locked up, sliding into the building and knocking two brick pillars off the entryway.

Burlison was within 20 feet of the pillars when it was struck.

“All I could see was the tail end of the truck,” he says. “The pillars were there. And then they were crumpled.”

No one was hurt and the bread production continued. As testament to the strength of the building’s foundation, Freeman was in her office about 100 feet away. She saw the speeding truck roaring down the hill outside her window and heard the “boom” of the collision, but didn’t feel any shaking.

It was the second time the building was hit by a truck in three years.

Burlison says he just received the bricks to replace the pillars, and repair work should begin shortly.

Serenity Farm Bread received the Business of the Year award in 2019 from the Greater Searcy Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s been well known for a long time that Serenity was one of the best Searcy County businesses,” Chamber Director Darryl Treat says. “We ride their coattails. They are the linchpin for Leslie and for our county.”

The town is a draw for the annual 1.5 million tourists who visit the Buffalo River about 20 miles away and for those who travel to Branson, Missouri.

“We have a fabulous little town,” Treat says of Leslie. “The town is on an upswing. It’s a spark of energy for the rest of us. Leslie is a little slice of Americana.

“You have the structure of an authentic, quaint Ozark Mountain town and you have convenient transportation there.”

“Once you go there, an awful lot come back.”

Co-owners Adrienne Freeman and Daniel Burlison put their whole hearts into ensuring the legacy of Serenity Farm Bread continues.

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SHERWOOD

NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTER, INC

We are devoted to providing high quality care which celebrates the dignity and grace of every person who enters our facility.

At Sherwood Nursing and Rehab we are committed to providing the highest quality of patient care. Our qualified staff is here giving support for the tasks of day-to-day living, allowing for the enjoyment of more pleasant and carefree activities.

We specialize in Short-Term Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care services.

SHERWOOD

NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTER, INC

245 Indian Bay Drive Sherwood, AR 72120 Phone: 501.834.9960 Fax: 501.834.5644

At Good Shepherd Nursing and Rehabilitation we are committed to providing the highest quality of patient care. Our qualified staff is here giving support for the tasks of day-to-day living, allowing for the enjoyment of more pleasant and carefree activities.

NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTER at

GOOD SHEPHERD Bobby Lamb, Administrator 3001 Aldersgate Road, Little Rock AR 72205 • Phone 501-217-9774 • Fax 501-217-9781 www.goodshepherdnr.com

After more than 100,000 nominations and votes cast by our readers, the results are in for AY’s Best of 2022. The following pages are who you selected to represent the “Best” of what Arkansas has to offer — from beauty and health to people and places, and everything in between.

Congratulations to this year’s class!

Special thanks to our partners for this year’s awards celebrations: Party Time Rental and Events • Good Eatin’ Arkansas Tipton & Hurst • Just Peachy • Rusty Tractor Vineyards CWP Productions • Morning Mayhem on 103.7 The Buzz

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Thank you AY readers for picking up on what we’re putting down at camp. Our crew appreciates each and every camper who has joined us for locally made beer, tacos, cocktails, and live music. Looking forward to an endless summer of shenanigans with y’all!

@camp.taco

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Beauty and Health

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Voted One of AY’s Best Cardiology Clinics Don Steely, MD, Rimsha Hasan, MD, and Yalcin Hacioglu, MD

Voted One of AY’s Best Gastroenterology Clinics Martin Moix, MD, Owen Maat, MD, Brandy Eason, APRN, Marissa Plata, APRN, Sarah Atkins, APRN, and Lindsey Sierra, APRN

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Celebrating Years of Home Care Serving Central Arkansas Thank you for nominating us in AY’s Best of 2022 Top 5!

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Kim Clatworthy, Owner | info@elderindependence.com Online at: ElderIndependence.com

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7000 Cantrell • Little Rock, AR 72207 501-663-4101 • Fax 501-663-7526 www.blackmonchiropractic.com blackmonchiropracticclinic

We’re “Hear” To We’re “Hear” To Help

blackmonchiropractic

Help www.arkansasurology.com | 501.219.8900 We want to give a special thank you to all of the readers who voted us one of AY’s Best of 2022.

e’re e’re “Hear” “Hear” To To Help Help

Dr. Tracy Van Es, Audiologist and owner at Little Rock Audiology Clinic has been meeting the hearing needsmeeting Dr.Dr. Tracy Van EsEs, hasAudiologist been Tracy Van andthe of Arkansans for over 15 years. hearing Arkansans sinceClinic 2001.

500 S University, Suite 405 owner needs at Littleof Rock Audiology She’s a graduate of the University Call today to schedule your has been meeting the hearing needs Doctors Building Little Rock, AR 72205 appointment with for Dr. Tracy Van Es of Arkansas Medical Sciences

We are honored to be included in the Best Urology Clinic and Doctor of Arkansans for over 15 years.

Owned Hospital Categories for and someone youdoctorate love discoverfrom the 500 S University, Suite 405 andhelpearned her WWW.LITTLEROCKAUDIOLOGY.COM better hearing. Don’t forget to vote Doctors Building Pennsylvania School ofBest Audiology. another year in a row! schedule your for Call us intoday the AYto Magazine of

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WWW.LITTLEROCKAUDIOLOGY.COM e Rock Audiology Clinic hearing. Don’t forget to vote e Rock Audiologybetter Clinic eting the hearing needs Because worth hearing! us inlife theisAY Magazine Best of eting the hearingfor needs for over 15 years.

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schedule your schedule your with Dr. Tracy Van Es with Dr. Tracy Van Es eone you love discover eone you love discover g. Don’t forget to vote g. Don’t forget to vote AY Magazine Best of AY Magazine Best of s! s!

500 S University, Suite 405 Doctors Building Doctors Building Little Rock, AR 72205 Little Rock, AR 72205

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(501) (501) 664-5511 664-5511 57

THANK YOU aymag.com

Beauty and Health Dermatology Clinic

• Arkansas Dermatology • Little Rock Dermatology • Pinnacle Dermatology

Dr. Owned Hospital / Facility • Arkansas Surgical Hospital • Arkansas Urology • OrthoArkansas

Esthetician

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Family Clinic

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• Dr. Suzanne Yee, Cosmetic & Laser Surgery Center • Dr. Byron Wilkes, McFarland Eye Care • Dr. Michael Devlin, Devlin Cosmetic Surgery

Dentist

• Dr. Montgomery “Monty” Heathman, Heathman Family Dental • Dr. Scott Hill, HMS Dental • Dr. Tommy Inman, Inman Family Dental Clinic

THANK YOU For Voting Us One of the Best

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Thank you for voting us one of the Best Permanent Cosmetics School in AY’s Best of 2022!

Chiropractors in the State

Dr. Traci Kiernan, D.C.

501.224.1224 | Little Rock naturalstatehealthcenter.com

11908 KANIS RD. G6 • LITTLE ROCK, AR • 501-725-5127

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Congratulations to our team members who are being recognized as a top 3 finalist in their respective category. At Conway Regional, we are one team with one promise: to be bold, to be exceptional, and to answer the call.

FINALIST FOR PERSON OF THE YEAR AND BEST CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Matt Troup President & CEO

TOP 3 FINALIST BEST BOSS

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Rebekah Fincher Chief Administrative Officer

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ONE OF AY’S BEST

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HEALTH COACHES AUDREY TAYLOR

THANK YOU FOR VOTING DR. ERIC WRIGHT BEST PLASTIC SURGEON FINALIST

Aesthetic & Reconstructive Breast Surgery Body Contouring Facial Sculpting Migraine Surgery

1701 Centerview Dr, Ste 201 Little Rock, AR 72211 (501) 575-0088 drwrightplasticsurgery.com

Pinnacle Hearing Thank You For Voting Us One of the Best Audiology Clinics in the State Services include:

• Hearing Aid Fittings • Audiological Evaluation + Fittings • Tinnitus Treatment • Auditory Processing Testing

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10700 N Rodney Parham • Little Rock

501-225-6060

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415 Hospital Drive • Camden

Doctor of Audiology | Founder | Chief Visionary

870-837-2823

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THANK YOU FOR VOTING PAIGE KELLY, BSN, RN BEST NURSE INJECTOR FINALIST Neurotoxin & Dermal Filler Injections Microneedling with PRP Skin Care Laser Skin Resurfacing Treatments

Your Beauty, Our Expertise

Online Appointment Booking drwrightplasticsurgery.com @pretty_by_paige 61

1701 Centerview Dr, Ste 201 Little Rock, AR 72211 (501) 575-0088 aymag.com

Beauty and Health Foot & Ankle Surgery

• Dr. Chelsea Mathews, UAMS Orthopedic Clinic • Dr. James Head, Conway Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Clinic (COSMC) • Dr. Larry Nguyen, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

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• Arkansas Diagnostic Center • Conway Regional Gastroenterology Center • GastroArkansas

Health Coach

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Hospital

• Baptist Health • Conway Regional Health System • UAMS

Hospice

• Arkansas Hospice • Hospice Home Care • Kindred Hospice

Hair Salon

• Caracalla Salon and Body Spa • Red Beauty Lounge • Salon Platinum

Hand Surgery

• Dr. Jay Howell, Conway Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center (COSMC) • Dr. Jeanine Andersson, OrthoArkansas • Dr. Jesse Abeler, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

Saline Memorial

INSPIRES MEET CRAIG: CYCLIST, ADVOCATE, AMBASSADOR “The mind is a very, very powerful thing, and with your mind, you can do anything.” read more about craig foster and how his life has changed since snell helped him reach his goals at snellarkansas.com

RESTORING MOBILITY AND INDEPENDENCE SINCE 1911

Little Rock n Bryant n Conway n Fayetteville n Fort Smith n 800-342-5541 Hot Springs n Mountain Home n North Little Rock n Pine Bluff n Russellville

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A winning team

THANK YOU For Voting Natalie Sanderson as one of the best Esthetician’s in Arkansas in AY’s Best Of 2022.

Natalie does: • RF Microneedling.

• Ultherapy.

• Laser hair removal.

(L to R) Dr. David Vang, Dr. Dana Browning, Gena Woodward, MS PT, Dr. Dwight Stewart

Thank you, Arkansas, for voting us among the top Chiropractors!

• Tattoo removal.

• Atelier Esthetique of Esthetics New York, New York.

• Over 10 years of experience.

2016

2021

8801 W. Markham St. Little Rock 501.225.PAIN paincarelr.com

lasercareskinclinic.com 501-664-5119

Thank you for voting Sherwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center among AY’s Best of 2022!

SHERWOOD

NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTER, INC

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245 Indian Bay Drive Sherwood, AR 72120 501.834.9960

Voted Two of AY’s Best Neurologists

Voted One of AY’s Best Neurosurgeons

Tim Freyaldenhoven, MD, and Keith Schluterman, MD

Regan Gallaher, MD

Voted One of AY’s Best Pain Specialists Conway Regional Advanced Pain Management Center Chris Maranto, MD, Heath McCarver, MD, and Mikio Ranahan, MD 65

aymag.com

Beauty and Health In-Home Care

Neurologist

• Conway Regional HomeCare • Elder Independence • Superior Senior Care

Massage Therapist

• Leigh Ann Warriner, MMT, Oasis Massage Therapy • Michelle Speidel Cox, LMT, Omnis Rehab Joint and Performance Center • Miesia Tull, Blackmon Chiropractic Clinic

• Dr. Robert Archer, UAMS • Dr. Keith Schluterman, Conway Regional Neuroscience Center • Dr. Tim Freyaldenhoven, Conway Regional Neuroscience Center

Medical Spa/Nonsurgical Cosmetic Clinic • Arkansas Aesthetics • Elevation Med Spa • Sei Bella Med Spa

Memory Care Facility

• Memory Care of Little Rock at Good Shepherd • Superior Senior Care • Woodland Heights

Mental Health Facility • Argenta Counseling • Indigo Counseling • The BridgeWay

Thank you

for voting us among the top Medical Spa/Nonsurgical Cosmetic Clinics in Arkansas!

10301 N. Rodney Parham C7 • Little Rock Kthomas@arkansas-aesthetics.com Locations also in Conway and Hot Springs facesbythomas

theexpertinjector

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Neurosurgeon

• Dr. Ali Krisht, CHI St. Vincent Arkansas Neuroscience Institute • Dr. Analiz Rodriguez, UAMS • Dr. Regan Gallaher, Conway Regional Neuroscience Center

When considering a facility for short-term rehabilitation services, families want the best they can get for their loved ones, and they have to look no further than Superior Health and Rehab in Conway.

Our rehabilitation gym offers state-of-the art rehab and features interactive equipment to enable our licensed therapists to create a comprehensive therapy program designed to get our residents back to their prior functional level, regain their self-reliance and facilitate a return to home as quickly as possible.

625 Tommy Lewis Drive • Conway, AR• 501-585-6800 • superiorhrc.com

Left to right: Jesse D. Abeler, D.O.; David M. Rhodes, M.D.; Jason G. Stewart, M.D.; William F. Hefley, Jr., M.D.; Samuel A. Moore, D.O.; W. Scott Bowen, M.D.; Jesse B. Burks, D.P.M.; Larry L. Nguyen, M.D.; Paul K. Edwards, M.D.

A Winning Team.

We’re proud to be finalists in several categories of AY’s Best of 2022 Awards! It’s truly an honor to be recognized in this presitigous awards program. We are dedicated to our patients, and are committed to provide the very best care and treatment available.

We are finalists in the following categories: Beauty & Health

Top Employers

Foot & Ankle Surgery - Larry L. Nguyen, M.D.

Overall Company - Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

Hand Surgery - Jesse D. Abeler, D.O.

Place to Work - Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

Orthopedic Group - Bowen Hefley Orthopedics Orthopedist - Jason G. Stewart, M.D. Orthopedist - W. Scott Bowen, M.D. Orthopedist - William F. Hefley, Jr., M.D. Physical Therapist - Steve Longinotti, MSPT Podiatrist - Jesse B. Burks, D.P.M. Sports Medicine Clinic - Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

THE BEST SURGEONS. THE BEST TREATMENT.

Surgeon (Lower Extremity) - Larry L. Nguyen, M.D.

ALL FOCUSED ON YOU.

Surgeon (Upper Extremity) - Jesse D. Abeler, D.O.

www.bowenhefleyortho.com

L I T T L E R O C K | N O R T H L I T T L E R O C K | J A C KS O N V I L L E | C A B OT | R U S S E L LV I L L E | H OT S P R I N G S V I L L A G E

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Beauty and Health

Nurse Injector

• Hailey Smith, RN, Little Rock Plastic Surgery • Kelsey Harrell, RN, BSN, Elevation Med Spa • Paige Kelly, RN, BSN, Wright Plastic Surgery

Nurse Practitioner

• Ebonye Greene, APRN, UAMS • Lisa Grummer, APRN, Cornerstone Clinic for Women • Stacey Johnson, APRN, Conway Regional Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center of Arkansas

Nursing Home

• Briarwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center • Sherwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center • Superior Health & Rehab

3805 McCain Park Drive, Ste 116 North Little Rock

501.200.1556 Katie Walker

indigocounseling.net

Margaret Ann Standridge

THANK YOU FOR VOTING INDIGO ONE OF THE BEST MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES, AND KATIE AND MARGARET ANN AMONG THE BEST THERAPIST!

WE LOVE WHAT WE DO AND WHO WE SERVE! WE SERVE INDIVIDUALS, COUPLES, AND FAMILIES, AGES 3 AND ABOVE THROUGH TREATMENT MODALITIES SUCH AS EMDR, PLAY THERAPY, HYPNOTHERAPY, AND CBT. 70

Voted One of AY’s Best Fook & Ankle Surgeons Surgeons (Lower Extremity) James Head, MD

Voted One of AY’s Best Hand Surgeons Surgeons (Upper Extremity) Jay Howell, MD

VOTED ONE OF AY’S BEST Orthopedic Groups

Sports Medicine Clinics

Voted One of AY’s Best Physical Therapists Beth Milligan, PT

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Thank You for voting Dr. Montgomery Heathman one of AY’s Best Cosmetic Dentistry, Dentist and Family Dentist!

At Montgomery Heathman and Associates, our team is 100% focused on your oral health. We offer our patients the very best that dentistry has to offer through advanced technologies and procedures.

2021

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12501 Cantrell Rd., Little Rock • 501-223-3838 2001 South Buerkle St., Stuttgart • 870-683-2687 heathmanfamilydentistry.com •

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Beauty and Health OB/GYN Clinic

• Conway Regional Renaissance Women’s Center • Cornerstone Clinic For Women • West Little Rock Women’s Center

Oncologist

• Dr. Patrick Travis, Highlands Oncology • Dr. Rachana Yendala, Conway Regional Multispecialty Clinic • Dr. Sanjay Maraboyina, UAMS Cancer Center

Ophthalmology Clinic

• BoozmanHof • Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute • McFarland Eye Care

Optometrist

• Dr. Leigh Cox, Conway Family Eye Care • Dr. Russell Simmons, Simmons Eye Care • Dr. Thomas Chwe, McFarland Eye Care

Orthodontist

• Owen Orthodontics • Wardlaw Orthodontics • Westrock Orthodontics

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Thank you to the thousands of readers who nominated Conway Regional as a top 3 finalist in multiple categories: Best Hospital Best Overall Company Best Place to Work Our team is also a proud top 3 finalist for

In-Home Care - Conway Regional HomeCare Conway Regional is committed to bringing you innovative services, new clinics, more specialists, and expanded access to care. We’re not just growing—we’re growing together.

Voted One of AY’s Best Rehabilitation Hospitals

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Beauty and Health Podiatrist

• Dr. Aaron Seiter, Seiter Foot & Ankle Specialists • Dr. Jesse Burks, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Dr. Naval Patel, CHI St. Vincent Little Rock Diagnostic Clinic

Prosthetics

• Horton’s Orthotics & Prosthetics • New Hope Prosthetics & Orthotics • Snell Prosthetics & Orthotics

Psychiatrist

• Dr. Andreya Reed, R&H Wellness • Dr. Annette Anderson, Conway Regional Counseling Center • Dr. Jessica Coker, UAMS

Radiologist

• Dr. Bryan Jennings, Saline Memorial Hospital • Dr. Daniel Clark, Conway Regional Medical Center • Dr. Keith Bell, Radiology Associates, PA

Rehabilitation Hospital Orthopedic Group

• Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Conway Regional Health System • UAMS Orthopaedics

Orthopedist

• Dr. Larry Nguyen, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Dr. W. Scott Bowen, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Dr. William Hefley Jr., Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

Pain Specialist

• Arkansas Spine and Pain • Conway Regional Advanced Pain Management Center • Mocek Spine Clinic

Pediatric Clinic

• All for Kids Pediatric Clinic • Little Rock Children’s Clinic • Little Rock Pediatric Clinic

Physical Therapist

• Beth Anne Travis, PT, DPT, PRPC, Arkansas Pelvic Health • Beth Milligan, MSPT, CSCS, Conway Regional Therapy Center – Scherman Heights • Steve Longinotti, MSPT, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

• Baptist Health Rehabilitation Institute • Conway Regional Rehabilitation Hospital • Lake Hamilton Health & Rehab

Retirement Community

• Chenal Pines Retirement Resort • Mt. Carmel Community • Villas of Chenal

Place to Have a Baby

Spa

Plastic Surgeon

Specialty Hospital

• Baptist Health Medical Center • Conway Regional Health System • UAMS • Dr. Edward Love, Plastic Surgery & Skin Solutions • Dr. Eric Wright, Wright Plastic Surgery • Dr. Michael Spann, Little Rock Plastic Surgery

Pediatric Dentist

• Conway Pediatric Dental Group • Kitchens’ Pediatric Dentistry • Small Bites Pediatric Dentistry

Permanent Cosmetics • Belle & Blush • EK Professionals • Orchid Skin Company

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• Ava Bella Day Spa • Rejuvenation Clinic Day Spa • The Floating Lotus • Arkansas Surgical Hospital • Cornerstone Specialty Hospitals • Willow Creek Women’s Hospital

B We are like a family with everyone — staff and residents.

For more than 30 years, Briarwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center has prided itself on being a place and a face that its community can trust, and its residents can feel comfortable in.

BRIARWOOD NURSING & REHABILITATION, INC 501.224.9000•briarwoodnursingandrehab.com

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THANK YOU

for nominating us as one of AY’s Best of 2022!

Contact us today to schedule a visit.

625 Tommy Lewis Dr. Conway, AR 72034 501-585-6800

96 Private Rooms Accepting Long Term Care and Rehab 79

aymag.com

Beauty and Health Sports Medicine Clinic

• Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Conway Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Center (COSMC) • OrthoArkansas

Surgeon

• Dr. Ali Krisht, CHI St. Vincent Arkansas Neuroscience Institute • Dr. Anthony Manning, Conway Regional Health System • Dr. Lewis Porter, Saline Surgical Associates

Surgeon (Lower Extremity)

• Dr. C. Lowry Barnes, UAMS • Dr. James Head, Conway Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Clinic (COSMC) • Dr. Larry Nguyen, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics

Surgeon (Upper Extremity)

• Dr. Jay Howell, Conway Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center (COSMC) • Dr. Jesse Abeler, Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Dr. Richard Wirges, OrthoArkansas

Tattoo Parlor

• 7th Street Tattoo and Piercing • Love Spell Tattoo • Nomis TA2

Urology Clinic

• Arkansas Children’s • Arkansas Urology • Washington Regional Ozark Urology

Therapist

• Katie Walker, LCSW, Indigo Counseling • Margaret Ann Standridge, LCSW, Indigo Counseling • Monique Myers, LCSW, Chenal Family Therapy

COLON CANCER is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among Americans, but in many cases it can be prevented with a screening colonoscopy. New guidelines recommend all adults 45 and older have a colonoscopy. Call our office today to schedule your appointment.

GASTROARKANSAS.COM | (501) 664-6980 80

THANK YOU

For Voting Us Among the Best Gastroenterology Clinics in Arkansas 8908 Kanis Road • Little Rock

1.501.227.7688

A Team You Can TRUST

adcgca.com

81

aymag.com

TOPDOG Hotdogs, Burgers, and Beer!

1023 WEST MARKHAM DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK

Quick service, highest quality food we can put out!

Come hungry because these dogs are not your average weiners!

For Goodness Steaks!

THANK YOU Voted One of the Best Newly Opened in Arkansas

308 MAIN STREET, LITTLE ROCK 501.414.8775

Ladies Boutique

Dressing you for Work or Weekend 711 S Pine St Cabot, AR 72023 thehumblethread.com

Thank you for your votes!

82

For Voting US One of the Best Steaks in Best Of 2022

501-376-1195 • DOESEATPLACELR.COM

Clothing Children’s Clothing

Local Men’s Clothing

Local Women’s Clothing

Asian Fusion

Brunch

Cheese Dip

Bakery

Burger

Cocktails

BBQ

Caterer

Coffee Shop

Breakfast

Catfish

Creole/Cajun

• Doodlebug’s & Grow Children’s Boutique • Tantrums • The Toggery

• Baumans Fine Men’s Clothing • Gearhead Outfitters • Mr. Wicks

• Box Turtle • Twisted Attitude Boutique • Whimsy Whoo

Dining • Bulgogi Korean BBQ • Kemuri • Three Fold Noodles + Dumpling Co. • Community Bakery • PattiCakes Bakery • SugarDumplin’s Cupcakes • Hoots BBQ • Smokin’ Buns • Whole Hog Cafe

• Lost Forty Brewing • Purple Onion • U.S. Pizza Co.

• Heights Taco & Tamale Co. • Mexico Chiquito • Stoby’s Restaurant • Allsopp & Chapple • Local Lime • Petit & Keet

• Big Orange • David’s Burgers • DeLuca’s Pizza • Eat My Catfish • Good Eatin’ Arkansas • Riverside Grocery & Catering

• At The Corner • Stoby’s Restaurant • The Root Cafe

• Eat My Catfish • Riverside Grocery & Catering • Soul Fish Cafe

Refresh

es W

• Brew YaYa Coffee + Roaster • Mugs Cafe • Nexus Coffee & Creative • Maddie’s Place • Mike’s Place • The Faded Rose

22 !

N! er ‘ O I m T CA Sum LOock W R NEttle i tL

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Your Kitchen

•

Red

Contact us for a FREE Consultation

oor • Reface

•

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2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. • Little Rock • (501)-660-4100 Kemurirestaurant.com

501.223.8888 kitchentuneup.com

©2022 HFC KTU LLC. All Rights Reserved. Kitchen Tune-Up is a trademark of HFC KTU LLC and a Home Franchise Concepts Brand. Each franchise independently owned and operated.

84

WE CATER

CATFISH - SHRIMP - BBQ - & MORE! WEDDINGS & HOLIDAY PARTIES OR ANY OCCASION

“We got you covered!”

SINCE 1931

Call us for any occasion:

501-794-0329

4444 AR-5 • Benton, Arkansas 72019

riversidegrocery.com

Thank You

for voting for Fischer Honey Company One of AY ’s Best Arkansas Handmade Product

Eat Honey – Fischer Honey!

2001 N Poplar Street • North Little Rock, AR 72114 501-758-1123 • fischerhoney.com 85

aymag.com

Thank You

For Voting Us One of the Best in Fine Dining in Arkansas

425 President Clinton Ave cacherestaurantlr

501.850.0265 cachelittlerock.com

2012

BAJA GRILL SINCE

A MEXI-CALI EATERY + MARGARITA BAR

5923 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Little Rock 501.722.8920 224 W. South Street Benton 501.680.7109

THANK YOU

For Voting Us One of the Best Pizza and Mexican Restaurants in Arkansas

226 W. South Street • Benton 501.316.4082

Dining Restaurant (General) • Chicken Salad Chick • Cypress Social • Roots Restaurant

Restaurant (Newly Opened) • Camp Taco • The Grumpy Rabbit • TopDog Hot Dog Company

Dessert

Seafood

• Charlotte’s Eats & Sweets • PattiCakes Bakery • Trio’s Restaurant

• Fisherman’s Wharf • Oceans at Arthur’s • The Oyster Bar

Dining for Kids

Italian

Special Occasion

Fine Dining

Mexican

Steak

Food Truck

Pizza

Sushi

• Big Orange • The Purple Cow • Rock N Roll Sushi

• Bruno’s Little Italy • DeLuca’s Pizza • Pasta Grill

• Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse • Cache Restaurant • Sonny Williams’ Steak Room • Delta Biscuit Co. • Tacos Godoy • The Croissanterie

JOIN

OUR

FLOCK

• Baja Grill • Heights Taco & Tamale Co. • Local Lime • DeLuca’s Pizza • US Pizza Co. • Valhalla :: Kitchen + Bar

BECOME A

member

TODAY

LittleRockZoo.com 88

• 501 Prime • Cypress Social • Table 28

• Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse • Doe’s Eat Place • Red Oak Steakhouse • Kemuri • Oceans at Arthur’s • Rock N Roll Sushi

Providing linens and elements for table top design for over 4O years.

11121 N Rodney Parham, Suite 32B

THANK YOU!

501-224-3133

partytimerentalandevents.com

For Voting Us Among The Best in AY’s Best Of 2022

89

aymag.com

Thank You For Voting Us One of AY’s

BEST FLORISTS & GIFT STORES!

90

Guaranteed Satisfaction Since 1886

Thank you readers of AY Magazine for voting us one of AY’s Best of 2022!

501-952-8885

91

Full-Service Event Production Company www.cwpproductions.com aymag.com

Entertainment & Leisure Art Gallery

Festival/Fair

• Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts • Cantrell Gallery • Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

• Hillcrest Harvestfest • International Greek Food Festival • Wild Wines at Little Rock Zoo

Hotel

• Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort • The Capital Hotel • The Waters

Casino

• Choctaw Casino & Resort • Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort • Saracen Casino Resort

Live Theater

• Murry’s Dinner Playhouse • The Rep • Walton Arts Center

Cigar Lounge

• Cache Restaurant • Cigar Republic • West End

Local Tourist Attraction

• Simmons Bank Arena • Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack • Walmart AMP

• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art • Garvan Woodland Gardens • Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

Event Venue

Museum

Concert Venue

• Robinson Performance Hall • Rusty Tractor Vineyards • The Hall

Family Attraction

• Little Rock Zoo • Mid-America Science Museum • Museum of Discovery

Resort

• Big Cedar Lodge • Gaston’s White River Resort • Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort

• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art • Museum of Discovery • The Momentary

Seasonal Attraction

Park

Whiskey Bar

• Buffalo National River • Garvan Woodland Gardens • Petit Jean State Park

• GloWILD at the Little Rock Zoo • Motley’s Pumpkin Patch and Tree Farm • Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort • Allsopp & Chapple • Capital Bar & Grill • The Ohio Club

Thank you for voting us one of AY’s best!

C

entrally located in the heart of downtown Hot Springs, The Waters Hotel offers luxury accommodations perfect for you to relax, explore and escape. The hotel features The Avenue, a full-service restaurant and a lounge overlooking Bathhouse Row and The Rooftop, a restaurant and bar where you can enjoy breathtaking mountain views. Our historic boutique hotel will leave you refreshed and eager to come back!

The Waters / 340 Central Avenue / Hot Springs, Ar. 501-321-0001 / www.TheWatersHS.com 92

THE PERFECT SPACE FOR YOUR OCCASION

Thank you for voting us one of Ay’s Best.

Best Wedding Venue and Best Event Venue

We are so grateful for your support!

10 Rusty Tractor Ln. | Little Rock | 501.916.2294 93

aymag.com

Home, Home Services & Finance Accounting Firm

Home Builder

Investment Firm

Bank

Home Contractor/ Repair/ Remodeling

Kitchen Store/Supply

• Frost, PLLC • HCJ CPAs & Advisors • Todd & Associates CPAs • Arvest Bank • Centennial Bank • Simmons Bank

Credit Union

• Arkansas Federal Credit Union • Telcoe Federal Credit Union • TruService Community FCU

Electrical Company

• Conway Corporation • First Electric Cooperative • Gary Houston Electric Company

Fabrics & Draperies

• Cynthia East Fabrics • Made in the Shade • Stitchin’ Post

Home Accessories

• HOWSE • mertinsdykehome • Park Hill Home

• KellCo Custom Homes • Parkinson Building Group • River Rock Builders

• Kitchen Tune-Up • Scott Lucas Construction & Custom Homes • Top Notch Home Services

Home Security

• Beyond Sound & Security • Conway Corporation • Triple-S Alarm Co.

Insurance Firm

• Brooke Brolo, Allstate • Charlotte Potts, State Farm • Crum Insurance Agency • Meadors, Adams & Lee

Interior Designer

• Debi Davis Interior Design • Garry Mertins Design • Hunt Design Group

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• Cassandra Rector, Edward Jones • Legacy Capital Group • Stephens Inc. • Eggshells Kitchen Co. • Kitchen Tune-Up • The Kitchen Store & More

Lawn Care

• Arkansas Lawn Enforcement • Fairway Lawns • The Good Earth Garden Center

Mortgage Lender

• Centennial Bank • IBERIABANK Mortgage/First Horizon • Simmons Bank

Real Estate Agent • Brandy Harp • Casey Jones • Mitsy Tharp

Real Estate Company

• Jon Underhill Real Estate • The Janet Jones Company • The Property Group

31 YEARS

doing what I love Garry Mertins

Cypress Social

NU Restaurant

G D

A

R

R

42 Bar and Table - Clinton Library

Y

E

M S

only sleeper sofa you can sleep on

E I

R

Cache Restaurant

T I G

N

S N

The only sleeper sofa you can s I N T E R I O R S I N C.

1500 REBSAMEN PARK ROAD, SUITE 200 • LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 72202 • 501.376.6600

R E TA I L E R

O N SA L E

MARCH 1 - 11

LE

11

1504 Rebsamen Park Road Little Rock, AR 501-280-3200

The only sleeper sofa you can sleep on

95

R E TA I L E R

O N SA L E

MARCH 1 - 11

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Voted One of AY’s Best Oncologists Rachana Yendala, MD

Voted One of AY’s Best Surgeons

Anthony Manning, MD, FACS

Voted One of AY’s Best Radiologists

Voted One of AY’s Best Psychiatrists

Daniel Clark, MD

Annette Anderson, MD

97

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Home, Home Services & Finance Solar Power

• Delta Solar • Sunpro Solar • Today’s Power

Swimming Pools

• Diamond Pools of Arkansas • Elite Pools by Aloha • Jeff Self Pools & Spas

Kids & Education Community College

• National Park College • University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College • University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton

Private College

• Harding University • Hendrix College • Ouachita Baptist University

Private School

• Baptist Preparatory School • Little Rock Christian Academy • Little Rock Montessori School

Public School

• Bryant School District • Don R. Roberts Elementary School • Little Rock Central High School

Public University

• University of Arkansas at Little Rock • University of Arkansas • University of Central Arkansas

Special Education School

• ACCESS • Easterseals Academy at Riverdale • Pediatrics Plus

Mortgage lending that’s “naturally” better.

We’re proud to be a top three lender in the Natural State – focused on making your mortgage priority one.

firsthorizon.com/mortgage

©2022 First Horizon Bank. Member FDIC.

98

KellCo Custom Homes T Power Custom he

of

Specializing in building one-of-a-kind custom homes and combining leading edge designs with exceptional functionality that speak not only to your aesthetic needs, but to your unique vision, through our remarkable attention to luxury in every detail. InnovationRedefined. Pushing beyond the predictable to create truly unique custom homes.

Thank You for Voting Us One of Arkansas’ Best Home Builders

Serving all of Central Arkansas | 501.993.5232 | kellcocustomhomes.com 99

aymag.com

Thank You

For Voting Us One Of The Best in Arkansas!

11827 Maumelle Blvd. • North Little Rock

501.753.2211 mydoggiespa.com

The Doggie Spa

Thank You

For Voting Us Among the Best in Arkansas

Gaylen McGee is the owner of the I-40 Auto Auction, McGee Land Developments and McGee Farms. He currently serves as primary auctioneer for the I-40 Auto Auction and has increased business revenue by four times during his tenure.

As a benefit auctioneer specialist, Gaylen has worked with many non-profit organizations over the years, including: Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI), The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Baptist Health, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

He is one of the highest grossing benefit auctioneers in the State of Arkansas, setting auction revenue records over the past three years.

Gaylen says he will continue to help those in need until his last breath.

He is serving LLS Arkansas in honor of his sister-in-law, who has been diagnosed with Essential Thrombocythemia (ET) – a benign Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN).

1700 N. Center Street • Lonoke

501.676.6252 100

It's an honor to once again be recognized among AY's BEST OF Reporters and Columnists for 2022. We're privileged to do what we do, telling stories about the people, places and things that make Arkansas so special.

THANK YOU for your support!

Thank You for Voting Junior Achievement as one of AY’s Best Non-Profits

Need a writer for your publication, business or organizational communications? Use YA Words!

Junior Achievement is committed to helping young people understand the role of education in helping them achieve their aspirations as adults. At JA, our goal is to provide hope to these young people by helping them make the connection between school and future career success, learning how to manage money, and understanding how to start a business if that's their dream. Junior Achievement is where dreams take flight, but we can’t do it alone.

Contact us to learn how you can help by visiting our website at www.jaark.org

Dwain Hebda, President Ya!Mule Wordsmiths 501.813.9559 dwain@ya-mule.com

THANK YOU FOR VOTING US ONE OF AY’S BEST SEASONAL ATTRACTIONS OF 2022!

MOTLEY’S PUMPKIN PATCH AND TREE FARM 13724 Sandy Ann Drive • Little Rock • (501) 888-1129

motleyspumpkinpatch.com 101

aymag.com

Media, People & Places TV Personality

• Beth Hunt, KATV-Channel 7 • Craig O’Neill, KTHV-Channel 11 • DJ Williams, KARK-Channel 4

Weather Person

• Melinda Mayo, KATV-Channel 7 • Todd Yakoubian, KATV-Channel 7 • Tom Brannon, KTHV-Channel 11

Fundraiser

• Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches Arkansas Children’s Award Dinner • Chocolate Fantasy Ball • Wowapalooza

Person of the Year

Advertising Agency • GWL Advertising • Inuvo • Stone Ward

Columnist or Reporter • Dwain Hebda • Max Brantley • Rex Nelson

Marketing Consultant

• Amanda Propst, Inuvo • Melissa Thoma, Thoma Thoma • Vines/Brookshire

Radio Personality

• Heather Harris Brown, Alice 107.7 • Roger Scott, 103.7 The Buzz • Tre’ Day, Power 92 Jams

ROLLER F UNE R AL H O MES

THANK YOU For Voting Us One of The Best Of for 2022

rollerfuneralhomes.com 102

• David Bazzel, 103.7 The Buzz • Matt Troup, Conway Regional Health System • Sam Pittman, Arkansas Razorbacks Football

Place to Worship

• Fellowship Bible Church • New Life Church • The Church at Rock Creek

Wedding Venue

• Cross Iron Cottage • Garvan Woodland Gardens • Rusty Tractor Vineyards

Since 1938, Better Auctions Have Always Been Blackmon Auctions.

"Thank you for voting D & D Sun Control one of AY’s Top in Window Tinting.”

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

Thank you to all of the readers of AY About You for voting Blackmon Auctions one of the Best in Arkansas for the last 12 years!

5423 Kavanaugh Blvd Little Rock, AR 501-664-4526 blackmonauctions.com

AUTO

COMMERCIAL

RESIDENTIAL

PAINT PROTECTION

We specialize in residential, commercial, and automotive window tinting. With over 25 years experience, our dedicated team of specialists will help you select and professionally install the right window film for your home, business, or vehicle.

D&D Sun Control 4221 North Richards Road North Little Rock, AR 72117-2655 501-945-7474

blackmonauctions

blackmonauctions

THANK YOU FOR VOTING US ONE OF THE BEST RV DEALERSHIPS IN THE STATE

“ARKANSAS’ OLDEST FAMILY OWNED RV DEALERSHIP” 2320 ALBERT PIKE RD, HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK • (501) 767 - 3486 WWW.RAZORBACKCAMPERSALES.COM 103

aymag.com

Services Architect

Funeral Home

Housekeeping

Auctioneer

Heating & A/C Service

Jewelry Designer

• Bram Keahey, TAGGART Architects • Greg Archer, Garver • Rik Sowell, Sowell Architects

• A Natural State Funeral Service • Roller Funeral Homes • Smith Family Funeral Homes • Dash Heating & Cooling • Freyaldenhoven Heating and Cooling • Middleton Heat and Air

• Blackmon Auctions • Gaylen McGee • Wilson Auctioneers

• Affordable Cleaning with Katie • Merry Maids • Molly Maid • Bang-Up Betty • G.Spinelli Jewelry • Sissy’s Log Cabin

Customer Service

• Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse • Chick-fil-A • David’s Burgers

Dog Groomer

• Hounds Lounge Pet Resort & Spa • The Doggie Spa • Wags and Whiskers

Doggy Day Care

• Chenal Pet Palace • Hounds Lounge Pet Resort & Spa • Hounds’ Hideaway

Dry Cleaner

• Crestwood Cleaners • Hangers Cleaners • Oak Forest Cleaners & Laundry

Thank you for voting Crestwood Cleaners in AY’s Best Of 2022!

2516 Crestwood Road • 501.753.5771 7410 North Hills Boulevard • 501.819.0446 NORTH LITTLE ROCK 104

B

in g n i r

g

style

to the outdoors... One yard at a time

W

e have installed quality oriented manufacturing systems that insure a quality product every step of the way.

Hanamint will continue to concern itself with product excellence. We are dedicated to serving the customer who wants quality, style and value.

10 Year Warranty on Aluminum Frames

19650 I-30, Benton •

congofp.com •

800.421.4447 105

aymag.com

A

fter 29 years in the industry, the Hunt Design Group has seen quite a few changes in the world of architectural and interior design.

"The world of design has changed so much in the last 10 years especially with reality based television shows showing design styles from all around the world and with the ability for products anywhere to be shipped to your doorstep the next day. Clients are now much more informed than in the past." said Tracy Hunt-Martin, Owner of the Hunt Design Group. "Although COVID has made getting certain products more difficult, we still have our steady vendors that enable us to receive items that are in demand."

"It's funny to me that I've been in this business long enough to now be remodeling projects I initially designed in the early 90s. I remember drafting house plans by hand several years before computer drafting was used widely."

Tracy has traveled all over the world for design projects ranging from one room makeovers to several acre multi building commercial projects.

She found her love of design in college while pursuing a biology degree, by taking

an art class as an elective that has evolved into a business that has spanned almost 3 decades. "I absolutely love what I do, and I have been so blessed to work on each project."

"The beginning and ending of each project are always my favorite parts to each job. The beginning is compiled of puzzle pieces that when place correctly form the absolute best design solution.

The ending is the final walk-through of a project and I can see what we have accomplished and how we have created the best design for the client."

On the residential side, the Hunt Design Group has designed hundreds of homes with each home being completely different from the previous... no "cookie-cutter" designs, each design is specific to each client. On the commercial side, the Hunt Design Group has designed over a thousand projects from small offices to large multi-story facilities. Working in the areas of healthcare, military, and commercial design, Tracy has worked in Europe, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, and in every State of the United States.

(501) 932-7608 / Hunt Design Group

Bring Your Dreams

Thank you for voting us one of Arkansas’ best

To Light!

Thank you for voting Gary Houston Electric Company one of AY ’s Best of 2022!

(501) 375-8330

GaryHoustonElectric.com

Little Rock Montessori School

THANK YOU for Voting US One of the Best in Arkansas Thank you for voting us one of AY’s Best for private schools.

Little Rock Montessori School has been educating children for over 50 years. We are a private, nonprofit school offering education for ages 22 months through third grade.

“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.”

— Maria Montessori 3704 N. Rodney Parham & 12015 Hinson Road, Little Rock 501.225.2428 // lrmontessori.org

5809 South University Little Rock

501.562.6494

Don’t Miss: Now Enrolling for 2022-2023 School Year!

charliemcgrew@aol.com

108

“Thank You Arkansas for voting me one of AY’s Best Seasonal Designers & one of AY’s Best Special Event Planners.”

there for you

WHEN IT COUNTS

Event planner for Weddings, Showers, Parties and Fundraisers.

Seasonal Designer decorating your home or business for all holidays, Christmas, Fall, Halloween and any other.

Design & Events by: Ari 501-454-8731 // amfason@yahoo.com

ben@cruminsuranceagency.com 501.516.6472

U R

BURROW AND MR FRANKS OPTICAL

F A M I L Y K N O W S G L A S S E S

5901 R STREET | LITTLE ROCK | 501.664.9350

109

VISIT US AT BURROWOPTICAL.COM

O

I would like to thank the readers and voters of AY Magazine for naming Crum Insurance one of Arkansas’ best.

FIRM NOT LICENSED TO MAKE EYE EXAMS

aymag.com

Services Law Firm

Promotional Services

Marketing Firm

Seasonal Designer

Nonprofit

Siding/Windows/Roofing

• Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP • Law Offices of Katherine E. Blackmon • Taylor King Law • Inuvo • Lauren Ramsey, Puzzle Piece Media • Stone Ward • Junior Achievement of Arkansas • Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas • Women’s Own Worth

Party Planning/Products/Rentals • Just Peachy • Party Time Rental and Events • Tipton & Hurst

Pest Control

• Curry’s Termite, Pest & Animal Control • Legacy Termite and Pest Control • The Bug Man

Photographer

• Jason Masters • Joel’s Photography • Sydney Rasch

• Digital Print & Imaging • Southern Branding • Trivia Marketing • Ari Fason • Silks A Bloom • Tipton & Hurst

• Cornerstone Construction • Pella Windows & Doors • Wilson’s Home Improvement

Special Events Planner • Ari Fason • Gretchen Larkan • Shelia Vaught

Veterinarian

• Doubletree Veterinary Clinic • Hillcrest Animal Hospital • Lake Hamilton Animal Hospital

Video Production • 360 Filmworks • CWP Productions • Dave Creek Media

110

Web Design

• Rock City Digital • Stone Ward • Web Monster

Thank You for voting us one of the best Private Schools in Arkansas!

LOWER SCHOOL & ADMIN

UPPER SCHOOL CAMPUS

62 Pleasant Valley Dr. Little Rock 501.227.7070

8400 Ranch Blvd.

Little Rock 501.868.5121

A Family for your Family

baptistprep.org

Thank you for voting Capitol Glass one of AY’s Best of 2022!

Established in 1950, Capitol Glass Company Inc is the oldest locally-owned and operated glass company in the Little Rock area.

501.374.6422

capitolglassinc.com 111

801 S Broadway, Little Rock aymag.com

Voted One of AY’s Best Nurse Practitioners Stacey Johnson, APRN Conway Regional Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center of Arkansas

Voted one of AY’s Best Places to Have a Baby

Voted One of AY’s Best OB/GYN Clinics

Shopping Arkansas Handmade Products • Bathhouse Soapery • Fischer’s Honey • Truth Sauce

Boutique

• Paisley Sisters • The Humble Thread • Wooden Creations and More!

Bridal Store

• Low’s Bridal • The Bridal Cottage • Unveiled Bridal Collection

CBD Store

• Fractal Branch Botanicals • Healing Hemp of Arkansas • Heights Apothecary & Hemp Co.

Consignment Store

• Clothes Mentor • Rhea Lana’s • Yours Truly Consignment, Inc.

Eyewear

• Burrow’s & Mr. Frank’s Optical • McFarland Eye Care • Simmons Eye Care

A heartfelt “thank you” to my loyal clients and supporters. I am grateful and honored you voted me among AY’s Best of 2022. I will continue to provide zealous representation for clients navigating the emotional waters of a family law matter.

212 Center Street 11th Floor, Centre Place Little Rock, AR (501) 372-7636 facebook.com/KEBlackmon

114

THANK YOU FOR VOTING US ONE OF THE BEST IN ARKANSAS!

BUILDING CUSTOM HOMES WITH PRECISION AND CARE. We’re a custom home building firm that is focused on your needs and desires. We work with you to identify the perfect lot, design a plan and budget, and build a place you’ll love to come home to forever.

See our best work at ParkinsonBuildingGroup.com 501.954.8570

Shopping Flooring

Home Improvement Store

Outdoor Living

Florist

Jewelry Store

Shopping Center

• Akel’s Carpet One Floor & Home • C & F Flooring and Rug Gallery • River City Flooring • Petal to the Metal Floristry • Tanarah Luxe Floral • Tipton & Hurst

Furniture

• Fuller and Son Hardware • Haynes Ace Hardware • Whit Davis Lumber Plus

• Jones & Son Diamond & Bridal Fine Jewelry • Lauray’s The Diamond Center • Sissy’s Log Cabin

• Haynes Ace Hardware • Congo Fireplace & Patio • Ken Rash’s of Arkansas • Conway Commons • Pinnacle Hills Promenade • The Promenade at Chenal

• Down South • Hank’s Fine Furniture • mertinsdykehome

Garden Center

• Hocott’s Garden Center • Plantopia • The Good Earth Garden Center

Gift Store

• Haynes Ace Hardware • The Crown Shop • Tipton & Hurst

Grocery Store

• Heights Corner Market • Edward’s Food Giant • Me & McGee Market

Thank You

Style.

"Thank you for voting

Puzzle Piece Media

for voting us one of the best in Siding/Windows/Roofing Crafted for you. in AY’s Bestjust of 2022

one of AY’s Top 3

Marketing Firms in the state!

Pella windows are rated #1 by Little Rock homeowners for highest quality.*

Style.

Pella Window & Door Showroom

8740 MaumelleCrafted Boulevard, just North for Littleyou.

Rock 501-758-5050 |Visit PellaLittleRock.com our newly

Windows & Doors

renovated Showroom.

“The perfect fit for YOUR small business social media management needs!”

*Based on a 2020 survey of leading window brands among homeowners. © 2021 Pella Corporation

Pella Window & Door Showroom Windows & Doors

8740 Maumelle Boulevard, North Little Rock 501-758-5050 | PellaLittleRock.com

laurenramsey@puzzlepiecemediaar.com

PuzzlePieceMediaAR

116

puzzlepiecemedia

lauren-ramsey-ms-11b71b57

We’re honored to be recognized among AY’s Best of 2022:

R

+ + + +

Building Intelligent Advertising for the Future

Advertising Agency Marketing Firm CEO: Richard Howe Marketing Consultant: Amanda Propst

At Inuvo, we pride ourselves in providing world-class marketing technology. Our employees are the best and are the heart behind delivering exceptional service to our clients.

Privacy Safe

Strategic Insights

We guide our clients through the fast-changing regulatory environment on client privacy and advertising.

Our strategic insights provide our clients with the reasons WHY their customers are interested in their business.

Superior Results On average, our clients marketing results increase by 54% with Inuvo.

Tailored to You Whether a large national or local client, we provide exceptional marketing agency services across your entire marketing plan

Home technology with you in mind.

From security to entertainment to complete home control, Triple-S has the solution for you.

501-664-4599 2820 Cantrell Road, Little Rock triplesalarm.com 117

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Spirits Brewpub

• Flyway Brewing • Lost Forty Brewing • Superior Bathhouse Brewery

Happy Hour

• Heights Taco & Tamale Co. • Rock Town Distillery • Sauced Bar and Oven

Liquor Store

• Grapevine Wines & Spirits • Lake Liquor • Legacy Wine and Spirits

Sports Fitness Center/Gym

• Conway Regional Health & Fitness Center • Jolly Bodies • McClure Fitness

Golf Course

• Maumelle Country Club • Pleasant Valley Country Club • Rebsamen Park Golf Course

Personal Trainer

• Brooke Walker, 365 Fitness • Lee Ann Jolly and Burke Jolly, Jolly Bodies • Mallory Lefler, Conway Regional Health & Fitness Center

Sporting Goods Store

• Fort Thompson Sporting Goods • Gearhead Outfitters • Ozark Outdoor Supply

Top Employers Boss

• Janet Jones, The Janet Jones Company • Nicole Hurst, Superior Senior Care • Rebekah Fincher, Conway Regional Health System

Chief Executive Officer

• Howard Hurst, Tipton & Hurst • Matt Troup, Conway Regional Health System • Richard Howe, Inuvo

Chief Financial Officer

• Jon Dor, Museum of Discovery • Kim Adams, Sissy’s Log Cabin • Troy Brooks, Conway Regional Health System

Overall Company

• Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Conway Regional Health System • Superior Senior Care

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Place to Work

• Bowen Hefley Orthopedics • Conway Regional Health System • Superior Senior Care

thank you

for voting us one of the best Real Estate Companies!

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Left to Right (Standing) Kyle Davis, Catherine Young , Debbie Heller, Belinda Grace, Sara Gardner, LaJuana Whyte. (Seated) Meg France, Ashley Schwander, Stephanie Tharp, Donna Carlson.

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on Underhill Real Estate is a full-service real estate company recognized as one of AY’s Best for 2022.

The company received the nod for Best Real Estate company for the fourth year in a row, and principal broker Brandy Harp was named one of AY’s Best Realtors. “While the company is known for selling high-end luxury homes, we

want to be the real estate solution for every client in central Arkansas,” Harp says.

The company’s mission is to employ a unique, specialized strategy to help each client succeed with their real estate investment, while always maintaining the highest level of professionalism, integrity and respect. Altogether, Jon Underherhill

501.868.3444 • jonunderhill.com

JON UNDERHILL REAL ESTATE

Left to Right (Standing) Richard Harp, Brandy Harp, Terry Quinn, Kelly McConnell, Cynthia Hu. (Seated) Susan Meador, Jon Underhill and Sue Fess.

Real Estate has sold more than $275 million worth of real estate in 2020 and 2021.

“We set ourselves apart from the competition by being experts in every aspect of the process to help each client succeed with their real estate investment,” Harp says.

Brandy Harp Principal Broker

Vehicles Dealers and Services

Auto Dealership Service Department

• Parker Lexus • Red River Dodge Chrysler Jeep • Russell Chevrolet

Auto Glass Repair

• Capitol Glass Company • Discount Auto Glass • Safelite AutoGlass

Auto/Truck Accessories

• Forestwood Automotive Squarebodys & More • Goodsell Truck Accessories • Mud Connection

Boat/Marine Dealership

• Bradford Marine & ATV • Futrell Marine • Gregg Orr Marine Hot Springs

New Car Dealership

Window Tint

• Parker Lexus • Russell Chevrolet • Subaru of Little Rock

• Arkansas Window Tint • D & D Sun Control • SunStop Window Tinting

RV Dealership

• Kiko’s Kountry RV • Moix RV Supercenter • Razorback Camper Sales

Tire Center

• All About Tire & Brake Tire Pros • Austin Brothers Tire & Service • Discount Tire

Used Car Dealership • Bale Chevrolet • Bill Fitts Auto Sales • Cowboy Dealerships

Car Salesman

• Jason Koon, Mark McLarty Ford • Michael Hopkins, Parker Cadillac • Patti Railey, Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock

Thank you

A Natural State

FUNERAL SERVICE “Serving Arkansas with Dignity and Respect 2620 West Main Street • Jacksonville, AR 72076 • 501-982-3400 www.anaturalstatefuneralservice.com

for voting us among AY’s Best

Extraordinary service. Exceptional prices. No exceptions.

AY’S TOP 3

Best of

2018

501.982.3400 / anaturalstatefuneralservice.com / 2620 W. Main Street, Jacksonville anaturalstatefuneralservice / Funeral, Cremation & Cemetery / 24-Hour Assistance / Monuments 122

THANK YOU FOR NAMING PARKER LEXUS one of the

Best Service Departments & Best New Car Dealers

in Arkansas!

PARKER LEXUS

#1 Shackleford West Blvd., Little Rock • 501.221.1700 • www.parkerlexus.com

Voted Best Of The Best

Three Years In A Row!

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THANK YOU ARKANSAS FOR LETTING US INSURE YOU FOR THE LAST 113 YEARS.

501.372.5200 MA-LEE.COM BUSINESS / PERSONAL / BENEFITS INSURANCE

Thank You

for naming us one of AY’s Best of 2022!

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5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Ste K Little Rock, Arkansas • 72207 • 501-664-6900 eggshellskitchencompany.com

Thank you Arkansas, for voting Patti Railey one of AY’s Best in automotive sales for the state of Arkansas.

From all of us at Winrock Automotive, congratulations and thank you for 20 years of service.

Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock 8 Colonel Glenn Plaza Dr. Little Rock, AR 72210 (501)-666-9457 www.mercedesbenzoflittlerock.com

LOVIN’

THE

CREW

WHETHER LOCAL OR NATIONAL, DAN WAYMACK AND CREW PUT THEIR HEARTS INTO TV AD SPOTS — By Kenneth Heard

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Dan Waymack and his team can say more in 30 seconds than most people can say in a day.

Waymack, the owner of Little Rock video production company Waymack and Crew, has been shooting catchy television advertisements for dozens of businesses including Allstate with deep-voiced actor Dennis Haysbert, Miller Lite, the U.S. Army and — more locally — Arkansas Parks and Tourism and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery with its “This is Winning” campaign.

The company also has satellite offices in Bentonville; West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Chicago, where it works with ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide, one of the largest agencies in the world.

In addition to shooting the 30-second television advertisements, Waymack also has traveled around the world filming documentaries for various cable television venues. His work ranges from a serious look at training procedures by U.S. Army soldiers for the A&E Network, which led to the service’s most successful advertising campaign to the more campy “Wives With Knives,” a true crime show featuring angry spouses.

It’s been quite a career for a hometown Cabot boy who in 1986 began his production company on a school table in his mother’s house.

“We didn’t have a garage,” Waymack said. “My first editing suite was in my mom’s living room.”

He called his company Boomtown Productions and shot video for local and regional accounts. In 1992, he launched Waymack and Crew, hired about 15 people and moved to downtown Little Rock. He also opened the satellite office in Chicago where he produced several national campaigns for Allstate, Aleve, Kellogg’s, Whirlpool and the PGA. While there, Waymack built a new type of helmet rig, using a Sony camera to shoot spots for the Chicago Bears to create fan interest in the football team.

Kama Johnson, director of operations at Waymack and Crew, said, “The quickest way to explain our success is to explain that Dan puts

Bardstown Bourbon Co. in Kentucky.

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The U.S. Army training center in Barstow, Calif.

It’s been quite a career for a hometown Cabot boy who in 1986 began his production company on a school table in his mother’s house.

his heart into it. Then, he surrounds himself with people who share the same heart. It’s a well-balanced group.”

Waymack agrees, saying that while many production companies eventually go out of business, Waymack and Crew has lasted because of the passion his workers have for the product.

“We have to work to make money to stay in business,” he said. “But we all love what we do.”

The company survived through the pandemic at a time when many production companies had to stop shooting to maintain social distancing and quarantining regulations. Waymack had shot many advertising campaigns for tourism in Florida, Kentucky, Illinois and Arkansas.

Those spots came to a grinding halt.

“COVID killed 2020,” said Shane George, the director of marketing.

Waymack said the pandemic cut profits by nearly 50 percent.

He made due by shooting spots for Kingsford Charcoal in the backyard of his house. He hired cooks to barbecue food for his video, and workers basically held a picnic.

“We ate a lot,” Johnson said. “We didn’t eat barbecue for three months after.”

One of the more popular campaigns in Arkansas is “This is Winning” for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. In the advertisements, a

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man is featured traveling the state in a large green van with the lottery logo on it. He visits towns and talks with real lottery winners in flashy, fast-paced spots.

The campaign won a Gold Addy Award, the equivalent of an Oscar award for filmmakers, in 2019.

Waymack and Crew won several Addy awards for its “The Heist” advertisement which depicts what appears to be a group of mastermind criminals plotting to buy Arkansas lottery tickets. A man in sunglasses describes entering a convenience store, paying the clerk for a ticket, and says “boom” while dramatically opening his hand like an explosion.

“With a little luck, we walk out with a million dollars,” he says. “Easy breezy.”

A brand-tracking survey of the advertisements indicated 42 percent of those who saw the spots said they would buy a lottery ticket, said Ashley McNatt, the marketing and advertising director for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

“The ads have been a big lift for us,” she said. “They have had a great impact. We wanted to feature real Arkansans who won. They had a good idea of what we wanted.”

Waymack and Crew is now shooting a new series of advertisements for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s scratch-off tickets that will begin aymag.com

More Waymack sets: (clockwise from top left) A javelin crane used to shoot a spot for Arkansas Parks & Tourism; at Kenda Drive-In in Marshall; an ARRI camera outside the Waymack offices in downtown Little Rock; on the Little Maumelle River, just off the Two Rivers Bridge, in Little Rock; Shooting a spot for Frontier Cellular.

Editor’s note: A version of this story previously ran in AY’s sister publication, Arkansas Money & Politics.

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A day in the life at Waymack and Crew: (from top) Waymack in Egypt for a 1996 A&E special; Oaklawn in Hot Springs; Calder Casino in Miami Gardens, Fla.

airing in April.

The company won another five Silver Addy awards in 2019 for sound and video editing for its lottery advertisements and for spots featuring Arkansas tourism.

The company also has shot material for Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis.

In one of the 30-second spots, “Neighbors,” two attractive blonde twins knock on a resident’s door. A woman answers the door, and as the twins introduce themselves as neighbors, the woman’s husband speeds in and starts to tell her something. He sees the neighbors and, through quick edits, is shown celebrating by doing high-fives, swinging his shirt over his head, whooping, shooting photographs of the women and trying to do one-armed pushups before falling.

The scene cuts to the West Memphis casino as a narrator says, “Spontaneous celebrations aren’t always welcome in the rest of the world, but they are here.”

Waymack said his crew laughed constantly while filming the advertisement because the man portraying the husband, an actor from Chicago, ad-libbed much of the celebration scenes.

“We busted so many takes because we were so tickled,” he said.

They also ran into some difficulties, he added. It was hard to find twins who had the needed, well, assets for the ad and who both could act.

Instead, Waymack said, he filmed one person playing both parts and then edited it together to give the appearance of twins.

The crew is hoping to resume shooting ads for tourism in Florida, preferring the warmer climate to the brutal cold of Chicago.

Once, Waymack said, he was producing a spot for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team. After filming a game at the United Center west of downtown Chicago one winter evening, Waymack stepped outside. The temperature read minus-27 degrees.

“I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” he said.

Like many creative types, Waymack always judges his own work with a very critical eye, seeing things he thinks should have been done after a project is finished.

“He doesn’t do paralysis by analysis,” George said. “He looks at it and learns what he wants to do next. He comes up with ways to make good things better.”

Waymack said his team will shoot more casino and lottery spots in Arkansas and is set to do more national advertisements.

“We really don’t know what’s coming up after 60 days,” he said. “We’re ready for it.”

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home!

Welcome

Quapaw Care & Rehab Center offers modern conveniences in a gracious setting.

Nestled in a quiet neighborhood, Quapaw Care & Rehabilitation Center is a unique, family-oriented facility offering skilled care in a loving, supportive atmosphere.

Our licensed nurses, physician assistants, dentist, podiatrist and other specialists believe that building strong relationships with their families is key. Our home is conveniently located just off Hwy 7 South, past Hot Springs Mall, on Brighton Terrace, under the medical direction of Dr. Hosam Kamel.

138 Brighton Terrace, Hot Springs

quapawcr.com

Call us today! 501-525-7140

Specialized Rehab | Long Term Care | Respite Care

Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

• SHORT-TERM REHABILITATION • LONG-TERM CARE • RESPITE SERVICES

Russellville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is nestled in the heart of the River Valley in Russellville, Arkansas.

Our staff provides skilled professional care in a compassionate and supportive atmosphere. Russellville Nursing & Rehabilitation Center not only provides long-term care services, we also offer a wide range of rehabilitative services.

Our physicians, nurses and staff all believe strong relationships with residents and their families is essential to the healing process. The entire staff is devoted to providing quality care, which celebrates the dignity and grace of every single resident.

215 S. PORTLAND AVE. RUSSELLVILLE, AR

479-968-5256 • russellvillenr.com

travel

Happenings HOT SPRINGS

MAY 2022

MAGIC SPRINGS OPENING DAY May 7 Magic Springs Theme & Water Park

ARTS & THE PARK April 29-May 8 Various Locations

HOT SPRINGS CONCERT BAND SPRING CONCERT & ICE CREAM SOCIAL May 1 Woodlands Auditorium

NORTHWOODS MULLET TRAIL RUN May 7 Northwoods Trails

GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS May 6 Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort

BOTANICAL DRAWING WORKSHOP May 15 Garvan Woodland Gardens

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DON MCLEAN May 21 Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort

AARON GOODVIN May 20 The Vapors Live

MOMENTO MORI MURDER MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE May 21, 22 The Vapors Live 75TH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL FIELD AIRPORT CELEBRATION | BOMBERS & BBQ May 27, 28 Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport

JURASSIC QUEST May 20-22 Hot Springs Convention Center

MEMORIAL DAY FIREWORKS May 28 Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport

MARDI GRAS COSTUME BALL & CONTEST May 21 Hotel Hot Springs

NORMA LAMPERT MEMORIAL LUPUS SPRINGERS 5K RACE AND WALK May 21 Mid-America Park

EXPEDITION DINOSAUR: RISE OF THE MAMMALS May 28 Mid-America Science Museum

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THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING When you buy a hunting and

ARKANSAS GAME

AND

FISH COMMISSION

Licenses and Permits

fishing license, you are giving the gift of the great outdoors.

Hunting and fishing licenses fund conservation, so that wildlife and wild places are available for everyone to enjoy.

Bo Archer CID: #000-000-001 HE Verified DOB: 05/24/1972

BUY A GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR A HUNTING OR FISHING LICENSE AT AGFC.COM

r e m m Su vel a r T

Mountain Harbor Resort & Spa

E

xplore hundreds of wilderness islands and coves on Arkansas’ largest lake, catch your limit on one of the best fishing spots in the nation, experience nature on horseback or find adventure when you hike or bike the nearby IMBA Epic Trails. Mountain Harbor Resort & Spa, the most awarded marina and resort in Arkansas, is the ideal haven for a Lake Ouachita weekend getaway!

Overlook the water in a luxury cabin and watch the glorious sunrise or sunset from the deck. Enjoy a room by the lodge close to one of the three sparkling swimming pools. Get on the lake from one of the largest inland marinas in the country, where you can rent pontoon boats, houseboats, jet skis, book guided fishing trips, scuba dive and more.

Then grab one of the famous Harbor Burgers and a dessert in the warm atmosphere of the Harbor Lodge Restaurant, where they have served guests for four generations.

At “Your Harbor For Healing,” relax with a massage using heated Arkansas quartz crystals, or book one of the spa’s facial or body treatments. Turtle Cove Spa offers pure relaxation that has earned it the honor of being the No. 1 spa in Arkansas by Spas of America.

Visit the website or give the family owned and operated resort a call to learn how Harbor can become your sanctuary. mountainharborresort.com 870-867-2191

CELEBRATING 67 YEARS Our Mountain Harbor family would like to thank you, our customers, for your continued support and choosing us as your vacation destination for over 67 years.

We look forward to welcoming you back this summer. If you aren’t part of our family yet, we invite you to come find your sanctuary at Harbor.

• Arkansas’ Premier Family Destination • Area’s Largest Full-Service Marina • Premier Luxury Cottages and Lake-Side Lodging • Lake-View Restaurant • Turtle Cove Spa • Pet Friendly • Voted Best Resort and Best Marina in Arkansas

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Gaston’s White River Resort

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isconnect and unwind at Gaston’s White River Resort, where unspoiled natural beauty and adventure are always waiting around every bend. Fish in style and comfort at America’s No. 1 trout fishing resort that brings anglers from coast to coast for the ultimate White River experience.

Create lifelong memories with loved ones in the scenic Ozark Mountain region while on a one-of-a-kind guided flyfishing trip. Need lessons?

Attend flyfishing school with a master fly fisherman. Experience luxury across Gaston’s 400-acre resort that contains one of the South’s finest restaurants serving up bison, scallops and fresh rainbow trout. Relax in riverbank cottages that offer a cozy place for two or a lodge with 10 private bedrooms. Revel in the expansive amenities such as a private club, swimming pool, tennis courts and a landing strip for fly-in guests. Come for the unforgettable experience and be a part of Gaston’s family.

Little Rock Zoo

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f you haven’t visited the Little Rock Zoo lately, then this summer is as good a time as any to take a little walk on the wild side.

The Little Rock Zoo is the only Zoo in the state accredited by the Associations of Zoos and Aquariums, and it has plenty of sights and sounds in store this summer.

Two of the Zoo’s youngest new additions — Kevin, a baby rhino; and Betty White, a baby penguin — have quickly become crowd favorites since the Zoo welcomed them into the world.

1777 River Road, Lakeview 870-431-5202 // gastons.com

A First-Class Time...

EVERY TIME.

There’s one name in trout fishing, and it is Gaston’s. America’s #1 trout fishing resort is legendary, luring anglers from coast to coast for the ultimate White River experience. Come fish in style and comfort as part of the Gaston’s family.

Discover The Legacy

That’s just a couple of the Zoo’s growing collection of animals, which now totals more than 400, each offering attendees the opportunity to travel the world in just one afternoon.

And traveling so far in such a short time can build quite an appetite. The on-site restaurant Café Africa and hot snacks from food vendors spread across the park are a must for Zoo adventures.

Make the Little Rock Zoo part of your summer itinerary to enjoy Central Arkansas’ only living classroom.

1777 River Road, Lakeview, AR 72642 870-431-5202 • Email gastons@gastons.com Lat 36° 20’ 55” N Long 92° 33’ 25” W

Gastons.com

littlerockzoo.com 1 Zoo Drive • Little Rock

Ad paid for with a combination of state and Ozark Mountain Regions funds.

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Gilbert, Arkansas

Loco Ropes

itting on the banks of the Buffalo National River, the resort town of Gilbert is the “Coolest Town” in Arkansas. The short drive into Gilbert along State Highway 333 is simply gorgeous.

When you arrive, you’ll find a town that time forgot. Welcome to a quiet community surrounded by the cool mist of the Buffalo National River.

The town is home to the Gilbert General Store, river outfitter Buffalo Camping & Canoeing, the Gilbert RV Campground and the Buffalo River Art Gallery. Wonderful cottage and cabin lodging dot the town, along with live music and a snack bar at Ben’s Place. Come camp, swim, float, fish, hike, cycle, or horseback ride.

Gaze at the dark night skies in amazement. Gilbert welcomes visitors to stay a day, a week or even a lifetime.

Remember: You may leave Gilbert, but Gilbert will never leave you!

hether you’re an adrenaline junkie, outdoor enthusiast or subscribe to the “just plain fun” philosophy, Loco Ropes has an awesome tree-top adventure waiting for you! Test your nerve, endurance, agility and strength, located at the Ozark Folk Center State Park in beautiful Mountain View. All aboard for higher adventure in the Natural State!

“Loco” is Spanish for “crazy,” and performing challenging feats high above the forest floor is crazy — thinking of doing it only when pigs fly. But fly they must, because as Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible!” Or as they like to say at Loco Ropes, TM “It’s Sooie-t !”

“I am not exaggerating when I tell you it was like getting everything on your wish list on Christmas morning. … Adrenaline fueled excitement turned into a great sense of accomplishment.”

— Jill M. Rohrbach, Travel Writer.

townofgilbertar.com 870-448-2557

locoropes.com 888-669-6717

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Marshall, Arkansas

W

M

arshall is the “Front Door to the Buffalo National River,” and is the largest city in the Buffalo River Watershed.

Marshall is a launching point for exploring the wilds of Witts Springs, Snowball and the Richland Valley, also the foodie town of Leslie, the Tyler Bend National Park Visitor Center, the fabulous river resort town of Gilbert, as well as St. Joe, South Maumee, Spring Creek and Harriet.

Located just a few miles south of the Buffalo National River, Marshall is centrally located between two segments of the Ozark National Forest and in the midst of world-class hiking, great museums, dark night skies, cycling, horseback riding, motorcycling and camping. Watch a movie under the stars at the Kenda DriveIn; wild elk roam just outside the city limits.

Secure your Ozark Mountain lodging and plan your summer vacation escape today.

searcycountyarkansas.org 870-448-2557

DeVito’s Restaurant

H

arrison’s DeVito’s Restaurant has been an Ozark Mountain tradition for decades, offering upscale dining and rainbow trout fishing at Bear Creek Springs Trout Farm. Serving traditional Italian cuisine, DeVito’s has served people from around the world.

Originally founded by Jim DeVito in 1986, the fifth generation of Italian cooks saw instant success through their madefrom-scratch meals. Today, DeVito’s Restaurant is owned by DeVito brothers Steve, Chris and Joe, who actively work within the kitchen and on the floor. Bear Creek Springs Trout Farm allows patrons to catch their own rainbow trout, without a limit on catches and no fishing license required. Guests can bring their own tackle or can use tackle available for free with bait, fish cleaning and packing in ice. Guests are only required to pay for their catches, with the option of having their same day catches cooked at the restaurant during its normal business hours.

350 DeVitos Loop N., Harrison

devitosrestaurant.com 870-741-8832

Ads paid for by state and Ozark Mountain Region Funds

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North Little Rock

The Shepherd of the Hills

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e’re up to something fun this summer in North Little

T

here’s great family fun at The Shepherd of the Rock! Here’s a breakdown of weekly entertainment: Hills in Branson, Missouri. Based on the best• Second Mondays: Jazz at The Joint • Tuesdays: Stand-up comedy, The Joint Theater selling 1907 book by Harold Bell Wright, this is the • Third Thursdays: Argenta Acoustic Music Series, The Joint Theater actual location where the book was written. Sit under the stars at • Second weekends: Argenta Dogtown Throwdown, Argenta Arts District the famous outdoor drama, a reenactment of the book featuring 90 • Third Fridays: Argenta Art Walk, Argenta Arts District actors and actresses, 40 horses and a herd of sheep. This beautiful • Fourth Fridays: Argenta Vibe Music Series, Argenta Plaza story is an action-packed, family favorite.

Can’t-miss May events: Shepherd of the Hills Adventure Park was voted the No. 1 Aerial • May – September: Arkansas Travelers, Dickey-Stephens Park Adventure Park in America twice in a row. Explore the treetops • May 5 – May 8: free Ballet Arkansas Live at the Plaza, Argenta Plaza with its Zipline Canopy Tours, zip half a mile from the top of Inspi• May 19 – May 21: Kaleidoscope LGBTQ+ Film Festival, ration Tower on the Vigilante Extreme Ziprider, and discover thrills Argenta Community Theater with the new Copperhead Mountain Coaster.

• May 21: Yadaloo Music & Arts Festival, Riverfront Park If you come to visit, don’t miss the hilarious and interactive din• May 25 – May 29: The Pulaski County Fair, Riverfront Park ner shows the whole family will love. The Shepherd of the Hills can’t Aside from events and entertainment, North Little Rock offers scenic trails, wait to be a part of your visit to Branson! public art and landmarks like The Old Mill that can be enjoyed daily.

theshepherdofthehills.com 417-334-4191

501-758-1424 northlittlerock.org

OUTDOOR DRAMA

UP TO SOMETHING...

Fun!

May 3 - May 8 Argenta Plaza

Join us in North Little Rock, Arkansas, this summer for live music, free entertainment, festivals and more!

Events Calendar > northlittlerock.org/events May 21 North Little Rock Riverfront Park

@exploreNLR #exploreNLR May 25 - May 29 North Little Rock Riverfront Park

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Pine Bluff Shiloh Museum of Ozark History Springdale

Where Summer Happens Indoors and Outdoors

I

S

n observance of the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo River’s national status, the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, presents Ken Smith’s Buffalo River Country through December 31, 2022.

The exhibit showcases the beauty of the Buffalo National River and the work of those who advocated for its preservation and exploration.

Ken Smith’s 1967 book, The Buffalo River Country, published by The Ozark Society, featured his photographs, maps and travel narratives that aided the society’s mission to get the Buffalo national river status.

Ken Smith’s Buffalo River Country includes Smith’s personal items, tools, a 12-minute video and 22 photos from his 1965 exploration of the river’s watershed.

The Shiloh Museum will offer several related events in celebration of the river’s anniversary in conjunction with the University of Arkansas Humanities Center and University of Arkansas Libraries.

ummer is the time for fun, sun and discovery. Whether you’re looking to enjoy sunshine or craving indoor exploration, Pine Bluff is the perfect place for a summer daycation!

Just a short drive from Little Rock will get you to our charming and historic Delta. Here, music lovers can enjoy our summer music festivals and events. History buffs can visit museums that are home to fine art or historical artifacts. Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy boating and fishing on Lake Saracen or kayaking the world’s longest bayou, Bayou Bartholomew.

Families can also explore nature up close and personal through the wildlife exhibits at the Delta Rivers Nature Center. End your day dining with family and friends at one of our unique eateries.

If you want to soak up the Delta sun and then retreat to cool indoor excursions, you’re ready to discover Pine Bluff. What are you waiting for?

ExplorePineBluff.com

479-750-8165 ShilohMuseum.org

entic Foodways • Arts & Culture MusicAl legacy • RIch hISTORY • Auth

…Where

Summer Happens MusicAl legacy • RIch hISTORY Authentic Foodways • Arts & Culture

inside and outside.

Discover more about Our Delta at ExplorePineBluff.com

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Out of Africa Letitia deGraft Okyere Shares Her Father’s Incredible Story in ‘The First Vice President’

By DWAIN HEBDA // Photos by EBONY BLEVINS

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Throughout history, revolution has always been a many-splendored thing. Leaders in the word and deed of political upheaval are often enshrined in the annals of history, studied in high schools and universities and copied by legions of devotees long after their own passing. Behind them, in every large-scale turnover of power or philosophy, there are hundreds if not thousands who labored in their shadow.

Thus did legions of Claire Lacombes bleed out every ounce of Napoleon Bonaparte’s influence and the likes of Felix Dzerzhinsky did revolution’s dirty work to give Vladimir Lenin his yeast for change. Many died for their efforts, getting a glimpse or less of the new order they sought to bring about, as with Crispus Attucks, who fell so that a new nation might rise. But all possessed a faith in that vision for which seemingly no sacrifice was too steep, no price too high. It’s an at-all-costs obsession Letitia deGraft Okyere knows well.

“I was born in Ghana, on the western coast of Africa. My father worked for a research company, so we lived on the university campus,” says deGraft Okyere, who now lives in Little Rock. “Around maybe my 11th birthday, my father went into politics. He stood as a vice presidential candidate and his party won.

“Even though I was young, I kind of understood the implications of what he was trying to do. When we moved to [the nation’s capital] Accra, my father explained to us that this is a difficult job. I remember the moment he moved in there at the official residence; he gathered us all together and told us, ‘Look, we have work to do. The country is in a mess.’”

Political change on the African continent, with notable exceptions, has had more than its share of ruthless coups and blood-soaked civil wars that granted power to the brutal and despotic. Those installed democratically, and who sought to lead their nations toward modernization and personal freedoms, were often swept aside and ultimately lost in the shuffle of history.

JWS de Graft-Johnson is one such man, a patriot and scholar who devoted his life to the betterment of his native country and greater opportunity for his fellow citizens. In so doing, he forfeited a life of relative comfort to step into a dangerous arena where he’d face brutality, imprisonment and, ultimately, exile. Yet chances are you’ve never heard of him.

“I’ve always felt that his side of the

story has not been told,” his daughter says.

“His side, as in his government, what he was trying to achieve, has never been told.” *** In The First Vice President, the 2022 book deGraft Okyere penned on her father’s life and career, the opening pages provide a sobering account of what it meant to be in the hands of political enemies in the 1970s and 1980s. She details in his own words his arrival at a detention facility following a coup and the hours-long intake interrogation by soldiers, punctuated by a physical beating.

Told in unflinching detail, deGraft Okyere considers such chapters as essential as they are hard to write.

“When he reported, he was given a massive beating. He was abused,” she says.

“That was the part that was extremely difficult for me. It really made me sick.

The prison experience; well, just imagine prison in a third-world country. His life was difficult.”

A man of lesser principles might have avoided such atrocities by simply keeping his head down and his mouth shut. An engineer educated in the United Kingdom and U.S., de Graft-Johnson began his career in London, but was determined to return to his homeland to help modernize the country. A respected lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Kumasi, he was promoted to

146

director of the Buildings and Roads Research Institute in 1969.

By 1974, he was one of 10 members appointed to the Ghana Highways Authority and also one of the founding members of the Ghana Institution of Engineers. His reputation attracted the attention of government leaders in Zambia, where he advised the set-up of the Building Research and Development Institute in Lusaka.

His family grew along with his reputation. He and his wife, Lily, welcomed five children, all of whom enjoyed a comfortable existence during his teaching years.

“He had an amazing sense of humor.

He was able to see the light side of every situation,” deGraft Okyere says. “He always felt that he should be able to make fun of himself. It keeps you grounded. And he was someone who used events to teach us a lesson, teach in the moment. He could be totally about something funny that happened and then immediately he would switch and say, ‘But you know, I learned such and such from this experience.’”

*** The description defies the image of a storm-the-castle radical, and for good reason. De Graft-Johnson believed the hidden power of his nation was in its natural resources and wanted to change the way those resources were used to improve the standards of living inside the country and to better leverage them to bring Ghana into the modern age. As deGraft Okyere says, he saw politics as the only way to bring his grand reforms into reality, even though pushing for change and criticizing the status quo leadership through his various professional associations brought backlash from the ruling military government.

“The idea was that with his technical background, he could move implementation top-down, as opposed to from the bottom up as a researcher,” she says. “As a researcher, he’d come up with an idea, then have to go to the ministries and convince the leaders that this is good for the nation.

As a national leader, he thought he could move it from the top down with greater impact.”

His political influence and activism accelerated, serving in the 1978 Constituent Assembly to write the 1979 Constitution of the Third Republic and joining in 1979 the brand-new People’s National Party (PNP). The people embraced the opportunity for reform, electing PNP candidates to national office, including Hilla Limann

and de Graft-Johnson as the first president and vice president in Ghanaian history.

But in this volatile part of the world, the distance between national hero and marked man was often razor-thin, a fact not lost on his teenage daughter.

“So we had a military government that was getting ready to hand over to democracy, right?” deGraft Okyere says. “Now, just before the handing over, there was another military coup and that was a very violent coup.

I mean, that was a coup that we hadn’t quite seen, where they took leaders and took them to the firing squad and shot them. So, for me, the thing that stuck in my head was, ‘If this thing happens and doesn’t work out, Daddy is going to die.’

“Then, after he took office, there were a series of coups that the government had to put down. As a child, I knew that if things didn’t

Okyere says. “When they gave it to him, he left and decided to stay out, and we moved to the U.K., as exiles.”

Life as a political refugee made for a difficult adjustment. In addition to missing their homeland and extended family, deGraft Okyere and her younger brother had trouble fitting in at school “We came in the middle of a school year.

That’s always more chaotic,” she says. “My older siblings were college-age so that was OK, but myself and the young one, he was in between primary school and I was in between high school. I remember my younger brother coming home one day crying because someone had made fun of him. Similarly, in my case, it was difficult for the first two years until I finished [high school].

to destroy the legacy of this democratic government,” she says. “I had to get the record straight. I had been toying with it for years, and then sometime in 2016 I decided to just go ahead and start working on this.”

Painstaking research is evident throughout The First Vice President, which reads less like a child’s tribute to her father and more like the historical biography that it is. Enough time had passed that deGraft Okyere was allowed to travel freely to and within her native Ghana, which she’s done regularly in recent years.

Through these visits and multiple telephone calls, she found many people willing to share their memories of her father as statesman, as engineer and as a Ghanaian.

“But I had very interesting parents. They were the kind where, ‘This is the way things have turned out, so we are going to make the most of the situation. We don’t like being here, we don’t want to be here, this is not home, but this is where we find ourselves.’”

The impressive work, nearly 500 pages long, published in 2022 as an engaging tribute to a man willing to pay any price for the good of a nation.

“When we moved to Accra, he expected us to behave in a certain way as he and his cronies were working to fix the country,” deGraft Okyere says. “We, as a family, had to work together to make sure that whatever it is they’re trying to achieve gets done.

“Once we came to England, he couldn’t go back to where he was because of the political taint on him, but he remained involved in the fight for the return to democracy. He didn’t remain quiet in exile; he was very apt to draw attention to the human rights abuses and degradation of the country.

“He used to travel all over the world bringing attention to the issue of mistreatment, so he was always persona non grata [in Ghana].

But the contribution that he made, his dedication to his country and his sacrifice were remarkable. He literally sacrificed his life, his professional life, for his country.”

The late JWS de Graft-Johnson.

(Courtesy)

work out, I could end up like those other children whose father had been taken to a firing squad. I also knew what it was like when the soldiers started getting agitated and they’re trying to create a coup and we had to leave the house. I recall evacuations in the middle of the night where my mother would come and wake us up and say, ‘We have to leave the house.’ I mean, she never told me why, but she didn’t have to. I knew what it was.”

On New Year’s Eve 1981, the family’s fears came to fruition as the military overthrew Limann’s government, jailing many within his administration. During de Graft-Johnson’s imprisonment, the family survived as best they could, living with relatives or occupying ramshackle housing. Following his release, de Graft-Johnson continued to be harassed until he applied for a visa to attend a professional conference in London, an offer the government originally declined.

“The military regime refused to give him a passport, but eventually they did,” deGraft

*** De Graft-Johnson would remain a vocal critic of Ghana’s political structure and human rights violations from abroad, but he wouldn’t come home to stay in his native land again until he became one with it following his death in 1999 at age 65. At about that time, deGraft Okyere came to America, where she’d often visit her sister in Arkansas. She moved here herself about 17 years ago, and today works for the state health department, far away from the threat of assassination and furtive escapes into the night. Yet these elements which made up so much of her father’s life, and hers, refused to fade from her memory.

“When the military coup came in, they had to justify the existence, so they went out

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2022 AY About You is proud to unveil this inaugural special section to celebrate mothers in a very special way: Super Moms.

Being a mom today is more diverse than ever, and we want to celebrate all of the different ways that modern mothers look. We’ve selected a group of 10 moms to share how each makes their day-to-day happen — from childcare to work to community outreach to philanthropy.

But no matter the vocation, we know firsthand that “mom” is the job that always comes first.

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SUPER MOMS

Jessica Baxter Jessica Baxter has been a licensed Realtor since 2007, and in 2019 earned her brokerage license. After becoming a mother, she learned that a growing family can sometimes slow down the process of reaching your goals, but children also provided her with the maturity and ambition necessary to fully chase her dreams. Those dreams came first in real estate, and then with the opening of her own business, Jess Baxter Design.

DID HAVING CHILDREN PRESENT ANY OBSTACLES OR SPEEDBUMPS IN YOUR CAREER? My youngest two had febrile seizures until the ages of 3 and 4, which added a new element to parenting. Those years were more so dedicated to staying within close proximity to them in case of a seizure episode. Now that they are all teens, except one, it’s smooth sailing! I even hire them to help me put out signs or help on my design job sites.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? Next question. No, just kidding. … Like most entrepreneurs that have kids, I think it’s easy to get locked into work. I certainly have room for improvement in this area!

My family definitely sacrifices at times, but I have a great support system between my husband and family/friends.

They’re also not afraid to keep me in check. What I’ve learned (not mastered), is that much like you have to be intentional with your business, the same stands for your family time.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISH TO MAKE FOR FAMILY MEALS? I LOVE to cook. Food is a love language here in the South. It’s my favorite way to keep my family/friends

gathered for hours visiting, cheering one of them up, or making someone feel better/loved! A way to someone’s heart is always good food. In the winter, our family favorites are my award-winning chili or Cajun chicken and dumplings. In the warmer months, it would be a meal my family named “That Chicken,” otherwise known as herbcrusted chicken in basil cream sauce.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAMILY’S FAVORITE ACTIVITIES? Sports — we are all sports junkies! Our oldest plays on both JV and varsity baseball teams for his school, our 14-year-old plays school football, our 13-year-old plays 13U AAA travel baseball through Proformance Sports Academy, and our 10-year-old plays football. After sports would come the outdoors/camping and attending concerts.

WHAT KIND OF LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOUR CHILDREN? I hope my legacy is what I have always taught my boys — to be kind, but stand up for yourself; always be respectful; have a good work ethic; see the glass half full; be a problem solver, not a problem starter; love on people, even when they don’t deserve it; and always, always come home for the holidays.

OCCUPATION: Realtor, Bailey & Company Real Estate; Owner, Jess Baxter Design

CHILDREN: Lane, 16 Cole, 14 Cash, 13 Cam, 10

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Much like you have to be intentional with your business, the same stands for your family time.

SUPER MOMS

Lindsey Blaylock Lindsey Blaylock has been in the real estate industry for four years and currently works for Bailey and Company Real Estate. In her vocation, life can stretch one’s personal time to the limit, but she and her husband are “easygoing,” and don’t allow their schedules to get the best of them. The Blaylocks spend plenty of time at the lake, the ball park and Razorback games.

OCCUPATION: Real Estate Agent, Bailey and Company Real Estate

CHILDREN: HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? Very carefully! My husband and I are both self-employed so we have a lot of give and take, and can move our schedules around to make it work. When it is time for the kids, the phone isn’t out and we make sure they have our full attention. But it’s funny because my son is old enough now that most days he asks how my work was and if I got any deals done!

WHO IS A MOM THAT YOU LOOK UP TO? I have had many amazing moms around me growing up, but my own mom has always set an example of working hard and loving even harder. She retired after working in a corporate job for more than 40 years and always made time to be at every activity as I was growing up. In the last few months, we actually lost my dad unexpectedly, and seeing how she has handled that and still was able to be a mom in hard times has shown me even more how strong a mother’s love is. Even through her own heartache, she still shows up. I don’t know a stronger person.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Enjoy every second! You will look back and wonder where the time went because it all goes by so fast, and you have never known how your heart can live outside of your own body until you become a mom.

WHAT KIND OF LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOUR CHILDREN? I hope my kids always know and remember how much I love them. Not what we had or what we did but that their dad and I were always there for them. I want them to know that no matter when or where in life I always have their back.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF BEING A MOM? Watching them grow. It is probably the hardest part, too, because you have this struggle of not wanting them to grow up and wanting to see what they will accomplish, all at the same time.

Kei (9), Linnie (6)

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You have never known how your heart can live outside of your own body until you become a mom.

SUPER MOMS

Sara Bledsoe Sara Bledsoe first became a mom while she and her husband, Dr. Greg Bledsoe, were living in the Middle East country of Qatar. The twist and turns of life have since brought her back to Arkansas where she now raises a family of three daughters, putting her Master’s of Education to good use with homeschooling, while also navigating the new political waters of her husband’s candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. In addition to helping with the family business, she serves on the board for HomeEd and supports the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas by working on their fundraising committee. It is an important work near to her heart!

OCCUPATION:

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? No day is typical for our busy family! However, on a regular basis, you will find me driving children to homeschool co-ops and sports, teaching and testing them, reading with them and editing papers, and checking in regarding their classes, whether it be with me or in their live, online classes.

CHILDREN:

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? 1) My faith. I don’t know where I would be without the Lord and His faithfulness to me. My quiet time and our church are both incredible sources of encouragement and grounding places for me.

2) Exercise! As a former college athlete, staying active has always been very important to me. If I am not hitting a hot barre class or local hip hop class, I try to go on 4-5 miles runs a few times a week while I listen to a book on audible or a favorite podcast. Exercise has helped me to manage life’s stresses, and the fitness classes have provided me with some of my dearest friends.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAMILY’S FAVORITE ACTIVITIES? We are pretty active. We love adventures together of traveling, skiing and hiking. We also love creating things!

WHO ARE SOME MOMS WHO YOU HAVE LOOKED UP TO OVER THE YEARS? My mom and my mother-in-law. They are both some of the most selfless, encouraging, and godly women I know.

They give freely and generously to all and are both an incredible blessing to me.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? To soon-to-be moms: Motherhood is the hardest job you will ever have — but it is the most fulfilling and so worth it.

To new/young moms: YOU are exactly what your kids need. Throw out the expectations and perfectionism, and just show up. All they want is YOU, no matter how imperfect you are.

Teacher/ Homeschool Mom; Employee of Family business

Taylor (15), Harper (13), Emery (10)

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Motherhood is the hardest job you will ever have — but it is the most fulfilling and so worth it.

SUPER MOMS

Claire Brown Claire Brown has been in real estate for two decades, first becoming involved in the industry while paying her way through college. But in 2015, she became divorced, and found herself charting new territory as a single mother in the workforce. She persevered, adapted and evolved into the woman she is today. And through her social media entrepreneurship and podcast, she’s brought thousands of other women together to learn from her story, share their own and celebrate each other.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED IN YOUR INDUSTRY? I’ve been a Realtor since 2002, and recently opened my own brokerage. I started a women’s platform four years ago that went international, launched a podcast, published a book and now have a weekly TV segment with KARK-Channel 4. So, two companies — one for 21 years and one for four years.

DID HAVING CHILDREN PRESENT ANY OBSTACLES OR SPEEDBUMPS IN YOUR CAREER? Having children taught me to time block and schedule my calendar at a high level. As a single mother, the children have now sold more real estate than most full-time Realtors. They have had the priveldge to see how other people live, what are the different types of housing and now know what it takes to maintain our lifestyle. It has provided an education most children don’t receive.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? I’m awake by 5:30 a.m. with coffee and my journal; no later than 7:30 a.m. we are out the door for school with lunches packed. Each day brings a new schedule — listing appointments, showing appointments, Zoom coach-

ing calls, team meetings, business planning with agents and carpool again at 3 p.m. Every Monday, I have the TV segment with Channel 4 and the kids come with me, and every Thursday we have soccer practice.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING FAMILY TRADITIONS? We have taken a Mother’s Day trip and a Christmas trip (instead of gifts) since I entered the singlehood seven years ago. It has provided amazing memories, stories, anticipation each year and a tradition the kids look forward to. This past year, we went to NYC for Mother’s Day and Washington, D.C., for Christmas. Travel provides exposure, exposure provides education, and that is the greatest gift I can give them!

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Always ask your children questions, even when they are young, to help them critically think. Give them the freedom of choice in order to help them to feel in control and learn confidence. Never lose sight of the importance of carving out time to be present. Discover how your children communicate and receive love, then treat them accordingly so they know they are loved and secure.

OCCUPATION: Executive Real Estate Broker; Founder, Little Rock PowerWomen and Little Rock PowerMoms Communities; Podcaster

“

“Never lose sight of the importance of carving out time to be present.”

SUPER MOMS

OCCUPATION: Financial Advisor, CFP®, Wells Fargo Advisors

CHILDREN: Andrew (12)

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If I had it to do over again, I’d take more maternity leave.

Sydney O’Quin-Gilbert Sydney O’Quin-Gilbert joined her father, Roger O’Quin, in his wealth management practice 17 years ago, and has been in investment planning ever since. Gilbert is also deeply involved in the Rotary Club, where she met her husband, Luke, whom she considers to be her cheerleader. She hopes to set an example of service and giving for their 12-year-old son, Andrew.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? I drop Andrew off at middle school and then head to the office.

I meet with my team to coordinate and follow up on projects. I spend most of my day on the phone or in meetings with clients.

Hopefully, I can squeeze in a class at Pure Barre sometime in the day. Finally, I head home to be with my family. I’m thankful that I have a fantastic team that supports me.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? I schedule everything, including time off with family. My calendar is color-coded and full. I find I’m most productive when I’m busy and have something I’m working toward.

WHO IS A MOM THAT YOU LOOK UP TO? My mom, Billie O’Quin. My dad went to college and started his career first while my mom worked and supported him. She went to college after having two kids. I still look back at that time and remember how proud of her I was. She became a teacher and taught in the classroom for 20 years. Every student who had Mrs.

Billie tells me how much they love her when they find out she’s my mom. She then started her own business as a dyslexic specialist. A few years ago, she got her master’s in literacy. My mom has shown me how to work hard and go after a goal, support your partner when it’s their time to shine and how to make your loved ones feel special when with you.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOONTO-BE MOMS? If I had it to do over again, I’d take more maternity leave. I took six weeks and worked from home some of that time. I didn’t give myself permission to let go of my job and focus on my time with Andrew.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT BEING A MOM? My favorite part of being Andrew’s mom is seeing his personality develop as he gets older. He is so creative, loving, kind and inquisitive. That last one sparks very interesting conversations.

Investment and Insurance Products: Not FDIC Insured No Bank Guarantee May Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Service, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.

CAR-0422-03304

SUPER MOMS

Natalie James Natalie James is a woman with many hats. The proud product of Little Rock School District is one of the topproducing Realtors in the state, owns her own business, and recently added another passion project to the mix — U.S. Senate candidate. But the most important hat of all is that of motherhood, teaching her daughters how to be a strong, independent woman.

OCCUPATION: Realtor; Small Business Owner; Candidate for U.S. Senate

EDUCATION: HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? I’m blessed to have amazing family support my mother, sisters and my girls’ father to help me in every way possible with our busy schedules. We co-parent so effectively, giving our girls a strong, stable support system of family members to pour love into our girls, helping them thrive.

Balance is a fine line we all walk in our house. As hard as we work, we also decompress and enjoy each other and the lives we are making.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISH TO MAKE FOR FAMILY MEALS? I am an avid cooker, baker and griller. I wake up some mornings and make muffins or pancakes. The girls love spaghetti nights, pan-seared salmon and roast beef on the weekends. I try to make an array of dishes to make sure my children have an extended palate — from Mediterranean, Indian, Thai, African and Spanish cuisines, along

with normal Southern comfort foods of chicken and dumplings and shrimp and grits.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Be ready for anything. During that first year, workout cloths are the best. They wipe up easily and dry quickly WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT BEING A MOM? The hugs, the kisses and the random “I love yous.” A bonus is seeing me in both my girls with their own distinct personalities.

WHAT KIND OF LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOUR CHILDREN? That you can do anything you think you can. Faith requires action. And never be afraid to take up space and speak boldly.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

CHILDREN: Nalia (17), November (9)

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Never be afraid to take up space and speak boldly.

SUPER MOMS

Amy Jett Amy Jett has been a nurse for 15 years and is a mother of four children. She loves hiking, going on short trips and attending sports events with her children. One of the most important aspects of her motherhood in her eyes is having deep conversations with her children, for she feels that talking and truly listening to your kids is one of the best gifts that you can give them.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED FOR YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER? I have worked for Throneberry Family Clinic for about two months, after leaving my previous nursing job due to clinic closure.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? I get up every morning to make lunches, take my daughter Madison to track practice early, and return home to get ready for work. I then also take Laken to school early for track practice and head off to work until 5 p.m.

My parents help with pick up after school. Colton plays baseball, taking and going to and from practice twice a week. We try to do family dinner when we can, but with Mason working and all of our extracurricular activities, it is usually “grab and go.”

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? Working 40 hours a week as a mother of four can be hard. I make sure to be fully available to my children before and after work, and my husband helps during the day when kids need things for school. We try to hike on

the weekends and Cole is usually playing baseball and we attend as a family.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISH TO MAKE FOR FAMILY MEALS? I love making spaghetti for my family; they enjoy it and it feeds a crowd.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING OR FUN FAMILY TRADITIONS? We are a newly blended family and traditions are in the works.

WHO ARE SOME OF THE MOMS YOU LOOK UP TO? I look up to my mother and mother-in-law. They are always there to lend a hand and transport children when I am working. Family time around the dinner table is a must with them, always keeping the family connected during these busy times.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Listening to your children is one of the best gifts you can give them.

OCCUPATION: Nurse, Throneberry Family Clinic EDUCATION: Associate of Arts, Nursing Diploma CHILDREN: Laken, Madison, Colton, Mason

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Listening to your children is one of the best gifts you can give them.

SUPER MOMS

Lara Blume-McGee Lara Blume-McGee has worked in the nonprofit sector for most of her life. She started off as a young girl volunteering for different organizations with her family. Those activities created a deep sense of responsibility to create change.

Through her company, Team Up World, she helps fulfill the needs of entrepreneurs and sports stars in establishing a nonprofit brand that will be sustainable for years to come. Blume-McGee has four children, three of whom are triplets.

DID HAVING CHILDREN PRESENT ANY OBSTACLES OR SPEED BUMPS IN YOUR CAREER? Being pregnant at 39 with triplets was such a blessing.

Carrying them as long as I could was the goal. I ended up carrying my sweet babies, Leia, Elle and Brison for 35 weeks. They were born in May. May is ALS Awareness Month, and the month of our largest fundraiser — ALS In Wonderland. I was never on bed rest and worked the entire time. I thank my ALS In Wonderland team at the time for supporting me and holding it down to the very last hour. The show must go on! My babies were born four days after our annual fundraiser in 2017.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? I am a Libra; therefore, I am balanced. I am determined to find balance everywhere in my life, including but not limited to social justice, friendships, partnerships and family. Family comes first. I often include my children in my philanthropy. Not only do we get to work together, but they also get to actively help someone and make a difference.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR AND YOUR FAMILY’S FAVORITE ACTIVITIES? We love to travel and do so as much as possible. When you travel with your children you are giving them something that can never be taken away — memories,

new experiences and exposure to other ways of life. My husband and I have a weekly date night! On that night, we reconnect and talk about our week. It’s a good time to relax, recharge and share.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? There are so many ways of doing things. Every family and every baby is different. Find what works best for you and your family and don’t worry about the rest. Someone somewhere will always judge your choices no matter what, so don’t worry about trying to please anyone except your little family. Remember to relax and trust your instincts. You’ve got this!

WHAT KIND OF LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOUR CHILDREN? First, I want my children to know that I love them with every cell in my body. That I was always committed to being the best mom to them and they were always my priority. The legacy I leave will be filled with passion and gratitude. None of us know how long our lives may be.

However, we can all leave a legacy of living like we care and living in a way that honors our creation. People will remember how you lived more than the details of your achievements. Last, ground your purpose for a greater purpose.

OCCUPATION: CEO, Team Up World; Executive Director, ALS In Wonderland

CHILDREN: Leyla (12), Leia, Elle and Brison (5)

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The legacy I leave will be filled with passion and gratitude.

SUPER MOMS

Amy White

OCCUPATION:

As a did-it-herself entrepreneur in the network marketing industry with children that are (almost) all grown, Amy White has been around the block. That experience has shaped the perspectives of her and her husband, David.

More than anything, White is proudest of making her home a “safe haven” of encouragement and building each other up.

DID HAVING CHILDREN PRESENT ANY OBSTACLES OR SPEEDBUMPS IN YOUR CAREER? Not at all. That’s why, when presented with this opportunity, I saw how I could work my business from anywhere and still be present in all my kids’ lives. I’ve been able to work at the playground, baseball or football practice, while traveling or when kids took naps. That’s the beauty of the industry.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? It’s a hard balance sometimes because I work from anywhere and on my phone, and my business never closes. The hard part is turning it off. I’m a driver and an overachiever, so my mind is always thinking and it’s hard to stop. But I also know how fast time flies, so I try to really make “turning off ” a priority.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Manners stand out! It takes consistency and hard work

but it’s worth it. And take lots of pictures. Your kids might not like it, but do it anyway. Have fun and be silly with your kids.

WHAT KIND OF LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOUR CHILDREN? I want to leave my kids the legacy of a good name. I want them to feel proud and thankful they are mine; that their mom had a good reputation as a hard worker, a loyal friend and an unconditional lover of Jesus, them and others. My parents not only taught me how important a good reputation is but I enjoyed being known as their daughter. That’s so valuable.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT BEING A MOM? Watching and cheering for my kids in all the activities and sports they love, and seeing how much my kids love one another and want to be together. Our family has so much fun.

Sales/Entrepreneur

CHILDREN: John David (21), Zac (20), Cooper (19), Walker (17), Mollie Kate (13)

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I’d rather be with be with my family than pretty much anyone else, to me that makes Mama’s heart happy.

SUPER MOMS

Joanna White Six years ago, Joanna White entered real estate school while she was pregnant with her son. He was born 20 days after she received her license, and she listed her first house before he was two months old. She closed on seven properties that year, and it’s this level of determination and hard work that she is passing on to him, each and every day.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR WORK/LIFE BALANCE? My clients know I have certain days/nights dedicated to my son. I’m fortunate to have a supportive team to take on appointments for me when I’m spending time with my son. However, I’m proud to have George involved a little. I want him to see what hard work looks like and appreciate what we have. We like to drive by my “For Sale” signs if they are nearby and talk about what it takes to sell a house WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAMILY’S FAVORITE ACTIVITIES? George and I love being outside! We jump on the trampoline together, he loves for me to push him on the tree swing in our backyard, and we go on walks — he rides his bike and I walk the dog. We also like art projects, mostly painting.

WHO IS A MOM THAT YOU HAVE LOOKED UP TO OVER THE YEARS? I think about my mom, naturally. She held us all together while working full time, putting dinner on the table each

night, taking my brother and me to all our activities, and giving us, all around, a wonderful childhood. To this day, my brother and his family and me and my son all gather at my parents’ very regularly to spend time together. I love seeing the bond that we have, which I think is a reflection of the way my mom put emphasis on family.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW OR SOON-TO-BE MOMS? Things are not going to be picture-perfect, and you aren’t a failure when they aren’t. We are role models for our kids. Show them how you succeed, and show them how you rise up when you fail.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT BEING A MOM? I love watching him learn. He is learning to read right now, and it’s amazing to see his weekly progress. He is also excelling athletically, which is fun! His excitement over his accomplishments is great, and he loves to share them with me — which is even better. Just being a frontrow seat to all his life experiences thus far is a treasure.

OCCUPATION: Executive Broker, Bailey and Company Real Estate

EDUCATION: University of Arkansas

CHILDREN: George (6)

“

Things are not going to be picture-perfect, and you aren’t a failure when they aren’t.

Fun for a Cause

Sei Bella Med Spa Hosting Fundraising Event Benefitting Children’s Tumor Foundation Dr. Anne Trussell of Sei Bella Med Spa is as excited as anyone for events to be back. It means opportunities for communities to reconnect and for organizations to raise critical funds. Like with her forthcoming food and drink event on June 9 at her clinic, which she has set up to benefit the Children’s Tumor Foundation.

The Children’s Tumor Foundation exists as a nonprofit with a sole purpose — ending neurofibromatosis by driving research, expanding knowledge and advancing care for the individuals and families affected. It is a rare but debilitating condition that causes tumors to form in the brain, spinal cord and nerves.

As a member of the CTF Arkansas board, Anne Trussell knows firsthand how important this cause is, and that monies raised for the foundation go to a good cause.

Her event will feature a wine tasting, with drinks courtesy of Colonial Wine & Spirits, and food catered by the local favorite Ciao Baci. The event is free to attend, as are its refreshments, so Trussell will be counting on patrons to participate in its money-raising efforts after walking through the doors.

Such as what she’s calling a “gift card tree,” where you can pay $20 to select an envelope off of a tree, all of which are filled with donated gift certificates to local establishments. There will also be a silent auction, and Trussell herself will be offering discounts on some of the aesthetic treatments her med spa provides, proceeds from which will also be donated to the foundation.

Any and all are invited to this fun-draising event. Just make sure to bring an appetite and a heart to make a difference.

Sei Bella Med Spa Wine Tasting and Silent Auction Thursday, June 9 • 4-7 p.m.

10310 W. Markham,Suite 202 • Little Rock 501.228.6237 • seibellamedspa.net Sponsored Content

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From Good Trouble to Good Food

By JENNY BOULDEN // Photos by EBONY BLEVINS

Michael McCray’s conscientious path from federal whistleblower to film festival founder to committee leader for the James Beard awards.

Michael McCray.

In his early 20s, Michael McCray thought his career trajectory was looking great.

After studying business and economics in college, the Pine Bluff native had quickly gone to work in the White House.

But his quick ascent — and his life — collapsed after he became a federal whistleblower. The story of how he rebuilt his life over the next quarter-century, invigorated an isolated community of people like him, founded an award-winning Washington, D.C., film festival and found himself working for the 2022 James Beard Awards is an unlikely, but powerful one.

McCray graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1986 and enrolled in his parents’ alma mater, Florida A&M University. In high school he’d been a scholarathlete, playing basketball in two of the first three King Cotton Classic national tournaments. Pine Bluff in the early ’90s was two years running ranked as the worst place to live in America, but he loved and believed in the place.

He’d grown up in a middle-class household of intellectuals; his parents, Jacquelyn and Parnell McCray, were professors at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Jacquelyn was dean of the agriculture department (coincidentally, her sister was at the same time dean of agriculture at a Texas university), and had implemented the nutrition and regulatory science programs during her tenure at UAPB. Parnell, who McCray describes as a highly religious, morally upright person, taught statistics and computer science.

“I’d planned to go into finance,” McCray likes to tell people, “but a funny thing happened on my way to Wall Street. My governor was elected president.”

The promising young man was hired to work in the White House on economic development for President Bill Clinton’s designated Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, a $2 billion investment that McCray says was at the time the largest since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs. McCray’s job was administering for the Department of Agriculture the federal economic improvement grants to nonprofits in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, and he served on Al Gore’s technology team that helped promote the growth of the internet in daily and commercial life. At night, he attended Georgetown Law School. It was an exciting time.

He was in his dream job, working in the White House on economic development programs to help struggling communities like his hometown. But he had no idea how quickly or viciously that dream could turn on him.

Speaking Up “We think of whistleblowing as a voluntary action, and it’s really not,” McCray says in a Little Rock coffee shop 28 years later. “Nobody wakes up one morning and plans to become a whistleblower. You’re a person who sees something wrong, and you try to fix it. What happens next depends on management’s response.”

When McCray came across $40 million of fraud and abuse in the USDA, he raised a red flag.

“My thought process was, ‘Was it a good idea to give $40 million to a nonprofit that barely had bank accounts?’ I thought that seemed bad,” McCray says with a wry laugh. “I thought, ‘This could be a problem, right?’

“And that’s really all it took. Suddenly, lo and behold, I was a federal whistleblower.”

He says most whistleblowers’ cases are unsuccessful and get buried, the charges covered up; their win rate is only about 2 percent. McCray, who had pressed the fraud and abuse issue after being advised to drop it, was no exception. He spent five frustrating years in an unsuccessful legal battle with the government.

McCray lost his White House job, his home, his investments, even his fiance.

Blackballed from working in the government, McCray’s references were severed, his career plans destroyed. He’d finished his law degree, but his whistleblower case delayed him from taking the New York Bar exam by five years. He passed the bar on his first try — the same year he also earned a CPA — but says because of the blackballing, he wasn’t admitted to practice for another two years.

He returned home, devastated and embarrassed by his “failure” in Washington.

“I was in a deep, dark place, rock bottom, trying to make sense of it all,” McCray says, pausing. “But rock bottom became the firm foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

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“For choosing truth over self.”

Discovering a Purpose Eventually, McCray was able to make a living lawyering in solo practice and consulting with clients across the U.S. on economic development and marketing. He worked on political organizing for campaigns and served on the ACORN national board. But he credits two specific things with turning his life around.

“My father gave me a copy of Rick Warren’s A Purpose-Driven Life.

And in 2007, I attended a conference of whistleblowers in Washington, D.C.” The book provided the context and meaningful framework for finding his purpose. And the 2007 Whistleblowers’ Week in Washington, the first of its kind held in decades, provided that purpose by connecting him to a community he hadn’t known how much he needed. And he wasn’t alone in that need; he says whistleblowers are 10 percent more likely to die by suicide. Because, he says, “It’s the isolation that kills, and the loss of your identity.”

McCray decided to put his energy into the conference, building a real organization of whistleblowers.

The term “whistleblower” was coined during Watergate, and the Whistleblower Protection Act was first passed in 1978, but McCray says the action is protected by one of the nation’s earliest laws. July 30, 1778, is the day the first whistleblower law was passed by the Continental Congress. “I’m going to misquote the law,” McCray says, “But essentially it says it’s the duty of every American citizen to report to Congress wrongdoing by the federal government at the first available chance.”

He says whistleblowing is tied to free speech, government oversight, public health and safety, equal employment, racial and social justice.

“It’s an exercise of free speech, and it’s an important civil and human right. Regardless of whether what you’re reporting directly or indirectly affects you or society as a whole,” he explains.

With the aid of Marcel Reid, another whistleblower he’d met on the ACORN board, he expanded the conference to the Whistleblowers’ Summit. Participants would work on Capitol Hill all day talking to lawmakers, then congregate for movie nights, watching films like Erin Brockovich and All the President’s Men. They invited the public to watch the movies, and interest in the summit grew each year. Eventually, it attracted documentarians who wanted to screen their films at the annual Whistleblowers’ Summit. The organization began to curate documentaries and elevate films the D.C.-area public might not know about.

“A lot of people hate whistleblowers, but it turns out they love whistleblower movies,” McCray says. “As we leaned into it, we decided to rebrand, formally adding ‘film festival’ to the summit.”

Taste of Success It’s been popular, and the summit and festival have continued to grow in reputation and influence, holding mini-conferences in cities around the country, Little Rock included.

“We’ve been able to lift up whistleblowing, so it wasn’t just whistleblowers talking to ourselves,” he says, calling it a forum to connect Washington policymakers, filmmakers, journalists, authors, whistleblowers and the public to each other.

In 2008, the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology in Fayetteville honored McCray as a Justice Hero in recognition of his leadership in Washington, D.C. Then, last year, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners named him the recipient of the Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award, named for the actor who blew the whistle on a Hollywood studio’s check-forging scandal.

“The inscription on the award reads, ‘For choosing truth over self,’” McCray says. “I’m proud of that.”

Then the film festival was honored in 2019 by Fest Forums, a conference for the entire festival industry, with a Best of the Fest award.

McCray says the Fest Forums event has three categories: Arts, Film and Culture, Food and Beverage, and Music, with organizers mingling from the different types of festivals. Among the people he got to know were organizers from the James Beard Foundation, which presents some of the highest honors in the nation’s culinary industry.

Impressed with McCray’s story, the James Beard people interviewed him for a seat on the awards’ newly formed Ethics Committee. He ex-

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plains, “Because you can look at whistleblowing as free speech, but it’s also business ethics and corporate integrity.”

In December, McCray became vice-chair of the Ethics Committee in its first year as part of the awards. The committee oversees complaints it receives about nominees and makes recommendations to judges. He says much of those so far have been about poor management, wage theft and similar issues he says are not necessarily “on the plate, but in the back office.” He’s thrilled to attend what’s certain to be one of the besttasting weeks of his life at the awards in Chicago this summer, a few weeks before the Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival in late July.

Bringing it Home Food is also something he’s excited about for his hometown and the Arkansas Delta.

McCray married “late in life,” and made his home in Pine Bluff, a place he still loves and believes in, and whose own whistleblower, Martha Mitchell, is being played by Julia Roberts in a limited series now airing on STARZ. McCray says he’s thrilled Mitchell’s getting her time in the spotlight after fading from public consciousness to relative obscurity compared to the other key Watergate figures, who he says have capitalized commercially on their fame. She does, however, have an award named in her honor by the Whistleblowers’ Summit and Film Festival.

Acknowledging Pine Bluff ’s economic development has come in “fits and starts,” McCray is bullish about its prospects. He cites several new cultural initiatives to bring more visitors, including the Delta Rhythm and Bayous Alliance and the Natural Heritage Trails Task Force among his examples. He says the new development brought by the Saracen Casino and its “excellent” Red Oak Steakhouse is stimulating interest in the area. And he’s optimistic about efforts to promote the area’s cultural and culinary links to the Quapaw Indians, French settlers and AfricanAmerican culture.

“There are a lot of different food and foodway stories that can be told here,” McCray says. “We’re in the process of trying to embrace our culture to include those stories in terms of attracting tourism development for Pine Bluff and the Delta. It’s kind of a really good time, and hopefully we’ll be able to fully capitalize on those roots.”

His involvement in the James Beard Awards has only increased his interest in food culture and his commitment to helping his hometown grow.

“For me, for somebody who has been a troublemaker — good trouble,” he says, alluding to the moral imperative set forth by civil rights legend John Lewis, “To go to good food, that has been a cool thing.”

This side of SEVEN

Love – By Jason Pederson

PUPPY Shelby and Rory.

Erik and Layla.

Sophie and Finn.

I

“I’ve got a surprise.”

Our 20-year-old daughter was coming home from Fayetteville with her boyfriend, and that is how she prefaced her arrival. I mean, there are certainly more alarming things she could have said. “I have something to tell you,” or, “We need to talk,” come to mind.

The title of the article gave it away, I know.

Sorry. The surprise was a puppy, a lab/shepherd mix. A cute little blue-eyed, fluffy brown ball of fur that for Star Wars fans would bring to mind both Ewoks and Chewbacca.

Adorable! Everybody who meets Shelby’s new puppy, Rory (named for a Gilmore Girls character), agrees that she is just that: adorable!

Later, I posted about the new acquisition on Twitter. The response was not what I expected.

“Congratulations on your new dog,” sums up the collective sentiment.

Apparently, there is no shortage of people who are caring for dogs that they did not choose, or (at least at first) even want. Dogs

Crouton.

that well-meaning young adults couldn’t resist, and then couldn’t handle. Most of the comments were dripping with personal experience, humor and advice in advance of the inevitable: get ready, that dog will be yours.

Before I go any further, I do not believe that Rory is destined for Little Rock. Our daughter is a huge animal lover and very responsible.

Shelby will be inspired, even amused, by all the doubters. The more people who believe Rory will be changing addresses in the near future, the more she will dedicate herself to making sure that never happens.

But many other young people who similarly committed themselves to a fur baby were later bitten by the realities of vet bills, boarding costs, house training, destructive behavior, time demands, apartment rules and complaints, and other obstacles.

Melissa Chance recalls that her daughter, during her sophomore year at the U of A, thought a teacup Pomeranian named Lilly would help her get over a break-up with a

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long-time boyfriend. After three nights of nonstop barking and little sleep, regret set in.

“Susanna sounded like a new mom who was running on no sleep, and she was afraid her neighbors were going to complain,” Melissa recalls. “Her roommate told her she was ‘more of a cat person.’ Uh oh. Thankfully, Lilly’s original owner gladly took her back.”

When 16-year-old Harry Cummins got a hunting dog, his mother, Jody, objected — primarily because she saw a future in which her son would leave home, and leave his dog behind.

“I was marginally concerned that, by allowing them to take a puppy, I was really volunteering to be booted out of my marriage,” recalls Bud Cummins. “Jody had been pretty clear on this point.”

Harry did leave Cache behind during his freshman year at Fayetteville, when he lived in the dorms. But Cache joined him in Fayetteville for his sophomore year, until the dog developed intestinal troubles. Jody retrieved the retriever and nursed Cache back to health.

Harry’s dog has called Little Rock home since.

“COVID would have taken a toll on my mental health if it weren’t for my regular walks with Cache for the past two years,” Bud says. “We still refer to him as Harry’s dog, but nobody believes that Jody isn’t in charge of Cache. It is rare most days if they are more

Harry and Cache.

than about 10 feet from one another. Harry graduates from Fayetteville in May. A courtroom custody battle may follow.”

Gary Sullins was also left with a dog, a Yorkie, when his daughter moved out for college.

But after a few months away from home, he says his daughter adopted a different dog. He says the pair remain together after several years.

But, there is the matter of a cat she acquired.

“A few months ago, she and her fiance broke up,” Gary says. “With that change, she moved into a rental where she couldn’t keep the cat. So, the cat now lives with us.”

Don Wyatt says his daughter, Erika, picked out a 4-month-old German Shepherd mix at Out of the Woods Animal Rescue in Little Rock. She named him “Crouton.” Erika was living at home while finishing up her schooling, so Crouton quickly became a part of the family.

“Two weeks after she started her new college classes, she met a guy who was to become the man of her dreams,” he says. “There was only one issue — he was allergic to dogs, and it wasn’t just a wee bit. She decided that finding a good man was hard enough and she could leave Crouton behind.”

Don was fine with that, as he had already been accused by Erika of “stealing” her dog because of their close bond.

Alexandra and Luke.

Lilly.

“Congratulations on your new dog.”

“My wife, Karyn, was afraid we might end up with the dog, which is why she only reluctantly agreed to his adoption. She loves him as much as anyone else does, and never once said, ‘I told you so!’”

Erika gets as many supervised and unsupervised visits as she wants.

There are success stories. Erik Sward says his parents gave him a dog for his 21st birthday while he was in college. He says he had a fenced-in yard and only had classes for a few hours each day, which made things easier.

“She was the best dog I’ve ever owned and wouldn’t leave my side,” he says. “I had to put her down last year at the age of 15. We had a hell of a run, and I would absolutely do it again.”

Alexandra Benton adopted a black lab mix, Luke, during her senior year of college.

“Although my mother urged against it …

I felt confident in my ability to care for him.”

Benton says vet and boarding bills were difficult, but that she worked part-time and was able to manage.

“Going to law school was really when the challenges presented themselves,” she says.

“I was a full-time student living in a studio

apartment in downtown Memphis — not the most conducive for dog ownership.”

But Alexandra and Luke made it work.

“You have to be willing to pay extra pet rent, pet deposits, expensive vet bills, and to generally sacrifice for your fur baby,” she says.

“I had to miss out on parties and dinners because my dog was sick and needed to be supervised and looked after. My recommendation for potential pet owners is to be truly introspective and ask yourself if you are willing to make the financial and time commitment required to truly care for the animal.”

I have no doubt our Shelby will be a responsible and successful pet owner. She already is, having taken one of our cats (Toodie) with her to college. She has always put the needs and desires of others, including animals, above her own.

But what I learned most from all the feedback following her acquisition of Rory is this: The dogs (and cats) who live the best lives aren’t adopted by pet lovers, they are adopted by supportive, pet-loving families. You may never need Plan B, but it is sure nice to know it’s there.

JASON PEDERSON For two decades, Jason Pederson served as KATV-Channel 7’s Seven On Your Side reporter. Now on the other “side” of his award-winning time on the news, he now serves as Deputy Chief of Community Engagement for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

His perspective-filled and thought-provoking column, “This Side of Seven,” publishes exclusively in AY About You magazine monthly.

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arts&culture

Catherine Townsend.

(Courtesy)

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Raising Hell Arkansas-Born Podcaster Tackles Little Rock Cold Case

H

ad things played out differently than they did, there’s no telling what Ebby Steppach would be doing right now. At 25, perhaps she’d finished cosmetology school, as was her long-held ambition. Perhaps she’d have found the love of her life and settled down. Maybe she’d have stayed close to home, or maybe she’d have set out to see what the world held in store.

It’s a mind game as compelling as it is fruitless, to try and reconstruct what was not meant to be. All that we really know for sure is what actually happened; that in 2015, the headstrong Steppach vanished without a trace, triggering a nearly three-year odyssey by her family to find her, a journey that made national headlines and sparked local outrage over perceived mishandling of the case early on by police.

That in 2018, Ebby’s remains were found in a drainage culvert in a park not far from her home. That ever since, she has been one of Little Rock’s most notorious cold cases. And that now, seven years after her disjointed final cell call, she’s become the subject of a podcast series that’s already helped break open one Arkansas cold case.

“I think one of the unique things about the job that we have is, we’re looking at it from the victim’s point of view,” says Catherine Townsend, the creator and host of the cold-

By Dwain Hebda

case podcast Hell and Gone. “It’s like, I’m getting dark secrets. I’m getting her best friend telling me one thing. You’ve got the parents telling me something.

Everyone saw a different side of the person, which is normal. That’s how we all are in life. It’s up to us to sort of fill it in.”

Townsend’s investigation debuted March 23 with the first of eight episodes delving into the case and its major players — from family members to Ebby’s friends to various investigators. She describes the attitudes of the various subjects as, “very helpful, generally,” “People were willing to talk,” she says. “I think it’s about me bringing them something. Even with Laurie [ Jernigan, Ebby’s mother], if I just go in and ask someone to be retraumatized and tell their story for no reason other than to put it out there, then I wouldn’t expect them to. But what I’m saying is, ‘Look, we’ve done an investigation. We have some new information. Here it is. Help us fill in the blanks.’ Then they’re totally willing to talk because they want this solved. This whole podcast is really a call to action.” ****** This isn’t the first time Steppach has received national media attention. Dr. Phil and Nancy Grace both have run segments on the case. And, the internet being what it is, dozens of websites and forums have kept the details alive, although the tone and veracity of these have varied from earnest to deranged.

But it is safe to say that the case has never seen anything quite like Townsend, a Pine Bluff native who’s into the fourth season of Hell and Gone, the latest addition to a career media menagerie that also includes book authorship and international articles.

“Some of my earliest memories were, I would always want to either write things or solve mysteries,” she says. “I had a little detective’s office in my grandma’s house, and I would start cases and have little case files and that kind of stuff.

I was obsessed with those things from a really young age. I’m fascinated with why people do the things they do. That’s the common thread.”

After studying journalism and politics at NYU and earning a master’s degree in international journalism from City University in London, Townsend crafted

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This whole podcast “ is really a call to action. “ ”

Ebby Steppach. (Courtesy)

an impressive writing career with major periodicals including GQ, Cosmopolitan, HuffPost and New York Magazine. At UK’s The Independent, she regularly penned installments of “Sleeping Around,” a column of advice and observations on dating, sex and relationships. Her unabashed style, regularly focusing on her own life experiences, led to two books, Sleeping Around and Breaking All the Rules.

When her attention returned to her childhood passion for sleuthing, she didn’t just write about it, she devoted three years and 6,000 hours to earning her private detective’s license, ultimately opening her own agency. While she no longer takes clients — and, notably, has no business relationship with the Jernigan family — the meshing of detective work and storytelling inherent to podcasting was enormously satisfying.

The first season of Hell and Gone focused on the case of Rebekah Gould, a college student whose murder case in Melbourne had gone cold for more than a decade. After the podcast, thousands of leads flooded in resulting in an arrest in 2020, 16 years after the murder. In its wake, media outlets consistently drew a link between the podcast and the break in the case, and the size of the audience exploded.

Townsend followed that up by diving into the 30-year-old murder cold case of Janie Ward of Marshall, and in Season 3 investigated a California case languishing for more than a decade. Her interest in Ebby Steppach dates back to her earliest work in podcasting.

“It was a long journey,” she says. “What happened was I heard about the case when it happened because it was a huge story. I saw Michael [ Jernigan, Ebby’s stepfather] and Laurie on Dr. Phil and I kept up with it. Then, of course, when the remains were found, it was just heartbreaking. I remember thinking maybe they’ll get some … closure’s a bad word, but at least perhaps now they can get some answers. Then it just seemed like it kind of stalled since then.

“One of the things I love so much about podcasting is that we can just decide to do it. I just said, ‘OK, I don’t know what’s going to happen here, but I think we should do a season about this case. Would you be down to do that?’ Of course, there was no judgment either way. Sometimes people are emotionally in a place where they can interview and sometimes they aren’t and that’s fine. They should do what’s best for them. Fortunately, the stars kind of aligned and Michael and

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Laurie were down for it.” ****** In a 2017 article in The Daily Beast, Townsend wrote of the transition from journalist to gumshoe, describing the ways the actual profession is very different from the TV version.

“The gritty day-to-day part of real-life PI work may be nothing like the glamorous world shown on TV, but parts of it are definitely stranger than fiction,” she wrote. “Before the end of the night, I will have chased the subject down subways, raced down alleys, jumped in and out of cabs, and changed from sweatpants to an Alexander McQueen LBD in the back of my partner’s car to crash a $500-a-plate charity event.

“At 3 a.m., I’m back at the hotel breaking the news to the client that, as she suspected, her boyfriend had been out on a date, and walked into his now-dark apartment hand-inhand with a young blonde. She asked if I could see what they were up to. ‘It’s dark,’ I said, trying to be diplomatic, ‘but I doubt they’re playing Scrabble.’”

“There are a lot of different kinds of private investigators,” she says today. “But certainly, if you’re doing surveillance and those type of things, so much of PI work now is done on your computer. So much of it is being on surveillance; you’re sitting somewhere watching.

Laurie Jernigan at a press conference at the Little Rock Police Department in 2017.

(Jamison Mosley)

Then there are going to be 5 minutes that change the game, and you’d better make sure that your camera’s charged and you have not slipped out of the car to Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s these moments of really intense things going on, and then there’s just a lot of boredom; TV does a great job editing together the most exciting parts.”

One thing that is not different between fantasy and real-life private eyes is how often they are seen as interlopers by full-time law enforcement. And worse, when the outcome is a podcast, as one looking to embarrass the local department.

Getting along wherever possible is not only useful but one of Townsend’s particular strengths, be it with the local sheriff or someone reluctant to go on the record.

“I’m very polite, actually. I don’t stand on lawns. Everyone I deal with will tell you, I will ask politely or write a letter saying, ‘Here’s what I’m doing. I’d love to hear your story,’” she says. “If they say no, I never go back. I’m not about bothering people.

But I do want to let them know that someone other than law enforcement — because a lot of people have distrust of law enforcement — will be willing to talk to you and hear what you have to say. You just build credibility from there.”

Asked if, in the process of investigating Steppach’s case for the podcast, she now felt like she knows who the killer is, Townsend stopped just short of saying yes, noting only that there was someone whose facts didn’t add up, in her opinion. What was clear was the portrait that had emerged of Steppach herself, the headstrong young woman whom she felt she came to know very well.

“I feel like I have a good idea of where she was in her life,” she says. “She was in a vulnerable moment. She was at a transitional point, right? Eighteen, figuring it out, having fights with her parents like a normal 18-year-old. Going out and hanging out with people the parents didn’t like, just kind of drifting from house to house, staying with friends. She was figuring it out. Yeah, I completely relate and empathize with that.”

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Find Hell and Gone on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Nursing and Rehab, LLC

Tours available daily—call today to schedule yours!

www.GreystoneNursingAndRehab.com

Customized physical, occupational and speech therapy programs are conducted by licensed therapists who focus on improving mobility and motor skills following an injury or illness. The enrichment of daily physical function can significantly improve a resident’s selfreliance and overall happiness.

Our staff provides residents with specially tailored treatment plans designed to recapture health, independent living and facilitate a return home.

Jamestown features separate rooms and private suites with a private entrance for the comfort and convenience of shortterm residents and their families focused on returning home. A full meal service with snacks is prepared daily.

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Nestled in the center of a quiet neighborhood, Innisfree Health & Rehab is a unique, family-oriented facility offering skilled care in loving, supportive atmosphere.

Our licensed nurses, physician assistants, dentists, podiatrist and other specialists believe that our residents need strong relationships with their families and is key to the healing process.

The entire Innisfree staff is devoted to providing the highest quality care possible, in a manner which celebrates the dignity and grace of every resident.

A P

Our home is conveniently located just off Walnut in Rogers close to Walmart, under the medical directions of Dr. Kimberly Burner.

Our home is conveniently located just o to Walmart, under the medical direction 301 S. 24th Street | Rogers, AR 72758 | 479-636

301 S. 24th Street | Rogers, AR 72758 | 479-636-5545 | www.InnisfreeHR.com

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HEALTH & REHABILITATION, LLC

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Now Accepting Reservations for Short Term Rehabilitation and Long Term Care To To schedule schedule aa tour tour before before admission, admission, call call René René at at 479-831-6518.

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aymag.com

mental health

For

OUR

Kids:

Remedying the Youth Mental Health Crisis

By BUSTER LACKEY

M

ay is Mental Health Awareness month. What better time to highlight the mental health issues of our youth and adolescents?

On Jan. 3, 2001, the United States Surgeon General released a report detailing that 12 percent of American children 18 and under have a mental health diagnosis. Adolescence is a time of change that brings many challenges.

The body is changing, and social and academic stress make it a challenging time for many of our teens. Fortunately, most adolescents manage to push through and only have short-term feelings of depression, sadness or anxiety.

However, the number of children and adolescents dealing with a mental health diagnosis is staggering and has only increased since the 2001 Surgeon General’s report. Approximately 8 percent of all adolescents have a major depressive episode. Thirteen percent of our children ages 8-15 live with major mental illness that impacts their daily lives. Fifty percent of all lifetime mental health issues begin between the ages of 14 and 24. That’s one in six youth and adolescents who will experience a mental health condition.

Seventy-five percent of mental health issues start by age 24. It is estimated that 50 percent of youth with mental health issues do not receive formal treatment through outpatient or inpatient facilities. Twenty percent of adolescents have depression in their teen years.

Twice as many girls as boys are diagnosed with depression.

The consequences of untreated mental health issues among our children and youth are overwhelming. Approximately 50 percent of youth ages 14-18 with an untreated mental illness drop out of high school. Seventy percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have a mental health diagnosis. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth ages 15-19.

A 2021 poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) amid the pandemic found parents and caregivers reporting changes in their children with an increase in more negative behaviors. Those same parents and caregivers report a 20 percent increase in anxiety. Nineteen percent reporting stated their child is showing more irritation; 14 percent reported their child is showing more signs of sadness or depression. Thirteen percent say their child cannot concentrate, and 12 percent report their child

The key is to act quickly and get these children the help they need to prevent the illness from creating complications as they get older and enter their adult lives.

Mental Health Care

MATTERS

Mental health treatment — therapy, medication, self-care — have made recovery a reality for most people experiencing mental illness. Although taking the first steps can be confusing or difficult, itʼs important to start exploring options.

The average delay between symptom onset and treatment is

11 YEARS PEOPLE WHO GET TREATMENT IN A GIVEN YEAR

45%

Adults with a mental health diagnosis who received treatment or counseling in the past year

of adults with mental illness

66%

of adults with serious mental illness

51%

of youth (6-17) with a mental health condition

23% 33% 34% 43% 49% 50%

of Asian adults of Black adults of Hispanic or Latinx adults of adults who report mixed/multiracial of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults of white adults

For therapy to work, you have to be open to change. I’m proud to say that I changed.

Therapy saved my life.

– NAMI Program Leader

Data from CDC, NIMH and other select sources. Find citations for this resource at nami.org/mhstats

is less interested in social activities.

The 2021 poll showed that many parents support mental health education in schools and “mental health days” for their children.

Eighty-seven percent support mental health education in schools. Seventy percent support mental health days for students. Forty-four percent are concerned about their children’s mental health, but only 16 percent sought help for them.

The challenge of getting help for youth and adolescents with mental health and behavioral issues has been left up to the parents, caregivers and school personnel. This has mainly been due to the immediate community’s lack of mental health services. The partnership between home and school must be strengthened.

A strengthened partnership between home and school would allow for early identification, interventions and treatment.

The topic of mental illness brings stigma and shame, embarrassment, misinformation, and even blaming. With all the advances in science and technology, there are still those who refuse to believe that children and youth can develop early onset of mental health issues. Those who are reluctant to believe often say that children showing signs and symptoms are choosing to act out.

Parents, caregivers and teachers are at the frontline in identifying and helping the child experiencing symptoms of mental health issues. The key is to act quickly and get these children the help they need to prevent the illness from creating complications as they get older and enter their adult lives.

How do we start the conversation? We begin by removing the blame. In today’s society, everyone wants to assess who is at fault and place blame. There are biological, physiological and environmental aspects that must be factored into what causes mental illnesses. It is essential to know that no one is to blame.

We must destigmatize mental illness. Mental illness must be treated like any other health condition. We must realize that stigma hurts, shames and prevents people from getting treatment. Know the warning signs. We must educate ourselves on the warning signs and symptoms of mental illness.

Have conversations about mental health in your home, workplace, school and community.

When one suffers, we all are affected. Education is the key to ending the stigma. Having

Kaiser Family Foundation. access to and providing resources are vital to educating to understanding.

NAMI Arkansas provides a Warmline; unlike a hotline for those in immediate crisis, Warmlines provide early intervention with the emotional support that may prevent a crisis.

The line offers free, confidential peer-support services staffed by volunteers or paid employees who have experienced mental health conditions themselves. The Warmline offers support, education, advocacy and referrals. Call 1-800-844-0381.

NAMI Arkansas offers several support

Kaiser Family Foundation.

groups and educational classes. One that comes highly recommended to help understand mental illness is NAMI Basics. NAMI Basics is a six-session education program for parents, caregivers and other family members who provide care for youth (ages 22 and younger) who are experiencing mental health symptoms. This program is free to participants and can be completed in person or online through NAMI Basics OnDemand. The OnDemand program is also guided by parents and family members with lived experience. It is self-paced and available 24/7. OnDemand

offers the flexibility of participating in the course on your schedule. Both formats provide identical information, strategies and the opportunity to connect with other parents and caregivers.

A new program offered in partnership with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield to help end the stigma is NAMI on Campus. NAMI On Campus High School Club is a studentled club that raises mental health awareness and reduces stigma on campus through peerled activities and education. Student leaders are empowered with toolkits, materials, templates and resources to make running the club a fun and educational process. The club is open to all students. Club leaders and members become advocates within their school and local community and work toward creating a more positive and mental health-supportive school environment.

For more information, educational materials, referrals, support or advocacy, contact NAMI Arkansas at 1-800-844-0381 or namiarkansas.org.

Buster Lackey, PhD, LPC, LADAC, is the executive director of NAMI Arkansas, a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people living with mental illness, their families and the community.

Stacey Danielle Lynch, an advanced practice nurse, started Renew Mental Health and Wellness in 2019.

“I saw a need for mental health assistance in Jonesboro, and I wanted to fill that need by starting my small business,” Lynch says. “I had no idea how fast this business would grow and I am overjoyed that my once small idea has grown into a successful business who has helped so many people.”

Lynch loves meeting new patients and getting to learn about their history and life.“Everyone has different backgrounds and stories to tell, so I always find it fascinating to learn how we can help with their past, present and future,” Lynch says. “I love to help people discover the best version of themselves.

HTTPS://WWW.RENEWMENTALHEALTHANDWELLNESS.COM

1(870)243-0424 RENEWMENTALHEALTHJBR@GMAIL.COM 1150 E. MATTHEWS SUITE 101A JONESBORO, AR 72401

Want to know what’s happening for the weekend?

FACES

Tune in on 103.7 The Buzz every Friday morning when AY Media Group President & Publisher Heather Baker is their guest!

Oasis of Northwest Arkansas

is a faith-based women's transitional living community that provides safe, supportive housing for women in recovery and their children.

Lynch also just started a nonprofit, Magnolia Mental Health Inc., in order to continue to grow in community outreach.

Honored in AY’s Best of 2022, Lynch was excited and expressed thanks to her staff and patients.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without my staff,” Lynch says. “Every day is a new adventure and we are so thankful. Our business is constantly growing, and that would not be possible without our patients.”

allies

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ADDICTION Bella Vista, AR 72715 479.268.4340 182

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Read Mary’s story at UAMS.Health/Davis 183

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health

A Novel RECOVERY:

By ANGELA FORSYTH // Photos by JAMISON MOSLEY

184

Arkansas Heart Hospital Bringing Quality of Life Back to Post-COVID Patients 185

aymag.com

H

aven Jaggers was only 34 years old when she contracted COVID-19.

She had no underlying issues; she was young, and she was in better physical shape than the average person.

Before COVID, she regularly walked and jogged up to 3 miles, and went to rigorous workout classes. That’s what made it so surprising that she wound up hospitalized for five days on oxygen with COVID pneumonia.

It started on a Monday with a headache that wouldn’t subside. By Thursday, she had lost her sense of taste and smell. She developed a fever of 104.7 degrees and was having trouble breathing, so she went to the ER. She was sent home with medication and told to come back if she wasn’t feeling better in a few days. Three days later, her fever was still at 104, and she was back in the ER. This time, her oxygen levels had dropped, and the doctors admitted her to the hospital.

“I was so weak,” Jaggers remembers. “I could not make it from my bed to the bathroom without help. I would unhook from the oxygen and try to use the bathroom as fast as I could so I could get back to the oxygen because I couldn’t breathe. It was horrible.”

Jaggers remained in the hospital for five days before being sent home with oxygen. At home, recovery was long, slow and torturous. She still couldn’t walk across the room without stopping to catch her breath.

Her struggle to breathe continued even a month later when she finally went back to work. She couldn’t make it from the parking lot to her office or finish a sentence without running out of breath. At that point, her doctor suggested

Amanda Xaysuda monitoring Haven Jaggers during a recent workout in the center.

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a new pulmonary rehab program specially created for postCOVID patients at Arkansas Heart Hospital (AHH).

Jaggers thought, “Yeah, I’m kind of at the end of my rope as far as thinking I can fight it off on my own; I need help.”

She started going to the AHH’s Strong Hearts Rehabilitation Program, beginning with 5-minute walks on a treadmill and working her way up from there. The limited workouts were disheartening at first, especially since she had been a very active person before she got sick. But she kept at it, and the support she got from the people at AHH made a world of difference.

“It helps so much to have someone push you and monitor your oxygen and help you with breathing exercises,” she says.

They let her take breaks when she needed to and then encouraged her to get back in it. “That helped a lot, and at the end of the program, it gave me the mental and the physical energy to start exercising again on my own.”

Today, Jaggers feels like she’s about 90 percent back to her old self. She carries an inhaler around now for more extraneous workouts, and her senses of smell and taste haven’t fully recovered. Overall, she’s able to be much more active and more like herself. She’s grateful to the AHH program and to her community who rallied around her, bringing meals, helping unpack boxes after a move, and even helping her with some of her bills.

THE STRONG HEARTS PROGRAM The Strong Hearts Rehabilitation Center at Arkansas Heart Hospital is the state’s first post-COVID pulmonary rehabilitation program, and one of only five in the country.

The program serves people, like Jaggers, who continue to deal with respiratory or cardiac symptoms more than four weeks after having COVID-19.

Studies show that half of those infected by the disease experience lingering health conditions such as coughs, difficulty breathing or heart palpitations. COVID-19 can affect any system within the body, whether it affects just one or multiple systems in one person. Severe cases can also pro-

187

Studies show that half of those infected by the disease experience lingering health conditions such as coughs, difficulty breathing or heart palpitations. voke an autoimmune response that can attack the body’s own organs and tissues.

Stong Hearts Director Amanda Xaysuda sees cases like this firsthand.

“What we’re seeing now with post-COVID patients is a whole myriad of symptoms,” she says. “While some patients come in with shortness of breath, others come in breathing fine, but might have heart palpitations, or they feel like their heart is racing.”

Xaysuda explains that the purpose of the program is not to cure lung disease or respiratory illness; the goal is to help patients increase their exercise tolerance, help them get back to normal activities and improve their quality of life.

AHH offers the post-COVID pulmonary rehab program at its flagship Little Rock campus, Encore Medical Center in Saline County and community clinics in Conway and Russellville.

Most patients take about 12 weeks to complete the program, during which they may work one-on-one with a coach

aymag.com

The Strong Hearts Rehabilitation Center at Arkansas Heart Hospital is the state’s first post-COVID pulmonary rehabilitation program, and one of only five in the country.

Jaggers was the program’s first graduate.

or in a group setting. Like classic gyms, the centers offer treadmills, machines, free weights and group classes.

However, unlike average gyms, the rehabilitation centers are medically supervised by a physician, exercise physiologists and registered nurses who are on-site at all times.

These medical professionals can monitor EKG or oxygen levels while patients exercise to ensure a healthy, gradual increase in activity.

In Jaggers’ case, when she started the program, she could only walk 5 minutes on the treadmill without getting short of breath. She came in three times per week for one hour each session, and by the time she completed the program, she was able to walk 30 minutes on the treadmill at an incline. During her training, they worked on exercise tolerance with one-on-one and group exercises. She also participated in breathing retraining through exercises with her coach to open up her lungs and her airways, making it easier to get through exercise sessions.

According to Xaysuda, people of all ages are being re-

ferred to the post-COVID pulmonary program, and it’s really not that uncommon to see people as young as Jaggers. She has seen people in their 20s and even some teenagers come in — all the way up to a current patient who is 92 years old.

“Haven’s story is really typical of what we’re seeing in younger patients,” she notes. “They just lose the ability to do the things they did before. We focus on working with them on exercise progression and reducing those symptoms of shortness of breath.”

There is currently no waiting list for the program. Medicare and select private health insurance companies cover the services for qualifying individuals. Those interested in scheduling an appointment may call 501-978-3780, or email stronghearts@arheart.com.

188

Central Arkansas Go Red for Women® Luncheon

ROCK YOUR

RED.

May 20, 2022 | 12:00-1:00pm Benton Event Center Registration opens at 11:30am

Chair Brittany Marsh

Co-Chair Allison Ingram

CentralARGoRed.heart.org To purchase a table, contact Becki.Swindell@heart.org

Go Red for Women® is nationally sponsored by

Go Red for Women® is locally sponsored by

Co-Chair Kyleigh Stout

Media Sponsors

© Copyright 2022 American Heart Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. All rights reserved. Go Red for Women is a registered trademark of AHA. The Red Dress Design is a trademark of U.S. DHHS. Unauthorized use prohibited. 10/18 DS13923

health

Go Red for WOMEN: Every year, cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year.

And every year, the American Heart Association (AHA) continues its signature initiative, Go Red for Women, designed to increase awareness to this salvageable statistic, institute change and save lives.

“It’s no longer just about wearing red; it’s no longer just about sharing heart health facts,” AHA says in a statement on its website. “It’s about all women making a commitment to stand together with Go Red and taking charge of their own heart health, as well as the health of those they can’t bear to live without.”

This month, the AHA is hosting its annual Central Arkansas Go Red for Women Luncheon on May 20 at noon in the Benton Event Center. Tickets to the luncheon will include lunch, and proceeds from both the luncheon and the on-site auction will go toward continuing the mission of reducing heart disease, as about 80 percent of life-threatening cardiac episodes are preventable.

As with past years, the itinerary for the Go Red for Women Luncheon will be the opportunity for attendees to meet and hear the stories of local survivors of cardiac events. Chief among the themes this year is reaching new demographics — younger women and women of color.

“Making a commitment to your health isn’t something you have to do alone either, so grab a friend or a family member and make a Go Red Healthy Behavior Commitment today.”

Photos By JAMISON MOSLEY

The Survivors Monica Mackey-Walker

On Jan. 15, 2021, Monica Mackey-Walker was home alone when she started experiencing chest and arm pain. She called her daughter, who could tell something wasn’t right and called 911. Doctors told her she had experienced a heart attack.

Shortly after, she contracted pneumonia and stayed in the hospital for 39 days. Mackey-Walker was still having shortness of breath, not being able to hold a conversation without getting tired. Doctors then discovered a leaking heart valve and sent her to a different hospital for treatment, where she underwent surgery to have an Impella heart pump placed.

Two weeks after the surgery, she was released to go home, but was only there for three days before she had to go back to the emergency room. Mackey-Walker spent the majority of her time over the next several months in and out of the hospital. Finally, the day before her 49th birthday, she was released to go home.

Mackey-Walker is still processing how her whole life changed in the blink of an eye — she’d never had any heart issues prior to this.

She says, “I’m still getting used to my valve because you can hear it ticking just like a clock. I’m thankful for the tick because it’s keeping me here, along with the good Lord above! Just like a Timex watch: ‘takes a licking and keeps on ticking.’”

Tichina Taylor

At 19 years old, Tichina Taylor was a freshman at UALR with a prosperous future ahead of her. On June 11, 2012, she was admitted to the ICU without any diagnosis, and was transferred to another hospital where she stayed for more than two months. Doctors told her mother that she had suffered an ischemic stroke and lost the ability to speak, walk or feed herself.

To Taylor, this was devastating, very painful and embarrassing.

She was partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, taking speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy. She had to relearn the most basic math and English.

During this time, her mother told her, “You will feel sad from time to time, but your determination will pick you back up again.” So, Taylor began to pick herself up again. She began to laugh and smile.

She reenrolled in school, taking six hours of credit. Taylor went on to graduate, write a book titled Walking Miracle: Memoir of a 19-Year-Old Stroke Survivor and start a YouTube channel called Life After Stroke.

Now 28, Taylor wants to encourage others who may be going through a hard time to not allow themselves to stay down, but to get back up again and again and again. People can take you to the water, but you have to dive.

aymag.com

Chelsea Harmon

Chelsea Harmon discovered that her daughter, Logan, had a congenital heart defect before she was born. Thanks to fetal echocardiograms, her parents and doctors had a good idea as to what her heart would look like; however, they wouldn’t have the full picture until after she was born.

Logan was diagnosed with several complex cardiac defects, including heterotaxy syndrome, and underwent openheart surgery at 3 months old. She still has some medical issues that are being managed by medication but is now a thriving and happy 7-month-old!

While the journey hasn’t been easy, Logan’s parents want to share her story to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation.

Dr. Sadie Mitchell

Dr. Sadie Mitchell is a retired Arkansas educator who committed 40 years as a teacher, principal and central office administrator. She always saw herself as a strong, active and highly motivated woman, full of energy and life.

On a hot, sunny Saturday in late August of 2021, Mitchell got up early and went to the farmer’s market.

She came back home, unloaded her groceries, and instead of coming inside out of the heat, headed directly back outside to tend to her garden.

All of a sudden, there was a thump in the middle of her back. It didn’t alarm her because she’d felt it several times earlier in the week. This time, however, the thump did not stop. Sweat started pouring profusely from her head and body. Mitchell immediately went in the house, drank some water and tried to ignore the frightening episode.

Not wanting to alarm and needlessly stress her husband, she didn’t say anything initially. Then, as she was trying to dress, she became weak, continued to sweat and experienced terrible heartburn. She dismissed this as heartburn and dehydration, but because of her family history, she thought she may be having a heart attack and went to see a doctor.

Sofia Grace

Sofia Grace is a sassy, loving, beautiful, redheaded 5-year-old who has already been through so much in her short life. She was born with five heart defects and had her first major surgery five days after birth. Not even a month later, she went back into surgery for a feeding tube placement and stayed in the hospital for her first four months of life.

Shortly before her second birthday, she underwent open-heart surgery. She just had her Fontan open-heart surgery on Feb. 5, which is her last surgery before her heart transplant. Sofia resides at home with her loving family and animals.

“Making a commitment to your health isn’t something you have to do alone either, so grab a friend or a family member and make a Go Red Healthy Behavior Commitment today.”

Go Red for Women Luncheon • Friday, May 20 Benton Event Center.

For more information, visit heart.org

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aymag.com

Circle of Red Go Red for Women is the American Heart Association’s (AHA) signature initiative. It’s a platform focused on women and designed to increase awareness of women’s heart health while encouraging change to improve women’s lives.

Taking on this challenge requires a village, which is why Central Arkansas’ Circle of Red is vital to the mission.

The Circle of Red is a diverse group of individuals who have joined the Go Red for Women movement and work together to drive and influence change to improve the lives and heart health of women in their communities.

Here are this year’s Circle of Red members.

Sharon Heflin

Heather Baker

Jacey Guthrie

Dana Dussing Berry

Debi Barnes

Heather Baker

President & Publisher, AY Media Group

Debi Barnes

DD&F Consulting

Dana Dussing Berry

Philanthropist and PR Lead, Stone Ward

Trish Birch

Agent, The Hatcher Agency

Tjuana Byrd

Pulaski County Circuit Judge

Mangaraju Chakka, MD

CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute

Brian Eble, MD Jean McSweeney

Arkansas’ Children’s, UAMS

Mike Poore

Anthony Fletcher, MD, FAHA CHI St. Vincent

Sharon Heflin Philanthropist

Jacey Guthrie, MD

Gibson Guthrie Dermatology

Tanya James

Senior Vice President, Branch Administrator, Arvest Bank

Cara Jones, DDS

Arkansas Pediatric Dentistry

Steve Leek

Owner, Leek & Associates

Jean McSweeney, RN, PhD, FAHA, FAAN

Associate Dean of Research, UAMS

Gary Nash, MD Tjuana Byrd

Arkansas Heart Hospital

Gina Pharis

Philanthropist

Mike Poore

Superintendent, Little Rock School District

Olivia Hussman Ramsey Philanthropist

John Ryan

President and CEO, Arkansas Health and Wellness

Martha Snider Philanthropist

Amy Wiedower Eble, MD Central Clinic for Women

Trish Birch

EXCELLENT patient experience & outcomes Our team of heart specialists take the time to develop treatment plans that produce the best experience and outcomes for each patient. That’s why they’ve been recognized by the American Heart Association as a Gold Standard for Heart Attack Care, and as the #1 hospital in Arkansas for cardiology & cardiovascular surgery by US News & World Report. When you need care, choose the cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons who take your heart care personally.

Learn more at chistvincent.com/heart

Arkansas Children’s treats children and adults with congenital heart disease.

For more than 35 years, David M. Clark Heart Center has provided expert care for countless patients.

Follow approximately

More than

patients annually (ONLY adult congenital heart program in the state)

performed in our cath labs each year

1,700 adult congenital

Almost 10,000 patient visits to cardiology outpatient clinics

600 procedures

1,000–1,300 echocardiograms

read monthly across Arkansas Children’s system

More than

350 heart transplants performed

Visit archildrens.org/HeartCenter to learn more about our cardiac services.

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aymag.com

Congratulations Heather Baker once again on being honored in the American Heart Association’s Circle of Red group this year.

Every month is “heart month” for AY Publisher Heather Baker. As someone with a family history of heart disease and her own personal struggles, it’s a topic that will always be near and dear to “her heart.”

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Pathology Challenges Stephanie Evans is Leading the Fight Against Cancer

A leader in the health care industry in the sector of pathology, Stephanie Evans, Chief Operating Officer of PathNet, Inc., has experience and expertise that has been proven essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evans, an energetic businesswoman with a busy schedule, travels to various PathNet laboratory network locations and client facilities across the country. Her goal, primarily, is to have successful employee relationships and customer satisfaction.

In her role as COO, Evans leads a diverse team of professionals, with the aim to give providers accurate results for patients within 72 hours of procedure. While supervising multi-state laboratory personnel, Evans also manages top-tier pathologists. With time being a crucial factor in determining ideal treatment options for patients, innovative processes are at the top of her priorities.

For Evans, leading her team by empowering them to reach their potential is of greater emphasis than micromanaging.

Evans has seen innovation in pathology continuously within her 20 years of experience.

“Pathology is moving away from the old methods into a new enhanced digital pathology solution,” Evans says. “This shift is disrupting the pathology market — not just on the clinical level, but also the financial level.”

In the fight against cancer, advances in anatomic pathology along with molecular and germline testing are vital weapons. With the combination of results from each of these, professionals can best determine treatment plans for each patient. Through using digital pathology, health care professionals can readily share information from their findings. Pathology networks allow for this innovation to happen.

While laboratories are on the forefront of innovation, smaller pathology labs are facing challenges. Common issues include the inability to expand services because of organizational and reimbursement constraints. With reimbursement cuts, there is a decline in the possibility to invest in advanced equipment and hiring additional staff, which is essential for growth, while making workload increases necessary in order to break even.

PathNet, Inc. was created as a network of independent pathology groups with different models. With each group, there is a co-owner in a shared network of laboratories. Within the laboratory network, pathologists have access to the latest resources and best technology. PathNet also welcomes patient-facing physicians who are looking for cuttingedge pathology services so they can give the best patient care.

While Evans is a leader on her own, many of her colleagues have

inspired her to become the greatest version of herself. Among these colleagues and mentors is E. Scot Davis, the CEO of Arkansas Urology, which is the largest urology practice in the state. When Evans served as Chief Clinical Services Officer at Arkansas Urology, she worked directly with Davis for day-to-day clinic management, along with large-scale projects. In recognizing Evans’ resilience, Davis challenged her to reach her goals. The experience and wisdom Evans gained during her tenure at Arkansas Urology is invaluable in her current role at PathNet, Inc. Evans has also worked alongside Dr. Adam Cole, CMO of TruCore Pathology, since 2015, when they both joined the Arkansas Urology laboratory team. Evans’ lab experience, as well as her extensive knowledge of operations and billing, were a perfect match to assist Cole when it came time to build his own pathology practice, TruCore Pathology.

In 2017, Evans met Matthew Leavitt, MD, and at that time CEO of Lumea, Inc., when Arkansas Urology invested in Lumea’s cutting-edge pathology technology. In collaborating with Leavitt and the Lumea executive team as they expanded the company’s software capabilities, Evans and Leavitt discussed his visions of a pathology network. Alongside Leavitt’s vision and leadership, as well as Evans’ laboratory operations expertise, the skillsets were combined in 2020 to bring PathNet, Inc. to life, where Leavitt is now CEO. Looking forward to growing the PathNet, Inc. network, Evans has made plans including collaborating with top-notch industry professionals while striving to consult with virtual labs across multiple states.

Accurate diagnosis will continue to play an essential role in patient treatment pathways until cancer has a definitive cure, and Evans will keep doing her part in helping patients get the most accurate diagnosis possible.

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MURDER MYSTERY: Finding Justice for Dana Stidham – By Brandon Howard

Notorious Bella Vista Homicide Continues to Haunt Investigators

D

ana Stidham would have been 50 years old last March.

That birthday never came to pass, just like the dreams and goals she’d laid out for herself as a young woman. Instead, Stidham experienced only a snippet of life, leaving behind a Dana Stidham. (Courtesy) fractured family and a fog of despair that has lingered for 30 years.

Stidham was 18 and only weeks removed from high school when she disappeared while running an errand for her father in the summer of 1989. Stidham’s family suffered two months of rumors and false hope only to be devastated when a hunter found her remains in the woods.

The Benton County Sheriff ’s Office, which has been investigating her murder for the last three decades, has several cold cases, but Stidham’s is the one they get asked about most often, says Sgt. Hunter Petray, who has spearheaded an effort to resolve the department’s backlog.

Stidham’s case has outlived the tenures of three sheriffs in Benton County and countless detectives. The two original investigators, Mike Sydoriak and Dan Varner, spent almost 20 years chasing down hundreds of leads and building a massive case file that includes a half-dozen suspects. Despite their diligent efforts and Petray’s tireless work today, no charges or arrests have been made in her murder.

*** Stidham and a few girlfriends had rented an apartment in Centerton after graduating from Gravette High School. But on July 25, 1989, she made a visit back home to Hiwasse, a formerly unincorporated community near Gravette, to spend time with her dad and do some laundry.

Lawrence, her father, asked her to run to the store for him because he wasn’t feeling well. She obliged, and headed to Phillips Foods in Bella Vista, where she had worked for three years in high school.

Stidham bought a few items at Phillips and then headed toward the parking lot. She spoke briefly to an older man before driving off. It was the last time she was seen alive.

Bella Vista police found her car, a 1984 gray Dodge Omni, the next morning. It was abandoned about a mile north of the store on U.S. 71. Her keys were in the ignition and the vehicle’s left rear tire was flat. There was no sign of a struggle.

A Bella Vista police officer, however, had seen a pickup parked behind Stidham’s

car on her way to work. She also saw a man kneeling by the vehicle’s rear tires. She didn’t know the vehicle belonged to Stidham until she was briefed at the police department. When she returned, the pickup was gone. *** Soon after Stidham’s disappearance, the sheriff ’s office began finding worrisome clues scattered around Bella Vista. Some of her clothing was found on Ealing Circle, not far from where her car was abandoned.

Checks, photos and her driver’s license were found farther north, near Chaucer and Hanover roads, as if they’d been thrown from a moving car. “[The] new evidence … has given us a bit of a scare,” Sheriff Andy Lee told reporters at the time. “We know when she left the car, she took her purse with her. But we don’t believe she would be throwing personal items out.”

Search and rescue crews, some as large as 50 people, and including dogs and riders on

horseback, were combing the area for more clues. Tips, meanwhile, continued to pour in. “Numerous” people said they saw other vehicles parked behind Stidham’s car during the early hours of July 26, the day after she vanished. Other tips came in that Stidham was alive — in nearby places like Bentonville, or as far away as Lamar, Missouri.

With the tips came “local gossip,” which drew the ire of Lee. “There’s a vicious rumor that we’ve found the body and we’re hiding it for one reason or another,” Lee said at the time, surrounded by the small team of investigators at the sheriff ’s office during an interview with local TV station KFSM. “They’re cruel rumors. And I really wish that people who start these rumors would think what this could do to the family.”

Lee implored people to come forward. A reward of $5,000 had been offered for information on Stidham’s whereabouts.

“If you know where Ms. Stidham is, if she is alive, or if you know where she is if she is not alive, and there is something about this case that we need to know, we can keep

your name out of this thing.”

Her family was distraught. Police kept them in the loop as best they could, but that didn’t stop rumors from reaching the family.

“If the police hear the rumor first, they call to tell us not to worry and to not believe them,” said Stidham’s mother, Georgia. “These rumors are what cause the bad nights, the nightmares.”

The Stidhams were thankful police kept them informed, and especially praised the work by Sydoriak and Varner, himself a Gravette native.

“We don’t want revenge. That’s not even in our minds,” Georgia said. “We just want Dana.”

The investigation languished as fall neared. One of the local newspapers, the Benton County Daily Record, noted that the search for Stidham continued, albeit “at a less frantic pace than the investigation’s early days.”

This isn’t the only cold case from that era at the Sheriff’s Office.

*** The next breakthrough in the case cemented the tragedy.

On Sept. 16, a hunter found Stidham’s remains in a wooded area off of Beal Lane, which is in the far northeast corner of Bella Vista. It was on the opposite side of town from where authorities found Stidham’s clothing, and just shy of the border with Missouri.

Stidham’s remains were mostly skeletal, and her bones had been scattered around a dry creek bed. There were no obvious signs of trauma. Police found her clothing buried nearby, with duct tape stuck to her shirt.

They also recovered several feet of bailing twine — with several distinct knots — near her body and near the edge of the cul-desac. Four days later, the sheriff ’s office announced the remains were Stidham’s.

Don Townsend, then a lieutenant commander with the department, said the homicide showed signs of being an abduction.

That added another layer to the case, he said, because Stidham didn’t have a background that would point toward something like that. He also thought the spot where Stidham was found pointed to a suspect who had intimate knowledge of the area. *** Today, Petray concedes that he’s up against the clock in solving Stidham’s murder. The passage of time has hampered the case, but Petray says, “It’s not unsolvable by any means.”

Although he acknowledges “multiple

Stidham’s gravestone. (Courtesy)

persons of interest” in Stidham’s killing, Petray keeps other pertinent details close to the vest. While several facets of the case are public knowledge, Petray is firm about not commenting on anything that could jeopardize a resolution to her murder.

“There’s stuff that’s public knowledge.

There’s stuff that I don’t mind talking about,” Petray says. “But there’s also stuff that I feel like, to keep the integrity of the case itself, I just don’t want to get into.”

Petray also notes this murder isn’t the only cold case from that era at the Sheriff ’s Office. Just six months after Stidham’s killing, a California hitchhiker was found shot to death near where her remains were found.

Then in 1990, on the other side of Benton County, a woman’s remains were found in the woods. Known only as “Bone Woman,” she was shot and burned, and has yet to be identified. And just across the state line in southwest Missouri, also in 1990, a woman was found strangled behind an abandoned farmhouse.

“I’m not trying to imply anything; I’m not trying to eliminate anything,” Petray says. “I just think it’s an odd coincidence.

Those are all within that same time frame, within the same area.”

In chasing a resolution to Stidham’s case, Petray says keeping her name in the public consciousness will be good if progress stalls.

But he preaches staying the course.

“You just try to progress it forward,” he says. “Most cold case investigators’ approach is you don’t necessarily think that you can solve it right away. … But, ‘How can I progress this from where it’s at to somewhere that somebody else can pick up and, at some point, there’s enough to get solved.’”

The sheriff ’s office urges anyone to come forward with information that might lead to the arrest of a suspect in Dana Stidham’s case. Tips can be reported online at sheriff. bentoncountyar.gov/submit-a-crime-tip, by phone at 479-271-1008, or in person at the sheriff ’s office at 1300 S.W. 14th Street in Bentonville.

Esse

By Joe David Rice

G

iven that “esse” is a Latin word, most of us are completely unfamiliar with it and fewer still are able to gracefully work it into the occasional conversation.

Esse — and I had to look this up — is a noun that roughly translates into “existence” or “essential nature” or “to be.”

Take your pick.

But I suspect it’s going to become more commonly recognized, thanks to Anita Davis and her Esse Purse Museum on South Main Street in downtown Little Rock. Davis chose the word carefully, convinced that a woman’s purse and its contents reflect her life and her spirit.

Opening in mid-2013 and highlighting a collection which began 30 years ago, the museum has already received glowing reviews. But that’s really no surprise since portions of Davis’ treasure trove were part of a very successful 26-city exhibition from 2006 through 2011. In fact, the public’s reaction to the coast-to-coast tour encouraged her to proceed with the museum’s development.

Davis grew up in Murfreesboro, the only daughter of a well-todo family heavily involved in southwest Arkansas’ timber industry.

She fondly recalls accompanying her mother on shopping trips to Hot Springs where they examined the latest trends in the highend boutiques along Central Avenue. Those experiences helped Davis develop her own sense of style — an appreciation of beautiful things combined with a certain rebellious touch.

Although her collection includes about 4,000 purses, Davis has chosen some 250 to display in the museum — representing a truly spectacular array of styles and materials. Consisting mainly of 20thcentury handbags arranged decade by decade, the Esse Purse Museum also highlights typical contents of the bags: compacts, lipstick, ration cards, gloves, wallets, cigarette cases, medications, the occasional flask, opera glasses and so on.

A walk through the museum brings back memories for women and men alike, recalling the purses of their grandmothers, mothers and sisters. It provides a fascinating look not only at fashion but

American society for the past century. I spent a little over an hour touring the museum with my sister and mother and, like them, eagerly moved from one exhibit to the next, amazed by the designers’ constantly evolving creativity. The guest ratio of about 10 women to every man didn’t bother me a bit.

I especially enjoyed the written explanations next to the display cases. This paragraph, in particular, caught my attention: “Just as the essence of a woman is not her appearance, size, shape or hair color, the essence of a woman’s handbag is not its style, price, designer logo or color. The essence of both are the things they carry, literal and ethereal — the makeup and memories, the driver’s license and the driving desires, the hairbrush and the hope, the wallet and the wishes, the lotion and the love.”

There’s another matter which should be mentioned. The Esse Purse Museum is one of only three such institutions on the entire planet — and the sole example in the Americas. The others are in Amsterdam and Seoul. These three distinguished cities — located on three separate continents — each possess that one cultural collection close and dear to every woman’s heart: a purse museum.

Joe David Rice, former tourism director of Arkansas Parks and Tourism, has written Arkansas Backstories, a delightful book of short stories from A through Z that introduces readers to the state's lesser-known aspects. Rice's goal is to help readers acknowledge that Arkansas is a unique and fascinating combination of land and people – one to be proud of and one certainly worth sharing.

Each month, AY will share one of the 165 distinctive essays. We hope these stories will give you a new appreciation for this geographically compact but delightfully complex place we call home. These Arkansas Backstories columns appear courtesy of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System. The essays have been collected and published by Butler Center Books in a two-volume set, both of which are now available to purchase at Amazon and the University of Arkansas Press.

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