EDITOR’S NOTES
20 Years of Publication I count 219 issues ... but I’m an English major
Editorial Staff LYNN WASSON and LINDA SEUBOLD Co-Founders, 2000 lynnwasson@efortsmith.com DONNA PAYNE Senior Editor donnapayne@efortsmith.com Former Staffers, Lifetime Friends MARY JANE HENNIG KERRY STEWART, WHITNEY WASSON NICOLE SHARP WEST Contributing Writers J.P.BELL, JENNIFER BOULDEN, MARLA CANTRELL, JOHN MCINTOSH REBA MIZE, ANITA PADDOCK TAYLOR PREWITT, BRITTANY RANSOM JIM SPEARS, TESSA FREEMAN Contributing Photographers JP BELL, JOHN CROSS, BOB DYER, GLENN GILLEY, JIM HOLLAND MCFARLAND PHOTOGRAPHY Many others, credited in the original issues Interactive Story Editor JOE WASSON joe@efortsmith.com
Advertising Sales LINDA GILHAM lgilham@efortsmith.com 479-629-0235 CHARLES G. HUBBARD charleshubbard@efortsmith.com 479-831-3995 Bookkeeping JULIE BERCH HAMILTON accounts@efortsmith.com © 2020 eFortSmith.com Media, Inc. efortsmith.com 4
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
I know this much to be true. Linda Seubold and I decided to start a city/regional magazine 20 years ago and published our first issue in August 2000. Each year thereafter, we published 11 issues a year except last year we paused for one issue to mourn Linda’s death. This year, we have published every month (never in January) but we published the July issue digitally because of the pandemic. It’s August so it must be our birthday because it’s my birthday, too and ... I think this makes 219 issues total. Close enough! Is this issue a comprehensive survey? No. It is not. If you want to see every issue, I refer you to the Fort Smith Public Library, the UA-Fort Smith Boreham Library or the University of Arkansas Mullins Library. I’m glad someone qualified is keeping up. I trust librarians. If you’d like every single issue for your own collection, I’m also f-a-i-r-l-y certain we have those here. We have lots. They’re really heavy. But I’ll bet that you, dear reader, may have at least one issue or at least a page or a picture put away because it was somehow special to you. We are thrilled if you do. From the start, this magazine was meant for you, the people who call Fort Smith and our nearby towns home. It’s not about anyplace else. And that’s been such a vast and varied universe that we’ve never run out of stories. If you have kept or framed a story or cover, please pose with it and send us a photo! We have done the most dangerous thing in this issue, which was to name many people – which means that we left out someone we shouldn’t have. We’re already sorry, we apologize in advance. We especially want to thank each and every advertiser who ever did business with us or is in our pages right now. You are the reason we have reached 20 years of publication. You are deeply, humbly appreciated. All of you.
What is in this issue are many covers from our two decades in print. The first one is dear because it has one of my daughters, Flannery, with her friend Emma Holland, the daughter of Mary Jane Hennig and Jim Holland, who took the photo. Without the mentoring of Mary Jane and Jim, I wouldn’t be writing this. Mary Jane founded a great magazine, Fort Smith Etc., several years before E Fort Smith. Writing for her (and editor Pattie Cox) there led me here. Then Mary Jane came to this staff and taught my co-editor Donna Payne much more. Thank you, Mary Jane. We became competent, but we’ll never be as talented. Thanks mucho, mucho to Linda Gilham and Julie Hamilton, the stars of our current staff. Love to our unsung support team of Joe Wasson and David Payne and all of our staff ’s families for enduring unintended neglect. Thanks to every writer, photographer and graphic artist who contributed their talents, paid or generously shared. Thanks to Glenn Gilley, our prolific and most-abused photographer. I’m sorry I keep forgetting you hate heights. Thanks for the scissor-lift shot, the unfinished water slide, aerial photos taken with white knuckles. Thanks to our delivery teams, which have included all of my family and lots of Donna’s. Bless you, encouragers, on whom we have leaned. I’m looking at you, John and Clifford Lyon, Agnes Stouffer, Tim Randolph, Claude Legris, Brenda Yelvington, Lavon Morton, Zena Featherston Marshall, Jeff Beauchamp, Gary Robertson and more we keep in our hearts. What’s next? Not being centered on ourselves! We wear masks, wash our hands and care for each other. If we all protect our fellow humans, local commerce and our unique culture recovers and goes on. Please join us in doing that for each other. We want to be 21 next August. – Lynn Wasson
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CONTENTS
August 2020
features
7
22 2000-2020
26 32
32 Face time: our covers
36 44
20 Years of Stories and People It’s our 20th anniversary! We asked our contributing writers to remember the stories they enjoyed writing for this magazine. It’s illustrated with covers and photos from “back in the day” – as many as possible!
These businesses and more deserve all the thanks For two decades, Entertainment Fort Smith has been enjoyed, free, because of our fine advertisers. Many have been with us in almost every issue.
Noting good change over 20 years We asked John McIntosh to look back to 2000 and speak of the many achievements of civic progress the city has seen. He was involved in quite a few and even more are pictured, from the coverage we published at the time. What’s been accomplished since then will impress you.
On the cover, and the cover, and the cover Enjoy familiar and bright faces featured on many of our covers, on these two pages and throughout the magazine.
Mary Carleton Young’s tablescape of traditions Reared by a gracious family and married to another, this hostess is providing her dining room to the private dinners to be auctioned at Bob Miller’s 90th Birthday Celebration, Sept. 24. Her beautiful tablescape stirs memories.
Reba Mize: Gardening, adventure or both in the same story We invited Reba Mize to write for us partly because she is an extraordinary gardener but mostly because she discovers, enjoys and describes the most unusual adventures of anyone we know in a voice that’s purely hers.
departments
44 Gardening Adventures
40
goodies As always, our fine local retailers tempt you with their freshest merchandise.
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WHAT’S COOKING Breaking bread – for many different kinds of meals.
eve n t s
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52
58 Our Brilliant Friend Stan 6
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
KIDS CALENDAR There are still opportunities for kids to enjoy the last of summer.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS Fort Smith’s standing institutions of culture, art and history are open and welcoming visitors while following guidelines to safeguard public health.
On the Cover: More covers.
A magazine is meant to give a reader a choice of many subjects, with enjoyable and pertinent information communicated by articles and photographs. It is focused around a stated subject.
Our focus is in our masthead. We’re about Fort Smith, with a warm embrace of all its surrounding communities. We, all of the staff, knew that we’d have to be genuine and familiar, that we’d have to truly be a mirror of our city to be trusted and accepted.
From our very first issue in August 2000, we’ve tried to be purely authentic in observing standout people and their lives. We knew we’d have to useful and not just amusing or decorative. We look to portray what is positive, helpful, progressive and unique about this place and its people and their many, differing endeavors.
We try to show the full life of our city, from the individual to the collective, to reflect and show off its culture from ordinary to outstanding achievement, from plain fun to
20
Like everyone else, we’re thrown off our usual routines by this pandemic of 2020.
transcendent art.
We are proud to have reached two decades of publication and success as an indie publication, an entrepreneurial start-up that has made it this far.
We had plans for a party and a cast of thousands cover, because now drones exist! Think great ambition, like everyone who wanted to be in the photo showing up on a football field in formation of big numeral 20! Maybe we’ll be able to do that at year 21. Let’s all try to achieve again what once was normal. Let’s wear masks, wash hands and distance ourselves and get well.
What we could do is turn to our archives and re-print covers and photos from the past for your recollection and enjoyment. We invited some of our many fine contributors to recall their own favorite stories and experiences.
These pages honor our subjects, writers, photographers and the advertisers who supported us. They show 20 years of Fort Smith.
I
began my career as a writer for EFortSmith in my early 40s. Nobody but another writer knows the thrill of seeing your name in print. And when I got a nod from Linda Seubold to submit something, my heart pounded like a drum in the Texas Aggies band. All I needed was my foot in the door, I’d been told often by Katy Boulden, the owner of Vivian’s Book Store, an actor and sometimes director with the Little Theatre, a cantankerous member of the Fort Smith School Board and the mother of five boys. So after I got my foot in the door, I asked if I could write a profile on Katy Boulden.
ANITA PADDOCK
Write about what (and who) you know I worked for Katy every Wednesday for 15 years. She taught me more about books and publishing than any college course I ever took. I adored working at the book store. A bunch of different folks came in to visit, pick up a free copy of the New York Times Book Review, discuss the latest gossip around town and buy a book or two. “Cash or charge, but no plastic,” she told customers as she was writing up a ticket. Dr. J.P. Bell was one of those who liked to hang out at Vivian’s, and when he heard that I was writing a profile on Katy, he called and told me he was going to be the photographer for the piece. J.P. was a terrific photographer, the kind who has expensive equipment and showings in art galleries. I knew Katy would be pleased. She might not say so out loud, just as she didn’t act pleased when I told her I was going to profile her for the magazine. “Oh, Nita, how come?” she asked. “I”m just an old woman.” I was nervous about writing the piece on Katy. She’d tell me if she didn’t like it, just as I knew she’d tell J.P. to be quick about it. She didn’t have time to waste. I was pleased with my writing and J.P.’s picture was lovely, shot in her back yard, with a dreamy glaze to it. Katy wore a blue sweater and jean skirt. And hurrah! She didn’t wear her Birkenstocks. (She knew I hated them because she wore them with hose, even though I told her over and over that it wasn’t cool.) After the death of my husband, who died of a broken heart the way her husband, Dr. Cecil Boulden, died, we had another bond that bound us together the way a good book did. I started a new job with the Fort Smith Public Library and Katy eventually had to close her book store. We kept in touch, but not the way we should have. When I became an old woman, I resigned from the library after 15 years and was feted with a retirement party.
STACEY JONES
“
Portrait of Katy Boulden by J.P. Bell
Katy attended and asked me what I was going to do besides read. I told her I wasn’t sure. She said, “Write that book about the murder in Van Buren. You’re a lot better writer now than you used to be.” And so I did. Anita Paddock is the author of true crime titles Blind Rage, Closing Time! and Cold Blooded. All three concern local murders.
Paddock and the late Katy Boulden at the former den of literature, Vivian’s Bookstore.
”
For 20 years, E Fort Smith and UAFS Season of Entertainment have been media partners in bringing the performing arts to Fort Smith, a community where you and I chose to live. The success of the season and E Fort Smith are a perfect example of what happens when two entities invest in each other. We are looking forward to the next 20 years. Thank you E Fort Smith for all you do for all of us. – Stacey Jones is associate vice chancellor for campus and community events at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
WE MET A LOT OF PEOPLE
Claire Stovall Clayton
Bevin and Arthur Green
Re-enactors in character
Abby Taylor Cox, Earl Douglas
UAFS Unexpected artists
Jaiven Glover
August 2020
Junior League volunteers Entertainment Fort Smith 9
FORMIDABLE PHOTOGRAPHERS
J.P. BELL I've had the privilege of photographing and writing for eFort Smith from the beginning. One of most memorable series I’ve ever done included a portfolio of churches in the snow at night. 10
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
I was scheduled to fly from Fort Smith to Baltimore for a photo shoot early one morning but the flight was canceled due to a heavy snow. Since my truck was already in four-wheel drive, I looked for something I could photograph in Fort Smith in this gorgeous snow.
The churches around town seemed to glow beautifully in the snow with their nighttime lighting, especially during the early morning hours. The images I made on this occasion are some of my favorite. They were published in eFort Smith the next year in the Christmas issue.
J.P.’s grandson, Anderson Bell, on his first visit to Yellowstone National Park.
Doctor and pilot J.P. Bell shot doctor and pilot Homer Ellis for a spectacular cover.
J.P. had to hand over his camera to pose with President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter when he wrote of attending Carter’s Sunday School class in Plains, Ga.
I recall photographing my friend, the late Dr. Homer Ellis, and his telling me of his many adventures in aviation. These, too, were featured in eFort Smith. It has provided a place for my stories about canoeing in the Ozarks, landscapes along the
Front Range of the Montana Rocky Mountains and the history of an abandoned hospital in Paris, Ark. There have been others, as well. Thank you, eFort Smith, for providing me a venue to share my photography with others in this place we called home.
Our humble and beloved friend has shared so much more than he mentions here – many outstanding covers of Arkansas and National Park beauty. His images are gifts in every sense - we could not afford his professional rates. We thank him for 20 years of his talent, encouragement and generosity. August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
11
THE SHOTS HE GOT!
GLENN GILLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER
Leroy Casalman
Zena Featherston Marshall
Waldo Fisher 12
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
Euba Winton
Stacey Jones
Beth Price
The Carter Brothers
GOOD STORYTELLERS When I was invited to contribute to the 20th anniversary issue of Entertainment Fort Smith, my mind raced back through the story arcs from my past – both professional and personal – and through the progress and the struggles the people of our region have experienced the past two decades. It hasn’t always been pretty, has it? Still, Entertainment Fort Smith has been among us, bringing brightness and perspective from the magazine’s cover and from the pages of each issue. Lynn Wasson and the late Linda Seubold imagined the creation of something tangible that would highlight the vibrancy of our region and its people – something weighty enough that would go THUD when plopped down on an end table in someone’s home, a office desk, or as part of a welcome basket in the hotel room of an economic development recruit. Entertainment Fort Smith became a “secret weapon” in economic development projects, including the recruitment of the U.S. Marshals Museum. Covers were designed to elicit emotion and excitement from the moment our very important visitors arrived at the airport. Magazines were strategically placed in racks at the airport, in hotel lobbies, at check-in desks, and in their rooms.
TRACY WINCHELL
Entertainment Fort Smith helps us remember where we’ve come from We even cooked up a scheme to put magazines on all inbound flights from Dallas-Fort Worth a day or two before and during the Marshals Museum site selection committee’s arrival. The Bring it Home campaign brought together a regional protest in favor of something. The Marshals Museum remains a bit of unfinished business. Still, the vision is large enough to be audacious, but small enough that it’s realistic in these changing times. The right people are in place. The building is ready. The stories of the women and men of the U.S. Marshals Service are, perhaps, more important today than ever, as our nation and her people endure fits and groans amidst change we haven’t seen in darned near a hundred years. Along the way, we’ve said goodbye to friends and supporters of that project and to many who have graced the pages of the magazine – most notably, our beloved friend Linda Seubold. As individuals and as a community we get to choose our response to hardship - to the loss of a loved one, to economic downturns, and even social unrest, political instability and living in the midst of a pandemic. Lynn and Linda gave me the opportunity to become a writer. Today, I write every day. Nearly everything I write is about navigating change - accepting that which we cannot change and courageously changing what we can (which is almost always a process of changing ourselves). I teach others how to make and accept change, and to know which change is what. Our region, our states, the nation and our world certainly are experiencing upheaval and uncertainty on this 20th anniversary of the magazine. What a joy and comfort when we come across a rack of the latest issue. We bring home our treasure, toss it on the kitchen counter and wait for family members to light up when they see our big score.
The November 2009 “secret weapon” issue was aimed at the team that was to pick the site of the U.S. Marshals Museum, packed with portraits by Jim Holland. We were “gunning” for them, with big guns.
The articles provoke new conversations outside our pandemic bubble, reminding us that in the midst of uncomfortable change, some things remain. This thought helps center my next actions when change paralyzes me on occasion. “We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given. And the only way you’ll do something spectacular is by using it all to your advantage." (Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way) Lynn and Linda and all who have contributed to Entertainment Fort Smith these past 20 years have helped us remember where we’ve come from, to celebrate that which is good even in the middle of difficult times and to spark spectacular growth from the ashes of hardship. This approach to change is what brings us hope. It’s the weight of the words “True Grit.” Tracy Winchell left her imprint on eFS as an early columnist, musing on subjects as silly as dogs and NASCAR and as serious as daddies. She has been a warrior for cultural/economic development, always as a communicator of stories. Now, she’s teaching individual development, in new media. She’s a colleague in news and a friend. If your project is OK with Jesus, something Tracy’s mama would be proud Photo by Glenn Gilley of and good for America (specifically, Arkansas), you want Winchell as the staunch, unrelenting Mattie Ross of your team. August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
13
OUR STORYTELLERS TESSA FREEMAN
Angus cattle to alligator turtles and some outstanding human subjects, too
Trying to choose my favorite story from all the ones that I wrote after seven years (before that three as a freelancer) of working at Entertainment Fort Smith magazine, is like trying to say which of my children I love the most, even though I have none. I can’t pick just one. So I will tell you several. Meeting so many people and it being my job to get to know them better and then telling the world about them was by far my favorite part of my job. But it wasn’t always easy. I also had to pitch those people to those oh-so discriminating editors.
Linda, Donna and Lynn would usually give them go-ahead at some point, because I wore them out or the timing worked. And then there was the people I interviewed themselves. Some were all about it, others weren’t. Some I had to cajole a bit. Some were more than happy and welcomed me into their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Claus ( Jeri and Charlie Moffett) were the most charming Clauses I had ever met (albeit I don’t think I had met any before and haven’t since). For a down payment on the old Abigail Sparks Victorian home on May Avenue, which they had bought and renovated, they had spent years saving their change in a mineral water bottle. I remember Jeri serving me from this holiday tea set that looked from another era, making me feel special. And in that home and around those two, one couldn’t help but feel the magic. It was a great story. My photo of the Moffetts made the front cover in 2006 and I was overjoyed. But stories weren’t always that easy. I loved telling the late Ray Baker’s story, also in 2006, though he was a hard one to pin down, literally. He never stopped. Ray was a history teacher at Southside High School for 45 years, a mayor of Fort Smith for 16-plus years, a historian, a writer and a cheerleader for the city. He also loved running, but didn’t need to make that an extracurricular activity because it was already baked into his life, going from one ribbon cutting to rose ceremony to charity event. He confided in me that he got very little sleep at night. His schedule made it almost impossible to ever sit down with him and when I did, in small increments, he couldn’t sit still. He was the type of person that willed his world. And I am forever grateful to have known that enigma a little bit better, snatching and quickly putting in my pocket, the little glimpses he gave me. Besides wrangling the magazine’s wildcard wonder, the reader-contributed Calendar of Events, Tessa Freeman had an eye for good features. While with us, she also created ideas only she could have produced and learned to be a distinctive portrait photographer. Secretly (for a time) she wrote a good novel around animal welfare. Not secretly, she was heavily volunteering to care for and find homes for them– and still does. We know she would urge you to adopt a friend for life, like this good dog, one of many she has photographed, and above all to spay and neuter all pets.
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
I even got to go to the Williams compound (what Champ lovingly termed Maximum Turtle Security) in Pocola, and see his aquariums, ponds and former swimming pool that he had turned into a camera-ready water wonderland. We found no alligator turtle that week, which made the story even better, giving it a legendary Sasquatchy feel. But after the story had already gone to press, Champ called me up to tell me he did find one near the J. Fred Patton Bridge over the Arkansas River. In November 2015, Champ, a solid scubacertified diver, died in an accident in a Pocola pond when he was testing new scuba gear while filming a 200-pound alligator turtle, the final scene in that same film he had been working on since our 2009 interview. I can’t imagine Champ wanting to leave this earth in any other way than chasing those elusive “monsters of the deep,” as he called them. Shirley Williams, photo by Tessa Freeman
In 2007, I also got to profile Shirley Williams, whom I had always worshipped from afar, her being a bit of media royalty. She had been in advertising sales and was married to one of the legendary advertising gurus in Fort Smith, Fred Williams. Shirley had entered a new phase in her life and was learning the business of breeding Angus cattle. It was priceless, seeing this former Texas belle and svelte media rep transformed from a blonde goddess sporting dresses and heels, to a good old girl who had just thrown on jeans and boots. I got to go to her ranch in Van Buren, jump in her truck, meet the cows and her beloved boxers. I had to beg her for an interview, Shirley being so unassuming, but she finally relented, and we are so glad she did. Kathy Jo Coleman, a woman I had met in my church who inspired me, was someone I had always wanted to know. She was funny, wasn’t afraid to speak the truth and was married to Rod, whose father Buddy Coleman, had made a legendary career in the property business. Rod was in the process of making his way, as well. Since she was being treated for breast cancer, I was somewhat reluctant to ask her for an interview but did. Her hair was very short from radiation and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be photographed. Plus, she had to have been tired, though in retrospect, never showed it. But I assured her that she (a gorgeous blue-eyed blond with classic features) was more beautiful than ever and should be bold for others struggling to beat cancer’s odds. So grateful we did this. We got to know each other better and afterward made a pact to be courageous no matter the cost. Champ Williams, only 26 in 2009, had just snagged an Emmy for an underwater film documentary when he asked me to go with him on a hunt for the great (100 pounds-plus) alligator snapping turtle. He was planning on featuring it in his next film. I learned how to set turtle traps (something to do with butchered-up gallon milk bottles with bait inside of them) and I, in my Champ-sanctioned turtle gear, got to visit several streams and ponds where one might find an alligator snapping turtle.
Robert “Champ” Williams of Fort Smith held an ordinary little turtle in a cover photo by Tessa Freeman. The award-winning underwater cinematographer took her along on a hunt for the 200-pound alligator turtles he researched and filmed. August 2020 Entertainment Fort Smith 15
Editors aid and abet judge’s plots JIM SPEARS Spears at the foundry’s “pour” of the Reeves statue; Linda approving the USMM groundbreaking. The aerial photo is Bass Reeves crossing the Arkansas on horseback (by truck). She recruited a pilot and photographer. Linda and Jim were guilty of conspiracy to create and enjoy a spectacle.
Twenty years ago, my friends Linda and Lynn came up with a crazy idea for a magazine about Fort Smith and they were going to give it away. That dream became a reality and eFort Smith is now a mainstay in our local culture. I look back on all the times those editors supported this crazy dreamer in trying to improve that local culture. I even got Linda on stage once in a Gridiron show, playing herself! This was to raise money for one of my crazy projects. I think it was the Bass Reeves statue. This magazine did so much in that effort. Major donors received a bronze maquette. eFortSmith has one. The publicity and support was invaluable in making this a success. Now, the Bass Reeves statue is one of the defining works of art in the state of Arkansas. They even supported me on the first statue idea I had of Zachary Taylor. It was probably a good thing that didn't happen. He was the last U.S. president to be a slave owner. They also gave me the opportunity to write about our personal trips. The most unusual was to Popayan, Colombia. This was a treat by my son and daughter-in-law who were stationed in Colombia with USAID. The Holy Week procession of the statuary from the various churches is a UN heritage site. Our experience with an obnoxious rooster in the cathedral chicken yard made me long for my .22 single shot! I was able to share this very unusual experience with the readers of eFortSmith. 16
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
There was the Alaskan cruise and my Rotary trips to Belize and Romania. The portrait exhibit of the circuit and chancery judges that have served the county. My book Yearning to Breathe Free about the Cuban refugee relocation project in 1980-82 was covered. The U.S. Marshals Museum effort! So many involved in making that a reality. The effort started in the Great Recession. Now, we are in the Pandemic Depression, and press on. No great project is easy. All along the way there has been eFortSmith encouraging us and cheering us on. I don't want to be too maudlin, but damn, I miss Linda Seubold! Her pepper earrings and smile and laugh can't be matched. Years ago, we had coffee every Friday morning and schemes were hatched. Let's build a museum! Let's build a statue! Linda: ''I'll put it in the magazine!" Let's do a show! This is not to short change Lynn. She is a force. She encouraged me to write the Cuban book. Twenty years of promoting and loving Fort Smith and its people. That sums up this magazine. Look at all that has been accomplished. I dare say much of it would not have happened without eFortSmith. Thank you for the opportunities you have given to me and the town you love. Two things befriended the magazine to retired circuit judge Jim Spears. He has been key in many significant civic projects and willing to write or act as a spokesperson, but credits all the co-volunteers who achieved such projects as the expansion of the National Cemetery and the replacement of lost ballfields; the Bass Reeves statue and its literacy programs and the U.S. Marshals Museum, with its own posse of supporters. The other bond is that he and the late Linda Seubold shared the audacity to launch big ideas, the charisma to get others onboard and the grit to see them through to reality.
WRITERS’ choice
Rowdy Rooster Cogburns throw down a public cussin’ On a cold January morning in 2010, riding the A&M Scenic Excursion Train back to Fort Smith, I cracked open True Grit for the first time. Seven months into a communications job at the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, I was trying to familiarize myself with the attractions and history I’d been hired to promote. I sat on the train reading the words of the narrator Mattie Ross, who begins the book also seated on a train headed to Fort Smith. It was a little meta. I couldn’t put it down. Thus was I, at age 36, introduced to True Grit. I’d never seen the John Wayne movie. I knew Arkansas author Charles Portis was revered, but had never read his works. An Oscar buff, I knew that two of my favorite directors, Joel and Ethan Coen, were adapting my new favorite book into a film starring two of my favorite actors, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. That day on the train I realized True Grit is an essential part of Fort Smith’s mythology. And that this film was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We had to capitalize on it. But what could we do? How could we get their attention so we could be included? Could we get a premiere? We tried all year. We contacted the film commission; we tried repeatedly to contact Paramount. No one cared. That fall, I wrote a piece for Oscar fans at AwardsDaily.com, “The Real Fort Smith: Separating Fact vs. Fiction in True Grit.” It told true stories of marshals, Judge Parker, the inspirations for Rooster Cogburn, myths about the hangings, and everything I could think to spill onto the page. Unexpectedly, it resonated within the film’s fan community and got widely shared. I adapted that piece for eFortSmith’s December 2010 issue. True West magazine published another version. But we’d made no headway with the film. Just before Thanksgiving, I was talking with my boss,
Claude Legris, and city communications manager Tracy Winchell. It was Tracy who asked the question that changed everything. “Why do we need anyone’s permission to celebrate True Grit? We’re Fort Smith!” Except. The film was coming out Dec. 10. There was no time to throw together any kind of production. We did it anyway. JENNY BOULDEN
We dubbed the premiere week “True Gritapalooza” and began promoting. Claude came up with the centerpiece: “We could invite everyone to the historic site, give them an eyepatch and a marshal’s badge and get the world record for the most Rooster Cogburns!” I ordered patches (we had the tin badges) and started a Facebook page. Besides the Roosters by the Dozen cussin’, we had a Pub Crawl, a Q&A with True Grit actress and Fort Smith native Candace Hinkle and reserved a premiere at the Malco 10. E Fort Smith and many more stepped up to help. Our only expense? The eye patches. We turned on our PR and marketing skills. I became all True Grit, all the time. Local hype turned into national and even international
publicity. I tweeted out my Fact v. Fiction story. I tweeted about Gritapalooza and the attempt for the most Rooster Cogburns at the Fort Smith National Historic Site. Then, my phone dinged. @ParamountPictures had tweeted me back. “Can you tell us more?” Paramount called me and I explained. “We wish we’d known about this sooner,” the woman on the phone said as I silently laughed. “But we’d love to help!” Two days later, giant boxes arrived from Paramount filled with swag: dozens of True Grit movie posters, soundtracks, tees and hats. They also hired a local film crew to shoot the event. On a misty morning, hundreds showed up, donned eye patches and badges and re-enacted Rooster’s (played by Mayor Sandy Sanders) lines to Lucky Ned Pepper (Ranger Cody Faber, on horseback) about taking him back to Judge Parker’s court for trial. The culmination: hundreds of fine Fort Smith citizens yelling in unison, “Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!” It was glorious. We didn’t qualify for Guinness – you have to apply six months in advance – but we had an unforgettable time. I bawled throughout the film premiere, overwhelmed with emotion watching an instant classic, surrounded by my people. And in the months after the Coens’ No. 1 hit film came out, Fort Smith tourism skyrocketed and stayed up at least 50 percent for much of the year. But my favorite part was witnessing Fort Smithians filled with pride about our city. We tend to underestimate how interesting this place is, how colorful and how much we can pull off when we pull together. Because Fort Smith? We’ve got grit. Jenny Boulden has been our most clever contributor, ever. Now in Little Rock, she writes for several statewide publications. We miss her.
August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
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WRITING ABOUT LOVE
Steven and Dustin Dooly family
Lucille and Tom Craft
Dick and Suzanne Renko family
Garrett and Ashley Lewis family
Casey and Cody Faber
Family from Evan’s Project, Stephanie Freeman
Cody Pratt and nephews
Shay and Carlos Whitmore
Scott and Karen Hembree family
LOVES OF YOUR LIVES 18
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
Love is a sensitive subject When you read a writer’s finished stories, you are seeing the organization that takes place during the writing process, the winnowing down of MARLA CANTRELL information to fit a word count, the dozens of interesting but unnecessary details that are sacrificed for clarity or continuity. In the discarded notes, there are often secrets only the writer knows. Lynn Wasson, the editor, and I both started out with news organizations, and we both fell in love with writing. You can make more money doing something else, but you can't have half the fun. When she invited me to write the story of MaeLeigh and Jason Daley, I could hear how excited she was. They were the parents of two small children. Pretty ordinary stuff. But Jason had overcome cancer as a young man, which left him infertile. Before treatment, he'd made a donation to a sperm bank, thinking maybe he'd like to be a father one day.
As time rolled by, he forgot about the donation, and he forgot to pay the storage fee. For 15 years! As a writer, you couldn't ask for a better story. As I have written for some especially conservative markets, I wondered if there were other words for "sperm." In fact, in my notes, I wrote that word and added a series of question marks. There is also a dictum in writing called elegant variation, which encourages the use of synonyms, so you don't repeat words. You can imagine that possible synonyms could be just as fraught with trouble. So, I gave up, cringed at the number of times I used that especially important word in connection with in vitro fertilization treatment, and sent in my copy. Drumming my fingers on my desk, I waited for a response. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Lynn published it and sent me the sweetest note. So much of what writers worry about never materializes, and that’s a great lesson. Worry is not your friend, but a good editor is. Of course, we enjoy a colleague’s compliment – I include our senior editor Donna Payne, whose deft editing authority polishes all of this magazine’s content. Marla is an experienced editor, herself, and our confidence in her, to capture both the devoted love and medical treatment the Daleys experienced, proved correct.
LOVE ENDURING The McClurkins were old friends. Mardell and Mary and I had been friends as students at the University of Arkansas in the 1950s, primarily through Wesley Foundation, the Methodist student group. The Rev. A.W. Martin, the director of Wesley Foundation, married Mary and me; and it was he who famously called Herschel in Fort Smith and told him, “Herschel, I’m sending a very pretty young girl down to Fort Smith, and if you’re as smart as I think you are, you’ll know what to do.” Herschel, of course, did know what to do, but it took TAYLOR PREWITT him a long time to do it, and I don’t think Dr. Martin lived to see it. At the time I was asked me to write about the McClurkins, however, they had celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary – an occasion that prompted Mardell to say, “If he had asked me sooner, it would have been 50.” Mary and I had not seen the ancestral home of Mardell’s parents, which they had renovated after it had stood vacant, on a hill near Alma. The tour was not a perfunctory one; we saw the old cars in the shed – was it a 1940 Lincoln Zephyr? And there was the miniature country store for the grandchildren, and inside the house the hotel keys and other memorabilia from the Goldman Hotel that Mardell’s father had owned (and where she had lived when she came back to work at Westark Community College after graduating from UA). The whole place was a theme park, and you’d think it could only be maintained by a full-time curator. I was astonished, because I was so accustomed to seeing both of them in so many places so often that you’d think they lived in Fort Smith. The article appeared in the July 2015 issue and the McClurkins loved it. None of this coy, aw shucks business. They loved their own story, they loved sharing it with the public, and they often told me how pleased they had been when someone in particular had mentioned it to them. Herschel died two years later, at the age of 88, five months before he and Mardell would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. One month before his death, he and Mardell received the Fort Smith Noon Exchange Club Book of Golden Deeds Award. Among his many board memberships and service organizations, one of the least well known was the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, which he and I discussed at some length. (The Ozark Chinquapin, a tree found in the mountains of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma – but mostly in Arkansas – is a relative of the American chestnut.) Herschel had his passions. The family suggested in his obituary that friends wanting to honor Herschel might plant a tree in his memory. Mardell is still going strong. An editor lives the dream of the perfect writer for the best subject! I’m happy that Taylor Prewitt enjoyed writing about the loving marriage of Mardell and Herschel McClurkin. Only he could do the story justice, because he is a fine writer and their longtime friend. I trusted, from the bond between Taylor and his wife, Mary, he’d understand and honor another one. August 2020
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Remembering for Linda
What stories would Linda Seubold have chosen to highlight from the last 20 years of E Fort Smith? When Linda Seubold and I jumped in to start publishing a monthly local magazine about Fort Smith, her hometown, she had a list of potential stories that went on for several pages of a yellow legal pad, both sides, single-spaced. (Only she could read her writing, or find the legal pad, so this artifact is lost to history.) Doesn’t matter. I think she did write most of those ideas and she always found new feature stories and profiles of interesting people. She also wrote a monthly column here to carry on entertaining the loyal readers she’d attracted over her long tenure at the Times Record with a daily column called “Offbeat.” Her magazine column was called “Hotstuff ” after her love of chile peppers. Catchy titles aside, everything she wrote, in any form, was about something she found interesting and wanted others to know. She wanted to tell readers about a farmer in Crawford County raising exotic crops from ostriches to koi. All failed, but in funny ways. She wanted to ask good cooks about their best recipes and possibly, taste the dishes. In one case, we bought the groceries and stood back to watch a pro make a Thanksgiving meal, New Orleans style. Her hosts were relocated here by Hurricane Katrina. She enjoyed it with them. She, and the magazine, also covered stories she thought were important to our civic life. In our very first issue, Linda committed the magazine to be a Partner in Education to Fort Smith Public Schools. We are a media partner, serving the district administration. That commitment has led to years of opportunity to share the world-withinitself that our public schools are – and what they achieve. Crazy about music since childhood (she inherited it from her dad), of course, she liked to hear and write about all kinds of music and see that the magazine told readers every kind of performance they could see each month. She had a soft spot for jazz and certainly for the blues. In fact, in her lifetime, we think Linda wrote more inches of stories about the blues than if her career had been in Memphis or Chicago. She was a bigger fan of the Elvis Barbershop Museum than she was of Elvis himself, so we had plenty of stories about the schoolchildren who helped to preserve it and the fun celebrations held there at Chaffee Crossing when it became real, many years later. I can’t know, really, what Linda would have chosen as her favorite Entertainment Fort Smith stories and pictures from the last 20 years. But I know exactly what story she always was most excited about, and stayed excited about, as she willed herself to live through cancer treatment – the next one.
LYNN WASSON EFS co-founder Linda Seubold in her eyepatch, with trusty camera, pen and reporter’s notebook, at the “Roosters by the Dozen” world record attempt at the Fort Smith National Historic Site, December 2010. 20
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
Linda liked “250 great things about Fort Smith” but thought we could have listed 2,500.
Anytime a grandchild could appear (and she showed restraint) was dear to her. This is Emma Seubold. Linda was tickled to pieces over this “American Gothic” homage illustration for her story about an ostrich farmer. Artwork by Elizabeth Morsund, our original graphic artist.
By 2015, Linda was in a serious fight for survival but hand-waving away fear through her faith and optimism. She died in June 2019.
Linda definitely would have picked these two cast-of-everyone anniversary photos.We’re all bummed we couldn’t do it again for our 20th.
August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
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The Roles We Assume and Play From 2000 to 2020. Oh my, how time flies. Probably like many of this magazine’s readers, I didn’t give much thought to 20 years down the road when I picked up, read and enjoyed JOHN MCINTOSH Edition One. Now that I am giving it a lot of thought and having been asked to contribute my thoughts to this 20th Anniversary Edition, it’s with a lot of pleasure, mixed with a little sadness, that I share these memories. My retrospective stories actually begin in the early-’90s when Bill Neumeier decided we needed a blues festival down by the river. With little or no authority, Bill brought in a flatbed trailer for the stage and parked it next to the levy beside the Belle Point Beverages warehouse. And that, my friends, started a 30-year run of the Riverfront Blues Festival. That effort was nurtured along by the talents of the late Dick Renko and Charlie Hiatt, me and a host of other folks that just had the passion and vision for a familyfriendly festival that reintroduced us to the Blues and entertained thousands of live music lovers along the banks of the Arkansas River. It also produced a foundation gift for the stage that still stands. This ragtag organization
Greg Smith Riverfront Trail
helped set the standard for music festivals in Kelley Park. I suppose my role in the Blues Festival led to my appointment to the Fort Smith Riverfront Development Task Force in the mid-’90s, which I somehow ended up chairing. We were a citizens group asked to gather input from the community and to develop a master plan for the riverfront from the Garrison Avenue bridge to Fort Smith Park near Midland Boulevard. Thanks to the professional help from Galen Hunter and MAHG Architects, our comprehensive plan became part of the 1-cent sales tax and work began on Phase One, which included the Harry E. Kelley Park Amphitheater, two community buildings and the Glass Pavilion. I’ve learned patience is needed in the development of our riverfront. I’m very excited to have watched in the past few years the completion of the stunning 12.5-mile Greg Smith Riverfront Trail with unique sculptures thanks to the Dream Alliance Foundation. Thousands already have taken advantage of the new Riverfront Skate and Bike Park completed in 2018. And the riverfront is now home to the magnificent structure that houses the U.S. Marshals Museum.
For those of you who did not have the pleasure to know Greg Smith, let me tell you he was a very special individual. Among his many contributions to the city he loved was the role he played as a one-man, trail-building powerhouse. He literally started what became his namesake trail with his own push power mower and some basic lawn care tools. On his own (with some help from his boys on occasion), he set the course with his vision and sweat equity that is now a jewel of a trail that we can point to as one of our real quality-of-life assets that is accessible to everyone. Some of you may be familiar with the long-running (20-year) singersongwriter music series known as AACL (Artist, Audience, Community Live) in downtown Fort Smith. The season ticket series was started by Dick and Suzanne Renko, my wife, Judi, and me as the 801 House Concert series. We each played different roles in the production. Dick procured the world-class talent, Suzanne was responsible for artist hospitality, Judi handled the money and ticket sales and I handled all the leftover chores. Back home now in its original theater inside Mike Hart’s 5 Star Production building, the series moved to what is now the Blue Lion for a couple of years and was known as Second Street Live! That move was a bit too much of a financial burden for the nonprofit and we were fortunate that UAFS was looking at downtown locations for some of its music programs. A deal was engineered by Richard Griffin and the CBID benefitting all parties. Faithful season ticketholders and the AACL Board are continuing the tradition of AACL. The series is a unique Fort Smith social and entertainment treasure. About the time the magazine started, our ad agency, The McIntosh Group, took on the role of a branding campaign for the city called Find Yourself in Fort Smith. The message had a double meaning – find yourself here as a tourist, but also find yourself living here, raising a family or starting a business. Our brand of social media at the time was to give away logo lapel pins to our business leaders and ask them to wear them while traveling to generate awareness and questions about our city. Don’t be surprised to see one on Mayor George McGill in his role representing Fort Smith.
In late 2014, while enjoying a cup of coffee with Steve Clark, we shared ideas about making our downtown more vibrant, as well as something to make Arkansas and beyond sit up and take notice. Little did I know when Steve suggested, “Why can’t Fort Smith become an unexpected city of murals?” it would launch me into the world of international artists while helping start the nonprofit 64.6 Downtown. The small team of Steve, Claire Kolberg (who took on the role of Unexpected director) and me began the journey in early 2015. For our international artist connection, we reached out to Charlotte Dutoit at Justkids for curatorial support. We invited Charlotte to Fort Smith in March 2015. After spending a few days getting acquainted and walking the streets in the rain, Charlotte’s comments included, “You have a beautiful, walkable, approachable downtown with a wide range of beautiful walls (canvases) for art.” Our partnership was formed and has led to 35 unique murals and art installations in our downtown. Did Arkansas and others take notice? If you consider more than 15 million impressions on social media and recognition in 2017 and 2019 by the Governor’s Arts Awards as the recipient of the Community Tourism Development Award and Community Arts Development respectively, then yes, notice was evident. Many played significant roles in The Unexpected contemporary urban arts festival these last five years. Claire’s leadership in managing the team with Justkids and each artist, as well as marketing and communications, has been masterful. Hundreds of volunteers have made it happen in real time at each location. Most notable with their efforts and long hours spent are Jim Perry, Bob Robinson, Judi McIntosh, Debbie Kraus, Betsy Hayes, Kim Cheshire, Derrick Maxey and Terry Reece. A special acknowledgement goes to Rodney Ghan for allowing us to use one of his buildings for our warehouse every year. My roles were pretty simple: Ask the building owners for permission to paint a mural on their building walls and help raise the private funds to get the job done. Here’s what I learned – the building owners embraced the idea and the community stepped up year after year with their support. The phrase “it takes a village” was spot on. August 2020
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Judge Isaac C. Parker's statue at Gateway Park.
In 2016, another suggestion from Steve was that we transform 913/915 Garrison Avenue from an empty lot into an urban park for the enjoyment of our community. After the completion of the Vhils’ chiseled Native American mural on the wall at the back of the park, Garrison Commons sprang to life. It serves as a venue for food trucks, concerts, fund raisers, photo shoots and even yoga sessions. A special thank you to Mrs. Sam Grimm for her faith and belief in the project and her role as the property owner. When building owner Mack Barry agreed to let The Unexpected artist Okuda San Miguel paint his building at the intersection of Rogers and Garrison avenues, it set off an interesting chain of events. The building was totally transformed into the Universal Chapel, a rainbow-colored activation. It was, of course, controversial as well as a community favorite and stood at our entry into downtown. Three years later, the location was selected by a group of community leaders led by Rick Griffin, Judge Jim Spears and Bill Priakos to become the beautiful Gateway Park we see today. The park features three bronze sculptures created by Kansas City artist Spencer Shubert. The three prominent historical citizen leaders featured are Isaac C. Parker, community leader and federal judge; Mercy Sister Mother Mary Teresa Ferrell, who was dedicated to providing health care to the community; and John Carnal, who was instrumental in starting our public school system. This park was funded completely by private donations and, upon completion in 2018, was donated to the City of Fort Smith. A special thanks goes to our historian Joe Wasson for his role in selecting the featured community leaders in the park. Everyone mentioned in this article, and many more not mentioned, had a vital role in improving our city. They are believers and doers who stepped up with their time, skills and money to make Fort Smith into the kind of city we want to live in today, and want our children and families to enjoy for generations to come. What I’ve learned throughout this journey in my hometown is that we should appreciate the believers and doers and stand beside them in the moment. I would be remiss if I did not mention those many friends and leaders that I assumed would still be with us but, unfortunately, are not. Thank you for all you contributed: Dick Renko, Charlie Hiatt and JJ Wyatt, Bert Wright and Harry Schwartz, Cindy and Howard Bagby, Greg Smith and Linda Seubold. Thank you to Lynn Wasson and her staff at this magazine for the roles they have played entertaining us and keeping us well-informed for 20 years! I’ll wrap this up with a quote from my favorite 2015 Times Record Letter to the Editor from Stephen McDonald about The Unexpected. It read, “As I walked around, the buildings I had known for years took on a new life as the city around them began to change. As I walked, I began to fall in love with my city, and all the things that make up my city, in a brand-new way.”
August 2020
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
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August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
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PHOTOS BY GLENN GILLEY
A table set with memories and gracious tradition
W
hen Mary Carleton Young was growing up in El Dorado, she was given four parties just for her high school graduation. Her mother owned the little shop where brides registered for silver, china and crystal and was the trusted authority on proper etiquette for any occasion. Although she and Robert Young III live much less formally, this woman draws on good home training for parties. Designing their dining table as the setting for an auctioned private dinner brought back memories of her family’s gracious traditions as she selected heirloom candlesticks, china, crystal and silver handed down from her mother and grandmother, along with silver goblets and other tableware from the Young family of Fort Smith. “Mary dearly has a place in her heart for every item,” said Earl Douglas, event designer and producer of Bob Miller’s 90th Birthday Celebration, the April Designer Showhouse Ball 2020. It will be held Sept. 26 to benefit the Community Rescue Mission of Fort Smith. Five private dinner parties will be auctioned, including one at the Young home, catered by Stonehouse at Chaffee Crossing. On the back of each dining chair, Mary’s grandmother’s formal damask napkins are displayed. “I think these are from around 1915. They have my grandmother’s initials,” she said. The damask pattern is woven with so fine a thread that one has to hold the fabric up to the light to discern the intricacy. To capture her stories and memories prompted by each heirloom, Mary is hoping to spend time with a visiting daughter soon, recording family history. The high bidder for this venue will host five guests at a table that reflects generations of hospitality from two Arkansas families. – Lynn Wasson 36
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
Robert A. Young III and Mary Carleton Young happily provided their dining room for the dinner auctioned to benefit the Community Rescue Mission, in honor of their friend. Flowers by Lisa Neumeier Hearn of L Designs match the hand-painted blooms on the Limoges china.
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goodies Variety of washable face masks available at Firefly Boutique & Gifts.
Altra Footwear Lone Peak trail shoes for kids from True Grit Running Co.
Summertime decor and dishes found at A to Z Variety.
August 2020
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goodies
Total Results Brass Off hair care products available Vanity Calls.
Jeans, flutter-sleeve top and bright backpack found at Designer Again.
Forevermark Tribute Collection stackable diamond rings in white, rose and yellow gold available at Newton's Jewelers. 40
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
goodies
At Paul’s Meat Market, you will find everything from polish sausages to porterhouse steaks.
Swimming pool fountains and sprayers available at Luther Stem Pools & Spas.
Five-piece, counter-height dining set found at Mike's Furniture.
August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
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goodies
Fresh spritzers and cocktails with discreet flasks found at In Good Spirits.
Tom Ford designer sunglasses from the office of Dr. Steven B. Stiles Eyegroup.
Zebra fabric and porcelain and metallic mosaic tiles available at D&D Floor Covering.
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Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
goodies PerfectDry Lux electronic hearing aid dehumidifier from Center for Hearing keeps your hearing aid or cochlear implant dry and sanitary.
Five-tier strawberry pot from Neumeier Nursery & Greenhouses.
Roots rescue custom color mixed for clients of Metropolis Hair Studio. August 2020
Entertainment Fort Smith
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GARDENING with REBA
R
Oh, the places you will go for a good story
emember when we decided to take back the fun of Saturdays? Traveling with Vernon, my partner in these adventures, is a good sport and participates in many of the activities. Our first trip was up winding Old Hwy. 71 to the not-so-well-kept secret Grandma’s House restaurant. It has a real grandma, Elaine, whose homemade pies bring people from miles around. Riding along, I went to northern New Mexico along Route 66 to visit our friend, a retired astrophysicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. After a visit, we ended up at nearby Bandolier National Monument. We hiked and explored the ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings. The brilliant chiles sold at roadside stands are irresistible. These peppers are eaten with most everything at all meals, our breakfast chef told us with a smile. Red or green? This is a question you are asked when ordering a meal. I like them both. This is known as the official state question of New Mexico. To get both, order “Christmas.” Peppers were a subject again when I visited what looks like a European chateau on a hill above the town of Subiaco, Ark. Father Richard Walz of Subiaco Abbey went on a mission to Belize, where he developed an interest in all things tropical. We walked by a plant he calls a scorpion pepper. Back at Subiaco, he developed a pepper sauce called Monk Sauce. And, yes, it comes in red and green. Some of the best story ideas come from folks who read a column and called me, such as fellow plant enthusiast Pattie Hooten White. “Reba, 44
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
Pattie White’s surprise voodoo lily.
GARDENING with REBA you’ve got to see this plant that’s blooming in my yard.” When I got to her house, I could smell it before I saw it – and not in a good way. This gave me an opportunity to do one of my favorite parts of writing, research. I learned about stinky plants. With a little sleuthing, turns out Pattie’s plants are related to the world famous “Big Stinky.” The plants use the smell of a corpse to attract its super of bugs. A record three flowers bloomed at The Huntington botanical gardens in San Marino, Calif. These crowd favorites were named Stink, Stank and Stunk. Because of other gardeners, I have gotten to write about passalong plants. I’ve written about hydrangeas, hibiscus, hollyhock, iris, zinnias and a lot of other garden glories. We solved the mystery of the Van Buren Courthouse chestnut trees with a visit from self-professed tree nerd Carol Guffy, a forester with the UofA Forestry Service. The trees are Asian Chestnuts, by the way, not the endangered Chinquapin. If had to pick a favorite friend I met along the way it would be Lucy, the 700-
pound pig that lives at the Prater compound with a menagerie of goats, cow and chickens living in harmony. We’ve studied all types of plants and watched lightning bugs, which took us to the space station to study about biolumines. Also found out that soil makes you happy. I enjoyed meeting the blue bird lady, Susan Cox, who took me along on her quest to help in the recovery of the bluebird population. Susan tended bluebird houses on the golf course at Hardscrabble Country Club and allowed me to tag along for the process, from setting the bluebird houses to watching the birds choose a home and lay their eggs. It was an incredible experience to see the fledglings leaving the nest and making their first flight. Our travels also took us up the hill to Fayetteville, where Vernon received a private lesson in water witching, dowsing or doodlebugging from world renowned Gladys McCoy of the Ozark Research Center. Let’s keep following the fun world of nature another 20 years. – Reba Mize
August 2020
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WHAT’S COOKING
AVOCADO VEGGIE SANDWICH
Breaking Bread 46
Entertainment Fort Smith
August 2020
1/2 ripe avocado, peeled 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/8 teaspoon salt 4 slices bread 4 slices tomato 8 slices cucumber 12 slices sweet bell pepper 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 lettuce leaves In small bowl, combine avocado, lemon juice and salt. Spread mixture evenly over two bread slices. Place tomatoes, cucumber and peppers on covered surface. Drizzle with vinegar. Layer lettuce, tomato, cucumbers and peppers evenly between slices of bread, creating two sandwiches.
WHAT’S COOKING
CHEESY BLACK BEAN TOAST WITH PICO DE GALLO 6 Roma tomatoes, diced 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, finely minced 2 serrano or jalapeno peppers, finely chopped 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped 1 lime, juice only 1/8 teaspoon oregano, finely crushed 1/8 teaspoon salt (optional) 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1/2 Hass avocado, diced 4 bolillos (6 inches) or large Kaiser rolls, sliced in half lengthwise 1 can (16 ounces) seasoned low-fat refried black beans 2 cups shredded Chihuahua or mozzarella cheese Heat oven to 350 degrees. In medium mixing bowl, combine tomatoes; onion; garlic; peppers; cilantro; lime juice; oregano; salt, if desired; pepper; and avocado; set aside. On medium platter, split rolls. With medium spatula, spread refried beans onto each bread half; sprinkle cheese among bread. Bake 5-8 minutes, or until cheese is melted and hot. August 2020
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WHAT’S COOKING
ROTINI WITH SAUSAGE AND MUSHROOMS 1 box (131⁄4 ounces) whole-grain rotini 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil 1 pound chicken sausage, sliced 1 cup leeks, thinly sliced 1 cup green onions, thinly sliced 2 cups mushrooms, sliced 1 cup chicken stock 1/4 cup parsley chopped 6 leaves from tarragon sprigs, chopped 1 cup Romano cheese grated Parmesan-Romano cheese (optional) Prepare rotini according to package directions. Drain and transfer to large bowl. In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook sausage 2-3 minutes, or until well browned. Add leeks, onions and mushrooms; cook until tender. Add chicken stock and simmer 3-5 minutes, or until hot. Fold sausage mixture into warm pasta. Add parsley, tarragon and Romano cheese; toss again. Top with Parmesan-Romano cheese, if desired.
PANZANELLA BAGEL SALAD 2 medium Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced 11⁄4 cups canned diced tomatoes, undrained 1/4 cup green bell pepper, diced 1/4 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced 2 tablespoons red onion, diced 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated, plus additional (optional) 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 2 bagels (4 ounces each) cut into 2-inch pieces, toasted Assorted greens (optional) In medium bowl, mix tomatoes, canned tomatoes with juice, green pepper, cucumber, onion, cheese, vinegar and basil. Add toasted bagel pieces; toss gently. Marinate, covered, in refrigerator 1 hour. Serve within 1 hour after marinating. Sprinkle with additional cheese and serve on bed of assorted greens, if desired. 48
Entertainment Fort Smith
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Why Girl Scouts? You want a brighter, happier tomorrow for your girl— and that’s exactly what we want, too. Studies show Girl Scouts improves girls’ confidence and makes them better prepared for life’s challenges. We are dedicated to helping your girl follow her heart while she discovers new interests, strengths, and abilities We’re here to support:
Her Dreams
Her Growth
Her Success
Girls love Girl Scouts because it’s where they call the shots. Right now, Girl Scouts are learning about robots, hiking, painting murals, feeding the hungry, and even writing laws to change the world. If she can dream it, we’ll help her do it.
This is where your girl can relax, knowing she’s accepted for exactly who she is today and all she can be tomorrow.
With her group (called a troop) of Girl Scout sisters by her side, your girl will reach farther, work harder, and bounce back faster. Get ready to see her shine like never before.
Girl Scouts is not canceled. Even when we can’t be together in person, we’re here for girls! Check out our Girl Scouts at Home activities on our website to give Girl Scouts a try, then join us to keep the fun going!
Plus? Girl Scouts is fun! Head to www.girlscoutsdiamonds.org/fs to say YES and start the adventure today.
Questions? 800-632-6894 info@girlscoutsdiamonds.org www.girlscoutsdiamonds.org
KIDS EVENTS
Aug. 1-30 RAM Open to Visitors The doors are open at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum for viewing its gallery exhibits. Some areas, such as the Touch Gallery, are closed. Visitors must wear masks (provided) and courteously distance themselves from others. The museum is cleaned robustly throughout the day. Hand sanitizer is available at convenient stations. All Arkansas Department of Health guidelines are followed. Families are welcome and children must stay with parents. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Free. Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, 1601 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-784-2787 fsram.org
Aug. 1-30 Fort Smith Museum of History Open to Visitors The museum is open with precautionary visiting policies following state Health Department guidelines, including indoor mask-wearing, social distancing and encouragement to refrain from touching surfaces. Staff disinfects touch surfaces and restrooms throughout the day and hand sanitizer is provided. Families and groups of no more than 10 are welcome and must stay together. The museum naturally lends itself to a relaxing visit with its many engaging exhibits and artifacts on two floors. There are multi-media exhibits such as the “On The Air” radio and television studio and the Griffin Theater with videos of World War II oral histories. Encounter vehicles from a horsedrawn firefighting pumper to an ABF semi-truck. The soda fountain is open and visitors can purchase water, cold Coke in a glass bottle, chips, candy or a pre-packaged ice cream cup. Seating in the soda fountain is limited to 16 or fewer. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.
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Fort Smith Museum of History, 320 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-7841
Aug. 1-31 Fort Smith Public Library: Visit by Appointment Families may visit the main library by appointment. Register online to schedule a 30-minute visit wearing a mask and following all state guidelines. Parents and kids must stay together. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 fortsmithlibrary.org
Aug. 1-31 Crawford County Public Libraries Open The Van Buren, Alma, Cedarville, Mountainburg and Mulberry libraries are open to visitors with a 30minute time limit (unless an appointment is made). Masks and distancing required. Some areas of the library are closed. Children under 10 must remain with adults. See the website or call specific libraries with any questions. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Van Buren Public Library, 1409 Main Street, Van Buren, Ark. 479-471-3226 crawfordcountylib.org
Aug. 1-31 CAE Summer Art Camp Art camp (at home) registration may still be available for kids in August. Registered participants can pick up art tool kits for five different lessons inspired by great artists. Explore collage like Matisse, pastels, sculpture like Picasso, painting inspired by O’Keefe and pencil drawing through Rembrandt. Access the lessons at home on any mobile device. $25. Center for Art & Education, 104 North 13th Street, Van Buren, Ark. 479474-7767 art-ed.org
Aug. 3 Community School of the Arts Fall Registration CSA is open and adapting to safe new ways to offer classes virtually. Lessons and classes in music, theater, dance and visual arts for children and youth are offered onsite and online for the convenience of everyone. Private one-on-one lessons are ongoing. For a monthly fee, enroll for lessons and many classes. Dance classes, art classes, virtual theater and lessons on guitar, violin, piano and more are offered with the monthly enrollment option. CSA offers classes and activities for all ages and levels. No experience needed. This year includes activities such as Suzuki violin, musical theater companies for young children through teens, Teen Show Choir, Fiddle Ensemble, Jazz Ensembles and theory, hip-hop classes, visual art classes, preschool activities and private lessons in everything you can imagine. Enjoy many of these programs from home through a virtual learning experience. ACSA now has a Music Therapy program with a board-certified therapist. Young children through adolescents can learn to use music as a therapeutic tool to deal with emotional, social and cognitive issues. Free consultation. The new CSA website has all curriculum and details about online learning. Register online or by phone. Tuition varies. 9-11 a.m. Community Schools of the Art, 201 North 19th Street, Fort Smith. 479-434-2020 csafortsmith.org
Aug. 3-31 Choose Your Own Adventure Miss Leah has set up a virtual adventure where teens get to call the shots. All you have to do is choose and your adventure awaits. Find the link on the Teen Blog online beginning Aug. 3. Free. 9 a.m.-noon. Fort Smith
Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479783-0229 fortsmithlibrary.org/plan-your-visit/teens
Aug. 3-31 Laptime Story Time Stay tuned until the end of laptime story time when Mrs. Tiffany will share a simple craft you can create at home. View it on Facebook when live or the library’s YouTube channel any time. Free.10:30 a.m.-noon Mondays. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 youtube.com/fortsmithpubliclibrary
Aug. 4 Fort Smith Regional Art Museum Saturdays at Home Receive an instructional video on art projects to do at home. Projects will be something the whole family can enjoy. The art museum can provide 50 art bags to those who have registered so they will have supplies to do weekly DIY Saturday art projects. August projects: Quilling Paper Project, Wire Sculpture, Magazine Rolling Art and Magic Nundles Sculpture. Supplies and projects will be listed monthly on the museum website. Work along with a video. Free. Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, 1601 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-784-2787 fsram.org Aug. 6-27 Ms. Robin’s Favorites Help Ms. Robin open up the Library Surprise Bag to see Fred and which favorite story you'll get to hear. If you have favorite story, be sure to let Ms. Robin know. Free. 10-10:15 a.m. Thursdays. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 4 Matia’s Hair Time Story Time Join Youth Services staff member Matia Stewart on our Facebook page or YouTube channel as she reads two great books about hair: “Happy Hair,” written and illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe, and “Don't Touch My Hair!” written and illustrated by Sharee Miller. Free.10-10:15 a.m. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 7-28 Story Break with Mrs. Tiffany Tiffany will be reading to animals or showing you something interesting in nature. What will she read to next? Free. 10-10:15 a.m. Fridays. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 7 STEAM Team: Bird Feeders STEAM Team is a program for children who have an
KIDS EVENTS interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and math. For this project, Miss Leah will demonstrate how to engineer a homemade bird feeder using a variety of household materials, including peanut butter. Free. 11-11:15 a.m. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 11 Biography Break with Ms. Robin Join Ms. Robin online, the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month for Biography Break. Free. 10-10:15 a.m. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 25 Biography Break with Ms. Robin Real people are fascinating! Want to learn more about them? Join Ms. Robin every second and fourth Tuesday for Biography Break. Free. 10-10:15 a.m. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
Aug. 28 STEAM Team: Solar Oven S'mores STEAM Team is a program for children who have an interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Miss Leah is going to show you how to make solar-powered oven to roast s’mores. Free 11-11:15 a.m. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 facebook.com/fortsmithlibrary
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CALENDAR of events
Crystal Bridges and the Momentary invite guests to visit on wheels In addition to the world-class galleries of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and its new extension in downtown Bentonville, The Momentary, there are more than five miles of walking and biking trails on its campus. Visitors are invited to enjoy the natural beauty of the museum grounds on their bikes or on foot.
Safe social distancing and masks are required for ages 10 and older indoors and outdoors. A state order requires every person in Arkansas to wear a face covering of the mouth and nose in all indoor and outdoor environments where there is exposure to non-household members and social distancing can’t be assured.
These are the bike-friendly trails: the Art Trail, Crystal Bridges Trail, North Forest Trail, North Lawn Trail, and the Orchard Trail. Along the trails, encounter more than 30 sculptures to continue art exploration in nature.
The museums are open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m Monday, 10 a.m.9 p.m. Thursday-Friday. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, Ark 479-418-5700 crystalbridges.org
Ironside Photography / Stephen Ironside
Aug. 1-10 United Way Fill the Bus Goes Virtual Fill the Bus is a community-wide school supply drive covering four counties in Arkansas and two counties in Oklahoma. Volunteers will not be present at local Walmart stores this year, but United Way is committed to continue providing school supplies for students in need. There are three ways to donate contact-free while continuing to support local children as they start back to school. Donate by texting “schoolbus” to 41444, donate online at unitedwayfortsmith.org, or by using the Walmart Registry For Good at walmart.com. Choose the United Way of Fort Smith Area and the supplies will be shipped to the Fort Smith office. Supplies will be distributed to the local school districts. If you make a monetary donation you have the option to choose the school district you want that donation to be directed to. Choose a school district from the drop down menu. unitedwayfortsmith.org
Aug. 1-31 Fort Smith Museum of History Open In the spacious, high-ceilinged Fort Smith Museum of History there’s plenty of room to enjoy a tour while keeping a safe distance from others. Now re-opened with summer hours, the museum’s two, vast floors of exhibits, multi-media displays, antique vehicles and other fascinating artifacts make for pleasant and educational browsing. Visitors are required to wear masks and observe all state guidelines. Families and groups of up to 10 are welcome. The museum staff disinfects all touch surface areas and restrooms regularly throughout the day. The Soda Fountain sells water, cold Coke in a glass bottle, chips, candy or an ice cream cup. Seating in the soda fountain is limited to 16 or fewer. Open currently from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; closed Saturday-Monday. Fort Smith Museum of History, 320 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-7841 fortsmithmuseum.org Aug. 1-31 Fort Smith Public Library: Visit by Appointment Visit the Main Library by appointment. Register online to schedule a 30-minute visit wearing a mask and following all state guidelines. Fort Smith Public Library, 3201 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith. 479-783-0229 fortsmithlibrary.org
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Aug. 1-30 Fort Smith Trolley Museum The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is adapting to COVID19 restrictions on a month-to-month basis. When running, safety measures include open windows for fresh air, hand-sanitizing and limited passengers. Riding the trolley through downtown, including the Garrison Avenue line and a ride around the beautiful Fort Smith National Cemetery, recall the days of convenient public transportation the city enjoyed in the early 20th century. The trolley museum welcomes visitors to see the rail stock outdoors on its grounds, including streetcars under restoration and the #4003 locomotive and other railcars. Due to changing conditions, phone ahead to confirm the trolley ride schedule. Fort Smith Trolley Museum, 100 South 4th Street, Fort Smith. 479-783-0205 fstm.org
HEAR, HERE. KUAF
Aug. 1-30 Crystal Bridges and The Momentary Open Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and its satellite art space, the Momentary, are open with controlled capacity and new safety measures. Free, timed-entry tickets can be reserved. The museum admits onethird capacity. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House, James Turrell’s Skyspace, Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room and the studio remain closed due to limited space. Face covering required for all guests and staff. The Modern Art Galleries, part of the permanent collection, feature works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley and more. Two new acquisitions by photographer Brett Weston and 30 works have never before been on view. The museum's websites offer virtual experiences. Free admission. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m Monday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday-Friday. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, Ark 479-418-5700 crystalbridges.org Aug. 1-31 Crawford County Public Libraries Open The Van Buren, Alma, Cedarville, Mountainburg and Mulberry libraries are open to visitors with a 30minute time limit (unless an appointment is made). Masks and distancing required. Children under 10 must remain with adults. Call specific libraries with any questions. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Van Buren Public Library, 1409 Main Street, Van Buren, Ark. 479-471-3226 crawfordcountylib.org August 2020
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Lights, action, library - Fort Smith librarians continue to invent online programs for adults with DIY, trivia shows
Aug. 5 Off the Cuff Cooking with Rachel and Jodie – One-Pot Pasta! Watch Rachel make yummy pasta and Jodie clean only one pot. Free.1010:15 a.m. Facebook and YouTube - Fort Smith Public Library Aug. 12 Off the Cuff Cooking with Rachel and Jodie - Potluck Potluck - Watch Rachel and Jodie make everyone’s favorite Southern potluck dish, chicken spaghetti! 10-10:15 a.m. Facebook and YouTube Fort Smith Public Library Aug. 19 Off the Cuff Cooking with Rachel and Jodie - Nachos Watch Rachel and Jodie pile everything you can think of on tortilla chips. We’d share some with you, but they’re nachos! 10-10:15 a.m. Facebook and YouTube - Fort Smith Public Library Aug. 26 Off the Cuff Cooking with Rachel and Jodie - Tailgating Watch Rachel and Jodie make everything you like to eat while your spouse watches sports. Go Team! 10-10:15 a.m. Facebook and YouTube - Fort Smith Public Library
Aug. 11 Virtual Trivia Night with Ronny Join the library (virtually) for a few rounds of trivia fun! Test your knowledge of a variety of topics from books, popular culture, music and more on Facebook Live. Free. 6:30-7 p.m. Facebook - Fort Smith Public Library Aug. 18 Virtual “Friends” Trivia with Ronny It’s time to test your knowledge on this iconic show! Flex your trivia muscles and find out how much you know about the TV series “Friends.” Brush up on your reruns and channel the competitiveness of Monica and Ross or the quirky knowledge of Phoebe. If you’re a Joey, just watch and enjoy without thinking. Chandlers? Just wisecrack at others’ expense. Live. Free. 6:30-7 p.m. Facebook - Fort Smith Public Library Aug. 25 Virtual Food & Drink Trivia with Ronny Join for a few rounds of food and beverage trivia. Test your culinary knowledge and vocabulary. It’s Facebook Live and you’re at home. Enjoy a beverage yourself as you play. Free. 6:30-7 p.m. Facebook - Fort Smith Public Library
Aug. 27 Adult Crafty Corner Adults can be crafty, also! Rediscover your creative spark by joining Mrs. Tiffany from the Miller Branch for an easy craft that any adult can make at your home with ordinary materials you may have on hand. Free. 2-2:15 p.m. Facebook and YouTube - Fort Smith Public Library
Also online through FSPL: Besides this new, original programming invented during the pandemic, the Fort Smith Public Library always offers these digital resources: ebooks, music, theatrical movies, documentaries, television shows and academic programs, suitable for all ages. Explore history and genealogy. Free access to national newspapers and newspaper archives. You can obtain an digital library card without leaving home. Learn about it all at the library’s website, fortsmithlibrary.org 54
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Limited number of Entertainment Fort Smith Landmarks Coloring Book available at retail shops
Entertainment Fort Smith’s first adult coloring book has almost sold out. Purchase at these fine Fort Smith retail shops:
The Time I s Now
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XXX 7BO#VSFO PSH August 2020
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POSTPONED
Give – without the party – donations are needed. An editorial appeal In early 2020 when this pandemic disaster disrupted and endangered our nation, state and hometown, a slow-motion comprehension dawned that very little of what we all planned would go on as we had anticipated. Some of us can cope more comfortably than others. But our essential, local non-profit organizations are experiencing major financial consequences. Normally, Entertainment Fort Smith helps by highlighting galas, concerts, parties and fundraising efforts – we have publicized them for all our years, for almost every area non-profit. One by one, we’ve received messages labeled “Postponed” and “Cancelled.” Starting with the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum’s annual fund-raiser, our in-box filled with understandable (and appropriate) notices, one event after another. Readers can see the proof in our very short August Calendar of Events. Gone were the fun and fundraising from the Fort Smith Museum of History’s annual party. And down more events went, like dominos. The Riverfront Blues Festival. The Steel Horse Rally! The Best Night of the Year for Good Samaritan Clinic. Havana Nights, for the Children’s Shelter. I’m naming only a few, representing many others – equally significant and worthy. But here’s the thing. They will be held when it is possible. In the meantime, their beneficiaries still need our help to provide the wonderful services and blessings that are life-saving and sustaining to so many in our community. Many of the causes they support are for all of us. Non-profits support much of what makes Fort Smith a good place to live. Do you require that you be entertained by a party, a banquet, a rally or a concert in exchange for a donation? I don’t think so. Please, send your check or donate with a click. You can do it in your slippers instead of in your dancing shoes. I understand that many have already done so, but I haven’t heard one of these non-profit orgs say they are safely meeting their fund-raising goals through alternate methods. We once invented a name for do-right folks who put up their hands to make Fort Smith stronger. Be one of them. Be a “Fortifier” by donating to the cause of your choice. We believe that you will. Thank you. – Lynn Wasson 56
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In Memoriam
Stan Kujawa 1937-2020
Years our elder and magnitudes of I.Q. points our superior, Stan Kujawa surprisingly became our much-loved friend. He considered us his colleagues in publishing. But while we made magazines, Stan made comprehensive books of local historical information. He said he was an “organizer” of history. He self-published many important volumes that will forever be prized as reference sources. ese books were only his fourthor fifth-best accomplishments after a career as a top computer system administrator with Hiram Walker and a military veteran. His the top three achievements were as a loving husband, father and grandfather. We adored him and were honored to be his friends.
With his Fort Chaffee book at McClure Amphitheater, in 2011.
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DINING
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Art and nature are always available At Crystal Bridges and the Momentary
Crystal Bridges | Five centuries of American art The Momentary | Contemporary visual & performing arts