Ragsdale, long-time ad manager, GM and publisher, dies

John R. Ragsdale of Malvern died Saturday, August 12. He was 85.

The son of A.J. and Rachel Crowder Ragsdale, he was born in DeWitt and spent his childhood around Pine Bluff. After graduation from Woodlawn High School in Cleveland County, he went to work at the Pine Bluff Commercial Over his career Ragsdale served as advertising manager at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, the Paragould Daily Press and a newspaper in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He was the manager of the Warren Chamber of Commerce manager in the mid to late 1960s before serving as General Manager/Publisher of the Daily Siftings Herald in Arkadelphia from 1969 through late 1981, at which point he and his wife, Betty Jane Gavin Ragsdale, became the owners and publishers of the Nevada County Picayune in Prescott. In

1995 the couple bought the Gurdon Times, publishing both it and the Picayune until 2001, when they sold the newspapers to Rupert and Sandra Phillips

Ragsdale was predeceased by his parents and Betty, his first wife of 51 years, his daughter, Phyllis Jackson, his grandson, Dustin Harris, five sisters and two brothers. Survivors include his wife of 14 years, Betty Vines Ragsdale; son John “Ricky” Ragsdale, Jr. and wife Teresa of Little Rock, daughters Lisa Beebe and husband Tom of Bentonville, Darlene Gregory of Jonesboro and Sherry Ergle and husband Rex of Sikeston, Missouri, brother Vernon Leon “Pete” Ragsdale of DeWitt, nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

Services were held August 15, with burial following in Pansy Cemetery in Cleveland County.