byterian Church in Morehead City. After a successful battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, he became the prayer minister at First Presbyterian Church. Rev. Hale was a lifelong student of languages and cultures. Rev. Hale also served as a volunteer firefighter in Virginia and Maryland. He is survived by his wife of almost 44 years, Ann Tomlinson Hale, and other loving family members. Larry Neill Jeffery, ’61, age 79, of Desha died Feb. 13, 2013, at White River Medical Center. Born Jan. 4, 1934, in Mount Olive, Arkansas, he graduated from Lyon College and was a retired school teacher having taught at Concord, Batesville High School and Desha, where he was the principal as well as a teacher and coach. He was commander of the Desha VFW. He was a veteran of the U. S. Army and Arkansas National Guard and a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mount Olive. He is survived by his son, Bryan Jeffery and his wife, Candace of Oxford. He was preceded in death by his wife, Wanda Carlile Jeffery. Colleen Marie Kephart, ’61, age 72, of Batesville, died Nov. 18, 2012. She was born at Huff on Feb. 11, 1940. She was a graduate of Pleasant Plains High School and attended Arkansas College. She had served as an executive secretary, but upon returning to Independence County she had busied herself as a homemaker, gardener and church volunteer. She was an active member of the Independence Missionary Baptist Church of Pleasant Plains. She is survived by her husband of 34 years, George Kephart of the home, and a host of family and friends. Rayburn G. Richardson, ’62, age 77, of Jonesboro, died Dec. 1, 2012. Born in Sage, Rayburn lived in Brockwell before moving to Jonesboro in 1993. He was a graduate of Lyon College. Rayburn coached, taught and served as superintendent at Violet Hill High School for several years before accepting the position of executive director of the North Central Arkansas Development Council. Following his tenure with NADC, Rayburn taught and coached at Melbourne High School until his retirement. He was a member of the Church of Christ and was also a cattle farmer. Survivors include his wife, Kay Richardson of the home, two children and and four grandchildren. William Andrew McWeeny, ’63, age 74, of Little Rock, died Oct. 10, 2012. He was born on July 22, 28
The Lyon College
Piper
1938, in Memphis, Tenn. He attended Rhodes College, where he met his future wife, Dorothy (“Dot”) Sieplein from Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Lyon College, and earned a Master of Divinity and a Doctorate of Ministry in Homiletics from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Bill was a retired Presbyterian minister, a call which he faithfully answered each day since his ordination in 1965. He was active in interim ministry and in the work of the Presbyteries of North Alabama and Arkansas. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dot; two daughters, four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and countless family members and friends. Bob G. Stobaugh Sr., ’63, age 72, of Batesville died Dec. 30, 2012. He was born in Bragg City, Mo., on Dec. 25, 1940. He completed high school at Risco, Mo., and attended Arkansas College (now Lyon) in Batesville and was a member of the Arkansas College Scots basketball team. He was a salesman for Builder’s Supply of Batesville, North Arkansas Cash Lumber and Bryant Lumber Co. He was a great basketball player, holding the Risco High School single game scoring record of 54 points, and this record was not broken for 20 years. He was a member of First United Methodist Church of Batesville. He is survived by his wife, Gayle Young Stobaugh of Batesville; two sons; a granddaughter, and numerous family and friends. William G. Luke III, ’65, age 70, died after a brief illness on Sept. 28, 2012. He graduated from Arkansas College and did postgraduate work at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn. William taught at Fairfield Country Day School in Fairfield, Conn., for 13 years before relocating to Yorktown, Va., in 1980. He continued to teach in area schools until his retirement. He enjoyed woodworking, aviation history, animals, water sports and volunteering at Mary Immaculate Hospital. William is survived by his beloved wife of 46 years, Barbara Winburn Luke, two children, a grandson, and many loving nieces, nephews and friends. Mike Kendall, ’71, age 64, of Batesville died Aug. 31, 2012, at his home. He was born Jan. 16, 1948 at Batesville to W. S. “Dub” and Willene Carpenter Kendall. He worked in banking and securities for 26 years, having established Kendall Financial Consultants in 1988 and established Citizens Financial Services at Citizens Bank in 1995. He was a member of Rotary for 34 years, having served as secretary-treasurer and past presi-
think I have ever had a more amusing, joyous and rather spiritual tour of someone’s artwork.” Finally, the third H, Hands, is obvious in Shea’s craftsmanship. He paints so meticulously he fools the eye. He even painted finger prints on the image of a piece of Scotch tape, making it appear so real that one viewer tried to peal it off the painting. He sculpts with the same care, with straw, hay, twine, feathers, strips of paper, and moonstones assembled not with expressionist abandon but with thoughtful attention to color, size, placement, and effect.
Shea’s most recent splash came with his talk at Crystal
Bridges a few weeks ago. In following up on that talk, I chatted about Shea’s work with Niki Ciccotelli Stewart, the museum’s Director of Education and Exhibitions. I loved hearing that she finds the same wonderful qualities in Shea’s art that I do. She’s intrigued, she says, with how Shea is “deeply rooted in where he came from,” with how he takes what is “simple” from his roots and “transforms” it while magically still keeping it simple. His work, she says, “is as layered as he is.” Shea’s continuing rootedness came out in a change he requested while reviewing the publicity planned for his talk. Where the draft described him as “Arkansas-born,” Shea had responded, “I am an Arkansan no matter where I live.” It came out as well in an e-mail Shea recently sent me about another artist who loved and mined and transformed his native soil: “I am often talking about Faulkner and him working with the ‘postage stamp’ he knew.”
So, after knowing all this, what do you say to the man Shea Hembrey has become? Here’s a last piece of his story that leads to my answer:
In a New Jersey television interview regarding this latest body of work, this articulate Lyon alumnus spoke beautifully to the soul of its vision. Noting the blackness of 95 percent of the universe, a blackness not empty but full of energy and matter we cannot see and do not understand, and noting that the actual atoms of all seven billion human beings occupying the planet at this moment, if compressed, would take up no more space than a sugar cube, that everything else in human life is just empty space, Shea went on to conclude not with our inconsequence, irrelevance, and insignificance, not with despair, and not with solipsism. No, he concluded exactly as the Shea Hembrey I worked with 17 years ago might have concluded, the Shea Hembrey to whom I can only say, “Thank you for the great heart and soul at the center of your great art.” He concluded thus: “We are little jewels spread out against this great black body.” Left, from top: Shea Hembrey, President and Mrs. Donald Weatherman, and Lyon College art students; Shea and President Weatherman; Shea and Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Morgan Page Spring 2013
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