Our Forever Place

The Bentleys

Sharing Batesville history, 60 years of marriage, and building a global business

BY ANDREA BRUNER

Batesville, Arkansas may be an unlikely headquarters for one of the biggest independent fabric distributors in the country, but Marshall Dry Goods Company is not only one of the oldest businesses in town – it’s also one of the prosperous. Martha Bentley said she and husband Larry love their town. “It's been a wonderful place to raise our kids and grandkids – all four graduated from Batesville High School,” she said.

“We love it here,” Larry agreed. “We’ve got lots of friends here, and it’s a beautiful town.” He and Martha met at a Sadie Hawkins dance while Larry, who was raised on a cotton farm in southeast Missouri, was attending Arkansas College to play basketball. Martha had gone to the dance with another young man and asked Larry to dance. “We've been dancing ever since,” Larry said. The two, who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 2021, lived for a time on Bates Street, in a house that had seen six generations of Martha's family. When they moved to a place in the country where Martha could keep horses, she acknowledged it was hard to let the house go, with the memories it held. Martha's father, Hassell Marshall, was a traveling salesman up until 1945, when he and Martha’s uncle borrowed $500 from her grandfather to build a warehouse in the backyard. That was the start of Marshall's Dry Goods, and in the beginning, the store was more of a wholesale outlet carrying overalls, jeans, coats, socks and more. “That's why I hate shopping; I never had to shop. I just walked in the backyard and got something. Of course, you didn't have many clothes back then, anyway,” Martha said.

People in Batesville are so caring and compassionate... This town is very dear.

Eventually, the business moved from the backyard to Main Street, to the site of a burned out building in between the historic Adler Building and the now-razed Marvin Hotel. This new site would include a retail outlet in the front and a warehouse space in the back. In 1984, Larry bought the business, and son Brent immediately quit college to come help run it. “Brent had grown up working for my daddy in that business,” Martha said. “Thank goodness our wives were teaching school,” Larry said with a laugh, as they would live off the women's salaries until the business got off the ground. But the father and son kept plugging away, and soon watched the business expand. When the building burned in 1989 Larry said, “We thought we were ruined but we had already purchased the Adler Building … and we quickly set up shop there.” At that point, they dropped the other lines and just focused on fabric and notions.

In 2000, they moved the store further down the street, to its current location at 310 W. Main St. The store was booming by then, and Marshall's would go on to buy two more warehouses and two other storage buildings. Larry said even major retailers buy from Marshall's, but “Our main business is mom-and-pop craft shops and fabric stores all over the United States. We have a tremendous Amish following up in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri. They're not online and most of them don't even have phones, but they found out from someone who found out from someone, and they'll send us letters. Some will hire someone to bring them down here... We have customers drive in with vans and load up, from all over. And they all have to have a place to eat so we send them to the restaurants. ... A lot come in and spend the night."

"I love our Main Street now. Sometimes, you can't get down the street for all the cars," Martha said, citing such attractions as the highend hotel, parks, boutiques and antique malls, the newly remodeled library, and unique eateries you just won't find elsewhere. “When my grandkids are home, I take them everywhere that's different, whether it's the library or Maxfield Park, or a different place to eat, and we always go to the cemetery and visit everybody we know,” Martha said. “I'm so proud of what Batesville's done and I want them to know about it and experience it." Landmarks around town like Fox Creek BBQ hold memories. The restaurant is housed in the old depot, and Martha’s grandfather A.M. Smith was a conductor on the Missouri Pacific Railroad for 50 years. She recalls being as young as 5 years old and catching the train with her brother to ride with her grandfather.

After he retired, he lived in the gatekeeper house that would eventually become Josie's Restaurant and later, The River Waterfront Steak & Grill, and was the caretaker of the park. The basement of the restaurant is where Martha and her cousins would stay. She also said the White River was as much a draw back then as it is now. “In the mid-'50s we would throw a huge log out under the falls and float,” she recalled. One place of interest that is very near and dear to Martha is the First United Methodist Church on Main Street. She and Larry still sit on the third pew - the same one she sat on as a little girl with her brother and her parents and grandparents. “Batesville's been good to us. We've had a good life,” Martha said.

And, she said she loves being part of such a close-knit community. “People in Batesville are so caring and compassionate. In high school some of my friends would say, 'I can't wait to get out of here,' and I said, ''I'm never leaving.” “I would never have left here,” Martha said. “This town is very dear.”

"We've done a lot of things," Larry said, with Martha adding, "And we've still got more to do."