AY About You September 2021

ARKANSAS’ LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2021 | AYMAG.COM

Best Realtors | Prime Cuts Bucket List | Lonoke $5.00 U.S.

EXPLORE . IMAGINE . PLAY!

Join us during our Passport to Play series! Educational programs, speakers and animal encounters will make each visit a unique and passport-worthy adventure.

WONDERSOFWILDLIFE.ORG/PLAY

the Great Outdoors are calling 877.624.6065 | bigcedar.com

S MAR T CAV IAR T HE FI R ST FI N E JEW EL RY BRACE LE T FO R YO UR APPLE WATCH ®️

Smart Caviar is not approved, endorsed or affiliated with Apple, Inc. Watch sold separately.

M Y L A G O S M Y W AY

We Keep People All

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Make 2021 Your Year For The Beautiful...

Over Arkansas Smiling

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Dr. Wyant is Arkansas’ only Fellowed Cosmetic Dentist.

Credentials, experience and caring concern for each individual patient insures that you’ll receive exceptional esthetic results regardless of the challenges presented. Learn more how Drs. Wyant and Lambert can help you have an incredible smile by calling today for your complimentary smile consultation.”

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C. LEE WYANT, DDS ALYSSA LAMBERT, DDS

16524 Chenal Pkwy Little Rock, AR 72223 501.819.3608 smilearkansas.com

All photos of beautiful smiles created by Drs. Wyant and Lambert.

Smile You Deserve!

WHAT’S INSIDE

10 Publisher’s Letter 12 Connect 14 Top Events 190 Murder Mystery 192 Arkansas Backstories

HOME&GARDEN

Experts in Innovation Innovative Home Awards Best Realtors

16 27 39

FOOD&DRINK

Cuts From a Different Cloth Upscale Sides Recipes A Rare Breed Face Behind the Place: Kamiya Merrick

102 110 112 118

TRAVEL ARKANSAS

The Comfort of Cranor’s Lonoke: Front Porch of the Delta Hot Springs Happenings Take it Easy

122 126 133 136

ARTS&CULTURE

144 Walnut Ridge Fields Forever 150 What a Girl Wants 156 Rescued in Arkansas 162 Breaking the Fourth Wall

MENTAL HEALTH 172

The Uncommon Field

HEALTH 182

Asked and Answered: ADHD

ABOUT YOU

168 This Side of Seven

Prime Cuts Bucket List Pg. 106 Photo by Jamison Mosley

ON THE COVER We’re all about homes at AY About You again this month.

From Realtors to builders to the leaders in innovation, we’ve got it all.

Photo courtesy Parkinson Building Group.

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INCREASING STEM IN PCSSD THE PULASKI COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT IS PUTTING A GREATER EMPHASIS ON STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATH) BEGINNING THIS SCHOOL YEAR. These subjects combine to help students use their imagination to create, problem-solve, discover mathematical concepts all around them, and use the scientific method to hypothesize and reflect on certain scientific phenomena.

PCSSD created a new position for the 20212022 school year, hiring Dr. Justin Luttrell as the District’s first Director of STEM and Blended Learning to coordinate a curriculum for each grade level to incorporate STEM principles.

“STEM education should not be solely looked upon as a means to entrepreneurism, but as an intersecting context by which scientific inquiry can be brought to life within the everyday settings of our social lives,” said Dr. Luttrell. “This is why I firmly believe that STEM initiatives should be made available for all students. STEM education should be viewed as a powerful tool to explore our social lives and provide equality for all students in analytical and scientific reasoning.”

JULY 2021

Parents will see their child using critical thinking skills to analyze situations and circumstances and then apply those skills to offer real-world solutions through STEM. This will be seen through academic experiences such as science experiments, mathematics, computer programming, robotics competitions, career tech exploration, and even reading strategies.

JULY 2021

JULY 2021

For PCSSD elementary students, a monthly STEM challenge will be implemented. The students will read a book and participate in a challenge to apply the STEM skills they learn in class. In middle school, students will learn how to break down scientific language through roots, prefixes, suffixes, and the science behind how (and why) these words were formed in the English language. Finally, high school students will focus on computer science and career and technical education programs in addition to our math and science offerings.

It is an exciting time at PCSSD and we are poised for great things this school year!

About PCSSD

501.234.2000

pcssd.org

Pulaski County Special School District spans more than 600 square miles in central Arkansas and requires highly skilled and passionate personnel to adapt educational policies and personalization to 25 schools. Every school is accredited by the Arkansas State Board of Education. PCSSD has served schools across Pulaski County since July 1927.

PCSSD is committed to creating a nationally recognized school district that assures that all students achieve at their maximum potential through collaborative, supportive and continuous efforts of all stakeholders.

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

Heather Baker hbaker@aymag.com EDITOR

Dustin Jayroe djayroe@aymag.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Mark Carter mcarter@aymag.com

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Lisa Fischer lfischer@aymag.com

FOOD EDITOR

Kevin Shalin kshalin@aymag.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Katie Zakrzewski katie@aymag.com

ONLINE EDITOR

Lindsey Castrellon lindsey@aymag.com

STAFF WRITER

Emily Beirne ebeirne@aymag.com

ART DIRECTOR

Jamison Mosley jmosley@aymag.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER Rebecca Robertson rrobertson@aymag.com

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 began her journalism career by writing features for the River Valley & Ozark Edition. After finding her niche as a true crime writer for AY About You, she acted as a consultant for Investigation Discovery. With her husband, she coauthored two books: Hiking Arkansas and Arkansas Curiosities.

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 and photographed New York Fashion Week on her blog, I Heart Heels.

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 now heads up the Office of the Ombudsman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Jason and his wife, Mary Carol, have two biological children and one bonus son, all now adults. They are long-time members of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock.

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Kellie McAnulty kmcanulty@aymag.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Lora Puls lpuls@aymag.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Stephanie Wallace swallace@aymag.com Linda Burlingame lindaaymag@aol.com Tonya Higginbotham thigginbotham@aymag.com Mary Funderburg mary@aymag.com Tonya Mead tmead@aymag.com Shasta Ballard sballard@aymag.com

ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER

Jessica Everson jeverson@aymag.com

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jacob Carpenter ads@aymag.com

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Ginger Roell groell@aymag.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Kaitlin Barger, Sandy Bradley, Casey Crocker, Ian Lyle, Meredith Mashburn, Tony Milligan, Jared Sorrells, Philip Thomas

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

TO ADVERTISE:

501-244-9700 or hbaker@aymag.com

TO SUBSCRIBE:

501-244-9700 or aymag.com

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.

AY Magazine is published monthly, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5 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 ©2020, 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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publisher's letter

Home Is Where

Our Hearts Are Can you believe it’s already September? It seems like just yesterday I was writing about getting my pool ready for the summer season, we were lining out a few of our favorite “cool” cocktails for the magazine and the sweet summer air was just beginning to tickle the senses. Madonna sang that “time goes by so slowly for those who wait.” I don’t know what that says about me, but this summer went by in a blink.

To the latter point of the Madonna mantra above, I also feel pretty fortunate to have not been one of “those who wait” on the construction of my home in Waterview Estates. It’s got all the bells and whistles a girl like me could ever need, and apparently I was ahead of the curve on some of the popular home trends that have exploded during the pandemic. If you need to get caught up to speed on all of the latest home chatter, then this is just the issue for you. That’s right, we’re all about homes again this month. This includes our publishing of the Arkansas REALTORS® Association’s annual awards, as well as AY’s Best Realtors for those of you in the market as either a buyer or seller. We are also proud to present the inaugural AY’s Innovative Home Awards, which we compiled together based on votes by readers. We also hear from some of the state’s most accomplished home builders, and with the lumber market going crazy this year, their insight is invaluable.

But what would a rare and refined residence be without some equally exquisite food to pair with it? For those tastebuds, we’ve outlined some of the finest steaks in Arkansas for our Prime Cuts Bucket List. We’re talking Japanese Wagyu. We’re talking dry-aged for weeks. It’s the stuff truly meant for special occasions — like, for instance, closing on a new home. See what I did there?

Forgive me. I dropped a tandem of Madonna references when apparently it would have been far more relevant for this issue to say something like, “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.” That’s because we have a wonderful story on Walnut Ridge’s international claim to fame: hosting The Beatles (briefly) in the ’60s.

This issue also features a story by yours truly about a recent excursion I made to Cranor’s White River Resort in Cotter. It was a destination and adventure I will not soon forget. The “Bono of fishing” himself, Lou Treat, even helped me catch 45 fish for my 45th birthday. This was such a special experience, and you must give my new friends at Cranor’s some love the next time you’re planning a trip to the area.

On a more serious note, this month also marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Arkansan Deena Burnett Bailey was gracious enough to share her story with us for this issue. Her late husband, Tom, was among those who died on United Airlines Flight 93. From her, we are reminded of what it really means to be a hero.

There’s “no time to wait.” (For the kids, that’s another Madonna reference. She’s, like, the queen.) Go ahead and dive into this issue to see for yourself all the great stories we’ve brought to you.

Enjoy!

Heather Baker, President & Publisher hbaker@aymag.com

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TRENDING ON AYMAG.COM World’s Largest Locomotive Prepares to Pass Through Arkansas Martin Lawrence Filming in Northwest Arkansas 13 Rivers to Float in Arkansas AY’s 2021 Best Health Care Professionals Server Says: Terrell Leavell of Table 28

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READER FEEDBACK ROCK CITY KITCHEN CELEBRATES YEAR ONE “What AY magazine says goes!! Special thanks AY and The Mighty Rib.” Rock City Kitchen WOMAN WEDNESDAY: NATALIE BLACK BLANEY “I am honored to be a part of AY magazine’s Woman Wednesday. Being a very small part of the women in my community who are raising, teaching and paving the way for the next generation of strong, independent women is my driving force behind it all!”

Natalie Black Blaney HOMETOWN HEROES: MAC BOLT AND THE CENTRAL ARKANSAS HARM REDUCTION PROJECT “Thank you, AY magazine, for helping more people become aware of the resources that CAHR Project has to offer our community.”

Central Arkansas Harm Reduction Project VIRTUAL DESIGN SHOW TAKES CENTER STAGE “Thank you so much for sharing.”

Couture By Tess Bridal

INSTAGRAM

CONTESTS

You’re probably familiar with the fantastic gyros at Leo’s Greek Castle, but did you know they also have delicious breakfast pita sandwiches?

Did you catch the Perseid Meteor Shower last month? How many “shooting stars” did you see?

Martin Lawrence is reportedly working on a movie that is filming in NWA.

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

1. ROCK TOWN DISTILLERY

It’s important to always enjoy the finer things in life.

Sometimes those things come in a bottle. At Rock Town Distillery, you can find a wide selection of some of the best bourbons and spirits available today. Don’t forget your gift card when you go, and buy a bottle of the good stuff.

CODE: ROCKTOWN

2. LOBLOLLY

There’s nothing like a scoop of delicious ice cream, no matter the season. When it comes to ice cream, you can’t beat Loblolly Creamery. This Little Rock favorite serves up mouthwatering small-batch ice cream, using fresh ingredients and unique flavors. Come and get your favorite flavor, on us.

CODE: LOBLOLLY

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3. TURPENTINE CREEK

Take a walk on the wild side at Turpentine Creek.

This Eureka Springs refuge provides a home for abandoned and neglected big cats, from tigers to lions to leopards. Win two tickets to tour the refuge and see all the amazing animals!

CODE: CATS

If you haven’t driven to southeast Arkansas where Ms. Rhoda sells her famous hot tamales, you are missing out.

!

August WINNERS Tipton & Hurst: JUNE PEGG Loblolly: KYLE MCDANIEL Turpentine Creek: DANA THOMPSON

Take a look at Pat’s book picks at PatBeckerBooks.com

Because every pet has a story.

Great gifts for kids and pet lovers of all ages.

PLUS DVD

These well-illustrated books are autographed by the authors and are now available in audiobook (audio version available where indicated) — Pat Becker, author and hostess of DogTalkTV.com

PatBeckerBooks.com

agenda

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Top

you just can't miss!

LITTLE ROCK TOUCHDOWN CLUB Sept. 7, 14, 20, 27

Doubletree Hotel — Little Rock The Little Rock Touchdown Club is back, and its organizers boast that this year’s lineup of speakers is the best yet. This month’s cast list includes Vince Young, Terry Bradshaw, Darren McFadden and Hunter Yurachek.

JASON ALDEAN Sept. 9

Walmart AMP — Rogers

Jason Aldean is “back in the saddle” once again and on a tour across the country.

This month, the decorated artist makes a stop in Northwest Arkansas.

ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS VS TEXAS LONGHORNS Sept. 11

Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium — Fayetteville

After a years-long hiatus, the old Southwest Conference rivals are matched up again in what should be a game to remember in Fayetteville.

ARKANSAS COMIC CON Sept. 11, 12

Statehouse Convention Center — Little Rock It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Arkansas Comic Con. This year’s list of guests from all realms of pop-culture include Bruce Campbell, Jim O’Heir and Thomas Ian Nicholas, just to name a few.

LITTLE ROCKTOBERFEST 2021 Sept. 25

War Memorial Stadium — Little Rock One of the most epic beer events in all of Arkansas is back this year.

Expect plenty of beer to try from across the world, as well as from local Arkansas craft breweries.

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events

September 6

Top 3 events to do at home Editor’s Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the events and information listed are subject to change.

For the events you attend this month, please remember to be safe and abide by the most current guidelines set forth by Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Health.

FINDING FAMILY FACTS (VIRTUAL) Sept. 13

www.cals.org

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME (VIRTUAL) Sept. 7, 14, 21, 28 www.faylib.org

AGFC VIRTUAL NATURE CENTER www.agfcnaturecenter.com

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aymag.com

home

EXPERTS in INNOVATION

By JULIE CRAIG // Photos courtesy RIVER ROCK BUILDERS

After 22 years in business, renowned builder Keith Wingfield of River Rock Builders continues to dazzle with his innovative designs

W

ith one look at the custom work from the team at River Rock Builders, led by owners Patty and Keith Wingfield, it’s apparent innovation is king. A massive portfolio of one unique project after another makes River Rock true royalty when it comes to an out-of-the-box design, and a go-to company for whatever that eccentric idea is lingering in a homeowner’s head.

When the word “innovative” comes to mind, one might also think of the words “set apart.” Because no idea is ever the same, River Rock caters each design to the homeowner’s exact needs by using in-house 3D design software to give clients a unique design experience where they can virtually walk the space of their dream home before it becomes reality.

“We’re able to show the volume of the space while we’re building and designing the space, and customers love it,” Keith says. “It’s so important because most people who aren’t experienced in building can’t just take a 2D flat piece of paper and see it in 3D.” In fact, Keith says River Rock was the first in Central Arkansas to initiate a design-build concept.

“We take plans already designed, but we offer that to help people who may not want to get a plan designer involved,” he says.

“We’re able to give them preliminary work and show them right then what we’re able to do as well as previous projects that demonstrate our abilities.”

Bridget MacKenzie, project design coordinator and ASID interior designer, says one of the reasons she was impressed with River Rock is because of the company’s attention to not only energy efficiency but a visual 3D design experience for their clients.

“With my role at River Rock, I can provide customers with professional design assistance which also aids in the process of designing the home in a 3D format. Our clients can then completely visualize how their new home will look when built,” McKenzie says. “The whole team is kept in line with office manager and bookkeeper, Christin Hayes, who has been a faithful and valuable member of the team for seven years.”

Keith is a Certified Graduate Builder, Cer-

(Jamison Mosley)

tified Green Professional and LEED AP, and River Rock is the most active Energy Star® Builder in Central Arkansas. River Rock is proud to have built the third single-family home in the world to meet L.E.E.D. v4.1 Platinum standards. This project was the nationwide winner of Outstanding Single Family Project of the Year and People’s Choice Residential Project of the Year by the United States Green Building Council.

“Our model is always going to be sustainability and energy efficiency — it’s that important,” Keith says. “We’ve branded ourselves with that over the years, so we get a lot

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of referrals.”

Naturally, because sustainability is at its core, the River Rock team hired Ryan Renard as project manager, a member of the first class of students to graduate from the University of Arkansas with a sustainability minor from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

“It’s one of the principles that first attracted me to River Rock Builders,” Renard says.

“It’s easy to be ‘green,’ but it’s another thing to make it a creed and mindset that we bring to each build,” he says. “We try new products and new methods on each build to get better, and we test each and every home to make sure

“Our model is always going to be sustainability and energy efficient — it’s that important.”

(Jamison Mosley)

we are verifying the effectiveness and not using products or methods without a measurable result.”

Sustainability also means approaching builds from an economic perspective.

“Every improvement to the performance of the home has a payback period,” Renard says. “Part of my job is to help develop a plan for the parts of the build that get the most bang for the homeowner’s buck — the parts that get them the best results; a healthy and comfortable home with durable materials, without wasting their money.”

One particularly innovative home proj-

(Jamison Mosley)

ect built on Belle Pointe Drive in west Little Rock showcases a standout game room with magnificent views in a walkout basement format. The room is partially situated beneath a suspended concrete slab that does double duty as the single car garage above. While superbly aesthetically pleasing, there is a lot more to a project like this than first meets the eye.

“Everybody’s heard of the wet basement, so you have to do many things during construction,” Keith says. “Water management is critical — including proper drainage and foundation on the front-end to last a lifetime so that there is never any water migration into

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aymag.com

Innovation not only takes fresh creativity but also careful planning. the lower level.”

In other words, innovation not only takes fresh creativity but also careful planning.

“The efforts you make at the beginning of construction are really important because you can’t have a do-over,” Keith says. “It’s important to use the right methods because water, for instance, is the worst enemy of a house.”

And because Keith and the team love to accept a challenge, they also have a penchant for building on difficult terrain. Whether it’s a charming home built on a steep hillside, something modern perched on a ridge or a transitional-styled home hanging off both sides of a mountain, there is hardly a limit to what location they will take on next.

“I’m not afraid of those because I’ve done them so many times,” Keith says. “I employ professional technical engineers to help with the engineering aspects to make sure the home is firmly built on the terrain and built for wind [among other factors],” he says.

For example, one particular project in Maumelle involved a number of specialty hold-down devices on all corners and both window and door openings just to properly sustain wind and anchor the house to its foundation. The team had a challenge of cutting the top of the ridge off and pushing it off each side to build the home site, resulting in an eyecatching exterior setup.

A set of 10-feet-tall by 20-feet-wide

pocketing multi-slide patio doors by Pella on each side of the living area overlooks Shinall Mountain in the west to the Simmons Tower downtown and Emerald Park on top of the bluffs to the east. “[Difficult terrain projects] do take more time, but once you get used to that, it makes it

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somewhat of a niche market,” Keith says. “It’s so rewarding to me to attack the terrain and build a house on it; a piece of flat ground is easy, and anyone can do it.”

And that’s a true testament to how Keith and the River Rock team continue to be experts in innovation.

CUSTOM

home builders

THANK YOU AY readers and our customers of more than 22 years for voting us AY’s Best Home Builder of 2021!

501-416-8986 | RiverRockBuilders.net | Little Rock, Arkansas

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Discover a complete decorative resource in North Little Rock: • porcelain and ceramic tile; • natural stone tile, mosaics, and countertops – as well as economical manufactured stone; • hardwood and laminate flooring; • sturdy cladding from MAC Metal Architectural; • products for gracious outdoor living, such as fireplaces, fire pits, and kitchen equipment; and • decorative iron doors that make a strong first impression.

Acme Brick Tile & Stone is Central Arkansas’ best resource not only for brick but also for quality and service.

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home

UNPRECEDENTED TIMES

CALL FOR INNOVATIVE MEASURES

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A

daptation and innovation have been the themes of the past year. We learned how to work from home, our children learned how to “attend” school from home, and we stumbled our way through figuring out all the things in between. From last September to now, many of those pandemic pivots have dissolved, but plenty more remain.

Among the latter include the many facets of the home market.

On the home building side of things, these innovations involved completely new desires from customers and requirements for builders.

Richard Harp of Richard Harp Homes has been building homes in Arkansas since 1994, but nothing compares to the past year and a half.

“The trends we are seeing as we move through the COVID-19 era are requests for a little more heated and cooled space than typical in the new homes that we are building, and more dedicated office spaces,” he says.

Harp explains that not all of these added elements of stay-at-home functionality are rigid “home offices,” per se, but sometimes can simply be a separate room away from the more bustling parts of the home where work — be it for school or an employer — can be done without interruption.

Outside of the home, Harp says the to-do list gets even longer.

“We are building 1400-square-foot porches, often with full-fledged outdoor kitchens,” he shares. “It seems pools are in half of our new home requests, and other fun items like more A/V [equipment] … and hanging daybeds are becoming more popular.”

Bill Parkinson of Parkinson Building Group echoes a lot of these sentiments.

“The biggest trend that we see right now is that people are making their homes more of an oasis than in previous years,” he says. “Fueled by the pandemic, we are putting in more pools, outdoor living spaces, outdoor kitchens, home offices, exercise rooms, media rooms and fun features like golf simulators are falling onto more of our wish lists than in years past.

And it’s not just local builders and Realtors from around Arkansas chatting about these alterations. Last year, Realtor.com reported on four distinct pandemic-related trends that would not be going away anytime soon; one of which was about home office space, another about outdoor oases. The fact that this article was published in November 2020 and local homebuilders are still talking about the trends this far into 2021 more than proves the prescience. If you’re in the market for a new home or renovation, it’s probably safe to now say that these innovations are not mere fads — they appear to have real staying power.

It’s often said that “home is where the heart is.” Now, it appears it’s where everything else can be, too.

“People are spending more time at home, and as a result, they are bringing their favorite features there,” Parkinson says.

Photos of 42 Chenal Circle, Little Rock.

(Courtesy) Listing agency: Capital Sotheby’s International Realty.

your

DESTINATION for something different

Thank you for voting us the Innovative Home Winner in Home Furnishings! At Brashears we believe furniture shopping should be an enjoyable experience. That’s why we do things a little differently—creating a relaxed shopping environment where you can find unique, quality items that fit your lifestyle and personality.

Visit us in-store or shop online at brashears.com © 2021 Brashears Furniture

AY About You is proud to present its inaugural Innovative Home Awards, showcasing some of the best names in home innovation from across the state. The following winners were derived from thousands of votes cast by you, our readers.

Door Designers Elite Entries Iron Doors

TAGGART Architects.

Drywall Vaughn's Drywall Finishing Electrician Gary Houston Electric Entertainment and Media Installation InstallAV Fencing/Gates/Railing Fence World Fireplaces/Mantles/Inserts Congo Fireplace & Patio Flooring C&F Flooring and Rug Gallery Appliances Metro Appliances & More

Bathroom Fixtures Sanders Supply, Inc.

Closet/Organization The Marshall Concept

Architect TAGGART Architects

Brick Acme Brick

Concrete/Resurfacing American Concrete Concepts

Art Boswell Mourot Fine Art

Cabinet Builders Duke Custom Cabinets

Contractor Dillon Homes

Awnings Maple Leaf Awning and Canvas

Cleaning Services Molly Maid of Greater Little Rock

Countertops Countertop World

50 1 . 221 . 20 3 2

•

Garage Door Installation Royal Overhead Door Generators Gary Houston Electric Glass Ace Glass Gutters LeafGuard of Arkansas

d e b i d av i s i n t e r i o r d e s i g n . c o m

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Little Rock…(501) 225-1453…7701 Cantrell Road North Little Rock…(501) 753-4567…5307 JFK Blvd.

Hot Springs…(501) 760-2000…1200 Airport Road Conway…(501) 504-2002…1800 E. Oak Street Arkadelphia…(870) 245-5666…2101 Pine Street Searcy…(501) 305-3110…311 W. Pleasure Street, Ste. 6 www.legacytermiteandpest.com.

Debi Davis Interior Design.

Hardware Kaufman by Design

Home Builder Parkinson Building Group

Home Insurance Arkansas Best Insurance Agency

Home Window Tint SunStop Window Tinting

Heat and Air Rood Heating & Cooling, Inc

Home Furniture Brashears Furniture

Home Repair/Remodeling Sharlow Builders and Developers

Interior Designer/Decorator Debi Davis Interior Design

Home Accessories Nest Home & Outdoor

Home Inspector RAN Inspections

Home Security Triple-S Alarm Co.

Landscaping Maple Leaf Lawns

THANKS FOR VOTING US

BEST PLACE FOR KITCHEN APPLIANCES

8800 Maumelle Blvd North Little Rock, AR 72113

MetroAppliancesAndMore.com 31

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FIRST NATIONAL TITLE COMPANY LITTLE ROCK 415 N McKinley, Ste 1200 Little Rock, AR 72205 501-221-0101

EUREKA SPRINGS 70 South Main St, Ste 2 Eureka Springs, AR 72632 479-253-5080

ARKADELPHIA 501 Main St Arkadelphia, AR 71923 870-246-2821

HEBER SPRINGS 504 S 4th St Heber Springs, AR 72543 501-365-1260

HARRISON 214 South Main St Harrison, AR 72601 870-391-8012

BENTON 216 W Sevier St Benton, AR 72015 501-315-5900

JASPER 201 North Stone St Jasper, AR 72641 870-446-2244

EL DORADO 200 N. Jefferson Ave., #514 El Dorado, AR 71730 870-863-6053

BENTONVILLE 300 SW 28th St Bentonville, AR 72712 479-464-4995

MALVERN 226 Olive St Malvern, AR 72104 501-332-5767

FAYETTEVILLE 1420 E. Augustine Ln, Ste 1 Fayetteville, AR 72703 479-695-6100

MARSHALL 209 S. Highway 27 Marshall, AR 72650 870-448-5450

SHERIDAN 206 N Rose St Sheridan, AR 72150 870-942-8084

NLR / SHERWOOD 313 W. Kiehl Ave. Sherwood, AR 72120 501-819-0212 NEW! HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE 110 La Plaza West, Suite C Hot Springs Village, AR 71909 501-209-8171

GREERS FERRY 8249 Edgemont Rd Greers Ferry, AR 72067 501-825-6800 CABOT 2241 Bill Foster Memorial Highway, Ste B Cabot, AR 72023 501-259-9003 STUTTGART 721 South Main St Stuttgart, AR 72160 870-455-1083

DEWITT 136 Court Square DeWitt, AR 72042 870-455-1081 Faulkner County, a Division of First National Title Co.

CONWAY 711 Locust St Conway, AR 72034 Phone: 501-327-6723

GREENBRIER 8 Wilson Farm Road, Ste A Greenbrier, AR 72058 501-679-0600 DANVILLE 410 W. Main St Danville, AR 72833 479-495-2281 Alley Abstract, a Division of First National Title Co.

MOUNTAIN HOME 100 E. 7th St Mountain Home, AR 72653 870-425-2264

NEW! BRYANT 3525 HWY 5 N Bryant, AR 72019 501-943-5260

WWW.FIRSTNATIONALTITLE.NET Jim Pender

Owner, President

With the recent acquisition of two title companies, First National Title Company is the largest independent, locally owned title company serving Arkansas. We have a superior team of experts across Arkansas to serve your title needs.

David Harrison

Executive Vice President

As a custom home building firm, we are focused on our client’s needs and desires. We work closely with our clients from the identification of a lot to the development and pricing of a plan to the building and creation of the vision.

501.954.8570 // parkinsonbuildinggroup.com

ACME Brick.

Lighting TEC Electric Lumber Company Lumber1 Home Center Mortgage Company Bank of England Mortgage Moving Company College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving Outdoor Kitchens/Outdoor spaces Antique Brick Paint Store Peter's Flooring & Paint Painter Aric Phippin Patio Furniture Ken Rash's of Arkansas Pest Control Legacy Termite & Pest Control Plumbing Southern Pipe & Supply Pools/Spas/Hot Tubs Elite Pools by Aloha

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Roofers Cornerstone Construction Rugs Martinous Oriental Rug Company Pella Windows & Doors.

Saferooms Tornado Place of Arkansas Sheds/Outdoor Storage Arkansas Portable Buildings Shower Installation Re-Bath Siding Wilson's Home Improvement Solar Panels Sunpro Solar Sun Rooms Sawyer's, Inc. Tile Triton Stone of Little Rock Title Company First National Title Company Window Installation Pella Windows & Doors Window Treatments Budget Blinds of Rogers

Steve Helton Owner/Certified Licensed Home Inspector HI 2041

Walls Don’t Talk...

Get all the facts before you buy with a certified home inspection from RAN Inspections.

• Same day report • Professional service • Expert accuracy • Convenient scheduling 501-920-0126 • raninspections@gmail.com 35

aymag.com

Prepare for Fall • Heat-rated vented logs • Sizes 21” to 36” • Natural or LP gas • Installation available

19650 I-30, Benton congofp.com

501.316.4328

Kohler Emergency Generators When You Need POWER. Keep the Lights On, No Matter What Arkansas Weather Brings

Starts in Seconds Powered by Natural Gas Operates Quietly Perfect for Every Budget Home or Commercial Installation Easy Maintenance

Gary Houston Electric Company (501) 375-8330 • service@ghec.us www.garyhoustonelectric.com Licensed. Bonded. Insured 36

As a Kohler Authorized Dealer for generators, we an install and service generators to your home or office. You’ll have peace of mind knowing you’ll have the electricity you need to stay comfortable no matter how long it takes for the line to be repaired.

Creating a comfortable home, no matter the season.

Windows & Doors

Pella is the most preferred window brand by homeowners in Little Rock.* Your local Pella® team is ready to show you the right window or door for your home and budget.

Whether wood, vinyl or fiberglass, let our team find the right product that fits your vision. Pella can help support the completion of your project - from a new construction install to a remodel project.

Your home is unique, so you shouldn’t have to settle for an ordinary window or door.

Call or visit today to schedule your free in-home consultation and learn more.

8740 Maumelle Blvd, North Little Rock 501.758.5050 PellaLittleRock.com *Based on a 2020 survey of leading window brands among homeowners.

SU NST OP

• Automotive Window Tinting • Residential Window Tinting • Commerical Window Tinting

window tinting

13120 Crystal Hill Rd. Ste F North Little Rock, AR 72113 (501) 708-0903 / sunstopar.com

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home

All About Homes

O

ver the past year, the home market has been a whirlwind for professionals and patrons alike. For starters, lumber prices soared to unprecedented heights — just when the demand for new-builds was at similarly peaked levels. On the real estate side of things, Realtors have been scrambling to take care of their clients amid this fast-paced climate, when homes have been listing and closing in mere weeks.

As all of these elements combine into what can seem like a hectic and stress-filled time to be both a buyer and seller, AY About You has devised this special issue of the magazine to help its readers navigate these uncharted waters.

First, we hear from a few different home builders and home services providers. Then, it’s all about the real estate world with the Arkansas REALTORS® Association’s annual awards and REALTOR® of the Year finalists, as well as the annual awards from the Little Rock REALTORS® Association and the Northwest Arkansas Board of REALTORS®. This is capped off by the second iteration of AY ’s Best Realtors, voted on by readers.

Pandemic or not, your journey to a new home doesn’t have to be difficult.

You just need the right person or business to help. The following pages feature plenty from which to choose.

RICHARD HARP HOMES Richard Harp Homes has brought his client’s vision to life for over 25 years. Using the design-build process, he has built homes that feature all the latest advancements in each phase of construction – ensuring each home is energy efficient and high performance.

Richard understands the importance of building your dream home on time and on budget. He and his team of professionals make the construction process enjoyable by applying experience, education and technology to guide clients through the home building process. Richard works closely with each client offering exceptional service with an emphasis on quality, value, honesty and fairness.

Richard earned his undergraduate degree in finance at the University of Arkansas and later an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He got his professional start in life by working as a paid intern for Alice Walton, of Walmart fame, after winning the Northwest Arkansas Cooperative Education Scholarship in Finance. Richard then worked as a financial analyst for Tyson Foods and Alltel Communications where he credits his financial business acumen and strong communication skills. While working a full time job, Richard kicked off his career by building starter homes in 1994.

Richard has continued to invest in the education of himself and his team, which he feels is a key to his success. Harp has a long line of accreditations to his name as a builder. He holds seven designations with the National Association of Homebuilders. But being a Master Certified Green Professional is his highest accolade. Yet, if you know him personally, he will easily pepper his buildertalk with anything that deals with his adoring wife, Brandy, and their two children, Nicholas and Isabella.

Richard Harp is not only mindful of your budget but your time and the necessary quality of the finished product. Call him today to see what dreams can come true with your next remodel or new build project.

501.690.4277 richardharphomes.com

Marty Davidson, third generation CEO and owner; and Jay Davidson, fourth generation (and current) CEO and owner.

SOUTHERN PIPE & SUPPLY Who is Southern Pipe & Supply?

At Southern Pipe & Supply, we serve professionals and homeowners across the southeast with the very best in brand name plumbing, heating and air conditioning (HVAC), waterworks, industrial and electrical supplies. Southern Pipe is proud of its wide customer base, ranging from the smallest plumbing operation, to multi-crew industrial contractors, to city waterworks, and to homeowners looking to remodel that kitchen or bathroom. Our family members — what we call our employees — are available to help you on your next project no matter the size — anytime and anywhere. We’re headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi, where our founder, Louis Davidson, began his pursuit of the American dream as a 20-year-old Russian immigrant in 1901. Our fourth generation of family has taken the helm, and we are still building our business on a firm foundation of integrity, commitment and trust.

Southern Pipe’s 425,000-square-foot Central Distribution Center (CDC) supports our 124 branches with a constantly turning $50 million inventory. Though our CDC averages more than 100,000 transactions per month, it boasts an error rate of less than 1 percent on orders shipped to the branches. On top of this, we’ve worked with our customers to designate more than 900 products as critical-service items — essential products and equipment that customers need every day. On orders for these crucial items, our CDC has achieved a near-perfect “fill rate” of 99.7 percent. For the consumer, our Southern Bath & Kitchen designer showrooms amount to a homeowner’s theme park. We have dozens of locations throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee. Our experts will spend all the time you need to make sure you get the perfect premium cabinetry, countertops, appliances, showers, tubs, faucets and sinks. Whether you are a contractor working on a big building project or a homeowner planning your dream kitchen, Southern Pipe can show you what it’s like to experience intimate customer service. To us, you’re part of the family.

Founding

In 1901, a 20-year-old Russian entrepreneur named Louis Davidson boarded

a ship bound for America. Louis had hoped to sail into New York Harbor, but he could find passage only aboard a vessel bound for Mobile, Alabama. That was still America, the land of opportunity, so he took it.

Undeterred, he tried his hand at a number of enterprises. In 1918, he opened a scrap metal business and finally found his niche.

The name of his new company reflected his ambitions of expanding beyond Mississippi: the St. Louis Junk Company.

His sons, Meyer and Sammie, joined the business in 1930, and in 1938, the company sold its first carload of steel pipe. Within a year, the focus of the business shifted to plumbing supply, and the name changed to Southern Pipe & Supply Company.

Meyer and Sammie weren’t business-school graduates or corporate managers, and they only knew one way to operate a business: family style. They treated both customers and employees with respect and affection — a spirit that lives on today at Southern Pipe & Supply. In fact, we still refer to our employees as “family members.” For Meyer and Sammie, building relationships and trust were most important. Everything else followed from that.

The Third & Fourth Generations

Marty Davidson, Meyer’s son, learned that philosophy early. He began stocking shelves at age 5 and took over the company in 1968.

Today, he’s the chairman of one of the largest wholesalers of top-quality, name-brand plumbing, heating, air-conditioning (HVAC), industrial, mechanical and waterworks materials in the southeast. Jay, his son, is president–representing the fourth generation to carry on the family legacy.

Southern Pipe & Supply now has 124 locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee.

We distribute products from the world’s most renowned vendors, such as Kohler, Delta, Elkay, Pfister, Rheem, Watts, Zurn, Lennox and Ridgid — just to name a few. And we offer the best customer service in the industry, simply because that’s the only way we know how to do business.

We still think about Louis Davidson.

We try to imagine the excitement he must have felt as that ship carried him toward the American dream. We do our best every day to try to make him proud.

1000 Rushing Circle • Little Rock • (501) 663-9700 • southernpipe.com

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E

nergy Air Inc. (EAI) has served Central Arkansas’ multi-faceted heating and cooling needs since 1992, a longevity that continues to make EAI one of the most trusted and experienced names in the business.

EAI is helmed by president and CEO, Tracie J. Kelley, who is also the driving force of KellCo Custom Homes and KellCo Real Estate. Kelley’s inspiration was paved by her father, who is an expert in the industry for many long years. It has been a natural journey for Kelley to follow his footsteps, in her own way, to create what has become the state’s premier heating and air conditioning company.

“Maintaining a strong will to push forward and staying focused on the individual needs of my clients certainly wasn’t learned in any textbook, but by great work ethics and self-discipline, which has resulted in over 25 years of industry experience and success,” she says.

For her unwavering commitments to her customers at EAI and her other two companies, Kelley was named one of Arkansas Money & Politics’ “Power Women” in 2019. Such accolades did not change the fundamentals by which Kelley operates, instead, motivating her to perform even greater for her clients. “I’ve been surrounded and loved by a multitude of intelligent and powerful people who have taught me so much,” she says. “It truly takes a village and I am surrounded by the very best.”

EAI provides exceptional HVAC services to all makes and models, and holds a Class “A” license, Refrigerant license, which allows EAI to offer an even greater variety of services to its customers. “As Arkansas’ No. 1 choice in a heating and air company, we provide an extensive list of services for your home and your business needs,” Kelley says. EAI offers convenience to its customers by providing homeowners with several added services who value working with one company for many needs, including, electrical, plumbing, generators and ductless systems, just to name a few.

“EAI is proud to offer only the very best in customer satisfaction, warranties and pricing, guaranteed,” Kelley says.

501.913.8001 501.993.5232 energyairAR.com

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T Power Custom he

of

Tracie J. Kelley

is the president and CEO of KellCo Custom Homes, Inc., Energy Air, Inc. and KellCo Real Estate, Inc. Since 1992, Kelley has been in custom home building and the real estate industry, serving all of Central Arkansas.

“The most important task for me right from the start is establishing a solid relationship and a good understanding of my clients’ best interests of their new home, which includes an excellent level of communication,” Kelley says. “Once a budget and approval process has been established, I then start the planning and architectural design phases. For me, it’s much more than just building a home. My greatest passion in custom home building is having the ability to build with a unique vision that adds personal testimonies to each project within the communities of Arkansas.”

Kelley’s overall goal is for the homes she builds to be a reflection of its owners and their aspirations.

501.993.5232 | kellcocustomhomes.com

KellCo Real Estate

S

ince 1994, real estate professional Tracie J. Kelley has dominated the market at every angle and her business has evolved into a collaboration of more than 35 team members delivering exceptional services and unwavering customer service at every level. Kelley recognizes that her many successes through the industry continue to be deserved only by the team that she has carefully grown. “My work is only as good as the people I chose to work with,” she says.

As president and chief executive officer of KellCo Custom Homes, Inc., Energy Air, Inc. and KellCo Real Estate, Inc., Kelley maintains the ability to provide powerful insight for her clients, whether it be the design or building of a new home, selling her homes or the overall mechanics of the home, this level of service has set Kelley apart from the market.

KellCo Real Estate is proud to team with its principal broker, Mary A. Freeman, who instills a wealth of knowledge into the firm.

Mary has been in the real estate industry since 1984 and delivers outstanding customer service. Together, the team at KellCo Real Estate works hard for its clients and delivers only the best in expectations. Whether you’re in the market to buy, sell, or even build, they stand ready to over-deliver and outperform, any day — serving all of Central Arkansas.

“Should we get the paperwork ready?”

501.913.8001 501.590.0607 501.993.5232

the next level of counter tops The exquisite quality of the counter tops and other stone products we produce is what takes Countertop World to a level of our own. We have the most advanced, state-of-the-art machinery available. Our cuts, edges, and finishes are more precise. Our completion times are faster. The precision and speed of our tools and the expertise of our team allows us to produce premiere, next-level products. the Since we have the largest selection and variety of stone slabs in-stock, there’s a great chance you will find more options here you didn’t see elsewhere. We also carry multiple lines of bathtubs, faucets, sinks, hardware, and other premium, luxury home products. You can find all the pieces you are looking in one place, Countertop World. Don’t just take our word for it. Come see why so many of the areas top developers and builders trust Countertop World to deliver the best tops available.

WWW.COUNTERTOPWORLDAR.COM 26096 INTERSTATE 30, BRYANT, AR 72022 CONTACT@COUNTERTOPWORLDAR.COM 501-481-8117

The Key Team: Mindy Strand, Morgan Abner, Nick Priest

Tracer Austin

The JC Goffe Team: JC Goffe, JD Smith, Lane Goff, Matt Moore

Gina Osier

Carrie Robertson

Chrissy Dougherty

Jonathan Hicks

Ryan Cotroneo

The Kidd Team: Corbin Kidd, Gregg Kidd

See why we have the edge in real estate.

edgerealtyar.com

(501) 985-4663

REAL ESTATE SERVICES

Crye-Leike congratulates our top producers in 28 offices across the state.

Jennifer Welch Harold Crye, CEO

#1 IN ARKANSAS | #3 IN THE NATION | WWW.CRYE-LEIKE.COM

REALTORS

®

B

of the Year

eing a real estate professional in today’s world requires a constant ability to adapt and to dedicate a significant portion of one’s life to the trade. From late-night and weekend home showings to the fielding of texts and phone calls 24/7 to the unprecedented nature of the ongoing pandemic, the best REALTORS are available,

approachable and always ready to serve their clients. All of the following men and women exemplify each of these traits, and then some. Each has been nominated to be the Arkansas REALTOR of the Year by his or her local board or association for outstanding achievements and honorable service to the communities served.

HAYES OLSON

PAM HART

The Property Shoppe

Crye-Leike Brock Real Estate

GARY LOVELL

CHANEY BREWER

Batesville Board of REALTORS®

Cleburne County Board of REALTORS®

Conway and Perry Counties Board of REALTORS®

Crawford County Board of REALTORS® Jim White Realty, Inc.

Moore and Co. Realtors

RUSSELL WREN

PAM WILSON

Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

CENTURY 21 United

SPENCER HAWKS

AARON BREWER

Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Mountain Vista Real Estate

PHILLIP JONES

BOB DODSON

Arkansas Mountain Real Estate

RE/MAX Unlimited

Eastern Arkansas Board of REALTORS®

El Dorado Board of REALTORS®

Faulkner County Board of REALTORS®

Fort Smith Board of REALTORS®

Greers Ferry Lake Area Board of REALTORS®

54

Harrison District Board of REALTORS®

KAROL BAILES

GREG JAGGERS

Crye Leike Realtors

Real Estate Solutions

STACY HAMILTON

SANDRA THOMAS

Capital Sotheby's International Realty

Select Realty

TELICIA WADE PERRY

BOB WALKER

ERA Doty Real Estate

Coldwell Banker RPM Group

STACY MURRY

DON MCNAUGHTON

CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

McNaughton Real Estate

SANDRA KELLEY

KATHLEEN FREEMAN

Weichert, Realtors Home Source

RE/MAX First

CARLA THOMAS

HOPE HARTNESS

Hot Springs Board of REALTORS®

Jefferson County Board of REALTORS®

Little Rock REALTORS® Association

Mena Area Board of REALTORS®

North Central Board of REALTORS®

North Pulaski Board of REALTORS®

Northeast Arkansas Board of REALTORS®

Paragould Board of REALTORS®

Northwest Arkansas Board of REALTORS®

Russellville Board of REALTORS®

South Central Arkansas REALTORS® Association

Southeast Arkansas Board of REALTORS® Hope & Company Realty

CENTURY 21 Parker & Scroggins Realty

KAREN MOTE

JOHN TATE

Gerald Haire Realty

Ozark Gateway Realty

Texarkana Board of REALTORS® Association

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Tri-County Board of REALTORS®

aymag.com

Congratulations!

Stacy Hamilton Realtor of the Year for the Little Rock Realtors Association

Mobile: (501) 786-0024 • Phone: (501) 551-0207

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Free Home Audits from Entergy Solutions When buying a house, you want a residence that is comfortable and feels like home. With a free home audit from Entergy Solutions, we’ll look for problem areas throughout the house in order to improve energy efficiency and lower energy costs. Visit our website or call to schedule.

EntergySolutionsAR.com | 866.627.9177

Lower energy bill. Happier clients.

“We learned a lot about our home. We’ve noticed a decrease in our energy costs since the work was done. I’d definitely recommend the program.” – Kaneisha Campbell

A message from Entergy Arkansas, LLC ©2021 Entergy Services, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Congratulating Our Top Producer Michelle Sanders knows Chenal. For the past 30 years, Michelle has worked side-by-side with builders, agents and homeowners who recognize the many benefits of working and living in Chenal.

As a Lifetime Member of the Little Rock Realtors® Association’s Million Dollar Club, Michelle specializes in new construction and residential lot sales, focusing her knowledge and experience on Chenal buyers, sellers and builders.

Chenal Properties congratulates our Top Producer.

msanders@chenal.com | 501-821-9108 7 Chenal Club Blvd. | Little Rock, AR 72223 chenal.com

Michelle Sanders CRS, GRI, Principal Broker

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OF 2021

ABOUT YOU'S

List provided by Arkansas Realtor Association.

2021 Little Rock REALTORS® Association Awards of Distinction TEAMS Double Diamond 501 Partners Tiffany Hoffman Smith, Lila Pearsall Quinn, Joanne Homeyer, Charlene Schulte, Jeffrey Burton, Kathy Kane, Maryanne Campbell, Andrew Webre RE501 Realtor Partners Coney Campbell Team Tina Coney, Angela Campbell Keller Williams Realty Jennifer Adkins Team Jennifer Adkins, Stanton Robinson, Bryan Pitts, Jessica Suen iRealty Arkansas Kennon Team Kristen Kennon, Jon Kennon, Brandon Owens iRealty Arkansas Ray Ellen Group Elisabeth Roedel, Ray Ellen Pixel Properties Sarah Bailey & Company Sarah Bailey, Francesca Tolson Pixel Properties

The Ellison Group Kerry Ellison, Hannah Thomas, Samantha Crawford, Sarah White,

Lauren Gonzalez, Shekela Hightower, Ashley Crawford, Madison Ralph, Angela Stowell, Ellen Nichol, Danielle Bratton, Stephanie Singleton Keller Williams Realty The Holly Driver Team Holly Driver, April Wingfield, Heather Stuart, Amy Bush Aspire Realty Group The Honea Team Lolly Honea, Michelle Honea Keller Williams Realty The Rackley Team Chase Rackley Rackley Realty The Sumbles Team Randy Sumbles, Kathe Sumbles Keller Williams Realty Val Hansen Team Wendy Pruett, Lori Evans, Vanessa Muffoletto, Jack Hansen, Val Hansen, Troy Shelton, Christopher Scribner RE/MAX Properties

Claire Realty Group Claire Brown Keller Williams Realty Cranford Holcomb Team Donna Cranford, Bob Holcomb, Judy Nelsen iRealty Arkansas JJC Real Estate Group Jacob Campbell, Jordan Briley Campbell Keller Williams Realty Johnny & Cece McKay Team Johnny McKay, Cece McKay Crye-Leike REALTORS Kanis Loveless Team Edward Loveless, Wally Loveless iRealty Arkansas Stan McLellan Team Stanley McLellan McLellan & Associates Real Estate Group Team Sold It! Jenica Clement, Leigh Lawson TMK Properties

Diamond Caristiana and Jc Team Caristiana Hoey, Jc (John) McInnis Carolyn Russell Real Estate, Inc.

The Brunson Team Undre Brunson, Tewanna Brunson Keller Williams Realty The Dream Team Khayya Ragland, Samuel Smith, Michael Washington Truman Ball Real Estate The Perry Team Amber Perry, Wade Perry The Property Group

Platinum Mid South Realty Nick Counts Mid South Realty Sudduth Richardson Team Beckie Sudduth, Marci Richardson iRealty Arkansas Walker-Williams Team Tracie Walker, Bill Williams Modern Realty Group INDIVIDUALS Double Diamond Scott Deaton Deaton Group Realty

Diana Dominguez Aspire Realty Group Conley Golden The Janet Jones Company Brandy Harp Jon Underhill Real Estate Margaret Bell Hughes The Property Group Casey Jones The Janet Jones Company Charles Keener RE/MAX Affiliates Realty Lawson Maddox Arkansas Land and Realty Katherine Melhorn The Janet Jones Company Valerie Moran Crye-Leike REALTORS Kanis Karen Moulton Capital Sotheby's International Realty Lynn Pangburn CBRPM Group-WLR Susan Reynolds The Janet Jones Company

LITTLE ROCK ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS Level 1: Bronze--$1,000,000 Level 2: Silver--$2,000,000 Level 3: Gold--$3,500,000

58

Level 4: Platinum--$5,000,000 Level 5: Diamond--$7,000,000 Level 6: Double Diamond--$14,000,000 and up

Michelle Sanders Chenal Properties Rebecca Smith The Janet Jones Company Shelli Stine Epic Real Estate Debbie Teague The Janet Jones Company Stephanie Tharp Jon Underhill Real Estate Jon Underhill Jon Underhill Real Estate Amber Wood Mid South Realty

Diamond Dennis Adkins iRealty Arkansas Nathan Angel CBRPM Group-WLR Todd Armstrong iRealty Arkansas Jonie Burks The Charlotte John Company Bob Bushmiaer The Janet Jones Company Marva Caldwell CBRPM Group-Midtown Jay Calhoun Aspire Realty Group Donna Carlson Jon Underhill Real Estate Jill Childers The Charlotte John Company LaKesha Crow CBRPM Group-Midtown Donna Dailey The Janet Jones Company Susan Desselle Capital Sotheby's International Realty Walt Dickinson RE/MAX Affiliates Realty Whitney Elmore CBRPM Group-Midtown

April Findlay The Charlotte John Company Rebecca Finney Keller Williams Realty Lisa Fort CBRPM Group-Midtown Owen Gazette The Janet Jones Company Amber Gibbons The Charlotte John Company Stacy Hamilton Capital Sotheby's International Realty Cara Hazlewood The Property Group Tara Helgestad Lotus Realty Jean Hurst CBRPM Group-Midtown Stephanie Hurst CBRPM Group-WLR Amanda Jackson The Charlotte John Company Kelly Johnson The Janet Jones Company Margaret King The Janet Jones Company Catherine Langley The Janet Jones Company Kevin Marsh RE/MAX Affiliates Realty

Dana Patterson-Sims Remax Elite

Kenny Van Patten CBRPM Group-Midtown

Kristen Hinson The Property Group

Allison Pickell CBRPM-Midtown

Cassie Wells Keller Williams Realty

Pat Hitt CBRPM Group-Midtown

Ashley Porterfield RE/MAX Elite

Yanyan Xie Keller Williams Realty

Inez Reeder Capital Sotheby's International Realty

Emily Young The Charlotte John Company

Charlene Jeannie Johnson Capital Sotheby's International Realty

Johnny Reynolds Superior Real Estate, Inc. Tracy Rice Keller Williams Realty Robert Richardson Crye-Leike Realtors Kanis

Jessica Baxter Pixel Properties Mollie Birch The Charlotte John Company

Matty Ross The Charlotte John Company

Arlene Blann CBRPM Group-WLR

Linda Sanders Crye-Leike Realtors Kanis Scott Sandlin CBRPM Group-Midtown Kimberly Santos Innovative Realty Allison Schuetzle eXp Realty John Selva Engel & Volkers Abbie Stalnaker The Property Group Barbara Swesey iRealty Arkansas Becky Tanner Keller Williams Realty

Kelly McConnell Jon Underhill Real Estate

Mitsy Tharp Aspire Realty Group

Michelle M. Miller The Charlotte John Company

Marti Thomas The Janet Jones Company

Kevin Newcomb The Janet Jones Company

Sharon Adkins iRealty Arkansas

Kim Robbins CBRPM Group-Midtown

Emily Barnes McCarty The Charlotte John Company

Johnny Mitchum Keller Williams Realty

Platinum

Shannon Treece The Janet Jones Company Erin Tripcony Carle Properties Joel Tvedten River Rock Realty Company

Tranett Brooks Truman Ball Real Estate Jojo Carter Engle & Volkers Barbara Cherry The Janet Jones Company Lauren Clark The Charlotte John Company Jennifer Cook The Charlotte John Company Michael Couch CBRPM Group-WLR Kevin Daughtery CBRPM Group-Midtown Amanda Galbraith Capital Sotheby's International Realty Tracy Gill CBRPM Group-Maumelle Amy Glover-Bryant CBRPM Group-Midtown Mary Godfrey CBRPM Group-Midtown Monica Hale Plush Homes Company Realtors

Kerrie Joiner Century 21 United Robert Klein The Property Group Clark Marshall CBRPM Group-WLR Jennifer McCarty The Janet Jones Company Kristen McCready Keller Williams Realty Sheryl McKelvey The Charlotte John Company Kris McKenzie The Property Group Nicole Nark Pixel Properties Mary Kay Palmer TMK Properties Nate Perry The Property Group Laura Rogers River Trail Properties Lee Smith Aspire Realty Group Marci Henryson Smith Keller Williams Realty Michael Teague The Janet Jones Company Rhonda Ward Aspire Realty Group Kelly Wei RE/MAX Elite Joanna White Pixel Properties Dorothy Willoughby Coldwell Banker RPM Group-Midtown

Northwest Arkansas Board of REALTORS® CROSS PROPERTY SALES INDIVIDUALS Triple Diamond Somer Adams Lindsey & Associates Inc

Marcus Necessary Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Lauren Boozman Northey Portfolio Sotheby's International Realty William Payne Flat Fee Realty

Marion Aust Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Kendall Riggins Lindsey & Associates Inc

Heather Campbell Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville

Dee Rodes Portfolio Sotheby's International Realty

Dale Carlton Jr Carlton Realty, Inc

Dan Schwieder Twin Oaks Realty, Inc

John Carpenter Lindsey & Associates Inc

Melissa Sims First Star Realty

Toby Crawford Crawford Real Estate and Associates

Delton Williams Crye-Leike REALTORS, Gentry

Melanie Gabel Lindsey & Associates Inc Martha Haguewood Lindsey & Associates Inc

Double Diamond

Meza Harris Lindsey & Associates Inc

Misty Barnes Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteFayetteville

Aaron Hawes Landmark Real Estate and Investment LLC

Mary Bassett Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc

Ray Heflin Lindsey & Associates Inc

Chad Beebe Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Fayetteville

Michael Hodges Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Jan Holland Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville Kaci Johnson Realty Mart Linda Marquess Riverwood Homes Real Estate Misty McMullen McMullen Realty Group

Ryan Blackstone Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Jim Brandon Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Cody Burnett Burnett Real Estate Team ConnectRealty.com Randall Carney RE/MAX Associates, LLC

Faith Castleberry Neighborhood Realty Marcy Chavez Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Nicole Chervenyak Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Leah Childress Elevation Real Estate and Management Yuliya Colvin Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Lenore Cottrell The Brandon Group Matthew Dickhut Collier & Associates Nicky Dou Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Jerry Dou Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Natalie Edwards Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville

Sean Morris Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville Clay Porter Lindsey & Associates Inc Beckie Seba Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Michael Sims Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc Greg Taylor The Griffin Company Commercial DivisionSpringdale Tina Waggener Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Scott Waymire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Chase White Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Taylor Baker Equity Partners Realty Ty Ballinger Gibson Real Estate Debra Barnes Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville Sandy Bates Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville Jason Benham Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc Donna Bermingham Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Austin Bivens eXp Realty NWA Branch Brad Bruns Lindsey & Associates Inc Sheryl Carman Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Jackson Williams Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company

Jillian Chamberlin Neighborhood Realty

Doug Gibson Crye-Leike REALTORS Rogers

Diamond

Kenneth Childress Legend Realty Inc

Sherry Hardie Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Toula Abu-Hamdann Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Cammi Hevener Ward Jones, Inc

Mya Adloo Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Jean Lance Crye-Leike Realtors Bentonville Keith Marrs Legend Realty Inc Eden Mejia-Ashburn Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

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Lindsey Clark Collier & Associates Jeff Clifton Mossy Oak Properties of the Heartland John Coger Collier & Associates

Matthew Angulo Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Robin Collins Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville

Dave Armstrong Crye-Leike REALTORS-Bella Vista

Christine Cook Collier & Associates

Steven Atwell Buyers First Realty

Melinda Cox Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville

Kate Cox Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville

Ashley Fox Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Tiffany Cox Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Hayley Franklin The Brandon Group

Deanna Crook Homescape Realty Lorrie Crook Crye-Leike REALTORS, Springdale Brian Dandy Crye-Leike REALTORS Fayetteville Helen Dansker Crye-Leike REALTORS-Bella Vista Lisa Darling Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Robert Daugherty Legend Realty Inc

Adriana Franky Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Amanda Gainey McMullen Realty Group Christina Gervasi Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette James Gibson Gibson Real Estate Terrah Grayum Neighborhood Realty Jamie Grayum Neighborhood Realty Ben Grissom Lindsey & Associates Inc

Andres De Santiago Kendra & Co Realty

Joshua Hagan Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Allen Dietzschold eXp Realty NWA Branch

Ron Hager Neighborhood Realty

Charles Difani Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

April Hamm Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Christopher Dinwiddie The Exclusive Real Estate Group LLC

Rachelle Harris Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Jay Downing Flyer Homes Real Estate

Rebecca Heath Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Janice Eaton Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Gavin Edwards Synergy Realty Group, LLC Christopher Erstine Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Steve Fineberg Steve Fineberg & Associates

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS Level 1: Onyx--$2,000,000 Level 2: Amethyst--$3,000,000 Level 3: Sapphire--$4,000,000 Level 4: Emerald--$5,000,000 Ryan Hill The Virtual Realty Group Chris Hinkle Mossy Oak Properties of the Heartland Moe Holm Crye-Leike REALTORS-Bella Vista Tamera Holmes Sanderson & Associates Real Estate

Jennifer Huffaker Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville Greg Hughes Elite Realty Eileen Isola Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Margie Ivy Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville Kraig Jimenez Lindsey & Associates Inc Kim Jones Team Ag Real Estate Inc

Level 5: Diamond--$7,000,000 Level 6: Double Diamond--$14,000,000 Level 7: Triple Diamond--$21,000,000

Dave Layman Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company

David Mix Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc

Brenda Lee Prime Real Estate and Development

TJ Mohler Collier & Associates

Linda Lloyd Acorn Realty Peggy Lucero RE/MAX Associates, LLC Toni Luneau Homescape Realty

Shane Macias Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Brandi Mallard Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch Larry Marion Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc Jill Marley Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Lance Martin Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Heather Keenen Team Ag Real Estate Inc

Jason McClure Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company

Jody Hendrix Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Danielle Kelly Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Zachary Merrill Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Carmen Hennelly Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville

Milton Lamar Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Matt Miller Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Brenda LaRoche Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Fayettevillle

Jenny Miller Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Beth Hey Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate

Amber Latimer Gibson Real Estate

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Scott Miller Lindsey & Associates Inc

Emily Molloy Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Topher Moore Lindsey & Associates Inc Whitney Morgan Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteFayetteville Sam Niccum Riverwood Homes Real Estate Mandy Nickell Lindsey & Associates Inc Amber Nye Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Randy Odglen Lindsey & Associates Inc Jan Oliphant Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Jessica Palermo Lindsey & Associates Inc Brenda Parker RE/MAX Real Estate Results Mike Parker Prime Real Estate and Development Lana Patrick Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc Gustavo Pena Equity Partners Realty Darohnn Pender RE/MAX Real Estate Results aymag.com

Ramon Pineda Fathom Realty Brandy Pool Lindsey & Associates Inc Susan Prewitt Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Kelly Reed Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Adam Reynolds Neighborhood Realty Dana Reynolds Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch Zachary Ritter Lindsey & Associates Inc Richard Rolfingsmeyer RE/MAX Real Estate Results Crissy Roughley McMullen Realty Group Briana Ruff Lindsey & Associates Inc Jim Sellers United Country Sellers Properties Kristine Sherry Holiday Island Realty Daniel Short Mossy Oak Properties Natural Farms and Wildlife Chuck Simmons Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Madeline Smallwood Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Jason Smith Smith and Associates Real Estate Services Adam Steenken Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteFayetteville Curtis Stewart Legend Realty Inc Cindy Switzer Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Gene Tabor TABOR Real Estate Bailey Tahy Riverwood Homes Real Estate Kelley Talley Neighborhood Realty

Robert Winkel Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Est

Judy Brown Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Donna Winn Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Est

Denise Carrigan Lindsey & Associates Inc

Marissa Ferrantelle Crye-Leike REALTORS Rogers

Jennifer Castro Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Rock Florida eXp Realty NWA Branch

Terri Chadd Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Mindy Foster Collier & Associates

Ed Franzke RE/MAX Associates, LLC

Emerald Suzanne Allen Crye-Leike REALTORS Rogers Chris Allen Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Lou Ann Davis Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Daria Coffield Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Esta Combs Ward Jones, Inc

Alta Felix Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Eric Gibby Hutchinson Realty

Susan Gleghorn Elite Realty

Kyle Atkins Arkansas Real Estate Group Fayetteville

Denise ContrerasSerrano Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Michael Thorpe Kaufmann Realty, LLC

Stephanie Back Crawford Real Estate and Associates

Tim Craig United Country/Rateliff Lifestyle Properties

Ashton Todd Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Caleb Bailey Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Kelly Crenshaw Crye-Leike REALTORS Fayetteville

Victor Barrios Bella Homes Realty

Jennifer Cristofaro Gibson Real Estate

Jonathan Bayona Southern Tradition Real Estate, LLC

Stephanie Daniels Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Jill Bell Crye-Leike REALTORS Fayetteville

Kyle Dempsey Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Eden Bivin Crye-Leike REALTORS, Springdale

Francisco Diaz Fathom Realty

Angela Kestner Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville

Larry Boling Benton County Realty

Keith Dixon Smith and Associates Real Estate Services

Ka Kue Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Jesselyn Lising Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Mitzi Taylor NWA Residential RE-Pea Ridge

Claudia Vilato Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteFayetteville Rachel Wang Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Landon Ward Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Dick Weaver Dick Weaver And Associate Inc

Robert Smiley Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Jennifer Welch Crye-Leike REALTORS, Gentry

Sumer Brandon The Brandon Group

Kirk Elsass Lindsey & Associates Inc

Blake Smith Lindsey & Associates Inc

Amanda Wells Collier & Associates

Lori Brittain Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company

Ali Eubank Flat Fee Realty

Jared Smith Gibson Real Estate

Hilda Wieberg Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Sarah Brothers Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company

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Maria Fairchild Lindsey & Associates Inc

Cassandra Goetz Thrive Real Estate Ngoma Hantuba Fathom Realty Marla Hargus McNaughton Real Estate Bernice Holly eXp Realty NWA Branch Shannon Holman Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Renee Hudock Lindsey & Associates Inc Jerid Jones Ward Jones, Inc

Courtney Long Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Alexus Main eXp Realty NWA Branch

Pedro Maldonado Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Veronica Marrufo Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville Brooke McDonald Lindsey & Associates Inc Kathleen McGuire RE/MAX Real Estate Results Holly McMaster Lindsey & Associates Inc Cassie Michalski Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville Katie Mihalevich Flyer Homes Real Estate Ellen Mitchell Crye-Leike REALTORS Fayetteville Michelle Moore Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate

Tina Presley Dan Hein Homes Realty Paula Prince Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville Erika Rayburn Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Danielle Richardson NWA Residential Real Estate Todd Ring Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Kelsey Roemer Lindsey & Associates Inc Elizabeth Rowe Rowe Real Estate Tyler Royal Weichert REALTORS - The Griffin Company Jenna Ruhe Collier & Associates Terri Russo Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteBentonville

Michael Munter Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch

Ismael Salas eXp Realty NWA Branch

Tricia Necessary RE/MAX Real Estate Results

Ronnie Sanderson Sanderson & Associates Real Estate

Martha Odle Lindsey & Associates Inc

Teresa Sanderson Sanderson & Associates Real Estate

Elizabeth Oxford Crye-Leike REALTORS, Springdale Rebecca Oxford Mathias Real Estate Michelle Parker Crye-Leike REALTORS Rogers Amber Parrish McNaughton Real Estate Stephanie Perez NWA Residential Real Estate

Margaret Schloss Collier & Associates

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS Level 1: Onyx--$2,000,000 Level 2: Amethyst--$3,000,000 Level 3: Sapphire--$4,000,000 Level 4: Emerald--$5,000,000 Stephen Sohosky Beaver Lake Realty Inc. Scarlett Sowder Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Lisa Spencer Collier & AssociatesBentonville Branch Ali Stinespring Crawford Real Estate and Associates Nina Stoecker Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Karl Stouffer Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Mandi Suggs McNaughton Real Estate Brenda Sullivan Crye-Leike REALTORS, Siloam Springs Brooke Taylor Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Daniel Thomas NWA Real Estate Huntsville Branch Steven Tucker Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate

Melanie Silvey Crye-Leike REALTORS, Siloam Springs

Gay Vandevoir Absolute Realty

Patsy Simmons Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Ryan Veit Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville

Jennifer Skoff Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville

Misty Velez Crye-Leike REALTORS Wedington

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Level 5: Diamond--$7,000,000 Level 6: Double Diamond--$14,000,000 Level 7: Triple Diamond--$21,000,000

Jakey Vernetti Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville

Joseph Hayes & Associates Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Victoria Watson HOWSE Real Estate

Schuber Mitchell Team Limbird Real Estate Group

Charla White Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Chris Wimberly Southern Tradition Real Estate, LLC Roger Wingert Crye-Leike REALTORS Rogers Lavinna Wood Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & FaucetteFayetteville

CROSS PROPERTY SALES TEAMS

Triple Diamond The Limbird Team Limbird Real Estate Group The Duley Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Curtis Realty Group HomeQuest Realty The Home Team Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Annette Gore Team RE/MAX Real Estate Results Centerton Branch NWA ProTeam NextHome NWA Pro Realty

Mayer Team Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville Koenigseder Realty Group RE/MAX Real Estate Results Jose Esparza & Associates RE/MAX Real Estate Results - Springdale Branch Kim Wilichowski Team Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office The Moldenhauer Group RE/MAX Associates, LLC Taylor Team Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Midtown Associates Engel & Volkers Bentonville McNaughton Team McNaughton Real Estate Ruby Poole Team Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Johnson Smith Team Lindsey & Associates Inc. Team Nina Clare and Dave RE/MAX Real Estate Results

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Salmonsen Group Realtors Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

MG Realty Group Rowe Real Estate

The Watkins Team Lindsey & Associates Inc.

Prowell Team Lindsey & Associates Inc.

NWA House Hunters RE/MAX Real Estate Results

Hammond Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

12 Stones NWA eXp Realty NWA Branch

Tim Wang Team Prestige Management & Realty

Lighthouse Group NWA Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

Five Doors NWA Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Dave Hodges Team Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Nicki Rogers Real Estate Team Lindsey & Associates Inc.

Howard Group eXp Realty NWA Branch

Double Diamond The EJ Johnson Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Motus Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty The Hagan Group Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville NWA Metro Group Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette -Fayetteville NWA Real Estate HUB Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Come Home NWA Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office House Inc. Team Thrive Real Estate Main St. Team Fathom Realty District III Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Roe Team Crye-Leike REALTORS Pleasant Grove

Jean Ann and Ron Gilbert Team Crye-Leike Realtors Bentonville

Diamond Arlene Urquizu and Associates Collier & Associates Mockingbird Team Mockingbird Real Estate Group Robison Realty Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office eXpert Agents Bespoke Realty NWA Coleman Team Crye-Leike REALTORS, Siloam Springs The Elliott Team Lindsey & Associates Inc. Demarest Team Lindsey & Associates Inc The Community Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

RESIDENTIAL RENTAL

Emerald

JB & Associates eXp Realty NWA Branch

Shonnie Gilbreath McNaughton Real Estate

NWA Impact Team Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

John Mullins Lindsey & Associates Inc

Parham Realty Group Parham Realty Group My NWA Home Team Fathom Realty

The Hutcherson Team Lindsey & Associates Inc

Sapphire Juanita Reeves NWA Realty Group, LLC Michael Subbert Prestige Management & Realty

Team Bell Lindsey & Associates Inc. Schmiegelow Team Equity Partners Realty Gold Group Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Bentonville Signature Property Group Smith & Associates Real Estate ServicesBentonville J Siebert Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office Front Door Real Estate Group Weichert, REALTORS Griffin Company Bentonville Janie & Mike Robinson Team Crye-Leike REALTORS-Bella Vista The Rosser Group Thrive Real Estate The Cupp Group Collier & Associates

MoonCo Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

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Onyx

INDIVIDUALS

The Duley Group Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

COMMERCIAL SALES INDIVIDUALS

Double Diamond Steve Fineberg Steve Fineberg & Associates Diamond David Erstine CBRE, Inc-Fayetteville

Amethyst

Jeff Pederson Lindsey & Associates Inc

John Rhine RE/MAX Real Estate Results

Emerald

Onyx

Robert Daugherty Legend Realty Inc

Jacob Harr Harris McHaney REALTORS

Ethan Tisdale Steve Fineberg & Associates

Dale Kelsey Lindsey & Associates Inc

Delton Williams Crye-Leike REALTORS, Gentry

Jessica Uribe Lindsey & Associates Inc

COMMERCIAL SALES

RESIDENTIAL RENTAL TEAMS

TEAMS

Diamond Amethyst

Metro Property Management Limbird Real Estate Group

Salmonsen Group Realtors Keller Williams Market Pro Realty Branch Office

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2020 Arkansas Board of REALTORS® Awards for Excellence 2020 AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE LEVEL REQUIREMENTS - DOLLAR AMOUNT Bronze

Silver

Gold

Platinum

Diamond

Double Diamond

Triple Diamond

Residential Listing

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,500,000

$5,000,000

$7,000,000

$14,000,000

$21,000,000

Residential Sales

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,500,000

$5,000,000

$7,000,000

$14,000,000

$21,000,000

Residential Volume

$1,500,000

$2,000,000

$3,500,000

$5,000,000

$7,000,000

$14,000,000

$21,000,000

Residential Property Management

$250,000

$500,000

$1,000,000

$1,800,000

$3,000,000

$6,000,000

$9,000,000

Commercial Sales AND/OR Leasing

$1,500,000

$2,500,000

$3,500,000

$5,000,000

$7,000,000

$14,000,000

$21,000,000

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Company Residential Volume Residential Volume Residential Volume Steve Street Sandy Carle Lake Hamilton Realty, Inc. Shirley Anderson Jones Kathleen DeVilbiss Hot Springs Village Real Residential Volume Shelly McDonald Meyers Realty Company Diamondhead Realty Estate Residential Volume Hot Springs 1st Choice Residential Volume Residential Volume Kyleigh Taylor Realty

Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Residential Volume Debi Jones Jean Clare Dickerson Monita Collins Residential Volume Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Diamondhead Realty Century 21 H.S.V. Realty Residential Volume Nedra Plumlee Residential Volume Residential Volume Crye-Leike Realtors Sharon Tremor

Lake Hamilton Realty, Inc. Hot Springs Melissa Lax Scott Garibay Jim Harbour Residential Volume Residential Volume Hot Springs 1st Choice Hot Springs Realty RE/MAX of Hot Springs Village Realty Residential Volume Lain Rodgers Residential Volume Shelley Watson Residential Volume Coldwell Banker RPM Group Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Karen Hudspeth - Hot Springs Residential Volume Andrea Marks iRealty Arkansas Thomas Hasselstrom Residential Volume Hot Springs 1st Choice Hot Springs Trademark HSV Real Estate Residential Volume

Realty Residential Volume Double Diamond Residential Volume Tracey Wheelington

ESQ. Realty Group Lisa Hunter-Ford Charlotte Hitchens Hot Springs George Dooley Terry May Century 21 Parker & RE/MAX of Hot Springs Residential Volume Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Lake Hamilton Realty, Inc. Scroggins - Hot Springs Village Residential Volume Residential Volume Residential Volume Residential Volume Ivy Wood

Hamilton Shores Realty Will Lindsay Nikki Reed Harolyn Holmes Karen Mallonee Residential Volume Hamilton Shores Realty Crye-Leike Realtors Hot Springs Realty RE/MAX of Hot Springs Village Residential Volume Hot Springs Residential Volume Vickie Weston Residential Volume Residential Property Crye-Leike Realtors

Stephen Inman-Crawley Management Property Management Bethel Sanders Diamond Rix Realty - Advantage

Robert W. Sweeten Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Team Realtors Candy McCarthy Residential Volume Becky Arguello Residential Volume Trademark HSV Real Estate Hot Springs Realty Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Residential Volume Property Management Bobbie Schroeder Residential Volume Jane Phillips-Jolly

Connie Vaden ERA TEAM Meyers Realty company Amber Henson Residential Volume Kay Bancroft Residential Volume Trademark HSV Real Estate Urban Living and Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Residential Volume Development, Inc. Archie VanGorder Residential Volume Clark Kitchens

Platinum Commercial Hot Springs 1st Choice Crye-Leike Realtors

Realty Dani Blair Hot Springs Platinum HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE Residential Volume Rainbow Realty Residential Volume BOARD OF REALTORS® Residential Volume BJ Conner Kim Walker Wendy Landes RE/MAX of Hot Springs Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Bethany Brasfield Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Village

Residential Volume Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Residential Volume Residential Volume Double Diamond

Residential Volume

Rachelle McClard Brenda G. Langley Patricia Bollier Amber Canales Lake Homes Realty, LLC RE/MAX of Hot Springs RE/MAX of Hot Springs Platinum Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Residential Volume Village Village Residential Volume Residential Volume Residential Volume Sally Adams Lake Homes Realty, LLC Rachel Mundy

Trademark Real Estate, Inc.

Residential Volume Residential Volume HOT SPRINGS BOARD OF REALTORS®

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Michelle Perry Hot Springs Village Real Estate Residential Volume

Janae Cook Richards Taylor Realty Group HSV Residential Volume

Gold Amy Duckworth Southern Homes Residential Volume

Rusty Hardgrave Moore & Co. Realtors Residential Volume

Theresa George Lunsford & Assoc Residential Volume

Matt Hurst Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume

Holly M. Robertson Southern Realty of Hot Springs, Inc. Residential Volume Silver

Kathy Sherman Kelly Howard RE/MAX of Hot Springs Premier Real Estate Village Residential Volume Residential Volume Jeff Merritt Zachary Taylor Merritt Realty Group Taylor Realty Group HSV Residential Volume Residential Volume Lynda Pickler Blanche Thornhill C-21 United Century 21 H.S.V. Realty Residential Volume Residential Volume Marty Reed Hamp Wilson C-21 United RE/MAX of Hot Springs Residential Volume Village Residential Volume Rodney Rodgers C-21 United JEFFERSON COUNTY Residential Volume BOARD OF REALTORS® Tamara Works

Lunsford & Associates

Residential Volume Double Diamond Hayley Wreyford Lunsford & Associates Residential Volume

Diamond Melissa Attwood Lunsford & Associates Residential Volume Andrew Lunsford Lunsford & Associates Residential Volume

Platinum Lynda Jaggers Real Estate Solutions Residential Volume Lyle Lovelace Blue Ink Realty Residential Volume

Diamond

James Stanley Coldwell Banker Residential Volume

Platinum Van Alan Hill Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume Teresa Smith Coldwell Banker Residential Volume Gina Wilkins Moore & Co. Realtors Residential Volume

Jeffrey Neal Jeffrey Neal Realty Residential Sales Verna Puckett C-21 United Residential Volume Martha Womack Lunsford & Associates Residential Listings JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF REALTORS®

Rachel Lance Century 21 Perry Real Estate Residential Volume

Grasyn Langley Moore & Co. Realtors Residential Volume

Rhonda Tims Keller Williams Realty Mena Residential Volume

Carmen Tilley Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume

NON-BOARD AREAS AND NON-PARTICIPATING BOARD MEMBERS

MENA AREA BOARD OF REALTORS®

Diamond Hershel Bell Holly Springs Real Estate Residential Volume

Platinum Deborah A. Pate RE/MAX Mena Real Estate Residential Volume

Gold Gold Kristen Cowell Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume

Bronze LaRhonda Glover Premier Real Estate Residential Sales

Cary Jackson Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume

Tabitha O. Booher Holly Springs Real Estate Residential Volume

Triple Diamond Somer Adams Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Meza Harris Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Double Diamond Topher Moore Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Misti Stephens Crye-Leike Realtors Residential Volume

Diamond

Nancy Ann Gaddis RE/MAX Mena Real Estate Residential Volume

Blaine Elliott Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Tiffany C. Lane Century 21 Perry Real Estate Residential Volume

Hannah Moore-Cromartie Century 21 Campbell and Company Residential Volume

Silver Malinda Alexander Coldwell Banker Residential Volume Nacole Case Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume Crystal Cowell Coldwell Banker Residential Volume Crystal Harderson Century 21 Glover Town Country Residential Volume Teresa Hill Moore & Co. Realtors Residential Volume

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Silver Don Brewer Holly Springs Real Estate Residential Volume Deana Dixon Select Realty Residential Volume Michelle A. Hicks Keller Williams Realty Mena Residential Volume Shannon Hunter Holly Springs Real Estate Residential Volume

Brandy Pool Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Zachary Ritter Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Platinum Renee Hudock Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Holly McMaster Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Martha Odle Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Robin Phillips United Country Little Switzerland Realty, Inc. Residential Volume Ken Riley Century 21 Woodland Real Estate Inc. Residential Volume Melanie Silvey Crye-Leike Realtors Residential Volume

Double Diamond Steve Burgess Gilbert Realty Residential Volume Sandy Davenport Davenport Realty Residential Volume Dauna Powell Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume Gary Stubenfoll Beaman Realty Residential Volume

Mary Ann Caster Gilbert Realty Residential Volume

Gold

Coop Coverdale Gilbert Realty Residential Volume Tony Dibble Baxter Real Estate Residential Volume

Kerri Durr-Kane Keller Williams Market Pro Realty, Eureka Springs Residential Volume

Wade Fox Beaman Realty Residential Volume

Sharan Hicks Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Mike Goar Beaman Realty Residential Volume

Karen Kinsel Century 21 Woodland Real Estate Inc. Residential Volume

Penny Green Century 21 LeMac Realty East Residential Volume

Martha Williams Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

Matt Hershberger Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume

NORTH CENTRAL BOARD OF REALTORS®

Triple Diamond

Kim Koenen Southern Breeze Real Estate Residential Volume

Joey Peglar Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume

NORTH PULASKI BOARD OF REALTORS®

Roger Talbert Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Triple Diamond

Tami Davis PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Tim Walker Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume Wes Wood Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume Kristine Yunker Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Diamond

Brenda Sullivan Crye-Leike Realtors Residential Volume

Jacquelyn Crider Walker Realty Residential Volume

Danny Porter Century 21 LeMac Realty Residential Volume

Lori Lawhead Peglar Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Platinum Tristen Hobbs Gilbert Realty Residential Volume Cindy Hubka Gilbert Realty Residential Volume Kelly Horne Johnson Century 21 LeMac Realty East Residential Volume Douglas Pettit Gilbert Realty Residential Volume Ashley Poush Baxter Real Estate Residential Volume Scott Poush Baxter Real Estate Residential Volume Chuck Stevens Southern Breeze Real Estate Residential Volume Danette Stubenfoll Beaman Realty Residential Volume Tony Taylor Taylor Real Estate Residential Volume

Telicia Wade Perry ERA Doty Real Estate Residential Volume

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Diana Dominguez Aspire Realty Group Residential Volume Jody Huffmaster RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume Mandy Knaack PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Michele Phillips Michele Phillips & Co Realtors, Sherwood Residential Volume

Kelly Tedder PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Diamond Ted Arnett Arnett Realty & Investments Residential Volume Lora Blair iRealty Arkansas-Cabot Residential Volume Marva Caldwell Coldwell Banker RPMMidtown Residential Volume Tim Clark Century 21 Real Estate Unlimited Residential Volume Tyler Dick Crye-Leike Realtors, Maumelle Branch Residential Volume

Double Diamond Missy Brown PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Joshua Cole Venture Realty Group, LLC Residential Volume Scott Deaton Deaton Group Realty Residential Volume Robert Eason Mossy Oak Properties Delta Land Management Co., LLC Residential Volume Suzette Elmore McKimmey Associates, REALTORS- NLR Branch Residential Volume Lisa Holloway-Sugg Crye-Leike Realtors, Maumelle Branch Residential Volume Linda O'Brien RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume

Michael Dietz Doug Wilkinson Realty Residential Volume Chrissy Dougherty Edge Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Cindy Edgar Crye-Leike Realtors, NLR Residential Volume Nola Ford Crye-Leike Realtors, Maumelle Branch Residential Volume Kendra Fortner PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Rita French PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Andy Gibson RE/MAX Homefinders Realty Residential Volume Daniel Gray RE/MAX Homefinders Realty Residential Volume aymag.com

Michelle Hagerman McKimmey Associates, REALTORS-NLR Branch Residential Volume

Stacy O'Gary RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume

Joshua Brown Haag Brown Commercial Commercial Sales and/or Listings

Beth Crockett Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Phillip Orr Coldwell Banker Ozark Real Estate Company Residential Volume

Alicia Averitt Haley PorchLight Realty, NLR Residential Volume

Tonya Perkins PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Nahan Eller Haag Brown Commercial Commercial Sales and/or Listings

Whitney Felty Dwyer Image Realty NEA Residential Volume

Zac Qualls Haag Brown Commercial Commercial Sales and/or Listings

Lesa Poe PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Jerry L. Halsey Jr. Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Commercial Sales and/or Listings

Julie Hillegas Arnett Realty & Investments Residential Volume Donna Ibbotson Crye-Leike Realtors, Maumelle Branch Residential Volume Steve Jenkins McKimmey Associates, REALTORS- NLR Branch Residential Volume Beth Junior Plantation Realty Co. Residential Volume Kevin Keen Mossy Oak Properties Delta Land Management Co., LLC Residential Volume Dana Kellerman Coldwell Banker RPMMaumelle Residential Volume John Mason Mason & Co Realty Residential Volume Brooks McRae McKimmey Associates, REALTORS-NLR Branch Residential Volume

Brenda Rhoads Crye-Leike Realtors, NLR Residential Volume

Brooksie Hartness Image Realty NEA Residential Volume

Victoria Robertson RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume

Nate Lipsky Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Carrie Robertson Edge Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Jon Moore Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Carol Slattery Crye-Leike Realtors, NLR Residential Volume

Rachel Sellmeyer Image Realty Residential Volume

Austin Green Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Roddy Thrasher Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Michael Gregson Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Paula Westbrook Westbrook & Reeves Real Estate, LLC Residential Listings, Sales and Volume

Kodi Griffin Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Colby Brooks Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Dawna Haley Rausch Coleman Realty Residential Volume

Karen Thornton Michele Phillips & Co Realtors, Sherwood Residential Volume

Kevin Kercheval Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Trenton Hoggard Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Libby Utley RE/MAX Elite, NLR Residential Volume

Chrissie Wright Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

David Holdaway Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Christy Ward PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

Brad Miles Crye-Leike Realtors, NLR Residential Volume

Laura Westendorf RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume

Casey Moser PorchLight Realty, Cabot Residential Volume

NORTHEAST ARKANSAS BOARD OF REALTORS®

Triple Diamond Andrea Andrews Compass Rose Realty Residential Volume

Diamond

Amanda Hood Image Realty Residential Volume

Carroll Caldwell Danna Johnson Coldwell Banker Village Communities Crye-Leike REALTORS Jonesboro Residential Volume Residential Volume Steve Collar Jill Legere Halsey Thrasher Harpole Rausch Coleman Realty Real Estate Group Residential Volume Residential Volume Blair Cook Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

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Tim Ray Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Lewis Marshall Ghant Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Regina Thompson RE/MAX Real Estate Connection Residential Volume

Staci Medlock RE/MAX Elite, NLR Residential Volume

Nicholas Newton Mossy Oak Properties Delta Land Management Co., LLC Residential Volume

Double Diamond

Angie Fischbacher Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Karri Marshall Ridge Realty Residential Volume

Platinum Rebekah Beteman Arkansas Elite Realty Residential Volume Meredith Edwards Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume Christina Ferguson Compass Rose Realty Residential Volume Corey Fuhrman Haag Brown Commercial Commercial Sales and/or Listings Lacey Gramling Arkansas Elite Realty Residential Volume Randi Hutchison Live Oak Real Estate Residential Volume Derek Jacobs Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

David James Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume Janet Janski Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume Crystal Kurylo Compass Rose Realty Residential Volume Daltan Lovell Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume Jameson Mcfadden Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume Carrington Morehouse Live Oak Real Estate Residential Volume Keith Pace Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

PARAGOULD BOARD OF Karen Brinkley REALTORS® Weicher, Realtors Home Source

Residential Volume Diamond Beth Cupp Amber Gill ERA Doty Real Estate Paragould Realty Pro Residential Volume Residential Volume Lori Dowdy Sandra Kelley Paragould Realty Pro Weicher, Realtors Home Residential Volume Source Residential Volume Diana Jackson Dickinson & Associates Residential Property Platinum Management Linda Dickinson Dickinson & Associates Residential Volume Kristen Grimes ERA Doty Real Estate Residential Volume Delaine Landrum Ridgetop Realty Residential Volume

Gold

Mandy Pool Legacy Realty Group Residential Volume

Angelic Davis Prestige Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Brett Sexton Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Pat Chesser Century 21 Chesser Realty Residential Volume

Blake Snow Live Oak Real Estate Residential Volume Stephanie Stank Century 21 Wright Pace Real Estate Residential Volume

Kimberly D. Kellums Paragould Realty Pro Residential Volume Pam Lackey Dickinson & Associates Residential Volume

Atalaya Merideth Weicher, Realtors Home Source Residential Volume Jenny Payne ERA Doty Real Estate Residential Volume Bronze Laura King Dickinson & Associates Residential Volume SEARCY BOARD OF REALTORS®

Diamond Beverly Baldridge RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Tammy Hale RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Susan Neaville RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume

Silver Heather Talley Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Commercial Sales and/or Listings

Carolyn Hurley Block Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group Residential Volume

Martha Tolson Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Kimberly Bogard Weicher, Realtors Home Source Residential Volume

Jeff Whitlatch Coldwell Banker Village Communities Residential Volume

Tish Pace RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Stephanie Stark Crye-Leike Champion Group Residential Volume Janice Wright Dalrymple Residential Volume

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Platinum Linda Castle RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Jose L. Colunga Dalrymple Commercial Sales and/or Listings Shelley Dietz Dalrymple Residential Volume Stuart Greer RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume John Kilpatrick RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Brittany Mears RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume Sherry Conley Roberson Green Light Realty Residential Volume Gary Wade Roetzel On Point Realty Residential Volume Natasha Weathers Crye-Leike Champion Group Residential Volume

Gold Larry DeGroat Realty Professionals, Inc Residential Volume Michael Hamblin RE/MAX Advantage Residential Property Management

SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS BOARD OF REALTORS®

Diamond Geniva Pittman Rawls-Campbell Residential Volume Virginia Ward Monticello Realty Residential Volume

Platinum Hope Hartness Hope & Company Residential Volume Dianna Martinie Premier Realty Group Residential Volume

Gold Sherry Bottoms Bottoms Farm & Home Residential Volume

Silver Lauren Lucy Heiles & Associates Residential Volume Shawna Thaxton Hope & Company Residential Volume

Bronze Brandi Eubanks Hope & Company Residential Sales

John Holt RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume

SOUTH CENTRAL ARKANSAS REALTORS® ASSOCIATION

Triple Diamond

Lee Elizabeth Teed RE/MAX Advantage Residential Volume

Denise Hipskind iRealty Arkansas Residential Toni Knowles Crye-Leike REALTORS® Bryant Residential aymag.com

Lance Penfield Baxley Penfield Moudy REALTORS® Commercial

Double Diamond Sarah Bailey Pixel Properties Realty Residential Kim Creighton Baxley Penfield Moudy REALTORS® Residential Amanda Elrod CBRPM Group - Saline County Residential Layne Penfield Baxley Penfield Moudy REALTORS® Residential

Diamond Lindsey Blaylock Pixel Properties Realty Residential Ava Brown ReMax Elite Residential Jennifer Carter Baxley Penfield Moudy REALTORS® Residential Mark Chilton Baxley Penfield Moudy REALTORS® Residential Kelly Denney Southern Homes Realty Residential Bradley Harris Century 21 Parker & Scroggins Residential Korey Hendrix Rausch Coleman Realty Residential Joshua Hester Century 21 Parker & Scroggins Residential

Joan Hunter TEXARKANA BOARD OF REALTORS® Century 21 Parker & Scroggins

Residential Tim Bennett Double Diamond Baxley Penfield Moudy Misti Holland Yoni Johnson REALTORS® Ashley Goodman Crye-Leike Baxley Penfield Moudy Residential Goodman Group Realty REALTORS® REALTORS® Residential Volume Residential Residential Courtney Stott Century 21 Parker & Teresa Liepman Buffie Howard Kristen McCrary Scroggins Better Homes and Gardens Truman Ball Real Estate Century 21 Parker & Residential Real Estate Infinity Residential Scroggins Residential Volume Residential Amy Hubbard Terri Summers Crye-Leike REALTORS® Virginia Ann Prazak Century 21 Parker & Jody Petty

Bryant ERA Raffaelli Realtors Scroggins Crye-Leike REALTORS® Residential Residential Volume Residential Benton Residential Merri Thompson Sarah Sealy Dione Jessup Southern Homes Realty Griffin Realtors Century 21 Parker & Reba Post Residential Residential Volume Scroggins Century 21 Parker & Residential Scroggins Haley Ward Residential Truman Ball Real Estate Courtney Jones Diamond Residential Century 21 Parker & Audrey Raney Scroggins Century 21 Parker & Jeremy Hawkins Michele Woods Residential Scroggins NextHome Realty Advisors Truman Ball Real Estate Residential Residential Volume Residential Tonia Matthias Century 21 Parker & Frankie Rivers Pam Hollinsworth Scroggins Crye-Leike REALTORS® Impact Realty Group Residential Benton Residential Volume Platinum Residential Jeremiah Oltmans Annette Kilker Betsy Arey

Crye-Leike REALTORS® Eric Rytima Re/Max Preferred Crye-Leike REALTORS® Bryant CBRPM Group - Saline Residential Volume Benton Residential County Residential Residential Linda Leach Debbie Orton Jamie Behar Re/Max Preferred Crye-Leike REALTORS® Lindsey Simmons Residential Volume Century 21 Parker & Benton Baxley Penfield Moudy Scroggins Residential REALTORS® Karen Mote Residential Residential Gerald Haire Realty Laura Pratt-Osborne Residential Volume Greg Calaway Century 21 Parker & D. Scott Tatman Baxley Penfield Moudy Scroggins CBRPM Group - Saline Amy Warren REALTORS® Residential County Re/Max Preferred Residential Residential Residential Volume Alaina Revak Mary Crismon Century 21 Parker & Diana Thomas Baxley Penfield Moudy Scroggins Century 21 Parker & Platinum REALTORS® Residential Scroggins Residential Residential Karen Hammonds Carlie Ross Amy Eden NextHome Realty Advisors Century 21 Parker & Carolyn Trusty Residential Volume CBRPM Group - Saline Scroggins CBRPM Group - Saline County Residential County Laura Long Residential Residential Better Homes and Gardens Kimberly Santos Real Estate Infinity Jennifer Green Innovative Realty DeAnn Williams Residential Volume Baxley Penfield Moudy Residential Crye-Leike REALTORS® REALTORS® Benton Hunter Smith Residential Residential NextHome Realty Advisors Residential Volume

Butch Higginbotham Century 21 Parker & Scroggins Residential

Morgan Smith Rausch Coleman Realty Residential

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Janet Willis Re/Max Preferred Residential Volume

Gold Lennard Dowdle Re/Max Preferred Residential Volume Connie Nations Re/Max Preferred Residential Volume Steve Rafaelli ERA Raffaelli Realtors Residential Property Management Angela Son Re/Max Preferred Residential Volume Jennifer Steele NextHome Realty Advisors Residential Volume Linda Womble Re/Max Preferred Residential Volume

Gold John Tate Ozark Gateway Realty, OGW, LLC Residential Volume

Silver Jessie Friend Coldwell Banker Ozark Real Estate Company Residential Volume Carol Ann Hill King-Rhodes & Associates, Inc. Residential Volume Deanna McGinnes Coldwell Banker Ozark Real Estate Company Residential Volume Jackie Sawyer King-Rhodes & Associates, Inc. Residential Volume

Jeffrey Stone TRI-COUNTY BOARD OF Coldwell Banker Ozark Real REALTORS® Estate Company Residential Volume

Diamond Jason Rhodes King-Rhodes & Associates, Inc. Residential Volume Ron Rhodes King-Rhodes & Associates, Inc. Residential Volume

Platinum Yvonne Cooper Video Real Estate Agency Residential Volume Samantha Moore Coldwell Banker Ozark Real Estate Company Residential Volume

Bronze Laura Clute Ozark Gateway Realty, OGW, LLC Residential Volume Suzanne Reeves Coldwell Banker Ozark Real Estate Company Residential Volume

BATESVILLE BOARD OF The Emily Walter Team Gold REALTORS® Emily Walter, Jeremy Walter Individuals Re/Max Elite The Poff Team Residential Volume Jack Poff Sr., Gail

Poff Double Diamond The Grissom Team 1st Delta Realty Matt Grissom, Cliff Residential Volume Team Markowski Wekkin Joey Markowski, Jeanne Residential Volume Markowski Silver Rich Realty Parsley Tucker Team Residential Volume Elizabeth Tucker, Michelle The Bell Team Parsley Anita Bell, Don Bell Re/Max Elite Crye-Leike Realtors Silver Residential Volume Residential Volume

Callahan Team Hawks Team FAULKNER COUNTY Patricia Callahan, Elizabeth Spencer Hawks, Xochilt BOARD OF REALTORS® Jordan Hawks, Nikki King, Casey The Real Estate Specialists Hawks, Bryce Richardson, Residential Volume Gabe Turner, Miguel Thorpe, Triple Diamond

Todd Gerdes Taylor Team Coldwell Banker RPMKennon Team Joe Taylor, Sandra Taylor Conway Kristen Kennon, Brandon Crye-Leike Batesville Real Residential Volume Owen, Jon Kennon Estate Center, Inc. iRealty AR-Conway Residential Volume The Ellison Group Residential Volume Kerry Ellison, Samantha CLEBURNE COUNTY Crawford, Sarah White, Tracy Tidwell Team BOARD OF REALTORS® Shekela Hightower, Ashley Tracy Tidwell, Leah Brown, Crawford, Hannah Thomas, Autumn Doney, Joshua

Ellen Nichol, Danielle Schmidt Bratton Diamond ERA Team RE Keller Williams Realty Residential Volume Central The Dillards Residential Volume James Dillard, Glenn Dillard Mossy Oak Properties Double Diamond Cache River Land & Farm Residential Volume Diamond The Henley Team Will Henley, Richard Henley EASTERN ARKANSAS McKee & Fuller Team Residential Volume REALTORS® ASSOCIATION Taleda McKee, Nacole

Fuller The Savvy Team JC Thornton & Co. Wendy Ferguson, Sarah Double Diamond Residential Volume Keathley

Next Home Local Realty All Seasons Dream Team Watkins-Moore Team Group Thula Thomas, Lesia Karen Watkins, Carrier Residential Volume Harris Moore AR RE Solutions All Seasons Realty Saxion Team Residential Volume Residential Volume Zach Saxion, Colby Kinggard, Nick Wood, Justin

The Realty Team Watlington, Langston Carr, Diamond Tim Powell, Jeremy Carter Mecca Holland, Paxton Carr Re/Max Realty Group Re/Max Elite The Laughter Team Residential Volume Residential Volume Liz Laughter, Kim Foley Roussel Team Realtors Laughter Realty The Watson Team Residential Volume Blake Roussel, Amanda Kevin Watson, Jessica Roussel , Rhonda Smith Bletsh Re/Max Elite Sandstone RE Group Residential Volume Residential Sales

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Stewart Team Coy Stewart, Martha Stewart Re/Max Elite Residential Volume Integrity Team Kim Tilmon, Mark Young, Justin Land, Jamie Hammond, Kenn Bass, Jodi Skelton Residential Volume

Grinnell Group Brent Grinnell, Johnny Painter Keller Williams Platinum Realty Residential Volume Mont & Angel Sagely Team Mont Sagely, Angel Sagely Sagely & Edwards Realtors Residential Volume Diamond

FORT SMITH BOARD OF Cosner/Berry Team REALTORS® Glee Cosner, Sam Berry Coldwell Banker Fleming

Lau Realty Triple Diamond Residential Volume The O'Neal Team Edwards/Blaylock Team Laura O'Neal, Aaron O'Neal, Glenda Edwards, Shelly Stephen O'Neal Blaylock

River City Realty O'Neal Real Estate, LLC Residential Volume Residential Volume

Double Diamond

Miller & Boyd Team Bobbie Miller, Ashley Boyd Bradford & Udouj Realtors Residential Volume

Robison Realty Group Stan Robison, Cheryl Garner, Austin Warren Keller Williams Platinum Realty Residential Volume Ibison Realtors & Co. Monica Ibison, Jeremy Ibison Keller Williams Platinum Realty Residential Volume Team Shoppach Steven Shoppach, Farrah Shoppach O'Neal Real Estate, LLC Residential Volume Cannava Brown Team Rachel Cannava-Brown, Andy Brown Bradford & Udouj Realtors Residential Volume

Carrington Creek Team Matt Edwards, Terri Smallwood, Cary Smallwood Sagely & Edwards Realtors Residential Volume The Cassie Elwonger Team Cassie Elwonger, Bob Elwonger, Candi Schmitt, Laura Moore

Keller Williams Platinum Realty Residential Volume

The Burt Team Lynette Burt, Jason Burt O'Neal Real Estate, LLC Residential Volume

Harvel Team Brenda Harvel, Lindsey Harvel Bradford & Udouj Realtors Residential Volume

Layne Group Steven Layne, Suzannah Fritchman, Heather Chapman Chuck Fawcett Realty Residential Volume

Cluck Graham Team Janet Cluck, Megan Graham Bradford & Udouj Realtors Residential Volume

The Smart Agents Jonella Grahm, Janet Richards, Eric Wilson Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Residential Volume HARRISON DISTRICT BOARD OF REALTORS®

HOT SPRINGS BOARD OF Team Ward REALTORS® Jada Ward, Billy Ward, Kirbi Holoch

Hot Springs 1st Choice Double Diamond Realty Residential Volume Dover + McAdams Team Kent Dover, Jim McAdams

Coldwell Banker RPM Group Platinum - Hot Springs Residential Volume The Hanson Team

Judy Hanson, Dave Smith Team Hanson Sherry Smith, Scott Smith Trademark Real Estate, Inc. Crye-Leike Realtors - Hot Residential Volume Springs

Residential Volume Team Shannon Donna Keese Shannon, Diamond

Robert Shannon Diamond Hot Springs Realty The Arnold Team

Residential Volume Travis Arnold, Carolyn Billingsley Team Arnold Weichert, Realtors Megan Billingsley, Eric Market Edge Team Thomason Billingsley Residential Volume Kelly Thomason, Wayne iRealty Arkansas - Hot

Thomason Springs The Dewitt Team Hot Springs 1st Choice Residential Volume John DeWitt, Beverly Realty

DeWitt Residential Volume Team Galloway Selling 726 Realty Jan Galloway, Ron Galloway Residential Volume HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE Trademark Real Estate, Inc. BOARD OF REALTORS® Residential Volume HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE

BOARD OF REALTORS® Kennedy Team Triple Diamond Paulia Kennedy, Jeff Kennedy Jane Hollansworth Team Double Diamond Hot Springs 1st Choice Jane Hollansworth , Darla Realty Hollansworth Taylor Trio Residential Volume RE/MAX of Hot Springs David Taylor, Kimberly

Village Taylor, Zachary Taylor Team Meyers Residential Volume Taylor Realty Group HSV Cindy Meyers, Andy Meyers

Residential Volume Meyers Realty Kimberly Taylor Team Company Kimberly Taylor, David

Residential Volume Taylor, Sarah Barnett, Ben Diamond

Gates, Michael Holdiness, Joan + Kelly Darryl Cothron, Austin R. Team Sherman O'Dwyer Prince Kathy Sherman, Jon Joan O'Dwyer, Kelly Taylor Realty Group Sherman, Hamp Wilson O'Dwyer HSV Re/Max of Hot Springs Coldwell Banker RPM Group Residential Volume Village - Hot Springs Residential Volume Residential Volume

Platinum Team Polychron Platinum Nikki Polychron, Chris Lindsey Wright Team Polychron Lindsey Wright, Tuya Ebert Team Hasselstrom iRealty Arkansas - Hot

Tom Hasselstrom, Susan Springs Taylor Realty Group HSV Hasselstrom Residential Volume Residential Volume Trademark Realty HSV

Residential Volume Teel & Galbraith Team Vicki Teel, Linette Galbraith Trademark HSV Real Estate Residential Volume

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MENA AREA BOARD OF The Johnson Smith Team REALTORS® Fred Johnson, Janice Smith, Jennifer Shapley, Michael

Douthit Double Diamond Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume Team Titsworth John L. Titsworth, Christy

Titsworth Double Diamond United Country Arkansas Properties Prowell Team Residential Volume Martha Prowell, Hunter

Prowell Team Smallwood Lindsey & Associates Kevin Smallwood, Rebecca Residential Volume Smallwood, Greggory Smallwood

RE/MAX Mena Real Estate Diamond Residential Volume The Watkins Team

Michele Watkins, Mark Platinum Watkins Lindsey & Associates The Wright Team Residential Volume Nancy Wright, Bridgett

Atkins Caristiana and JC Team RE/MAX Mena Real Estate Caristiana Hoey, JC (John) Residential Volume McInnis Carolyn Russell Real Estate,

Inc. Gold Residential Volume Aleshire Team Keith Aleshire, Sharon Aleshire Holly Springs Real Estate Residential Volume

NORTH CENTRAL BOARD OF REALTORS®

Double Diamond

Silver

The Ozarks Team John Schaub, Heather Hendricks, Nita Davis, Marcia Taylor Century 21 Lemac Realty Main Residential Volume

Himel Team Bobbie Himel, Le-Ann Holmes Select Realty Residential Volume NON-BOARD AREAS AND NON-PARTICIPATING BOARD MEMBERS

Triple Diamond Nicki Rogers Real Estate Team Nicki Rogers, Elliott Acosta, Michelle Cooper Lindsey & Associates Residential Volume

The Z-Team Linda Zdora, Bob Zdora , Reese Tubbs, Sam McMaster, Darlene Clark Century 21 Lemac Realty Main Residential Volume

Diamond Jensen Team Vicki Jensen, James Jensen Gilbert Realty Residential Volume

Coker-Ott Team Gail Ott, Chris Coker RE/MAX Elite, NLR Tri-Rivers Group Residential Volume Jeff Dunn, Daryl

Young The Kidd Team Century 21 Lemac Realty Corbin Kidd, Gregg Kidd Main Edge Realty, Cabot Residential Volume Residential Volume

NORTH PULASKI BOARD The JC Goffe Team OF REALTORS® JC Goffe, Matthew Moore, JD Smith, Lane Goff

Edge Realty, Triple Diamond Jacksonville Residential Volume Kennon Team

Kristen Kennon, Jon The Property Sisters Kennon, Brandon Owens Gina Myers-Gunderman, iRealty ArkansasTerry Keck Sherwood Michele Phillips & Co Residential Volume REALTORS, Cabot

Residential Volume Dare-Smith Team

Kerry Dare, Carole Money/Berry Team Smith Jerri Berry, Sommer PorchLight Realty, Salgaonkar, Brent Money NLR Crye-Leike REALTORS, Residential Volume NLR Residential Volume

Double Diamond Marlena and Allen Johnson Team Tony Young Team Marlena Johnson, Allen Tony Young, Christy Young, Johnson Jessica Lyons, Darren Century 21 Prestige Realty, Young Jacksonville Crye-Leike REALTORS, Residential Volume Cabot Branch

Residential Volume Griffith Team

Jennifer Griffith, Gene The Key Team Griffith Mindy Strand, Morgan Mossy Oak Properties Delta Abner, Nicholas Priest Land Management Co., Edge Realty, LLC Jacksonville Residential Volume Residential Volume

Team SNK Debra Stewart Team Karen Hall-Fore, Nichole Debra Stewart, Jeff Stewart, Collins, Sara Lynn Tiffany Stewart iRealty ArkansasRE/MAX Homefinders Sherwood Realty Residential Volume Residential Volume

JJ Group

Jaird Minton, Joy Diamond Grigson iRealty ArkansasThe Bloomberg Team Sherwood Jon Bloomberg, Sharon Residential Volume Bloomberg Crye-Leike REALTORS, Cabot Branch Residential Volume Silver

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NORTHEAST ARKANSAS BOARD OF REALTORS®

Double Diamond Team Cansellit Pete Cancilla, Alton Irwin, Taylor Britt, Tori McClung, Payton Laubach Image Realty Residential Volume

Diamond NEA Home Team Selina Reithmeyer, Lee Ann Stidham, Kim Still Image Realty Residential Volume

The Blackwell Team Sherlyn Blackwell, Dale Blackwell Arkansas Elite Realty Residential Volume

The Burks Team Dennis Burks, Nancy Burks Crye-Leike Realtors, Jonesboro Residential Volume

The McNabb Team Mike McNabb, Rhonda McNabb ERA Doty Real Estate Residential Volume

The McKenzie Team Rick McKenzie, Tanya McKenzie, Morgan McKenzie-Turner Crye-Leike Realtors Residential Volume

Platinum Dell & Lorisa Parker Team Dell Parker, Lorisa Parker Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group Residential Volume

aymag.com

SEARCY BOARD OF

REALTORS® Gold

Lercher Team Diamond Mark Lercher, Alice Lercher Howell Team RE/MAX Advantage Charlie Howell, Liz Howell Residential Volume Dalrymple Residential Volume SOUTH CENTRAL

REALTORS® ASSOCIATION Team Merritt

Kathi Merritt, David Merritt

RE/MAX Advantage Double Diamond Residential Volume

Parker & Scroggins Lorton Team TEAM David Lorton, Josh Lorton Jessica Parker, Allison Searcy Hometown Scroggins Realty Century 21 Parker & Residential Volume Scroggins Residential

Platinum

Diamond Hoggard Team Joel Hoggard, Judy Baxley Team Hoggard Bo Baxley, Jesse Baxley RE/MAX Advantage Baxley Penfield Moudy Residential Volume REALTORS® Residential

Crowson-Johnson Team Karen Crowson, Angie Johnson Crye-Leike REALTORS® Residential

Platinum

Mote Team Pat Mote, Mitchell Mote Coldwell Banker RPM Group - Saline County Residential

Diamond

Team Texarkana Jared Horton, Claudia Snow, Lindsey Green Century 21 All Pointy Realty Residential Volume TRI-COUNTY BOARD OF REALTORS®

Platinum

Shackleford Team TEXARKANA BOARD OF Jeffery Shackleford, Emily REALTORS® Shackleford Coldwell Banker Ozark

Realty

Double Diamond Residential Volume

Team Spradlin Tracy Spradlin, Bill Spradlin Impact Realty Group Residential Volume

Congratulations Jason Reed and Vicki Templeton on being named as TOP AGENTS in the state.

CENTURY 21 UNITED 215 N. Washington Ave., El Dorado, AR 71730

Jason Reed, Principal Broker/ Owner 870.312.7333

870.863.4011 / 870.310.8844

Vicki Templeton, Realtor 870.310.2563

Louisiana Locations: Shreveport / Bossier / Monroe

Arkansas Locations: El Dorado / Pine Bluff / Little Rock

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JENNIFER ADKINS

Executive Broker, REALTOR® jennifer@jenniferadkinsteam.com (501) 454-8984

As I listened to my clients’ concerns about the lack of quality inventory, it occurred to me: “Why not create what the market is craving.” Over the last couple of years, I’ve been able to bring quality homes to our market with my vision for FUNctionality and home design!

Thank you for nominating me among 2021 AY’s Best Realtors

EXPERIENCE YOU CAN TRUST Margaret King, Susan Reynolds, Marti Thomas, Janet Jones, Kelly Johnson, Debbie Teague Kevin Newcomb, Conley Golden, Bob Bushmiaer, Donna Dailey Catherine Langley, Casey Jones

THANK YOU

SHELLY MCDONALD

for honoring these Janet Jones Company agents as AY ’s Best Realtors

(501) 617-3400 | shellymcdonald.com Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty 135 Mall St Unit B Hot Springs, AR 71913

7915 Cantrell | 501.224.3201 | JanetJones.com

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AY About You is proud to present its 2021 Best Realtors listing, celebrating the best that Arkansas’ real estate market has to offer. The following professionals occupy an industry that we are honored to recognize. For as much as we staple ourselves on being about you, the best Realtors operate under the same mission, delivering families forever homes while, at the same time, turning partnerships into lifelong relationships.

AY’s Best Realtors is a list tallied from hundreds of nominations and votes cast by you, our readers. It is ordered alphabetically by business name, and the individuals' last names if for the same company.

Diane Henson 501 Professionals Realty & Investments LLC Elizabeth Callaway Advantage Pro Realty Brent Preddy Alethes Realty Kyle Box All Seasons Real Estate Glenn Crenshaw All Seasons Real Estate Connie Lindemann Arkansas ELITE Realty Rhonda Gibson Arkansas Homes & Land Realty Phillip Jones Arkansas Mountain Real Estate Tedd Arnett Arnett Realty & Investments John Kaminar Arnett Realty & Investments Toni Kaminar Arnett Realty & Investments

Daniel Gray Bart Gray Realty Mary Bassett Bassett Mix And Associates, Inc Greg Calaway Baxley-Penfield-Moudy Realtors Jim Brandon Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Eileen Isola Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Scott Waymire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Solutions Real Estate Matthew Angulo Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Marion Aust Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey Natalie Edwards Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Annette Cowen ASC Property Management

Jakey Vernetti Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey

Allison Baker Aspire Realty Group

Columbus Brown Brown & Company Realty

Diana Blount Aspire Realty Group

Melissa Glidden Capital Sotheby's International Realty

Jay Calhoun Aspire Realty Group Holly Driver Aspire Realty Group Austin Franks Aspire Realty Group Lee Smith Aspire Realty Group Mitsy Tharp Aspire Realty Group Angela Shirey Ausum Realty Company

Inez Reeder Capital Sotheby's International Realty Dale Carlton Carlton Realty, Inc Pamela Capps Carter Realty Company Karen Carter Carter Realty Company Sharon Jeter Carter Realty Company

Sheila Hinson CENTURY 21 Chesser Realty Amy Hall CENTURY 21 Homestead Realty Amber Ealey CENTURY 21 Legacy Realty

David James CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate Janet Janski CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Marcia Taylor CENTURY 21 LeMac Realty

Lindzey Myers CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Lola Gifford CENTURY 21 McWaters Realty Service

Tim Ray CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Pat Rodgers CENTURY 21 McWaters Realty Service

Chrissy Wright CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Amy Allen CENTURY 21 Parker & Scroggins Realty

Diane Murphy CENTURY 21 Woodland Real Estate

Permelia Huffman CENTURY 21 Parker & Scroggins Realty Jessica Parker CENTURY 21 Parker & Scroggins Realty Barbara Shown CENTURY 21 Real Estate Unlimited Denise Perry CENTURY 21 Sandstone Real Estate Group Tammy Clark CENTURY 21 United Lynda Pickler CENTURY 21 United Jason Reed CENTURY 21 United

Patricia Smith Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Toby Crawford Crawford Real Estate and Associates

Charles Tacker Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Hannah Cicioni CRD Real Estate & Development

Russell Wren Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Lackey Moody Jr. Crye Leike Batesville Real Estate Center

Christopher Hodge Coldwell Banker James R. Ford & Associates

Ken Riley CENTURY 21 Woodland Real Estate Debbie Dolan Chuck Fawcett Realty Aimee Edens Chuck Fawcett Realty Cynthia Meadows Coldwell Banker Dumas and Associates Real Estate Judi Yelverton Coldwell Banker Elite George Faucette Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Jan Holland Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Karol Bailes Crye-Leike Realtors

Kim Williams Coldwell Banker KC Realty

Jill Bell Crye-Leike Realtors

Jim Stanley Coldwell Banker Premier Realty

Kristi Brawley Crye-Leike Realtors

Nathan Angel Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Merrell Conlee Crye-Leike Realtors

Larissa Bins Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Doug Gibson Crye-Leike Realtors

Kimberly Brown Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Stacy Hunt Crye-Leike Realtors

Bill Davis Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Patricia Lackey Crye-Leike Realtors

Serethia Crawford Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Jean Lance Crye-Leike Realtors

Priscilla Cunningham Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Martha McBride Crye-Leike Realtors

Kevin Daughtery Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Lisa O'Neal Crye-Leike Realtors

Whitney Elmore Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Dianne Person Crye-Leike Realtors

Jean Hurst Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Nedra Plumlee Crye-Leike Realtors

Velda Lueders Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Robert Richardson Crye-Leike Realtors

Lynn Pangburn Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Maria Townsend Crye-Leike Realtors

Allison Pickell Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Jennifer Welch Crye-Leike Realtors

Vicki Templeton CENTURY 21 United

Sean Morris Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Colby Brooks CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Claudia Vilato Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette

Justin DuBar CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

Sandra Elliott Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Angelica Rogers Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Delton Williams Crye-Leike Realtors

Mike Ford Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Jonna Shaw Coldwell Banker RPM Group

Dana Green Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Jim Irwin Colliers International

Natasha Weathers Crye-Leike Champion Real Estate Group

Sharon Howard Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Brandon Rogers Colliers International

Kathryn Pirani Coldwell Banker Heritage Homes

Andrea Andrews Compass Rose Reality

Austin Green CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate Trenton Hoggard CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate David Holdaway CENTURY 21 Wright-Pace Real Estate

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Cindy Shands Dalrymple Darrell Anthony DCA Realty Karen Moulton Desselle Real Estate aymag.com

Left to Right (Standing) Belinda Grace, Kyle Davis, Debbie Heller, Terry Quinn, Kelly McConnell (Seated) Ashley Schwander, Cynthia Hu, Sue Fess and Stephanie Tharp

E

stablished in 1994, Jon Underhill Real Estate is a full-service real estate company distinguished by its longstanding reputation and commitment to deliver unparalleled service to clients. The company has been acknowledged as AY’s Best Real Estate company since 2018 with several real estate agents recognized as AY’s Best Real Estate Agents (seen on subsequent pages).

In 2020, Jon Underhill Real Estate sold $115,000,000 in residential sales. “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,” Principal Broker Brandy 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. “We set ourselves apart from the competition by being experts in every aspect of the process

501.868.3444 • jonunderhill.com

JON UNDERHILL REAL ESTATE

Left to Right (Standing) Brandy Harp, LaJuana Whyte, Richard Harp, Catherine Young (Seated) Jon Underhill, Susan Meador, Meg France, Donna Carlson, Sara Gardner

to help each client succeed with their real estate investment,” Harp says. With proven results in customer service, financial management, marketing and advertising, the company works diligently to not only meet, but exceed their clients’ goals.

For more information including the company’s new listings, home maintenance tips and more, connect with them on social media @jonunderhill.com on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Brandy Harp Principal Broker

BRANDY HARP Principal Broker Brandy Harp serves as the Principal Broker of Jon Underhill Real Estate.

Brandy has a strong reputation of providing an exceptional customer experience helping each client achieve their real estate goals. Her journey in real estate started in 2000. Fast forward 21 years later, she is a leader in residential real estate and recognized as a top-producing Realtor in Little Rock selling over $32 million in sales in 2020. Brandy says, “Customer service is the heart of our mission at Jon Underhill Real Estate. It’s in the DNA of who we are. We listen, we communicate efficiently and effectively, and we pay special attention to every single detail from the beginning to well past the closing.” Her favorite aspect of the job is creating long standing relationships with wonderful people she feels fortunate to cross paths with in life. With proven results in customer service, financial management, marketing, and advertising, Brandy develops and employs unique strategies to help each client. “I am not pushing clients to buy or sell a home,” she says. “I provide them with the information and professional guidance to help them make the best investment for their family and their future.”

Brandy is thankful to celebrate 21 years of marriage to builder Richard Harp of Richard Harp Homes. Discussing homes is a frequent household discussion topic in the Harp home. They have two children, Isabella and Nicholas, and two Yorkies Buddy and Mojito.

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B R A N DY@ J O N U N D E R H I L L .C O M

STEPHANIE THARP Realtor

Stephanie Tharp has been selling real estate for 14 years in the Central Arkansas area. Throughout her real estate career, she has always held the same philosophy: It is all about the clients. Stephanie’s exceptional attention to detail throughout the home buying or selling process is what gives her clients the best possible outcome. Stephanie is intent on listening to each customer’s specific needs and assisting them by being extremely knowledgeable, patient and hard-working. She understands how stressful buying and selling a home can be and works tirelessly to ensure a pleasant and stress-free transaction.

Stephanie’s strong work ethic and passion for real estate, combined with her unwavering commitment to her clients, have helped her to consistently be one of Central Arkansas Top Producers year after year.

Her entire family has worked in the real estate business over the years, and she loves working alongside her mom, Sue Fess. They frequently combine their real estate expertise and skill, creating a dynamic motherdaughter duo. Stephanie is eager to assist you with all of your real estate needs ensuring you have an enjoyable real estate experience.

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STEPHANIE@JONUNDERHILL.COM

KELLY MCCONNELL Associate Broker

Kelly McConnell has been selling real estate for 8 years where she successfully applies the knowledge and skills required to effectively handle real estate transactions. In 2020 she sold over $8.3 million in real estate. She strives to fully understand her clients goals and needs when buying a home.

She prides herself on listening, asking the right questions and providing simple, honest answers to the clients questions.

Kelly specializes in the Heights and Hillcrest areas but also loves helping buyer’s with new construction and investors with rental property. Kelly strives to make the home buying or selling experience exciting, fun and stress free.

She has lived in the Heights area of Little Rock for over 20 years and is actively involved in the community. She enjoys reading and spending time with her two college kids. Kelly would be honored to help you pursue your real estate needs.

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K E L LY @ J O N U N D E R H I L L . C O M

TERRY QUINN Realtor

Terry brings enthusiasm and exceptional customer service working as a full-time agent with Jon Underhill Real Estate.

She is passionate about providing both sellers and buyers with professional guidance and individualized attention. She has been in real estate since 2018 and specializes in finding hard to find homes. She believes helping a client find or sell a home is one of the most important decisions in a clients life. She has a genuine passion for helping clients with their real estate needs.

Terry enjoys executing a seamless real estate transition for each client. From curb appeal to closing she provides superior service and makes transactions both enjoyable and successful. She is committed to ensuring her clients know they are her top priority. She is dedicated to achieving longterm relationships: she believes that selling or buying a home for a client is the beginning, and having them as a referral is her goal. Terry is motivated, committed and eager to help you with all of your real estate needs.

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T E R RY@ J O N U N D E R H I L L .C O M

ASHLEY SCHWANDER SARA GARDNER Realtors

Ashley Schwander and Sara Gardner have a combined 21 years experience selling residential real estate. They enjoy working together and their extensive knowledge helps both buyers and sellers. They cherish the relationships formed with clients and love to keep up with them well after closing on a home. They both enjoy sharing in such an important time in a client’s life.

Ashley and Sara love to work together but they also work separately. Thanks to Ashley’s outgoing personality and strong communication skills, developing long lasting customer relationships comes easy to her. With an aptitude for details and deadlines, Sara thrives in the real estate industry. She especially loves working with first time home buyers and has cultivated trusted relationships with other agents, lenders and title companies. With experience selling from Benton to Little Rock to Heber Springs and beyond, Ashley and Sara are passionate about assisting you will all of your real estate needs.

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SARA@JON UN DERH ILL.COM A ND ASH LEY@ J ONUNDER H ILL.CO M

MEG FRANCE Realtor

Meg France has been selling real estate for 12 years and is a multi-million dollar producer in the Little Rock Metro area.

Helping client’s dreams come true by assisting them as they buy or sell their biggest investment is her passion. Whether she is working with buyers or sellers, Meg expertly helps her customers navigate transactions successfully. She is motivated by her customers’ satisfaction and focused on providing unprecedented service and representation for her clients. She demonstrates the highest level of professionalism and integrity throughout the entire real estate transaction process.

Meg focuses on the Midtown area but is also expertly familiar with the greater Little Rock area. She is passionate about Central Arkansas and has an understanding of neighborhoods, schools, businesses and events occurring. She is focused on giving back to her community and volunteers her time to local nonprofit organizations. She also enjoys spending time with her foster children. Meg would love to assist you in making your next real estate purchase or sell.

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MEG@JONUNDERHILL.COM

BELINDA GRACE Realtor

Belinda Grace has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of real estate. She perfected her skills in leasing, marketing, business operations and client relationships during her early years in property management. She believes that real estate is the single largest investment most of us ever make and working with a client to find their perfect home is her top priority. She is resourceful, dedicated and hardworking.

As a certified Military Relocation Professional, Belinda especially enjoys helping military families. Having grown up in central Arkansas Belinda has an extensive knowledge of Little Rock and the surrounding areas. With enthusiasm, integrity and professionalism her goal is to provide incredible service whether her clients are buying or selling a home. Belinda eagerly looks forward to assisting you and becoming your source of information for the Central Arkansas market.

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BELINDA@JONUNDERHILL.COM

JONUNDER H ILL.COM

Kathleen DeVilbiss Diamondhead Realty

Kathy Schack Green Light Realty

Adrian Pickens iRealty Arkansas

Christi Covington Jonesboro Realty Company

Jean Clare Dickerson Diamondhead Realty

Tara Gatewood Halsey Thrasher Harpole Real Estate Group

Dawn Prasifka iRealty Arkansas

Elizabeth Crowson Jonesboro Realty Company

Rachel Rushing iRealty Arkansas

Dimitri Harris Jonesboro Realty Company

Ramsy Shuffield iRealty Arkansas

Amy Hughes Jonesboro Realty Company

Blake Summer iRealty Arkansas

Mary Hyneman Jonesboro Realty Company

Janice Long Jan's Realty

Alison Jumper Jonesboro Realty Company

Kalie Owens Jan's Realty

Josh Owens Jonesboro Realty Company

Natasha Williamson Jan's Realty

Todd Roscoe Jonesboro Realty Company

Marcie Estes Jerry Jackson Realty

Nikki Shannon Jonesboro Realty Company

Chaney Brewer Jim White Realty, Inc

Todd Wilcox Jonesboro Realty Company

Michelle Linam Jimmy Bell Real Estate

Kim Sullivan Kay Sullivan Real Estate

Donna Carlson Jon Underhill Real Estate

Ryan Blackstone Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Meg France Jon Underhill Real Estate

Nicky Dou Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Sara Gardner Jon Underhill Real Estate

John Schuber Keller Williams Market Pro Realty

Brandy Harp Jon Underhill Real Estate

Laura McLean Keller Williams Platinum Realty

Kelly McConnell Jon Underhill Real Estate

Craig Price Keller Williams Platinum Realty

Susan Meador Jon Underhill Real Estate

Terri Smith Keller Williams Platinum Realty

Terry Quinn Jon Underhill Real Estate

Kelly Underwood Keller Williams Platinum Realty

Ashley Schwander Jon Underhill Real Estate

Megan Cain Keller Williams Realty

Stephanie Tharp Jon Underhill Real Estate

Tracy Cryder Keller Williams Realty

Jon Underhill Jon Underhill Real Estate

Karl Freeman Keller Williams Realty

Renne Aspinwall Jonesboro Realty Company

Randy Sumbles Keller Williams Realty

Mike Barber Jonesboro Realty Company

Kathe Sumbles Keller Williams Realty

Becca Clark Jonesboro Realty Company

Colby Martin Keller Williams Realty Preferred

Rick Hatfield DiamondRock Realty Gregg Kidd Edge Realty Mindy Strand Edge Realty Lindsey Binz Engel & Volkers Samantha Brown Engel & Volkers Jojo Carter Engel & Volkers Deidra Jones Engel & Volkers John Sleva Engel & Volkers Virginia Ann Prazak ERA Raffaelli Realtors Brittney Burks ERA Team Real Estate Pam McDowell ERA Team Real Estate Beau Durbin ESQ Realty Group Sandra Ballew eXp Realty Laura Labay eXp Realty Mark Williams Faulkner County Realty Inc. Terre Rodgers First Delta Realty Gail Poff First Delta Realty William Payne Flat Fee Realty Matthew Hurst Glover Town & Country Carol Goff Goff Realty Fred Herman Goodwin & Herman Associates Real Estate

Reed Billings Hathaway Group Chris Carland Hathaway Group Chris Carland Hathaway Group Stuart Mackey Hathaway Group Wes Martin Hathaway Group Emily Stevens Hathaway Group Lauren Frederick Haybar Real Estate Pamela Huffty Heber Springs Realty Hershel Bell Holly Springs Real Estate Melissa Lax Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty Dustin Maddox Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty Shelly McDonald Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty Billy Ward Hot Springs 1st Choice Realty Rita Jones Hot Springs Realty Brandy Chapman Howell-Rickett Real Estate Professionals Jennifer Adkins iRealty Arkansas Lisa Campbell iRealty Arkansas Denise Hipskind iRealty Arkansas Brooks Jansen iRealty Arkansas Kristen Kennon iRealty Arkansas Tara Masiello iRealty Arkansas

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Staci Medlock Specializing in first time home buyers and new construction.

A proven track record of success in real estate with over 15 years of experience working with both buyers and sellers in the Little Rock area.

Catering to a wide range of clients across Central Arkansas including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Maumelle, Jacksonville, Cabot, Searcy and Beebe.

(501) 944-8687 • stacimedlock.com • stacimedlock1@yahoo.com 89

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W

e are so proud of our agents who have been selected by their clients as top agents in the area based on customer satisfaction. We strive to create a better experience for consumers and we are delighted these agents have been recognized by AY and our clients for those efforts!

Francesca Tolson, Ana Bridges, Lindsey Blaylock, Sarah Bailey, Ray Ellen, Rachel Furrer, Elisabeth Roedel, Jessica Baxter, Jessica Rogers, Joanna White

501.255.5855 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Suite 10 Little Rock, AR

Hank Kelley Kelley Commercial Partners

Ray Heflin Lindsey & Associates Inc

Misty McMullen McMullen Realty Group

Rusty Hardgrave Moore & Co. Realtors

Nick Kelley Kelley Commercial Partner

Winona Loyd Lindsey & Associates Inc

Marla Hargus McNaughton Real Estate

Teresa Hill Moore & Co. Realtors

Kevin Kestner Kelley Commercial Partners

Topher Moore Lindsey & Associates Inc

Amber Parrish McNaughton Real Estate

Gene Bland Mountain Country Properties

Cynthia Lu Kelley Commercial Partners

Kendall Riggins Lindsey & Associates Inc

Mandi Suggs McNaughton Real Estate

Kelley Talley Neighborhood Realty

Brooke Miller Kelley Commercial Partners

Vicki Bush Linsey E & Co, LLC

Christi Marret Michele Phillips & Co Realtors

Andy Bettis New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Kevin Clifton Kevin Clifton Real Estate, Inc

Linsey Yates Linsey E & Co, LLC

Kendyl Roberts Michele Phillips & Co Realtors

Jerry Cobb New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Jonathon Hollis Laughter Realty

Shawn Looper Looper Auction & Realty II, LLC

Crystal Beatty Modern Realty

Kim James-Puckett New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Jason Curtis Limbird Real Estate Group

Tamara Works Lunsford & Associates Realty Co.

Patti Bennett Modern Realty

Felicia Johnson New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

John Carpenter Lindsey & Associates Inc

Hayley Harper-Wreyford Lunsford & Associates Realty Co.

Tiffany O'Dwyer Modern Realty

Colby Parker New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Melanie Gabel Lindsey & Associates Inc

Danny Riggan McClure Real Estate

Angela Rhodes Modern Realty

Josh Smith New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Martha Haguewood Lindsey & Associates Inc

Susie Sparkman McGraw Realtors

Christy Whiteley Montgomery Whiteley Realty

Shael Smith New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

Meza Harris Lindsey & Associates Inc

Ginger Marshall McKimmey Associates, Realtors

Rachel Mooney Mooney Group Real Estate

Amber Warren New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

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Terry Wright New Door - A Real Estate Brokerage

David Head Ozark Haven Realty, LLC

Beth Junior Plantation Realty

Courtney Duncan RE/MAX Elite

Matt Chandler Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Sarah Bailey Pixel Properties Realty

Missy Evans Brown PorchLight Realty

Luke Goodman RE/MAX Elite

Paul Esterer Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Jessica Baxter Pixel Properties Realty

Christy Davis Prime Real Estate & Development

Staci Medlock RE/MAX Elite

Chris Moses Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Lindsey Blaylock Pixel Properties Realty

Jesse Pierce Rackley Realty

Robin Sanders RE/MAX Elite

Kelly Risner Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Ana Bridges Pixel Properties Realty

John Scott Vise Rainbow Realty

Tracy Thomas RE/MAX Elite

Rachael Scott Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Ray Ellen Pixel Properties Realty

Shane Macias Rausch Coleman Realty Group, LLC

Emily Walter RE/MAX Elite

Josh Singletary Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Rachel Furrer Pixel Properties Realty

Randall Carney RE/MAX Associates

Kevin Watson RE/MAX Elite

Greyson Skokos Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Nicole Nark Pixel Properties Realty

Timothy Moldenhauer RE/MAX Associates

Amanda Hester RE/MAX Executives Real Estate

Rett Tucker Newmark Moses Tucker Partners

Jessica Rogers Pixel Properties Realty

Kenn Bass RE/MAX Elite

Jeanette Jones RE/MAX Executives Real Estate

Amanda Norwood NextHome Local Realty Group

Eric Sheridan Pixel Properties Realty

Laura Davis RE/MAX Elite

Daniel Gray RE/MAX Homefinders Realty

Mitzi Taylor NWA Residential Real Estate

Francesca Tolson Pixel Properties Realty

Evelyn Dean RE/MAX Elite

Linda O'Brien RE/MAX Real Estate Connection

Dennis Huggins O'Neal Real Estate

Joanna White Pixel Properties Realty

Laura Dryer RE/MAX Elite

GUIDING YOU THROUGH THE LOCAL MARKET AS AN AGENT AND AS A NEIGHBOR. THANK YOU for voting me among the 2021 AY Best Realtors!

Kenn Bass

kennsellsarkansas@gmail.com 2450 North Donaghey, Conway // (501) 650-0119

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Amber White

REALTOR®, TRADEMARK REAL ESTATE HOT SPRINGS, AR With 13 years in the industry under her belt, Amber White is a seasoned veteran of real estate.

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC AFFECTED THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IN ARKANSAS? Surprisingly, the pandemic has caused the market to flourish across the state. Arkansas is seeing more out-of-state buyers than ever, due to the fact that we offer absolutely beautiful landscapes, four seasons and a reasonable cost of living. As more people begin to work from home, this allows them to move anywhere they choose.

And who wouldn’t want to live in Arkansas?

SPEAKING TO BOTH BUYERS AND SELLERS, WHAT CHANGES MIGHT BE EXPECTED WHEN GOING THROUGH THESE PROCESSES NOW AS COMPARED TO A YEAR OR MORE AGO? Buyers: I now educate all of my buyers about inventory challenges and prepare them to compete with multiple offers in this explosive market. The smallest details in a contract matter when multiple offers are present, so it’s my responsibility as a REALTOR® to be as strategic as possible for my buyer.

Sellers: I now educate all of my sellers on how we will handle multiple offers, and also inform them that when a property is listed in this market, we can expect a very quick sale. I ask questions like, “If your home sells tomorrow, do you have a place to move when it closes?” This can be a bit challenging for sellers, as they are also buyers when the home closes, so we prepare a game plan that ensures a seamless process.

ARE THERE ANY FUTURE REPERCUSSIONS RELATED TO THE PANDEMIC THAT YOU THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE AWARE OF? No. The National Association of Realtors predicts that the market will continue to be stable, so we are hopeful that home values will remain strong in the future.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE SETS YOU AND YOUR AGENCY APART FROM THE REST? I understand that buyers and sellers have many options when choosing a REALTOR®, and I don’t take that lightly. Thirteen years of experience has given me an extensive knowledge base that I offer to my clients, helping them navigate through tricky situations that cannot be predicted. I am honored to hang my license at Trademark Real Estate, the No. 1 firm in Hot Springs, and I feel this is a huge benefit to my clients.

THANK YOU FOR NOMINATING ME AS ONE OF AY’S BEST REALTORS! Laura Labay has more than 15 years of experience buying, selling, investing and managing real estate. Nominated as one of AY’s Best Realtors and the premier Realtor for Hot Springs properties and vacation homes, Labay is dedicated to finding her clients the perfect property to meet their needs.

She works with a team of national and international Realtors, relocating and finding her clients the home of their dreams, whether it be in Arkansas, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, or other overseas locations. Labay is rated the No. 1 Realtor on social media amongst her peers; her clients benefit from her background in public relations, advertising and marketing.

Whether you are searching for a home in Arkansas, or places far away, text or call Laura Labay.

Laura Labay 95

aymag.com

Blake Sumner

I am humbled to be a part of this publication. To be nominated for this issue is an honor because I have not been in the real estate industry for that long (less than a year). I am continually amazed at the wonderful relationships and bonds that have grown with my counterparts in the business, and it feels like it’s been decades. This industry can be brutal, but I have been blessed to have mentors that answer phone calls at all hours of the day and night, and help me develop my skills daily. From closing agents to mortgage lenders to other real estate agents all over the state, I have developed so many resources to call upon and help each client with the very best customer service. It truly is a network of professionals in this business! Also, this is a business environment that changes daily, and by keeping up with new trends, my network of resources, and staying current on properties available daily, I work for each buyer and seller to provide the very best service possible!

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC AFFECTED THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IN ARKANSAS THUS FAR? The real estate market has excelled exceptionally since the pandemic. Houses are flying off the market literally as soon as they are listed. People are having bidding wars left and right over properties that may have not sold as quickly in years prior.

One of the greatest advantages I have developed is watching the market in the areas my buyers are looking at daily. As soon as one becomes available, I make sure we see the property to have first option to buy. I also call non-listed properties that fit the description of what my buyers want. It is all about the extra effort! I also make sure I have all my buyers preapproved, so an offer can be written and accepted quickly. I have many buyers come to me without a lender and, by educating myself, I have been able to pair buyers and mortgage officers together. Each lender has a market they work better with, and I give my buyers all the options.

WHEN BUYING OR SELLING, SOME CHOOSE TO GO THE ROUTE OF NAVIGATING THAT PROCESS WITHOUT A REALTOR. WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT’S NOT THE BEST STRATEGY? From my experience in the real estate market, a Realtor can navigate the process easier and, especially now, make sure you don’t miss an opportunity. A buyer or seller can take the time to do the lengthy research to know the market and find a good deal and submit paperwork, but it isn’t always easy. I provide a stress-free and laid-back process for my clients. The best way I can explain the difference between working with me or alone is that it is like driving down a road: Either you are going to drive on a nicely paved, straight road that is the fastest route, or a longer, gravel, twisting road that can lead you off the correct path and take much longer. If you want an easier process, just go with a Realtor.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE SETS YOU APART? What makes me different is how I do business. I have had two previous businesses I built from the ground up from the age of 15. I have always worked — and worked hard. My buyers and sellers are like family to me. I work as a friend looking out for each of them, making sure my sellers get the very best price and my buyers find the house of their dreams before anyone else buys it. I protect my clients and am here for my clients 24/7. Buying and selling houses is not a job, it is a duty and I take that commitment very seriously.

ARE THERE SPECIFIC TYPES OF CLIENTS OR HOME TYPES THAT YOU SPECIALIZE IN? I work with every client that needs help — whether new homebuyer, first-time seller, rental property investor, commercial developer, or first-time business owner that needs a location to start a business. I also work with every property from small homes to estates, lakefront condos to large acreage farms, small commercial to large corporate footprints. I don’t specialize because every client and property is vastly different and valued, and I make sure each one is uniquely developed and marketed for the absolute best result. I am buying and selling Arkansas — one property at a time!

Meet the new face of real estate in Arkansas!

Blake Sumner is a full time agent that will help you find the dream property you are looking for in Arkansas. The real estate market is constantly changing, and you need someone that will keep you updated and be proactive in finding the perfect property.

Helping people buy and sell all over the state has become his passion. When you work with Blake, you become family! #BuyingAndSellingArkansasOnePropertyAtATime

Call Now

Blake Sumner

501-932-4912

Blake.L.Sumner@gmail.com

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Chad Raney Scalespace Realty Lisa Lorton Searcy Hometown Realty

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Timothy Hearn The Harco Group

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Lauren Boozman Northey Sotheby's International Realty

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Yuliya Colvin Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Kate Cox Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Lisa Elmore Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Adam Lalk Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Marcus Necessary Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Beckie Seba Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company Tina Waggener Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company

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Jackson Williams Weichert Realtors - The Griffin Company

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Kendra Bruce Weichert, Realtors - Market Edge

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Jessica Williams White Hall Realty

Front row left to right: Courtney Corwin, Margaret Holt, Brandy Jones, Emily Young, April Findlay, Erica Ibsen, Heather McNeil Back row left to right: Melissa John, Jonie Burks, Tami Cooper, Stacie Corbitt, Michelle Blalock, Michelle Miller, Mollie Birch

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for being “Realtors5813 of Kavanaugh Blvd 501-664-5646 / www.charlottejohn.com Distinction!”

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704 N. Missouri St, West Memphis, AR 72301 870-732-4655

84% of AY readers are looking for dining and entertainment ideas according to Circulation Verification Council.

Our readers are hungry.

Congratulations!

Russell Wren

EARA Realtor of the Year!

7958 Edgemont Rd, Greers Ferry, AR 72067 501-825-7500

Kasper’s: Come in and stay awhile.

kasper’s 501 N. Johnson, Clarksville Tuesday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5-9 p.m.

kaspersclarksville.com

(479) 647-4332

The natural sweet from the natural state.

2001 N Poplar Street • North Little Rock, AR 72114 • 501-758-1123

fischerhoney.com

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food

Cuts From a

Different Cloth

By DWAIN HEBDA Photos courtesy SARACEN CASINO RESORT

Red Oak Steakhouse.

sk anyone in the culinary business and they will tell you — for the best of anything, go local. Get with the people who know how something is supposed to taste, give them the freshest ingredients, and get out of their way. You’ll pay, sure, but you’ll still be smiling the next morning.

You want littleneck clams? Make a trip to the Cape. You want deep-dish, hello Windy City. Tex-Mex? Duh, Texas.

Steak is the medium-rare exception. You can find a good piece of meat just about anywhere you go in this great nation, whether it’s cattle country or not. In fact, one of the true joys in life is finding a place that shouldn’t be as it is, where it is — some little aberration that delivers, time and again, in a spot that you just stumbled over by chance.

The Red Oak Steakhouse is kind of like that. With all due respect to the renaissance city of Pine Bluff, you don’t expect to find one of the best plates in America there, and being located inside a casino — long associated with the $1.99 buffet — casts its own shadow as well.

But make no mistake, folks — Red Oak Steakhouse, nestled into Saracen Casino Resort, is destined for greatness on a global scale. In a state blessed with exceptional food experiences — so much so that to name one is to sleight three others — Red Oak has critics and guests alike slobbering all over themselves.

“We have to do things that nobody’s done before. We don’t want to sit here and open other food magazines to come up with an idea,” says Todd Gold, director of food and beverage for Saracen. “If you’re not original, you’re not anything.

“Our food is fresh, it’s the finest ingredients, it’s prepared where it looks like it belongs in a magazine. It’s beautiful. And it blows you away when you eat it. I challenge anybody else — anybody else — to go head-to-head with us. … I’m willing to say we are the best restaurant, not just steakhouse, in the state. And we will be in the region soon. We’re heading that way.”

It would be easy to take potshots at such a claim, given the many upper-echelon steak experiences to be had in the Natural State. But there’s a growing body of evidence Gold is somehow being modest.

Red Oak elevates the art of the sizzle to mind-bending levels. And to understand just how far they’re willing to go to stay there, you need only look at their raw materials.

“The quality of the meat is obviously the best we can find,” says Joe Coleman, executive chef at Red Oak. “We have a few different categories of meat. One is a prime option that we dry age in-house for 30 days. Then from there, we go to a wagyu product.

“There’s a common confusion when it comes to wagyu products, like, ‘What’s the difference between American and Australian?’ Essentially, they take a Japanese cow and cross-breed it with a native cow. So that’s where you get the difference between Japanese and just wagyu in general. Ours is actually a Japanese Wagyu.

“And then we go up a step further, which is our Kobe products. The Kobe is a wagyu, but it’s a specific type of cow that has a 2,000-year-old bloodline in one region of Japan. It’s the elite of the elite, the best of the best.”

True wagyu beef, and Kobe in particular, follows a dizzying set of guidelines and regulations in Japan, resulting in abundant counterfeits and knockoffs. At the time it opened, Red Oak was one of only 38 restaurants in America granted a license to serve the delicacy.

Needless to say, this doesn’t come cheap, and working with such expensive ingredients is enough to make even an elite pro like Chef Coleman’s hands a little wobbly the first time out.

“The first time we got the Kobe in, I was so scared about it,” he says. “I just researched and researched, trying to figure out how can I get the most out of this muscle without busting the paint. … It finally came in. I looked at and was like, ‘All right, relax. It’s only a $7,000 piece.’ It was a little intimidating. I’ve been around beef for years, but it’s a little different when you factor in that ‘cha-ching’ factor.”

Gold says, stone-faced, “The Kobe is $20 an ounce. When we get a ribeye and a strip loin end, we’re talking about two muscles. You

Dining at its finest at Red Oak Steakhouse.

can hold them with two hands, they’re not huge. It’s an $11,000 order. If Chef Joe’s knife slips, or if he cuts something too small, he probably just burned up $250 in one cut. That’s where the craziness comes in.”

The hierarchy of steak can be more than a little confusing. In the United States, it used to be simple — three USDA grades included select, choice and prime, with prime being top of the line. That rating system, still in place today, held for decades as a marker of quality and tenderness. The difference? Intramuscular fat content, which delivers both flavor and tenderness to a given cut.

And we’re not talking about a subcutaneous blanket of blubber, here; any fool can raise an obese bovine. It takes real skill to raise cattle where the fat permeates the meat (called marbling, like the striations of color in a stone countertop). The fat melts during cooking, lending moisture and flavor, as well as boosts tenderness, being softer and

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easier to cut than muscle.

The three USDA grades worked perfectly fine during the dark ages of pre-internet, pre-cooking channel, pre-foodie fandom. But as the world has grown smaller, next-level meat started to find wider demand. Atop this trend has been the Japanese Wagyu, of which Kobe beef is the pinnacle, which takes the fat-muscle ratio, turns it on its head and slaps it around.

The Japanese grading system employs letters and numbers to gauge quality, grade and yield. Without getting too far off into the pasture, A5 is the best you can get; within this category the marbling can get so dense the white fat turns the raw meat pink instead of red.

“You have to experience Kobe, but there’s only so much of that you can eat,” Gold says. “It’s so rich. It’s like eating foie gras. It’s not like you’re going to sit down and eat 10 ounces of Kobe.”

For those not ready to shell out the kinds of prices Red Oak commands for such fare, there are still plenty of other Arkansas options for a sublime steak experience. Cache Restaurant, located in Little Rock’s River Market, has formed a loyal following with a mix of elegance and simplicity in their acclaimed steaks.

Chef Payne Harding says there’s no secret to the restaurant’s stellar fare — it all boils down to quality beef and expert preparation.

“We buy Creek Stone Farm’s beef.

It’s a very popular selection of beef in Little Rock,” he says. “What we do is, we’ll do a quick marinade on the steak of just canola oil. We’ll let it sit in that oil and marinate for 10 minutes or so.

Then we’ll hit it with fresh kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

“We make an in-house rub, a special thing with garlic powder, onion powder and throw some black pepper in there and some other seasonings.

We’ll hit it with that special house rub, and that’s going to accentuate the flavor.”

Chef Harding says that as with many things in the pandemic, the price of beef has spiked. But the restaurant buys appropriately to keep costs manageable. He also strives to provide an atmosphere that elevates the dining experience and, of course, deliver exceptional food that fills and feels familiar. (By the way, Chef says go with Cache’s strip steak, and, by all that’s holy, order it no more than medium.)

“After it comes off the grill, we throw it in the oven and roast it oldschool method for about 10 minutes,” he says. “We’ll put a little topping of whole butter on the steak, put it in the broiler for about 15-30 seconds to let the butter melt, give it a good slip around on the sizzle tray, and then it’s ready to go.

“I don’t think there’s anything on the menu that’s more central to who we are and what we do than our steak. It’s that basic thing people love and come back to, time and time again. Pair it with a nice red wine, and it’s perfect.”

Cache’s Filet Mignon (above) and New York Strip (below).

(Photos by Jamison Mosley)

s t u C Prime AY’s ARKANSAS

Bucket List

Presented by

l 21 West End

l Omar’s Uptown

l 501 Prime

l Red Oak Steakhouse

llsopp & Chapple Restaurant + Bar l A

l Renzo’s Pasta & Italian

Fort Smith

Hot Springs Little Rock

rthur’s Prime Steakhouse l A

Little Rock

occa Italian Eatery & Pizzeria l B

Fayetteville

l Cache Restaurant Little Rock

attleman’s Steak House l C

Texarkana

olonial Steak House l C

Pine Bluff

l F red’s Hickory Inn Fayetteville

l Gaskins Cabin Steakhouse Eureka Springs

l Grotto Wood-Fired Grill and Wine Cave Eureka Springs

l J B ChopHouse

Hot Springs, Little Rock

l Mike’s Place Conway

Jonesboro

Pine Bluff

Steakhouse Eureka Springs

l River Grille Bentonville

l Riverfront Steakhouse North Little Rock

l SO Restaurant-Bar Little Rock

l Sonny Willliams’ Steak Room Little Rock

l Table 28

Little Rock

l Taylor’s Steakhouse Dumas

l The Butcher Shop Little Rock

l The Grumpy Rabbit Lonoke

l The Porterhouse Hot Springs

l Theo’s

Fayetteville, Rogers

l Vault at 723 Hot Springs

3C heck off the Prime Cuts Food list as you visit a small sample of our favorite places.

s t a E

MAPLEROASTED

Carrots

By Nic Williams

•

aymag.com

S • R ECIPE

INGREDIENTS 1 pound thin whole carrots, trimmed and peeled 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons of real, 100 percent pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup) ¼ teaspoon chipotle powder ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste Pepper to taste ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS

FLAVOR PAIRING Farmers markets across Arkansas are filling up with beautiful carrots grown by our neighbors. Roasted in sweet maple syrup and balanced with a zesty bite of chipotle, these easy, restaurant-style carrots will pair perfectly with your next steak and glass of red wine.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put carrots in an oven-proof skillet.

In a small bowl, whisk olive oil, maple syrup and chipotle powder until wellcombined. You shouldn’t see a layer between oil and maple syrup.

Pour olive oil mixture over carrots, and toss together until carrots are evenly coated. Sprinkle with salt.

Cover pan with aluminum foil, and roast for 25-30 minutes, or until tender.

Remove carrots from oven and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Garnish with parsley, and serve hot.

Lobster

MAC & CHEESE

By Kaitlin Barger INGREDIENTS ¼ cup butter, melted 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped 1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped ¼ cup flour 4 cups milk 1 tablespoon onion powder Salt and pepper (to taste) Dash of nutmeg 4 cups cooked pasta of your choice 8 ounces cooked lobster meat 2 cups Gruyere cheese 2 cups white cheddar cheese 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs ¼ cup parsley, chopped (for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a pan, melt butter, and add garlic and onion.

Add flour, and cook for a few minutes, until lightly brown.

Add milk, onion powder, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Bring to a boil and add pasta. Stir until well-coated.

Add lobster meat, and warm.

Add both cheeses, and stir until completely melted.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs over top, and place in oven for a few minutes, or until lightly browned.

Garnish with parsley, and serve.

FLAVOR PAIRING What goes better with a juicy steak than something extra cheesy? For a special occasion, adding lobster will turn your dinner up a notch and make everyone’s mouth water. You can pick up lobster at most grocery stores, but for this one we took a little trip to newly opened Costco in Little Rock. The flavor was great.

food

Bone-In Ribeye

d e e r B e r a AR Taylor’s Steakhouse serves up quite possibly the best steak in Arkansas. But are you willing to put in the miles to get there? I hope so.

By KEVIN SHALIN // Photos By JAMISON MOSLEY

rom Little Rock, expect an hour and a half drive. It’s a small price to pay for steak greatness. The further you get from the capital city, the more tranquil the expedition gets. On U.S. 65, it’s smooth sailing as you roll through the towns of Grady and Varner.

Turn off at Gould, and spend the last 15 minutes winding your way through backroads surrounded by manicured farmland. The soothing glances at rows of corn might be interrupted by the crop duster 100 feet above, a sight that proves to be every bit as mesmerizing. This is pure Arkansas.

Then, on the outskirts of Dumas, Taylor’s Steakhouse appears out of nowhere — not the spot you would think to find not only one of the best steaks in Arkansas, but one I would put against any in the country.

Thanks to a little planning and GPS technology, I Chuck Taylor. arrived at 5:30 p.m. sharp on an early Thursday evening, right at opening. Co-owner Pamela Taylor was there to greet me. She is a talker, while her husband, Chuck, who seems quiet by nature, resides in the kitchen. The two form a dynamic duo.

“I was blessed with the gift of gab, and Chuck was blessed with the gift of cooking,” Pamela says. “This has been working for us for 35 years.”

Before sitting down in an almost empty restaurant, I took a gander at the setting, as it had been more than three years since my previous visit. Nothing had changed. It’s casual for a steakhouse, with no white tablecloths to be found. So if you are ponder-

113

ing whether or not to bring the kiddos, just know this is a family friendly environment. Bright, modern bovine art, along with framed accolades of write-ups and awards from years past adorn the walls. Look left upon entry to notice the pride-and-joy of Taylor’s Steakhouse — the meat-aging chamber filled with steaks that will eventually meet Chuck’s hands for a proper trimming.

“We typically age our steaks 30-60 days. Sometimes longer,” Pamela says.

The “sometimes longer” refers to special occasions, like the 120-day aged ribeye that brought me through the door in 2018 or the 1-year aged offering Chuck let me sample on this night. Chuck isn’t hesitant about pushing the steak-aging envelope, and the outcome often yields an intensely flavorful product. And while that’s all fine and dandy, as Pamela tells it, the real difference is the meat itself.

“Hands down, the quality of beef is what makes the difference,” she says. “We strive

to get the best quality.”

According to the dining room chalkboard, that’s USDA Prime Black Angus. At the very top of the menu is Taylor’s signature bone-in ribeye, a 20-28-ounce behemoth that would be an absolute mistake not to order. On this night, the steak arrived at my table swimming in a pool of its own juices, along with a small loaf of bread, a baked potato and a side of creamy coleslaw that I could not resist adding to the mix. For good measure, I also ordered an 8-ounce filet mignon, you know, for research purposes.

aymag.com

g n i k r o w n e e b s a h s i h T “ ” . s r a e y 5 3 r o for us f 114

Both steaks are sure to delight, but the medium-rare ribeye — with all its flavorful marbling — is why most folks make the trip to Dumas.

Those subtly charred edges have just the slightest bit of funky, bleu cheese taste, a product of an aging and trimming process done right. How a human could finish one of these steaks is beyond me. Each bite is as rich and decadent as the one before. The smaller, leaner filet is nothing to sneeze at, especially after dipping each forkful of steak into a plate of meat juice. This cut will also allow you to save some stomach space for dessert, as the restaurant is known for its cheesecake.

The entire Taylor’s Steakhouse experience is special, and although current rising beef prices have a ribeye sitting at $65, you would have to pay at least twice that amount, if not more, to eat a steak of this quality in a big city. Whether Chuck and Pamela like to admit it, churning out memorable steaks in a small Arkansas town does come with added pressure, due to the fact that so much of their clientele are traveling great distances.

Pamela Taylor.

“We want every steak to be the best for local and out-of-town customers,” Pamela says. “We have many customers who say they save up to make a special trip to visit us. It’s so fun to see return customers and the ones who save to celebrate special occasions. We get so much satisfaction hearing all the wonderful compliments from people who truly enjoy the meal and service, especially from those who say they have eaten all over the world and ours is the best.”

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Saying this steak is the best is not hyperbole, at least not to me. But here is the one caveat I have yet to mention: Taylor’s Steakhouse is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, which is a small window each week to experience the steak of a lifetime. The limited hours only help build intrigue, and it is also why I suggest calling ahead to make a reservation, just in case. Even though the restaurant was empty upon a typical Thursday opening, it was darn near full by the time I left. I would hate for you to drive all that way and not get a steak.

Well, I guess you could order one and eat it in your car, but that is only for emergency purposes.

And as for that drive home? Let’s just say that being stuffed full of steak and cheesecake makes for a less enjoyable trip than the one to Taylor’s, but I am sure you’d agree that being uncomfortably full is a small price to pay for greatness.

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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

food

Kamiya Merrick.

Face Behind the Place:

Kamiya Merrick ofAt the Corner From the soccer field to the kitchen, Kamiya Merrick’s competitive nature and fierce determination know no bounds.

By KEVIN SHALIN // Photos By JAMISON MOSLEY Soccer brought Kamiya Merrick to Little Rock, but family and food made her stay. The young co-owner and executive chef of At the Corner, the popular breakfast, lunch and brunch spot in downtown, came to the capital city from Ontario, Canada, on a soccer scholarship from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. And although her collegiate career was plagued by injuries, on the personal front, she met her future husband, Dutch, and eventually married into a family that was determined to change the Little Rock restaurant landscape. After graduating, Merrick spent a full year immersing herself in the city prior to the restaurant opening. The training demands on a student athlete often limit nonschool activities, so this was her first, unfettered opportunity to experience Little Rock.

“I fell in love with it,” Merrick says. “I saw the potential that this city has. Little Rock and Arkansas are so underrated.”

By 2014, she, along with motherin-law, Helen King, and sisters-inlaw, Leila King and Helen Grace King, took that restaurant plunge, opening At the Corner — complete with a menu of stick-to-your-ribs comfort food classics like burgers, poutine, chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy and buttermilk pancakes.

Merrick says, “Looking at the market, we definitely saw a demand for a breakfast spot in downtown.”

I was there at the very beginning, interviewing the women and wondering what this new spot was all about. Truth be told, I had

my doubts, as the group seemed a bit green and inexperienced.

That included Merrick, who was new to running a kitchen. Six years later, I could not have been more wrong, as the family has built one of the most popular restaurants in town. If you do not believe me, check out the line that routinely extends down Markham Street on a Sunday morning for brunch, in part because of a creative, rotating menu often featuring local products.

“I’ve developed strong relationships with a lot of the farmers. That’s what drives the inspiration. It’s definitely a collective inspiration to do these seasonally driven menus,” Merrick says. “Getting the customers to order something unique and different has become easier now that we’re six years in. They now come to try the specials, but that took time.

A lot of people come for the staples, but when I create these menus, I want the specials to sell even more than the staples.”

When she thinks back, one dish — the Fried Chicken Grit Bowl with blueberry compote, lemon curd and cheddar cheese — stands out.

“It was a play on the sweet and savory,” she says. “To this day, that’s one dish people ask me when we’ll put it back on the menu.”

And whether it ends up back on the menu or not, I imagine it’s a topic that will be discussed between Merrick and the rest of the At the Corner hierarchy. As on the soccer field, there’s a true team environment at the restaurant, with success built on smarts, hard work, grit and a blending of varying talents from the female

“You have to be thickskinned to be in the restaurant industry.”

family foursome.

“We all bring different traits,” Merrick says. “I’m a little more rough around the edges.

I guess I lack that Southern charm, but we’re definitely each other’s backbone. There’s just no way we would have survived the past six years if we didn’t have each other.”

For Merrick, the beginning days of At the Corner put her determination to the test.

She says, “It was nerve-wracking, but at the same time, I wouldn’t allow myself to fail, so I knew that I needed to do what I had to do to create a successful restaurant.”

She also surrounded herself with trusted mentors and experienced chefs, soaked up their knowledge and direction and, in turn, strengthened her cooking skills, but also experienced a broadened perspective about the chosen path.

“You have to be thick-skinned to be in the restaurant industry,” she says. “It’s not easy.

Every day there’s a new demand and a new challenge. You have to be quick, think on your feet and handle that adversity.”

Again, that sounds a lot like being on a soccer field, but the commonalities don’t stop there.

“The physical demand of being an athlete and working in the restaurant industry is similar,” she says. “On the weekend, it’s like prepping for game day. After we get there in the morning, we finish the prep, set up the line, and everyone has their own position. I have someone working the grill, someone working on the cool side, someone on the fryer, two people on dish, and I’m on expo. When that line out front starts forming, everybody gets into position, puts their head down, and we get the job done. It’s like playing a game of soccer for those five hours we’re open. There are days when my body feels like it has been put through the wringer.”

And since 2020, those challenges have only increased due to a global pandemic.

Breakfast Sampler.

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Riverside Salad.

“It’s like prepping for game day.”

“You have to be able to withstand the physical, mental and emotional challenges that come at you in the restaurant, especially over the past year and a half,” Merrick says.

“It’s been one of the most challenging, trying times I’ve had to deal with in my whole life. In general, there are ups and downs with a restaurant, but through the pandemic, it was heightened threefold.”

Fortunately, the At the Corner team hasn’t missed a beat throughout the pandemic, transitioning to curbside service and outdoor seating, while also taking an active role in feeding health care workers. On top of that, Merrick and the Kings have a new downtown Little Rock restaurant in the works. There is no opening date as of yet, but folks should be on the lookout for Henrietta’s, a plant-centric eatery located on Third Street.

“It will be nothing like you’ve ever seen in Little Rock,” Merrick says. “Sometimes in life, you have to take that leap and believe in yourself and have that faith and just know you’ll be successful.”

Sounds exciting, both for diners and the chef, who will now be overseeing two vastly different kitchens. The confident Merrick is up for the challenge.

She says, “You have to believe in yourself and exude that confidence, but in a very humble manner.”

A second restaurant means Merrick is even more invested in Little Rock and helping build a stronger community.

That’s OK with her.

“I’m absolutely in love with Little Rock,” she says. “The people are amazing.”

And with the help of Merrick and the Kings, so is the food. Game on.

Qiuthick bites w

Kamiya

1. You’re from Canada, so I have to ask, are you a hockey fan? I’m not. My dad was a hockey player, and I did grow up in the arena, chasing pucks. But I can’t lie and say that I’m a hockey fan.

2. What do you do to unwind? I work out, things like yoga, pilates class and lifting. That’s my release.

3. What is one thing about yourself that most people do not know? I have four dogs, Amelia, Rex, Regal and Hazel. Luckily, I have no kids, but they are my kids.

4. What is your favorite television show? It’s kind of cheesy, but I like The Challenge.

5. What was your worst sports injury? I tore my ACL three times during my college career. It’s still torn.

6.What was the first movie you saw in the theater?

Titanic. I had the biggest crush on Leonardo DiCaprio.

travel

Comfort of Cranor’s the

Story and Photos by HEATHER BAKER

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N

orthern Arkansas definitely ranks among my favorite places to be in the entire state. The waters of Bull Shoals Lake cascade into the curves of the White River, which snakes its way across Arkansas down a seemingly endless path — from Lakeview to Newport, and everything in between. To soak up some of the final rays of summertime sunshine, I took a trip up to this neck of the woods last month. There is many a place to choose for room and board along the river, but my travels took me to Cranor’s White River Lodge in Cotter, and it’s definitely among the best places I’ve ever stayed in Arkansas.

It might surprise you to read this, but I’m actually very comfortable in nature. I know, I know. The dolled-up and dressed-to-the-nines frequenter of galas and fancy dinners having a “wild” side is hard to believe. But, I’ve always thought that my best quality is that I’m comfortable with a curtsy or a crankbait. As luck would have it, Cranor’s is the perfect place for such a gal; it’s off the beaten path but is rife with luxury.

I was introduced to this special spot by my good friend (and Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioner), Anne Marie Doramus. One of her fellow commissioners, Rob Finley, owns and operates the lodge with Don Cranor, one of his old high school friends. The Cranor’s crew rolled out the red carpet for me and my guests — as they do for all their patrons — and delivered a stay and fishing experience unlike any other.

My guests and I holed up in the main lodge for the weekend, which was unbelievable. It was the perfect blend of rustic and elegant. On the way in and while doing some exploring throughout my stay, I was equally as impressed with the other rooming options available at

Cranor’s — and there are plenty of which to choose. There are three hotel rooms, half a dozen cabins, lodge suites, and then, of course, the Greatroom — my oasis for a few days.

My posse and I soaked up all of the 1,200 square feet the abode offers and were exceptionally pleased with the modern amenities, as well as the eccentric decor — like the taxidermied bear sitting front and center of the living area.

There was also a fly fishing station, equipped with all the tools you’d ever need to prep for a day on the water, as well as fishing ornaments that really add to the connecting essence of the whole property. The owners describe the Greatroom and the main lodge as having “all the comforts of home,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Right off the back of the lodge is a beautiful covered area with rock and wood fireplaces, Green Egg grills and outdoor furniture, all topped off by a breathtaking view of the river.

I couldn’t help but think this would be a great place to host a wedding, reunion, or just a few leisurely types like us.

After we arrived, Finley took us on a boat ride down to the dam and the tailwaters, where Bull Shoals pours into the White River. We were met with a really neat phenomenon. It was a typical August day in Arkansas of sweltering heat, but because the water at the dam is so cold, it drops the temperature of the air.

It’s basically like outdoor air conditioning and almost as good a way to beat the heat as a cool cocktail. (Almost.) The scenery was fantastic on this little river rendezvous — we even saw an eagle’s nest.

By then, it was time for dinner, which was whipped up by our own personal chef for the evening, Shane. (Again, an amenity you and yours can book on your trip, as well.) The meal

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aymag.com

The spectacular view from the main lodge.

“Southern Hospitality is a thing, and I think the folks at Cranor’s White River Lodge could probably write the book on it.”

Rob Finley.

consisted of shrimp cocktails, dumplings and side salads for appetizers; fresh sea bass with asparagus and rice for the entree; and for dessert, strawberry shortcake that had been prepared on the grill for the “Christmas on the Outside” experience. It was all so amazing. Even sweeter: Many of the Cranor’s staff and family members sat down to eat with us. They truly made us feel like we were a part of the family — and we always will, thanks to their kindness and gracious hospitality. Good food. Good people. Good fellowship. There’s not much more you can ask for.

The next morning, it was finally time for the main event: fishing. Lou Treat was my fishing guide; Jerry Killebrew took the guide reins for friends of mine who had joined me on this trip.

A few running gags surround the two guides — fish tales, if you will. Treat, they say, is like the Bono of angling. (I’m also told that he’s

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featured on a number of different fishing TV shows, including with Bill Dance.) Killebrew, just as skilled in his own right, is the Johnny Appleseed — not for the fruit, but because he famously doesn’t wear shoes. Both men are equally capable and renowned for their talents. In fact, Cranor and Finley pride themselves on having what they say are the best fishing guides around.

For my money, they earned their stripes. Not only did we catch our limit (and then some) of trout in what I felt like was record time, Treat also left me with plenty of priceless fishing tips to take with me.

After a few hours of fishing, we returned to the shoreline where the staff prepared our keepers for a fresh (like, as fresh as you can get) lunch. Our rainbow trout were filleted, battered and deepfried mere moments after we’d caught them, and plated with some fries and hush puppies.

rainbow trout

Don’t just take my word for it: venerable columnist Mike Masterson of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette called it “a new favorite” of his in an article he wrote after his visit last year.

It’s the real deal.

On my way out of Cotter and back to the real world, I couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that I’d somehow been changed by the experience. That may sound cliche or hyperbolic to say, but I mean it. The experience was incredible, and the people I met even more so. Southern Hospitality is a thing, and I think the folks at Cranor’s White River Lodge could probably write the book on it. My time with them may have been brief, but I genuinely feel like my family grew larger after my stay. I’d have to imagine they feel like that after every guest that comes their way.

And I will be back.

Lou Treat and Heather Baker.

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From a brand-new restaurant to many of the familiar sights and sounds of small-town Arkansas, Lonoke has a lot to offer.

LONOKE:

Front Porch

of the

Delta

– Story and Photos by Joe David Rice

“Lonoke’s in a good situation ... not experiencing skyrocketing growth, but not caught in the decline of so many of the state’s Delta communities.”

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I

’m one of those travelers flying back to Little Rock from the eastern half of the country who finds comfort in seeing Lonoke from 5,000 feet. The glide path takes my aircraft over the pancake-flat Delta landscape surrounding the town, checkerboarded with rice fields and fish farms. And then on the west end of town stands the towering Riceland grain elevator, the community’s sole skyscraper. Its flashing beacon is an indicator that my plane will soon be on the tarmac at Little Rock’s Clinton National Airport.

From the air, it’s been much the same scene for the past 20 or 30 years. But on the ground, Lonoke is changing. Big time. The city’s transformation can be traced back to 2016 with development of the “Kick Start Lonoke” initiative. Two outside organizations (the Community Development Institute at the University of Central Arkansas and the Cooperative Extension Service with the University of Arkansas) played key roles, but there’s no getting around the fact that dozens of local leaders stepped up to the plate. Using surveys, on-site visits, and a whole bunch of productive meetings, the community identified its core values, drafted a vision statement, and set a number of goals, many of which have been reached. Now in its next phase of renewal and revitalization,

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known as “Lonoke 2022,” the city is focusing on continued improvements to coincide with Lonoke’s 150th anniversary next year.

One of the individuals involved in the city’s rebirth is Gene Eagle, a proud member of the fifth generation of his family with Lonoke roots. Eagle, the former president of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, knows a thing or two about community development. Now living in Lonoke following his retirement from the state, Eagle works parttime on the city payroll and also serves on the board of the Lonoke Economic Acceleration and Development Corporation. He and his colleagues are working to expand the city’s industrial base, adding to the mix that already includes the Remington Ammunition and Accessories plant (now owned

by Vista Outdoors) and MKT Fastening (which has been in Lonoke for more than a quarter of a century).

Voters demonstrated their support of local growth by passing a property tax increase last year that’s funding the Lonoke Business Academy, a first-of-its-kind facility in the state. Scheduled to open this fall, it’s supported by a consortium of local entrepreneurs looking for high-quality employees. The 30,000-square-foot building will feature hands-on classes in health care, diesel mechanics and aquaculture, with

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Left: Lonoke’s Riceland Foods plant.

Right: The crops from Lonoke’s fish farms stretch far and wide.

moving forward.” He’s worked hard to develop networks across the state, cultivating relationships that can help him solve problems for his constituents.

Reed is not your typical Arkansas mayor. For one thing, he’s a very youthful 39. A native of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Reed is a Mississippi State University graduate and an Air Force veteran. He was assigned to the Little Rock Air Force Base at Jacksonville, and that’s when he met his wife, the former Ashley Emory of Lonoke. Now serving in the Arkansas Air National Guard, Reed is a qualified flight instructor for the C-130s based at LRAFB. My suspicion is that his advanced degree in National Security Studies from the American Military University also sets him apart from the typical Arkansas municipal leader.

Despite being “the new guy in town,” as he puts it, Reed says he’s been greeted with a genuine sense of welcome since day one. “The people in Lonoke have been incredibly receptive,” he says, “even when some of the brainstorming sessions got pretty interesting.” That the old heads were willing to

As for Lonoke’s name, it can be traced back to a pair of railroad men who’d been contracted to relocate a depot on the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad right-of-way. A huge red oak stood all by itself on the prairie near the site.

“Lone-oak” became Lonoke. students receiving college-type credit in their areas of study.

Firm in its belief that the academy will have long-term benefits for Lonoke students, surrounding schools and the town itself, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation presented the school with a $25,000 grant earlier this year.

Lonoke elected Trae Reed as mayor in the fall of 2018, and he took office the following January. Now a little over halfway through his four-year term, Reed says the best part of being mayor is that he’s exposed to all sides of every story.

“We may disagree,” he says, “but at the end of the day, we’re

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listen to him made a big impression.

As for his priorities, Mayor Reed says he’ll concentrate on the downtown infrastructure, housing and quality of life, stating that a commitment to “placemaking” is vitally important for the community’s future. He enjoys working with Lonoke’s city council, feeling that the city’s benefitting from a “cohesive dynamic.”

One of those council members is architect Ryan Biles, a native of Sherwood. He and his wife, Natalie, owner of the Shine Interior Design Studio, settled in Lonoke following their graduation from the University of Arkansas. They worked together on The Grumpy Rabbit, a popular restaurant in an adaptive reuse of a building constructed in 1905 by Eagle’s great grandfather.

After commuting thousands of miles to Little Rock over the years, Biles relocated his professional practice to Lonoke — and now bicycles the dozen blocks or so to his office every day. He likes the fact that Lonoke has retained its cultural identity, that it hasn’t lost its rural roots. Lonoke’s in a good situation, he says, not experiencing skyrocketing growth, but not caught in the decline of so many of the state’s Delta communities.

Now into his second term on the city council, Biles enjoys the challenges presented by his neighbors. “It’s not as easy as it looks from the outside,” he says, “but the job is certainly rewarding.” And he particularly appreciates Reed’s

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interest in empowering the city council members, allowing them to better serve their constituents. It’s a group of highly engaged people who, like him, want to maintain Lonoke’s character of a safe, hometown environment. “We now have the opportunity,” Biles says, “to define how and where we want to grow.”

Biles is especially pleased with progress on the sustainability front. The city received a grant to place an electric vehicle charging station downtown. Becoming a bicycle destination community is high on his list of priorities, as is establishing a regional greenway.

While planning for its future, Lonoke hasn’t forgotten the past. The Lonoke County Historical Museum & Genealogical Research Center is open six days a week (closed on Sundays) and is worth a visit. Located in the historic Scott Building (once a Chevrolet dealership), the museum interprets major events that influenced local history. There are displays on the Trail of Tears, Toltec Mounds and the Memphis to Little Rock Railroad. Civil War enthusiasts will appreciate the diorama on the skirmish at Brownsville. Although Eberts Field has been long replaced by fish farms, this former World War I military airfield is brought to life by another diorama, complete with squadrons of “Flying Jenny” airplanes. Admission to the museum is free.

With nearly 20 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Lonoke provides an attractive destination

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Right: Lonoke County Museum.

Below: Local art and one of the quaint, cottage-style homes that can be found in the city.

for folks interested in architectural highlights. In addition, several colorful murals have been added to the community in recent months.

Finally, no piece on Lonoke would be complete without mentioning the thousands of acres of fish farms surrounding the town. Nearly 100 years ago (in 1928 to be exact), the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission purchased 266 acres of land along U.S. 70, about half a mile southwest of Lonoke for construction of a fish hatchery. Using teams of mules, laborers created 32 ponds, soon stocking them with bream and largemouth bass caught in the White River. Named the Joe Hogan Fish Hatchery in 1956 to honor the original hatchery supervisor, the complex now features 77 ponds that annually produce 3 to 4 million fish (warm-water species such as largemouth bass, bream, crappie, channel catfish and blue catfish) for release in Arkansas’ public water bodies. Jason Miller, who’s managed the property since 2008, welcomes visitors. “We often have a great assortment of shorebirds,” he says, “but don’t come expecting to see fish.” The fish, he

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explains, are seldom seen except when they might break the water as the food truck makes its round. The ponds are a popular stop for Audubon Society members, especially during migratory bird seasons.

A couple of decades after the state built its first hatchery, the Anderson family got in the fish farming business on the outskirts of Lonoke. Now recognized as the world’s largest baitfish (i.e., minnow) farm, it produces more than 1 billion shiners a year, selling them from coast to coast.

The Pool family also started out in the minnow business years ago, and added goldfish in 1959. The Pools now claim the title of world’s largest goldfish hatchery, with 250 of their 400 ponds devoted to raising these brilliant beauties. Visitors are welcome to tour Pool Fisheries.

As for Lonoke’s name, it can be traced back to a pair of railroad men who’d been contracted to relocate a depot on the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad right-of-way. A huge red oak stood all by itself on the prairie near the site. “Lone-oak” became Lonoke.

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travel

: y s a E t i Take

A W N s t e e r t S w Slo Y BEIR

By EMIL

te otos cour NE // Ph

NWA sy BIKE

Slow ride: Street signs note areas where families can cruise safely.

athering together as a community is not as simple as it once was a couple of years ago. Large groups in close quarters are a risk not many can gamble amid the precautions the COVID-19 pandemic has put in place, but living in complete isolation indoors is also not an ideal situation. With the health and safety of others in mind, the outdoors have transformed into the perfect event space for this moment in time.

An initiative introduced in 2020, Slow Streets NWA allows for the Northwest Arkansas community to see each other’s smiling faces outside of a computer or phone screen.

The outdoors provide clean air, plenty of space to spread out and ample opportunities to bask in the beauty of the region.

“Slow Streets started as a pandemic response back in the spring of 2020,” BikeNWA’s Events Manager Lauren Hildreth says. “This idea was pulled from the initiatives that were happening, not just running around the United States, but also around the globe as an effort to provide more space for people — particularly in urban areas — to be outside and have an outlet for exercise, fresh air and just truly getting outdoors.”

This season’s Slow Streets NWA program will kick off Labor Day weekend in September and continue through the last weekend of October. For each weekend, routes will be marked in Fayetteville, Bentonville and Rogers, indicating

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where Slow Streets participants can safely walk, cycle, run, scoot or whatever their preferred means of slow transportation may be.

The effort “is an opportunity to try to provide some relief for COVID, get some exercise and maybe explore the city,” Hildreth says. “Once [BikeNWA] had made the first proposal to the different cities, we provided the background information of what other areas are doing and noted that there are things that could be done in Arkansas communities that would make some improvements for quality of life and experiences.

“Anyone driving a vehicle still has access to that space, but we just ask for everyone to watch out for those who are not driving a vehicle — those who might be out riding bikes or walking their dogs with kids. Just keep speeds low and within the speed limit, and then for those who are not driving cars, again, it’s just as important for them to remember that the street isn’t closed to vehicular traffic. Look both ways, look across the street and share the road.”

As the first-of-its-kind in the state of Arkansas, BikeNWA spent a large amount of time organizing this initiative to introduce Arkansans to the life many communities around the country have known for years. Arkansans rely heavily on the use of vehicles for getting from point A to point B, but Slow Streets NWA shows that there is a beneficial alternative.

“Slow Streets NWA highlights an opportunity to get outside in [routed] areas and experience what streets could look like, and get the conversation started about how we are using our streets for various activities, such as recreation, transportation and how people are moving around in their neighborhood and in their community,” Hildreth explains. “This is the biggest opportunity that we can use to start that conversation with area residents about what their needs are, how the infrastructure is serving them and possibly what could be improved.”

This sector of the state is well-known for its mix of natural and urban life and the rich cultural experiences that set the Northwest communities apart from others in Arkansas. However, this initiative can be put in place relatively anywhere in the state. With the help of the right people, interest and community involvement, “Slow Streets” can become a statewide program. aymag.com

“The pandemic has evolved ... and this program has evolved along with it.”

“If people are interested in doing this in their neighborhood or in their communities, we have resources to share, including a webinar [from] back at the beginning of this year pulling together some people from across the country that did this type of program,” Hildreth shares. “There is lots of information to help get people started on the program that I think we’d all love to see continued.”

Along with BikeNWA’s resources to get other communities started, Hildreth says that it would not be possible without the assistance of cities’ transportation and traffic departments, city councils and city leaders.

“City councils, for example, are there to advocate for their residents and constituents, as well as try to find opportunities for these kinds of programs,” Hildreth explains.

The future of Slow Streets can go in many different directions, depending on the outcome of the next year, the pandemic and the community. With so many possibilities, there is plenty of time to look forward to how it can continue to evolve.

“The pandemic has evolved, and it’s impacting our communities and our daily lives, and this program has evolved along with it,” Hildreth says. “We used to do a program called Open Streets, which was more of an event.”

Open Streets, she says, was a one-day program that pulled people outside and made them reimagine what the “streets” could be. She thinks that this is something that could be incorporated into Slow Streets in the future. “[We] would like to do more small activities and continue to identify the needs and concerns of particular neighborhoods and spaces within the community,” she says. “Hopefully, we’ll continue to see more of this program continued for years.”

BikeNWA may have organized the initiative, but it’s the people who are meant to bring Slow Streets to its full potential. The clean air of the Natural State is begging for people to get out and enjoy the sunshine — and maybe wave at some neighbors along the way.

Hildreth says that the residents “are really the ones leading the charge here, and hopefully they can find more ways to feel empowered, to advocate for the needs of their neighborhood, their streets or their communities. This is a gateway in that we want people to be engaged and communicating with their city leaders and decision-makers, and we hope to create a little bit of a channel for that.” She adds that residents “are welcome to reach back to us with locations and ideas and ways that they’d like to see incorporated.

[BikeNWA] is willing to try to work with different people on the ways that work best for them.”

From enthusiasts to adolescents, anyone can take part in Slow Streets.

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u n t l Wa e F i e g l d d s i R

FOREV E R

Five decades later, The Beatles’ brief stop in smalltown Arkansas lives on.

By KENNETH HEARD // Photos courtesy ADPHT

C

Carrie Mae Snapp saved the lives of the Beatles when the English rock group’s airplane made a brief stop in Walnut Ridge in 1964.

But if not for a friend who had seen the Fab Four land at the Lawrence County airport the previous night, and for a pilot who admitted the group was leaving the following morning, the Beatles may not have gone on to bigger fame and fortune.

The four had finished a concert in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 18, 1964, and had planned to fly to New York a few days early before their final United States show that year so they could visit the city.

However, memories of being swarmed by fans wherever they went dashed that idea.

They opted instead to take a two-day respite at a small farm near Alton, Missouri. The closest airport was in Walnut Ridge, so on the evening of Sept. 18, the twin-engine plane bearing the famous singers circled the town, drawing the attention of three teenagers.

They rushed to the airport, thinking a plane was going to crash.

Instead, they watched as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr stepped off the aircraft.

Snapp says the group drank whiskey with the boys, and Starr and the three teenagers chased each other with cap pistols on the airport’s runway before The Beatles eventually headed to Missouri.

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George Harrison at the Walnut Ridge Airport in 1964. (Pate Snapp)

Gene Matthews, who later became the Lawrence County Sheriff and was killed in a 1983 shoot-out, was one of the three teenagers. He called Snapp to tell her the news late that night.

Snapp, then 14, was the president of the Beatles Forever Fan Club at the Walnut Ridge High School. It was well after midnight when Snapp’s father answered the phone and learned of the Beatles’ landing in Walnut Ridge.

“I heard him say, ‘No, no. That can’t be,’” Snapp says. “And then, ‘If you’re lying, I’ll see that you’re grounded for the rest of your life.’”

The next morning, Snapp’s mother took her daughter to the family owned Alamo Court motel and searched for someone who looked like a pilot. She found him eating in their Davy Crockett restaurant adjacent to the motel and pointed to her daughter.

“See her crying?” she asked the pilot. “She didn’t get to see The Beatles land, and she just has to.”

The pilot first refused to reveal when the group would return, but the girl’s tears softened him up.

“He said, ‘Well, if it were me, I wouldn’t go to church Sunday

THEY WATCHED AS PAUL MCCARTNEY, JOHN LENNON, GEORGE HARRISON AND RINGO STARR STEPPED OFF THE AIRCRAFT. morning,’” Snapp recalls today. “My dad wanted us to go to church first, but I was afraid we’d miss them, and I asked him, ‘What if The Beatles aren’t Methodist?’”

Early that Sunday morning, Snapp and more than 100 others sat in lawn chairs at the airport, waiting for the Beatles, and that’s when she saved their lives.

Snapp says she noticed an emergency door at the back of the airplane ajar. She had read that a popular psychic at the time, Jeane Dixon, predicted the Beatles would be killed in an airplane crash during their 1964 tour. Earlier, she had correctly predicted the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The trip from Walnut Ridge to New York would be their last flight of the 1964 tour, Snapp says. Fueled with Dixon’s prediction of doom, Snapp took action.

She and others climbed onto the wing of the plane and secured the door.

“We saved The Beatles from certain death,” she quips.

Then the Beatles arrived.

At 10:45 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20, 1964, a red Chevrolet Suburban truck drove into the airport and rolled up to the airplane.

The vehicle doors opened, and out stepped The Beatles.

“You lose your mind, and a fog comes over you,” Snapp says about seeing the four.

“It’s Beatlemania.”

Fifty-seven years later, the town is still buzzing over the brief visit. It’s the catalyst for a Beatles-themed festival that began in 2011 and a remake of the downtown that has drawn international attention.

Despite the cancellation of the festival the past two years due to COVID-19, the fervor for The Beatles remains throughout the year. Visitors from as far as Japan have stopped in to see the town’s brush with greatness.

Called Beatles at the Ridge, the annual downtown Walnut Ridge event is held on the closest weekend to commemorate the visit. The show features vendors, food and musical groups.

When the bands stop playing, the music doesn’t stop, though.

Walnut Ridge Mayor Charles Snapp, the brother of Carrie Mae Snapp, has turned his town into a year-round tourist destination for musical history buffs.

The Lawrence County town has capitalized on the rockabilly musicians who played at joints, bars and dives along U.S. 67 — renamed by legislators in 2009 as the “Rock ’n’ Roll Highway” in honor of such performers as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sonny Burgess, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison.

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Ringo Starr walking to the airplane in Walnut Ridge.

(Pate Snapp)

Volunteers built a large guitar-shaped pavilion beside the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce and the Amtrak train station in Walnut Ridge that features information on the musicians who plied their trade along the highway.

City council members also renamed Southwest 2nd Street as Abbey Road and created a “pocket park” where a large metal sculpture of the cover of The Beatles’ album Abbey Road is displayed.

Shop windows along the street are painted with Beatles’ art and sell musical memorabilia.

Walnut Ridge is ranked as one of the best Beatles spots to visit in the United States by Tripsavvy, a website that ranks tourism destinations. The Beatles Park at 110 Abbey Road is ranked with such stops as the Beatles exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and the Strawberry Fields memorial for John Lennon in New York’s Central Park.

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Walnut Ridge is ranked as one of the best Beatles spots to visit in the United States by Tripsavvy, a website that ranks tourism destinations.

The concept was the brainchild of about six Walnut Ridge residents, including Charles Snapp, who at the time was running a hunting service and was not interested in politics.

Then-Chamber of Commerce Director Brett Cooper asked the group to come up with a festival in 2011 that highlighted the musical history of the area. Newport, to the south, held its yearly Depot Days that showcased the rockabilly music; and Pocahontas, about 15 miles north of Walnut Ridge, also held an annual musical festival.

“We were all talking about it when Danny West said, ‘The Beatles were here in 1964,’” Snapp says. “I said, ‘Well, I was there.’”

Indeed, Snapp was there. Dragged to the airport that Sunday in 1964, Snapp had to endure the embarrassment of changing from his play clothes into his Sunday dress clothes in the crowded car as they drove to the airport.

West, who owns a metal shop, designed what would become the metal album sculpture on a 2-foot-by-4-foot sheet of aluminum.

“We realized we had something here,” Snapp says. “I knew I

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could sell this concept to the world.”

West made the much larger sculpture, and the Jonesboro ABC television affiliate station aired a story about it. Then, the ABC network picked it up.

“Suddenly, we went national,” Snapp says.

Louise Harrison, guitarist George Harrison’s sister, called city leaders to talk about the tribute, and the group brought the small album sculpture display to Branson, Missouri, to meet her. She offered to bring her band, Liverpool Legends, to Walnut Ridge to play during the unveiling of the larger sculpture.

The group played in a rain-soaked afternoon to about 3,000 people on Sept. 18, 2011, and the annual event was born. The Wall Street Journal covered the inaugural festival.

“This put us on the international map,” Snapp says. “During the festival, we counted license plates in town from 20 to 25 different states.

“To this day, we still have a continuous draw of people to Walnut Ridge. … It’s not Six Flags over Portia,” he jests, referring to a national theme park and a small Lawrence County town on the eastern banks of the Black River. “But we’d see two or three cars each day, or a motor coach tour coming through from Memphis to see the music sites. It wasn’t uncommon to be at a restaurant and see a family from Italy, or a family from Japan or the United Kingdom eating there, too.”

Six weeks before this year’s festival was to occur, the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce voted to cancel it. Chamber Board Chairman Josh Conlee is also the president of the

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Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Fearing the skyrocketing increases in COVID-19 infections in the area lately, Conlee asked that the festival be canceled.

The move disappointed Mayor Snapp.

“On Monday [Aug. 2], I texted bands and the sound stage and said it was a go,” Snapp says. On Wednesday, he had to call them back to tell them the news.

When asked if the chamber would change its mind, Snapp simply replies, “No chance.”

Carrie Mae Snapp has attended each of the Beatles at the Ridge shows, and watching the Liverpool Legends play The Beatles’ hits of her childhood stirs those memories of seeing them 57 years ago.

“All I could do was cry,” she says, remembering when she stared in a trance as the group walked to the airplane. She reached out and touched George Harrison’s coat sleeve as he passed by, and she remembers him laughing and gesturing to her.

The Beatles quickly climbed the steps into the aircraft and did not come out before the plane took off for New York.

But Paul McCartney raised the window shade at his seat and looked at the adoring crowd below.

“The girls all thought he made eye contact with them. We were all in love with him,” she says, jokingly adding, “I felt sorry for them, because I know he only made eye contact with me.”

The airplane taxied down the long runway and then took off, bound for The Beatles’ last show in New York while the Walnut Ridge crowd watched. The plane, by the way, made its voyage safely.

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What a Girl

WANTS

By DWAIN HEBDA // Photos Courtesy ALEX AND MICHAEL TOCCIN

MICHAEL TOCCIN MAKES IT LOOK EASY.

Alex and Michael Toccin.

Not only has the Floridian, with the help of Alex, his wife, business partner and co-creator, built a career in the fashion business, launching a lifestyle collection in September 2019 of “get-it-together” pieces, but they also unveiled a line exclusively for Arkansas-based retailer Dillard’s in January, called LDT. This fall, the duo will also present a fashion show as part of Arkansas’ Women of Inspiration gala, supporting Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas.

“I have been friends with the Hutchinson family for years, and I’ve had the pleasure of dressing First Lady Susan Hutchinson and [daughter] Sarah Hutchinson Wengel on multiple occasions,” Toccin says. “One of these opportunities included designing a gown for Sarah for Gov. Hutchinson’s inauguration, and that gown will be included in the First Lady Gowns exhibit in the Old State House Museum. Through this friendship with the Hutchinsons, I have learned how the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas carry out their mission of protecting children all over the state. My wife and I have two children of our own, and we are passionate about CAC’s focus on providing more services and resources to children in need.”

But growing up, he had no intention of getting into the business. What he did have was a cadre of women in his life — and fashionable ones at that.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“I never thought I would go into the fashion business. I came from Florida. Fashion was not, per se, an industry there,” he says. “I always thought I’d go into real estate, be a lawyer. I was actually a criminal justice major in undergrad.

“The women around me were always very fashionable — my grandmother, mom and sister. One day my grandmother said to me, ‘Michael, you’re so good at fashion. Why don’t you do that?’ And I was like, ‘What does that mean?’”

Intrigued, Toccin started poking around after college and soon found himself interning at major fashion houses. He enjoyed it, but it likely would not have gone anywhere had he not had people point him in the right direction.

“People said, ‘Michael, you should go to design school.’ Again, I looked at myself and I was like, ‘What’s that?’” he recalls. “I got a partial scholarship to Parsons School of Design, and I went. And I was never the ‘A’ student, but when I got to Parsons, I really knocked it out of the park, and I knew it was meant to be.”

Toccin relays these events as casually as commenting on the weather, which belies just how rare his opportunities have been. And, this easygoing attitude is reflected in the Toccin collection of designs.

The signature collection has evolved from effortless dresses and jackets to an array of soft-yet-structured trousers, skirts, tees, tanks, blouses and rich knitwear.

It’s affordable designer clothes for the woman of taste who doesn’t want to look like she’s trying too hard or paying too much.

“I think our designs blend in today’s world, to a degree,” he says. “Our price point is approachable on both brands.

Our customer is someone that’s wanting to feel really put together, to feel confident in what they’re wearing and they want to feel stylish.

“It’s all about confidence and feeling happy and joyful.

At the end of the day, they’re gonna feel all that.”

The Toccins met 18 years ago in their freshman year of college at George Washington University and have been married for a decade. Alex, the Type-A personality in the relationship, also studied at Parsons and provides the perfect balance to his laid-back persona. Together, they have built a solid brand in an industry where nothing is guaranteed and tastes change overnight.

“My approach came from the styling side of things,” he says. “Which is kind of where our business began. We created ‘Stylists to a T’ originally, a social media platform where we told women what to wear, how to wear it and where to buy it.

“I’m not a sketcher. At the end of the day, I’m more of a merchant. And I know what women’s wants and needs are, and I know how to make someone feel and look good.”

As the social media platform’s numbers started to swell, the Toccins began to think about moving from suggesting other designers’ collections to coming up with their own.

“We had launched our following group, and we don’t have millions of followers, but we have a true sense of community and more than 100,000 followers, so we were getting a lot of people engaged,” he says. “They were looking for the things that Alex was wearing on our platform, and so we tweaked it to say, how can we make this

cohesive and make it our own brand?

“Alex and I both have always wanted to have something of our own. And it’s one of those things that you have to just go after the dream. And that’s how it happened for us. We really knew how to go after our dream once we knew we had a community and a customer base. And that was really all discovered via social media.”

Launched in September 2019 and inspired by the wants and needs of real women, Toccin’s direct-to-consumer brand quickly made it into Saks, Neiman Marcus and specialty stores coast to coast. Nine months later, the Toccins signed a deal to provide an exclusive line for Dillard’s.

“I have to say, I have not met a finer group of people to work with and to collaborate with than Dillard’s,” he says. “Arkansans really, truly are incredible people, and Alex and I both feel so blessed in how much the Dillard’s team believes in us. They are wanting to build such an incredible brand together with us, and we’re forever grateful for that.

“I’m really excited because LDT is what we envision to be a full lifestyle collection. And we have some amazing things up our sleeves, which I’m excited for our consumers to see that we will be taking care of lots of needs that they might have. You will be seeing them, I think, in 2022.”

The company generated so much momentum, even the pandemic couldn’t put a damper on its growth. Since launching in 2019, Toccin has ballooned to about 20 employees and stays in touch with the sometimes-mercurial tastes of its clientele.

“You know, at the end of the day, the voice of the customer is everything to us because they’re the ones that are purchasing,” he says. “We want to make sure that we’re able to answer their needs and wants within the umbrella and DNA of our brands.”

“We get their feedback through social media. We get it through visiting with customers, whether at an appearance or going to a

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store visit or being in market, hearing from our buyers. We really take all of that information seriously because we’re in this business to satisfy the consumer.”

As for being in business with one’s spouse, Toccin says the success of the partnership speaks for itself.

“Alex and I really bring out the best in each other. She’s Type A, I’m Type B, so when you bring the business and the creative, it just seems to work,” he says.

“One thing I do want to say about working with your spouse: It is extremely important to identify your roles instead of blending it all into one. Alex and I wake up every day knowing what our different missions are for the day because we have our titles. And I’m not usually one for titling things, but I think it’s extremely important in this case, so you know what you need to accomplish in the corporation.”

And as for running a company, especially one that demands collaboration, in the era of COVID-19, Toccin merely shrugs.

Entrepreneurism has never come with a guarantee, and the company has just found a way over, around or through every challenge.

“Honestly, I think that working from home has been very successful with Zoom. It’s actually saved us a lot of time, and it allows everyone to meet holistically as one when we need to,” he says. “Sometimes I don’t get out of this chair. I’m here from 9 to 6 because everyone knows they can just throw a Zoom on the calendar, and you have to show up.

“I have to be honest; we’ve actually been so blessed and so lucky that we have not hit any big roadblocks. We’re very organized.

We’re on time. You can’t be late in the business; you actually have to be ahead of it. That’s really what saved us.”

See the Toccin genius in their LDT line, named for their daughter, Liv Dakota Toccin, exclusively at Dillard’s. aymag.com

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Mikey the chimp. (Little Rock Zoo)

S A S N A K R

n i d e u Resc

A

One of Turpentine Creek’s tigers. (ADPHT)

By DUSTIN JAYROE

T

he spring of 2020 will forever have a mark on history as the beginning of this ongoing era of COVID-19. Here in Arkansas, the first case of the disease was announced on March 11 of that year. From that moment to now, an unprecedented pandemic has lingered — with ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys — with no clear-cut end in sight.

Curiously, it was also around this time that another plague became known to the mainstream. On March 20, 2020, the documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness was released on Netflix, coinciding with the soft shutdown of most of the country. From quarantine, millions of Americans and thousands of Arkansans tuned into the series simultaneously, which featured “Joe Exotic,” who operated a roadside zoo in Oklahoma filled with big cats. While watching it, viewers were exposed to a different pandemic, of sorts: the exotic animal trade — an infection that has much more quietly riddled the world for years.

RESCUE Tanya Smith, president and co-founder of Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, was certainly not one who had to learn about this through a documentary. She and her family have been caring for and rescuing big cats since the ’70s, purchasing the acreage that would become the refuge in 1992. At present, Turpentine is providing lifelong care for around 100 animals — which include lions, tigers and bears. Smith estimates that the refuge has rescued more than 500 “big cats and bear,” as she summarizes, since its founding.

But as much as she loves what she does, it’s easy to presume she’d just as readily give it all up. Because if her occupation ceased to exist, that would mean we’d solved the exotic animal trade issue. The problem is, she’s been doing this a long time and continues to have more and more burden to absorb each and every year. This “-demic” isn’t so simply combated with antidotes and immunizations.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that the exotic pet trade is a roughly $15 billion industry in America. People make, and spend, a lot of money on things like monkeys, snakes, lizards and practically every type of

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big cat imaginable. These animals are often poached or bred in captivity before they reach their “buyer,” typically under terrible conditions that may leave the animals permanently injured, or worse.

Going against such a booming industry is not easy, but it’s a battle that Smith and her cubs at Turpentine are proud to fight.

“Every time I go on a rescue, I think, ‘This is maybe the worst I’ve ever seen,’” Smith says. “Sometimes the conditions are just horrific at these different places. The lack of care for the animals causes a lot of abuse at other facilities.

“Whenever we go on rescue, we have to really evaluate the scene and determine what the best course of action is — how we’re going to get the animal out of that situation as safely as possible.”

Those environments can be as large as an unaccredited zoo or as small as someone’s backyard or basement. And the abuse and neglect many of these animals face spans a range just as wide, from physical torment to a lack of veterinary care, or from barbaric living conditions to being forced into “cub petting.”

“It seems really cool to go hold a baby tiger and get your picture made with it,” Smith says, going on to explain that these cubs are only “viable” for such tourist traps for a small window of time. “They’re not supposed to be used for the first month. Then, they’re not supposed to be used after they’re 12 weeks old, which is only 4 months old. So there’s only about a three-month timeframe where those cubs are even able to be held by the public. After that, they become a liability to the owner of that animal. So, if they don’t go into a breeding population at [one of ] these other facilities, then usually they’re euthanized or passed to other people that really don’t know what they’re doing with them.”

As Smith preaches about these atrocities from the pulpit of her heart, the inflection of her voice matches the pendulum of the emotion this topic — her life’s work — brings up. At the memory of rescuing big cats who had been taken from their mother’s at birth, or ones who were found with metabolic bone disease because of a malnourished diet, her tone becomes subtly softer, oddly calming, as if she’s subconsciously invoking a motherly instinct to comfort a child in pain. At the mention of folks like the aforementioned Joe Exotic of Tiger King and unaccredited “roadside zoos” of that ilk (many of which she has rescued animals from), her

aymag.com

Rocklyn (right) a female white tiger now under Turpentine’s care, was taken from her mother not long after birth. She developed metabolic bone disease in captivity, and an x-ray taken after she was rescued at 5 months old (middle), identified a bilateral femur fracture and a fractured left humerus. Rocklyn was unable to stand and was infested with ringworms.

She still walks with a limp today, but is in much better health overall.

are unbroken, determined strings of sentences that get right to the point and arrive at the same conclusion of the mission she is on herself — to put a stop to all of it.

REHABILITATE

At the Little Rock Zoo, a chimpanzee named Mikey is a bit of a pariah, at least in the great ape social circle. He is skittish, a loner, and doesn’t act like the other animals of his species.

Of course, none of this is Mikey’s fault. For most of his life, he was a domestic pet to humans. That is, until the zoo took him in a few years ago.

Susan Altrui, director of the Little Rock Zoo, remembers this difficult period well.

“The Little Rock Zoo is rarely able to take former pets, but this was a special instance because the zoo’s chimpanzee group was in transition at the time,” she says. “This was a challenging situation for the zoo — and still is — because Mikey did not exhibit typical chimp behaviors and was not accepted by the rest of the Little Rock Zoo’s chimpanzee group. Our staff worked for more than two years to acclimate Mikey and to improve his overall health and wellness.”

Even still, Altrui says that he is still in the process of learning proper chimpanzee social behavior. It’s an uphill battle for rehabilitated animals in zoos like Mikey, and it requires a lot of patience and sacrifice by the humans who are now responsible for his care. But Altrui and the rest of her crew at the zoo live for animals like him, because they know that the alternatives are far more critical. Like the folks at Turpentine, Altrui leaves no question to her feelings regarding the private ownership of exotic animals.

“Too often, private individuals underestimate the complex needs of these animals, as well as the individual dangers these animals can bring when they reach sexual maturity,” Altrui says. “They are cute and cuddly when they are infants, but as they get older, they are dangerous to their owners and to others. They are hard to take care of in a private home and require the expertise of staff at an accredited facility like

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Mikey.

(Little Rock Zoo)

the Little Rock Zoo. All too often, zoos like ours are not able to take in former pets because they often do not have space for them.

“The best thing you can do if you want a pet is to contact your local shelter and adopt a pet cat or dog. There is a huge need for these animals to be adopted right now, and domestic cats and dogs make very appropriate pets.”

Cats lounging in peace at Turpentine. (ADPHT)

REPEAL

“TOO OFTEN, PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS UNDERESTIMATE THE COMPLEX NEEDS OF THESE ANIMALS, AS WELL AS THE INDIVIDUAL DANGERS THESE ANIMALS CAN BRING WHEN THEY REACH SEXUAL MATURITY.”

biting guests. In other cases, tigers are declawed. These facilities will often also breed tigers with lions to create ‘ligers’ or ‘tigons,’ which has no conservation purpose and is only done to feed human curiosity. Because these animals are genetic abnormalities, they often suffer a range of health problems throughout their lives.”

To avoid falling prey to a “zoo” where unethical practices such as these occur, Altrui shares the sentiment of being mindful of affiliation and accreditation. The Little Rock Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and follows rigid but important guidelines like the Species Survival Plan for the conservation and breeding of threatened and endangered species.

Of course, both of these animal lovers also appreciate any and all support of their legitimate establishments. It costs millions of dollars per year to take proper care of animals at places like Turpentine and the Little Rock Zoo, and every dollar — be it for a ticket or a snack or a T-shirt — counts.

Smith, Altrui, Mikey and the rest of their furry friends depend on it.

According to Smith, consumers can do two very important things to both help these animals facing abuse, and prevent the cycle from continuing again and again.

First and foremost, she says, do your research before you plan a trip to a place that houses exotic animals. Don’t contribute to the problem by visiting places that offer cub petting or other distasteful activities that are similar.

Monikers like “refuge” and “sanctuary” are often used incorrectly as false advertising, but places like Turpentine are members of the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance — the “good guys” who travel the country rescuing animals. So be conscious of who or what a place is affiliated with.

Second, Smith is a very vocal supporter of the bipartisan Big Cat Public Safety Act, which would outlaw private individuals from owning felines like cheetahs, lions, tigers, cougars and jaguars. The bill would also prohibit things like cub petting and inappropriate animal feeding. The legislation passed through the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year and is currently being led in the Senate by two Democrats and two Republicans. To help ensure this bill makes it through the Senate and becomes law, Smith implores Arkansans to call their legislators to voice their support.

At the Little Rock Zoo, they would much rather stick to the “business as usual” part of their rehabilitation branch, which mostly consists of taking in injured birds of prey that are no longer fit for the wild, than have to continue picking up the pieces of innocent animals broken by domestic ownership — or worse.

“Many people don’t understand what happens at some unaccredited facilities,” Altrui says, doubling down on the imagery of mothers A black leopard enjoying some enrichment and cubs being separated for pay-to-play photoops. “Often, too, the incisors of the tigers are at Turpentine. (ADPHT) filed down or pulled to prevent the tigers from

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he

a e r king B t Fourth Wa

ll:

Real Talk with LatinX Theatre Project

By Emily Beirne // Photos by Jared Sorrells

“We’re committed to continuing an inclusive conversation about community identity. There are too many current events and things happening in the world to stay silent.”

Art, specifically of the performance variety, doesn’t exactly have a history of inclusivity.

In recent years, a wider range of faces and voices has begun to find time in the spotlight, representing the wide net that America has to offer. Among those at the forefront of that cause in Arkansas is the LatinX Theatre Project (LXTP) in Fayetteville.

Ashley Edwards, artistic director at LXTP, was teaching in the theater department at Northwest Arkansas Community College in 2017 when she was approached to start a theater program for local Latinx youth.

“The purpose of the project was to get the local Latinx youth involved and share their stories,” Edwards says. “The local Latinx population is underrepresented, and we wanted

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to uplift their voices. It says Latinx, but we don’t only have Latinx artists in our program. We want to share all stories.”

Kicking off in spring 2017, the program performed at Northwest Arkansas Community College with a performance organized by Edwards. The debut play was so well-received that the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art invited the group to perform the following weekend — and a few more after that.

“Funding at that time was provided by the Brown Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, and because the program was so loved by the community, we came together and applied for another year of performances,” Edwards says. “We brought all the same people back and invited more.”

Associate Artistic Director M. Sativa Vela was part of the first ensemble. She, along with other original members, stayed on and is still helping the program grow.

“When I joined, a few of us were all seniors in high school, and it worked that year because we were about to graduate,” Vela explains.

“Once we started to grow, we noticed 18-andup works better — especially for traveling and for the contracts. [The process] is more mature.”

The traveling Vela references does not only pertain to locations around Arkansas. LXTP has journeyed to Los Angeles and Chicago, to name only a few destinations. In the four years that the program has been around, the ensemble has evolved to include diverse forms

LXTP is unique in its approach, execution and cast of characters.

of artistic expression.

“One big thing about our company that’s different from every other company is that everything we create is from us,” Edwards explains. “We create new rights of work, and that’s kind of why I was brought on at the beginning to write plays with everyone.

Now, everyone writes, everyone performs, and everything is a group effort. Movement, music, poetry — we have all different types of artists in our group and we’re committed to being nontraditional. We want to be different intentionally.”

On top of live stage performances, LXTP

also records its own music for different platforms. With the help of its very own music producer, the ensemble uses music as another outlet to share stories and reach out to audiences. Whether it be a play or a song, everything LXTP creates is purposeful.

“The first year we started, 2017, was a pretty sensitive year — especially for immigrants in our family,” Edwards shares. “So right off the bat, we were confronting issues that were not talked about enough. I know there’s a lot of people that hadn’t engaged in these conversations before, but seeing [stories] played out in front of you can change perspective. [The

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audience] becomes a part of these characters, [the audience] follows these characters and [the audience] understands their story better. I think we can help people know what’s going on and how [social issues] affect individuals. Why do we do this? I think this goes a lot farther than preaching to them or giving them a lecture with educational materials. I think it’s just a really good and different way because it’s interesting and captures attention where attention needs to be.

“The Southern region of the United States does not have a reputation for being the most accepting or inclusive place for minority groups. These stories that LXTP is sharing and the conversations the ensemble are busting the doors open to are the reality of so many individuals in the community.

“I work with a lot of different people in the entertainment industry, and they say the same thing: ‘Why in Arkansas? What are you doing?’

I think there’s not a more important place in the world to do this. If these conversations are only happening in New York, it’s never going to reach middle America. If we’re not out in the community reaching every single person and trying to make a change, then what’s the point?”

Human rights and inclusive environments have been a hot topics for centuries, and one who needs to hear these stories and feel the weight of a large percentage of the community’s reality is in the audience, the mission of LXTP aymag.com

“The purpose of the project was to get the local Latinx youth involved and share their stories.” reaches those that have been missing out on representation.

“The responses that we receive from the Latin community are always along the lines of, ‘Thank you for representing us on stage, especially here in this community and in this way,’” Edwards says. “This isn’t traditional Latin American art; these productions are about true stories of real people. [The stories] are always told in a different way and never what you would expect. Any person and any culture is able to tell their story through LXTP. We will always have social change elements at work.”

The program has started reaching out to educational groups, such as libraries and schools for workshops. Learning about kindness and awareness can never happen too early, and the program projects continued growth for the next few years to continue reaching out to the community about making Arkansas a safe place for everyone.

“We’re going to keep growing as an organization with education and support,” Edwards says. “We would like to become standardized with our education, and this year, we’re going to start Writing Workshops in the community. People want to work with us, and the workshops will give us a chance to learn from their own stories. Some people don’t want to commit to LXTP for a whole season because of schedules, so this is a great way we can share our skills and help the community to get involved. This is a big part of what we’re

trying to do for the next year.”

The previous year with COVID-19 helped LXTP to push their creativity and brainstorm more ways to continue moving forward. Cast members could no longer meet in person, so another form of art, technology, was added to the list of skills. Performances became virtual, more music was produced, and perseverance was tested. In the end, the mission prevailed.

“We always have to go back to the mission,” Edwards shares. “We’re committed to continuing an inclusive conversation about community identity. There are too many current

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events and things happening in the world to stay silent.”

LXTP is back to rehearsing in-person, much to everyone’s enjoyment, and the first live performance since COVID-19 is set to take place this month.

There will never be a shortage of stories for LXTP to share, as the hardships that so many families in the community face can be traced back generations. Though talking about such things may be difficult, LXTP makes it very clear that they won’t stop shedding light on the truths of everyday life.

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This side of

SEVEN – By Jason Pederson

Ode to

Billie Jo On the day of the accident, the 40-year-old mother of two was B.J. Burton would have hated the title of this article. returning home to Dover after a day of shopping and eating in “She would give you the worst look if you called her Billie Jo,” Conway with her oldest daughter, Garyn, who was 22 and about to Gary Burton says about his late wife with a slight smile. “Everybody begin her final semester at the University of Central Arkansas. called her B.J.” “I was the last one to see her,” recalls I think of B.J., a woman I never met, just the now-married Garyn Hugen. “Two about every time I pass by the I-40 exit at families lost amazing people that day. I Russellville where she died 15 years ago, on finished school on schedule, but it was July 31, 2006. tough.”

I also thought about her on June 25, 2009.

The years that followed were even That is the day that Farrah Fawcett died, tougher. and the world barely noticed. Why? Michael “I didn’t do well,” she says. “I made Jackson died that same day. very, very poor decisions. Very reckless B.J.’s death was similarly overshadowed by decisions. I look back now, and I’m like the death of Paul Eells. Eells, the “Voice of ‘Wow. I was selfish. I was not thinking the Razorbacks,” likely suffered a major health of anybody. I was angry.’ I was angry at event while driving back to Little Rock from God. I was angry at this world.”

Fayetteville. The car driven by the 70-year-old Hugen’s little sister, Kelli, was 16 KATV-Channel 7 sportscaster never slowed when her Mom died, and she didn’t fare down as it crossed the grassy interstate divide any better. (there were no cable barriers at the time) and “I’ve really just started telling my slammed into B.J’s vehicle. whole testimony during the past year,” “We do realize that he was a well-known says the now-married Kelli Coatney. person,” Gary says. “We understand that.

“I look back and think, ‘Man, I wish I We know the reporting is not going to be The late B.J. Burton. (Courtesy) had handled X, Y or Z differently.’ But 50/50. That’s not realistic. But usually, B.J. I have to remember, I’m 31 now, and gets a mention, and we notice. We appreciate I was a 16-year-old girl who had lost her mom. Being 16 is tough that. And every year Brandon Eells (Paul and Vickie’s son) posts anyways. It really tested my faith. I kind of pushed away. I say, ‘Kind something on social media and he always mentions both B.J. and us. of.’ I did. I pushed away.”

That means the world to us.”

Both recall poorly timed words of comfort offered by wellGary says B.J. was a big fan of the Razorbacks and of Eells: “We meaning people who used phrases like, “It’s all part of God’s plan,” used to listen to the games on the radio together all the time — both or, “Everything happens for a reason.” football and basketball.”

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“That was really kind of hard to stomach when your mom had just passed away,” Coatney recalls. “For somebody to come and tell me it’s all part of God’s plan — I saw no plan. None of it made sense.”

While B.J.’s death rocked the faith of his daughters, Gary says the sudden loss of his wife of nearly 24 years strengthened his faith and dependence on God. “I’m the son of an old Assembly of God preacher,” he says. “It’s kind of like when you are thrown into deep water unexpectedly.

What do you do? You start trying to grab something that floats. A life raft, a life ring, a log, a tree branch. Anything. I grabbed onto the Lord.”

Gary and B.J. owned a restaurant in Dover, a perfect profession for a woman who loved to cook and a man who loved to eat. But the way B.J. ran the place, they were never going to get rich.

“People down on their luck would come by, and she would give them a bag of food to go,” Gary recalls. “I can’t tell you how many times that happened. She fed a woman who lived behind the restaurant every day.”

Gary recalls the time that radio and television personality Craig O’Neill, of KTHV-Channel 11, stopped in for a bite to eat.

“B.J. looked at him and said, ‘I know who you are.’” Burton says O’Neill was shocked to see a muffuletta sandwich on a menu in Dover. O’Neill got smiles and special attention from B.J., but so did everyone else.

“She always made people feel special,” Coatney says. “She was a light that lit up every room. She was everybody’s mom. You always knew she was there, and you were always glad she was there.”

Hugen adds, “We were always having living room dance parties.

Mom was a lot of fun.”

The Burtons were several-times-a-week regulars at First Assembly of God in Russellville. They were there for the Sunday services, Sunday school, Wednesday night youth groups, Bible Quiz Bowls and baking zucchini bread in the church kitchen. But after B.J. left this Earth, her daughters left the church. Being out of church for so long made it difficult for Hugen to go back.

“I was embarrassed,” she says. “I was like a newbie again. I didn’t realize that a lot of people struggle with that same thing until I spoke about it. I completely walked away. I was trying to do things on my own for so long. But I’m back now, and it’s OK. It’s OK. God still loves me the exact same way He did before I walked away.”

Coatney came back to the church because she realized something was missing from her life. Something even greater than her mom.

And now she is finding ways to use her pain for a purpose.

“I had a friend who lost a parent two months ago,” she says. “I was there waiting for them in the hospital parking lot because I knew what that drive home was going to be like. Having been through this before, I am able to help.”

B.J. Burton was a Christian woman with a strong faith, partly the result of losing a son in 1986. The Burtons’ second child, Jacob, was born at 24 weeks and died a month later. B.J. is buried next to Jacob in a Hot Spring County cemetery. Gary’s mom and dad were also laid to rest there. “It is a hard piece of ground for us,” he says.

B.J. had a servant’s heart. She was very personable and very generous. She loved to bake. She loved to dance. She would have made an excellent grandmother.

“That is probably the hardest part,” Coatney says. “She never got the joy of meeting her grandkids.”

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Gary and his daughters, Garyn and Kelli. (Courtesy) There are three of them: an 11-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl

by Hugen; and a 6-month-old boy by Coatney. The grandkids get to visit the home in Dover where their moms grew up and where Gary still lives, remarried and making new memories.

Three years ago, Coatney was baptized. About the same time, Hugen joined a women’s Bible study group. They agree it is incredible how similar their faith journeys have been — the disconnection and reconnection. Each has a personal relationship with Jesus and a vibrant faith of her own. And it is not because of Bible Quiz Bowls or because they had Christian parents. Theirs is a faith tested, and ultimately strengthened, by loss.

Coatney says it is sad to realize that she now has lived almost as many years without her mom as she lived with her. Both women wish their mom could see them now. Gary knows B.J. would be proud of both of them and their growing faith.

But maybe B.J.’s absence is a big part of why they have that faith.

Maybe poorly timed words of comfort offered by well-meaning people 15 years ago, when life was an angry blur, are only now starting to come into focus.

For two decades, Jason Pederson served as KATVChannel 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 perspectivefilled and thought-provoking column, “This Side of Seven,” publishes exclusively in AY About You magazine monthly.

JASON PEDERSON

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mental health

The

Uncommon Field

By DWAIN HEBDA

For as little apparent as there is to link Stoystown, Pennsylvania, and Halley, Arkansas, they share a lot in common. Both communities were founded by fighting frontiersmen (Daniel Stoy, veteran of the Revolutionary War, and John J. Bowie, eldest brother of fallen Alamo hero Jim Bowie, respectively), and both boast the markings of their blue-collar, rural pedigree in farming and falling population.

Mostly what the two hamlets share is a nagging anonymity and a footprint on the map that grows fainter by the year. For most, that is, save Deena Burnett Bailey.

For her, the two villages represent the alpha and omega of her existence: Halley, in Desha County, whence she was born, and Stoystown, where a chapter of her life died with her husband, Tom, in the most unnatural, unfathomable way.

Twenty years ago, this month — September 11.

“My generation thought of heroes as mythological or sports-oriented; we didn’t have an idea as to what a true hero was,” she says, her mind drifting back to the Pennsylvania field where her husband perished aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

“It wasn’t that those heroes didn’t exist, they just weren’t talked about until 9/11,” she says. “To tell the story of a person putting their life on the line for someone else, that can’t be overlooked.”

Deena Burnett Bailey.

(Ebony Blevins)

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*** On the clear, bright morning of Tuesday, Sept.

11, 2001, United Flight 93 took off late from Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco. The

Deena and Tom on their wedding day. (Courtesy) plane was less than a third full, which must have been a welcomed sight to the early-bird passengers — more room to stretch out, to read, to catnap on the way.

Just four minutes into the air, the saddest chapter of American history since Pearl Harbor — and the touchpoint of a generation — was playing out behind them. At 8:46 a.m. the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, before a stunned nation’s very eyes, United Airlines Flight 175 gashed the South Tower of the World Trade Center like a scythe, rupturing the steel skyscraper with an aortic spurt of crimson and orange flames.

The towers would heave smoke like spent Roman candles until, after nearly an hour, collapsing 29 minutes apart, leaving a grotesque cavity in the Manhattan skyline and a crater down below.

By that time, word had spread of American Airlines 77 crashing into the west-facing wall of the Pentagon, leaving the punch-drunk nation to wonder what was yet to come. The answer came in just more than half an hour when United Airlines Flight 93 plummeted into a tranquil field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 563 miles per hour, igniting 7,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Later, the world would learn of the poignancy and heroism displayed on United Flight 93. Passengers used in-flight phones to report the hijacking and, upon learning of the other attacks, to say goodbye. They formed a plan to take back the plane and avert further mass murder, Tom Burnett in the middle of the action to the end.

Talking to him for the last time before the doomed flight went down, Deena recalls him

“My generation thought of heroes as mythological or sports-oriented; we didn’t have an idea as to what a true hero was.”

Tom holding his twins.

(Courtesy)

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Tom, Deena and their three girls.

(Courtesy)

saying, “We have to do something. We can’t wait for the authorities. … It’s up to us. I think we can do it.”

And at last, “I know we’re all going to die.

There are three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.”

Later that day, a parish priest would visit the Burnett home, sitting across from the shell-shocked mother of three as she struggled to grasp her new reality.

“It was a typical visit with a priest after a tragedy,” she says today. “I remember him saying, ‘We have great programs for widows, so you’ll be supported.’ And I don’t know what he said after that. The only word I heard was ‘widow,’ and suddenly I realized: I’m a widow, I’m a widow. I’m 37 and a widow. He is not coming back, and I am alone. This weight fell on me with one word.” *** Despite relatively pedestrian backgrounds — he, a medical technology executive from Minnesota, and she, the girl off a cotton farm in southeast Arkansas — Deena and Tom’s relationship unfolded in ways that were out of the ordinary. They met when she was out with a group of girlfriends, and he was solo at a hotel bar in Marietta, Georgia.

“We were about 25 girls going out on the town, and my roommate asked him if he wanted to join us,” Deena laughs. “What single man would say no to that?

“A week later, he asked my roommate and

me over to grill out, and she couldn’t go. I told him I’d meet him at a restaurant, so we met at an Applebee’s and enjoyed each other’s company and closed the restaurant down that night. After that, he asked me on a proper date, and the rest is history.”

It would be three years before Tom would pop the question, which suited Deena just fine. She could see immediately what there was to love about him; the rest would unfold in its appointed time.

“He proposed to me; he said, ‘I love you,’ first,” she says. “I’m one of those girls who always waited and never pushed. I enjoyed our time together and never put demands on our relationship.

“He was a very family-oriented man; he talked about his sisters and parents; he was Christian; he was ambitious about work. He was very nice-looking, articulate and smart.

He checked a lot of my boxes.”

The couple would settle in California, welcome three daughters and form a routine that included Tom’s frequent traveling for work.

“He loved being a dad; we would have had more children had he lived,” Deena says.

“When he was in town, typically on Saturday mornings, he would take them to the park and spend one-on-one time with them. He was a great dad, loved playing with them, dancing with them, talking on the phone.

“He always said he looked forward to them being a little older, past the stage of giving constant care, because he thought he would

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be the dad that would coach. He planned our future and would assign books to them to read, and we would discuss them at the dinner table.”

Tom and Deena would discuss their own future as well, the kind of planning she would be grateful for following his death.

She said she never got a direct foreshadowing of what was to come, but looking back, two conversations stand out.

“Earlier that summer, he asked me, ‘Have you wondered why I haven’t been coming home lately for lunch?’ I just assumed he was working, because he was rarely in the office,” Deena says. “He said, ‘I’ve been going to daily Mass. I feel like God is trying to tell me something, almost like preparing me for something, so I thought if I spent more time in prayer — specifically in church — I could figure it out. I just know it involves a lot of people.’

“The only other time I felt something was going to happen to him was when our youngest, Anna Clare, was born. My mom came into the room and made the comment, ‘I guess you guys will have to have one more so you can have your son.’ I said, ‘No Mom, God’s not going to give us a son. God knows I can’t raise Tom’s son alone.’ She dismissed it as a postpartum comment from someone who was out of her mind, but I remember being at peace knowing I was going to have to raise those girls alone. I could do girls, but I couldn’t do a personality as strong as Tom’s son would be.”

*** Grief runs on its own schedule; suffocating and immobilizing one moment, illuminating and galvanizing the next. Deena felt these and a thousand other facets that changed like a prism twirling in the sun.

“The first height of emotion, outside of grief, that I felt was realizing life was changing and I had to figure out what my role was going to be,” she says. “There were a lot of decisions made within 48 hours of his death. I realized, without Tom’s income, we couldn’t stay in the house we were living in, and we needed to get back to Arkansas and my family for a real support system.”

By mid-summer 2002, Deena had moved the family back to Little Rock and settled into a different kind of routine. Raising the girls — 5-year-old twins and a 3-year-old at the time of the crash — was challenging, especially once they started exhibiting their father’s personality and the bullheadedness she thought she’d avoided by not having a son.

“Oh my goodness; my three girls are forces to be reckoned with. God really does have a sense of humor,” Deena says. “Tom’s imprint was on them the day they were born; he didn’t have to hang around their whole life for people to see they were his daughters. Something my husband used to say, ‘A colt too easily broken never makes a good horse,’ and that got me through a lot of parental challenges trying to mold their behavior.

“The girls learned at a very young age, as soon as they could speak, how to articulate their thoughts and present why they wanted something. That was how they were raised, and boy, it can really come back to bite you because there comes a point where they are better at it than you are. Headstrong is an understatement; they can debate, argue, formulate their thoughts and articulate to you why their thoughts are the way they are. They were never easy, but they were worth it, let me tell you.”

She readily admits the journey was not taken entirely alone. She leaned on her family as she got herself back into the workforce, while friends and fellow parishioners at Christ the King Catholic Church in Little Rock took turns lending a fatherly influence. Even today, she chokes up describing how much those gestures meant.

“As far as not having [Tom] around for the things kids share with parents, like fatherdaughter dances that the girls watched their friends attend, we had a beautiful circle of friends whose dads always invited them along,” she says, sobbing. “Having the community,

A void remains that cannot, will not fill, but its edges have worn smoother with time. church and family nearby, it had a huge impact on my ability to raise them and on who they are today.” *** The fallen of 9/11 are venerated as heroes but largely forgotten as individuals. The sheer number of casualties and the passage of time has, for the general populace, conscribed them to the collective, celebrated en masse as true American martyrs.

For the families, it’s different. Every September, as the nation remembers and newsreels replay, the lives they have grown into freeze and unspool into that day.

To Deena, that’s not altogether bad. For all of the personal pain that flickers to life with the images on the screen, it’s a morality play the nation must retell if only to remember its nobler elements and how it should inspire us today.

“I think, other than the timeline of parenting, what stands out about the past 20 years is how we’ve changed as a nation, how we’ve changed as citizens of this great country and really just who are we today versus who

were we then and how we get back to that,” she says. “It makes me sad to think how unified we were then and how divided we are now. Will it take another event like 9/11 to see what we have in common? Will it take a tragedy to allow us to be proud of our nation and the history we have within this nation? I think that’s really what the 20th anniversary brings to my mind, more than anything else.”

She is philosophical about the life that sprang from the rubble of that day. Her children grew up to start jobs and have lives of their own. She herself struggled to her feet, remarried, moved on. A void remains that cannot, will not fill, but its edges have worn smoother with time.

“There are times that I offer a prayer to him and say, ‘I know you’re listening and watching; I could really use some help,’” Deena says. “Of course, all of those prayers are about the girls; even with them now as adults, there are times I don’t know what to say. It’s something that calms me down. Somehow, he’s helping me think a little more clearly.

“The most valuable thing Tom gave me was his love and his commitment of marriage.

He gave me his lifetime.”

Tom and the girls on a camping trip.

(Courtesy)

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What causes attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?

We don’t necessarily know what causes ADHD for a lot of our kids. There isn’t something we can link to and say, “This is the neurotransmitter,” or, “This is where the real deficit is inside your brain.” There are some interesting MRI studies where we can see certain parts of the brain light up for our kids with ADHD versus kiddos who haven’t been diagnosed with it, but we haven’t really pinpointed the thing yet. We know there are some things that put you at risk for ADHD, like being a very low birth weight infant, prematurity, prenatal alcohol exposure, lead exposure and tobacco exposure. Boys are 2.5 times more likely than girls to have ADHD, but other than that, there’s not necessarily that one thing we look at and say, “This is our root cause for ADHD.”

How do we know if a child has ADHD? The biggest thing is looking for those signs of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity — or sometimes all three. We can make a diagnosis from age 4 even up to age 18 when we see these symptoms, and we see the child is inconsistent developmentally. If you’re ever going to make that diagnosis, you’re really going to have to look at a child compared to peers and say, “Where are they supposed to be for their developmental level? Are they able to do what their friends are doing? Are they able to do those things they want to do?” We don’t only look to see if they are doing things that are inconsistent developmentally; we see if these things are having an impact on them.

If they’re running around the yard, and mom says they’re doing OK in school, and she can handle things at home, there’s no impairment at school or socially or academically, or if older kids aren’t having trouble holding down jobs, then we don’t really make that diagnosis.”

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“I have seen in my patients a change in their mental health.

Like I said, it’s so hard for kids to not be able to focus.”

Dr. Josh Lyon. (Courtesy)

Healthline

Is ADHD genetic?

Genetics could play a part. Somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent of ADHD cases can be familial. If you have a parent with ADHD, that’s a strong factor. Siblings of kids diagnosed with ADHD are about five times more likely to also be diagnosed with ADHD.

What is the first step to getting a diagnosis?

Talking to your pediatrician about those concerns is the first step. We’ll do a lot of screening for these kiddos. The most common thing you’ll see is the Vanderbilt [Assessment Scales] we send out. We really like to see our kids in more than one setting. We’ll have parents report on what they’re seeing at home, around peers, around siblings and with friends. Then, we’ll give parents a form to take to school. We’ll hear from teachers on how kids are doing academically when they’re in a more structured setting. We gather all this data together, and then the pediatrician can spend time with parents having a conversation about ADHD versus some of the other things that can mimic ADHD very closely.

One of the big things you’ll see is we don’t have enough mental health providers. Not only in our state but in our nation right now, period,

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to send all these kids out to psychiatrists. So we’ve had a big push to train pediatricians as well to manage ADHD cases, and I think we’re doing a really good job. There are some more severe cases that we might send out to psychiatry, but our pediatricians are very well equipped to be dealing with this.

What about medicine? Parents are hesitant; there’s a lot of fear involved. Fear of what other people will think, or, ‘Will my child get addicted?’ ‘Will they be on medicine forever?’ What can you say about medication, and how do you feel about prescribing medicine?

Medication has been shown to be so effective in kids. Of all the things we use across the field of medicine, there are very few things that have shown to be as effective as stimulant medications, and some of our second-line, non-stimulant medications in treating ADHD. There are very few things that are as effective as these medications. I think parents get concerned with, “Can we get addicted to it?” and things like that. And we really don’t see that with kids.

What we see … is kids are getting bigger, aging,

“The biggest thing is looking for those signs of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity — or sometimes all three.” getting hormones and growing. A majority of kids will be able to come off of those meds into adulthood. But there are many who will need to continue it into adulthood. But that’s not necessarily because we are addicted to it.

It’s because ADHD doesn’t necessarily always go away. … And parents need to learn how to deal with it; adults need to learn how to deal with it and learn coping strategies. I suggest a counseling period to learn how to focus and redirect, when we’re losing that focus, to learn how to deal with this.

Parents never want their kids to not be their kids anymore. They are always afraid that we’re going to get on medication and our kids are going to be zombies, or they’re going to be hyper-focused, and they’re not going to be themselves. I think that’s a well-founded fear.

But that should never be our goal. Our goal should always be to find something for these kids that lets them be themselves. Nothing is more frustrating for kids than wanting to focus on schoolwork and wanting to do things and not being able to do things that their friends are doing. So, finding medicines that help kids be themselves and do what they want to do is the most important thing in the world.

I have seen in my patients a change in their mental health. Like I said, it’s so hard for kids to not be able to focus. We get embarrassed in the classroom because we don’t know what the

teacher just said, and we’re always having that response trying to figure things out. We get down on ourselves because we know we want to do it but we just can’t get there. It’s not their fault that they can’t get there sometimes. They just need that extra little step. And will see that nearly two-thirds of kids who have ADHD are going to have some other mental behavior disorder. They run so closely together. Whether that’s anxiety or depression or oppositional defiance disorder, and so much of that gets better when we can focus on that ADHD and allow kids to be themselves and do the things that they want to do, and really pick up their self-esteem a lot.

What about avoiding certain foods or certain diets?

Parent-child interaction therapies are fantastic — a lot of these cognitive-based therapies. Sometimes parents need to go and do these things with their kids and get their “black belt” in parenting. That can be super effective. But when we look at dyes and things like that — one of the most common ones is the Feingold diet, which is eliminating dyes, artificial flavorings and colorings — there’s very little good data on that. That said, it could be effective, but nowhere near the efficacy that we see with medications. You’ll see a lot of things

pushed out there like micronutrients, zinc, B vitamins, which is really prohibitively expensive for many of our families, and there’s really no good data to say it is effective. Omega-3 fatty acid is the only thing that has been shown to [provide improvement] a little bit. But none of these things are near the efficacy of the medications that we can prescribe.

What words of wisdom can you offer for families with a child who has ADHD? I think it’s really important to focus on what these kids do well, to be encouraging.

So often, we get bogged down with why they can’t do this and they can’t do that and, “Why can’t you clean your room?” and, “Why can’t you do your homework?” and, “Why can’t you focus?” “We need to change the medication,” and that kind of thing. We lose sight of how smart and creative and funny and fun these kids are. So, really making sure that these parents are focusing on the good things about these kids, and encouraging them and [building] them up as we’re going through this. That is so, so important for the mental health of our kids as they grow. And it’s a reminder for parents that, “This is something we can work on — but at the end of the day you, have awesome kids.”

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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.

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MURDER MYSTERY: Death on U.S. 67 – By Janie Jones

W

ithin a threeday period in late December 1955, three people were found murdered along U.S. 67, one of the main highways through Arkansas. Various newspapers quoted Clark County Sheriff Buren Hardin as saying, “It looks to me like all three jobs may have been done by some kill-crazy nut traveling down the road.”

Newspapers sensationalized the slayings, with help from weary law officers who considered the possibility that “an insane butcher” and “psychopathic killer” was on the loose.

The first victim was a Jacksonville boy, 14-year-old Joe King. His family had moved to Arkansas from Wichita Falls, Texas, two months before the slaying. Joe’s stepfather, Sgt. James R. King, was stationed at the Little Rock Air Force Base. His mother said Joe had gone to the movies on Saturday afternoon but never returned. Four days after he went missing, an Air Force search party found his body in a briar patch in a rural area south of Jacksonville. His jacket and wallet were missing.

Sheriff Tom Gulley voiced his opinion: “It was either a sex crime or somebody was mad at him.” Coroner Howard Dishongh, however, said the autopsy did not show any evidence of molestation. The boy had sustained a deep cut on his head, but the cause of death was manual strangulation.

Gulley had 15 to 20 leads that didn’t pan out. Among them was a classmate who had argued with Joe at school.

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The sheriff also brought Joe’s stepfather in for questioning on two occasions. Joe’s stepfather and mother were both given polygraph tests; his was inconclusive, but hers put her in the clear. Gulley continued to believe the slayer was a sexual deviant.

On Dec. 28, a couple of youngsters, who were rabbit hunting, discovered a dead man about 200 yards off AR 67 near the Pulaski-Saline County border. He had been beaten and choked to death with a leather belt knotted around his neck. Though his wallet and identification were missing, he was still wearing his watch and had $16.27 in his pocket. Less than a week after the body was found, the FBI matched the man’s fingerprints to those that the Army had on file for a World War II veteran named Joseph Stanislaus Kustelski, 42.

Just one day after the rabbit hunters found Kustelski,

NEWSPAPERS SENSATIONALIZED THE SLAYINGS, WITH HELP FROM WEARY LAW OFFICERS WHO CONSIDERED THE POSSIBILITY THAT “AN INSANE BUTCHER” AND “PSYCHOPATHIC KILLER” WAS ON THE LOOSE. a keen-eyed motorist saw the body of a young woman in a ditch off U.S. 67 near Gurdon. State Medical Examiner Dr. Anderson Nettleship concluded the woman had been shot in the head at close range. Sheriff Hardin tried to trace a laundry mark, “M. Holden,” on her coat. He also sent her fingerprints to the FBI. Police picked up a circus clown named Lee Ortiz, 25, who had called and confessed to killing Joe King. Then he said another man had done it, but he didn’t know who the man was. Finally, he admitted he didn’t know anything about any of the murders.

Barely a week after the third slaying, authorities caught a break in the case of the dead woman. Two ladies came forward, saying they had seen the female victim in a Texas café with a man wearing a truck driver’s uniform. The witnesses described the man as being in his mid-30s, about 6-foot-1, and weighing between 150 and 170 pounds. The woman left with the man in a truck that was traced to a company in Summerville, South Carolina, and the driver was identified as David Geiger. He waived extradition to Arkansas and was jailed in Arkadelphia. The woman was Mildred Holden from Silsbee, Texas.

According to Geiger, he picked Holden up near Beaumont, after he left Port Arthur earlier in the day. Right before reaching the Arkansas line, they stopped for lunch at the café where they were spotted by the two witnesses.

They stopped again after crossing into Arkansas and had some coffee. Geiger told his disbelieving interrogators that Holden grabbed his .38 caliber pistol that he carried in the sleeper bunk and shot herself. He said he panicked and dumped Holden’s body in the ditch because he was too afraid to call police. Geiger’s story was lent more credence when officials learned that a few months before her death, Holden had attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge and was subsequently hospitalized in a psychiatric facility.

Geiger was charged with first-degree murder and bound over for trial, but a jury took only 33 minutes to acquit him.

Investigators on the Joe King case went through prison records, looking for recently released men who had records of assault. One that caught their attention was Emmett Leggett. In 1954, he had attacked a Morrilton housewife and was sentenced to two years in prison for assault with intent to kill. He was paroled eight months later on the

conditions that he stay out of Conway County and that he not drive a car. His parole expired in early December.

Six weeks after the King slaying, two policemen came upon a rape in progress. The rapist was assaulting a teenaged Jacksonville girl in his car parked near a state road. Military police from the Little Rock Air Force Base found another girl who was lying naked and severely beaten. Taken into custody, the man admitted to raping both girls, and, under further questioning, he confessed to murdering Joe King.

The man was Leggett.

The 19-year-old, husky Leggett said he picked up Joe under the pretense of giving the boy a ride to the movie theater in downtown Jacksonville. He started making sexual advances toward his passenger, but the teenager resisted. He hit Joe several times until the boy lost consciousness. Leggett said he got scared and choked the victim to death with his bare hands. He led police to the place where he had thrown Joe’s jacket and pocketbook out of his car window after leaving the crime scene.

Leggett went on trial in June 1956. His dark hair was neatly combed, and he was dressed in blue trousers and a long-sleeved, gray sports shirt. He showed no emotion during jury selection, which was lengthy. A total of 240 prospective jurors were dismissed. A few did not believe in the death penalty, but most were excused because they had already made up their minds about the case. Leggett’s court-appointed defense counsel, John W. Bailey, entered a plea of insanity for his client. He also sought a change of venue, but Pulaski County Circuit Judge William J. Kirby denied the request.

Late on a Saturday night, an all-male jury deliberated for two hours before finding Leggett guilty, and Kirby sentenced him to death. Bailey filed several appeals, but all were futile, and Leggett died in the electric chair on Sept. 16, 1960.

The case of Joseph Stanislaus Kustelski, a Minnesota native, was never solved. One of the sheriffs, who seemed to think that the motive in every case was related to sex, suggested Kustelski’s death was a suicide. The knotted belt around his neck could indicate autoerotic asphyxiation, but he had also been beaten, casting doubt on the accidental suicide theory. However, one of his brothers said Kustelski had been nervous and despondent. The reason for his demise remains a mystery.

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Arkansas City

By Joe David Rice

N

ot many towns in the state can claim a history equal to that of Arkansas City. Nor can many point to such a run of bad luck.

First, some background on this southeast Arkansas community.

Perched on the eastern edge of Desha County next to the Mississippi River, Arkansas City once served as a major port between St. Louis, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, routinely attracting side-wheelers and stern-wheelers as they plied the mighty river.

Steamboats operating on the White and Arkansas rivers also made regular calls at Arkansas City.

It was indeed a bustling locale, with its post office established in 1872 and official incorporation as a town coming a year later.

Conveniently situated (ADPHT) at the base of the Mississippi River levee, Arkansas City had two railroads working on its behalf in addition to steady steamboat traffic. Surrounded by some of the most fertile lands in the South, the town quickly developed into a significant commercial center. It had the usual assortment of shops, banks, hotels, churches, sawmills and schools — plus 14 saloons, two doctors, and a fine opera house.

The latter also served as Arkansas City’s de facto town hall, social center and sporting venue. Champion boxer John L. Sullivan put on an exhibition in 1891 and Jack Dempsey (“The Manassa Mauler”) did the same in 1924. It was an attractive town, with many of the shops in the business district featuring second-story balconies much like older sections of New Orleans.

In late 1899, the county’s legislative body voted to erect a brick courthouse in Arkansas City, stipulating that: 1) it was to cost no less than $10,000; and 2) it should be as fire-proof as possible (the original courthouse had burned). The construction contract was signed on Jan. 2, 1900, and the two-and-one-half-story building (ADPHT)

was completed 10 months later. Featuring a four-story clock tower and rounded arches, the impressive structure required 40 railcars of brick.

Arkansas City’s run of bad luck can be traced back to its location within the floodplain of the mighty Mississippi River. Spring floods were not uncommon, but the Flood of 1927 was one for the ages.

Breaching levee after levee, the raging waters covered 14 percent of the state, killing nearly 100 Arkansans and leaving thousands homeless for months.

Arkansas City suffered a particularly grim fate that year with floodwaters inundating the entire town and requiring the rescue of more than 2,000 residents. If that wasn’t enough, Mother Nature had one final — and fatal — trick up her sleeve. When the floodwaters finally receded, stunned community leaders made a startling discovery: the river had moved. The unpredictable Mississippi River had scoured a new channel a couple of miles to the east of Arkansas City. Its days as a port were over.

Yet things are looking up for Arkansas City. The nearby Choctaw Island Wildlife Management Area includes 9 miles of trails weaving through some of the state’s top birding territory.

The Arkansas State Parks Division is in the process of extending its Delta Heritage Trail to Arkansas City, a project, which once complete, will ultimately stretch nearly 80 miles through wild and relatively untouched portions of the lower regions of the White and Arkansas rivers. In addition, the restored boyhood home of prominent African-American entrepreneur and philanthropist John Johnson is now open for tours. And its classic courthouse still stands, towering over the rural countryside.

Mother Nature may not have had the last word after all.

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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