Biographical And Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland And Hot Spring Counties, ArkansasHazel Ballard
Hazel Clara Ballard, 88, of Russellville died Saturday, Aug. 21, 2004, at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center.
Arrangements will be announced by Lemley Funeral Service.
Lorene Adams
Lorene Adams, 81, of Little Rock died Friday, Aug. 20, 2004, at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock.
The daughter of Charles and Maude Allison Adams, she was born Sept. 9, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. She retired from the Arkansas Employment Security Division after 35 years of service. She was a member of the Central Baptist Church in Little Rock for 46 years. She was preceded in death by her parents.
Survivors include one brother and sister-in-law, Robert E. and Polly Adams of Little Rock; two sisters and one brother-in-law, Marjorie Ross and Wanda and Jesse Gammel, all of Hector; two nephews and three nieces.
Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Humphrey Chapel in Russellville, officiated by Marty Brown, pastor of Markham Street Baptist Church in Little Rock. Burial will be at Rock Springs Cemetery at Hector by Humphrey Funeral Service.
Pallbearers are: James Allison, Paul Allison, Kenneth Hurley, Charles Adams, Donnie Haley, Greg Allison, Victor Allison and Tony Haley.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.
Memorials may be made to Rock Springs Church and Cemetery or to another charity.
B.C. Hall
B.C. Hall, 68, of Hot Springs, formerly of Russellville, died Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, at his home.
He was one of Arkansas's best-known writers, and a beloved longtime English and American literature teacher at Arkansas Tech University.
He published six books with major publishers, three novels and three non-fiction works, and at one point in the 1960s he was cranking out pulp fiction novels at the rate of about one a month and publishing them anonymously and underground in New York.
He taught at Arkansas Tech for 38 years, from 1961 to 1999, and it was shortly after he retired and moved to Hot Springs with his wife Daphna that he developed the melanoma cancer that killed him this week.
Hall's critical specialty as a teacher was American literature at the turn of the 20th century, from Stephen Crane to Dos Passos and the writers of the Great Depression; but his real classroom specialty was his gift for establishing instant and permanent rapport with his students, especially troubled students. There's a corps of them worldwide, many of them now teachers themselves.
Baxter Clarence Hall Jr., was born at Saint James, Arkansas, in 1936, the youngest of the nine children of B.C. "Bunk" Hall and Hattie C. Younger 'Dutch' Hall. The family was sharecroppers in east Arkansas when he was a child, and had a hard time of it, as most big agricultural families did then.
He claimed that he learned to read behind a cotton shed from filched paperback copies of "God's Little Acre" and "Tobacco Road" by Erskine Caldwell, who became his literary hero and role model, and whom he later met and befriended and charmed, the way he charmed everybody.
He attended high school at Blytheville, and graduated in 1959 from Henderson State University at Arkadelphia, where he met Daphna Knight, whom he married that same year. He worked for a time at the Conway Log Cabin Democrat while Daphna taught music at North Little Rock, but the following year he got into the famous Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa and took his master's degree there before signing on at Arkansas Tech, where he became closely associated in the English Department with the novelist Francis Irby Gwaltney.
In the early 1970s, B.C. Hall and Gwaltney and Hall's close friend, James Whitehead of Fayetteville, were Arkansas's leading literati. Hall's first novel, "The Burning Season," was published to critical acclaim in 1974, and it led to a stint as writer-in-residence at the University of Arizona, where he completed his second novel, "Bluebells and the King of Pain." His third novel, "Keepers of the Feast," was published in 1980. He was working on yet another novel - about a 19th century Hungarian race horse, of all things - at the time of his death.
His non-fiction books included "Judgment Day," an account of a murder of a notorious Missouri bully, written with Bob Lancaster in 1984, for which he and Lancaster received a special Edgar Allen Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. "Big Muddy," a book about contemporary life on the Mississippi River, written with C.T. Wood, came out in 1992, and "The South," which Hall regarded as an update of the W.J. Cash classic, "The Mind of the South," appeared in 1995, also with Wood as co-author.
Three years ago, HSU named him one of its Distinguished Alumni and inducted him into the Henderson Academy. He continued until this year to teach writing at the National Park Community College at Hot Springs.
In addition to his wife, B.C. Hall is survived by two sons, B.C. Hall III of Hot Springs and Joseph Nathan Hall of Bloomingdale, N.J.; two grandchildren, Alex and Tess; and three sisters, Juanita Kelly of Dardanelle, Ruby Bisher of Houston, Texas, and Jeffie Crawford of Citrus Heights, Calif.
Funeral will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Caruth-Hale Funeral Home on Section Line Road in Hot Springs.
Pallbearers are Carl Brucker, Ken Cook, James Ford, Roger Fox, Freddie Rood and Earl Schrock.
Honorary pallbearers are the physicians and staff at the UAMS Melanoma Center and the MD Anderson Cancer Treatment and Research Center located in Houston, Texas.
The family requests memorials be made to the Arkansas Tech Foundation - Creative Writing Department.
Becky Price Hensley
Becky Price Hensley, 65, of Plano, Texas, passed away Nov. 5, 2004, in Plano, Texas.
She was born in Arkadelphia to Leonard and Ola Cyrena (McDonald) Price. Mrs. Hensley had been a realtor with Henry S. Miller for 25 years and was a member of Christ Episcopal Church. She was active in PEO and Junior League. She was preceded in death by her parents and stepmother, Ona Wallace Price.
Survivors include her husband, Bill Hensley; daughters and sons-in-law, Lori Hensley McKinnon and Steven McKinnon, Lynn Hensley Gibson and Allen Gibson; grandchildren, Eryn Aubrey Young, Kathryn Rebecca McKinnon and Faith Elizabeth Gibson; sister, Janis Lindemann; brother, Lowell Price; step-brothers and step-sisters, Billy Wallace, James Wallace, Mary Alice Humphrey and Betty Clark.
Memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Christ Episcopal Church, 4550 Legacy Drive, Plano, Texas. A reception will follow.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Nellie B. Connaly Breast Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, Texas 77210-4886.
David McGowan
David Wayne McGowan, 28, of London, died Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, at his home.
Born Oct. 14, 1976, at Fort Smith, he was the son of Alfred Wayne McGowan and Victoria Lee McGowan. He was an outdoorsman, enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping and his children.
Survivors include his wife, April McGowan; two sons, Ronnie Wells and Hunter McGowan of London; a daughter, Gracie Wells of London; his father and step-mother, Wayne and Debbie McGowan of Posy, Calif.; his mother, Vickie McGowan of Porterville, Calif.; a brother, John McGowan of Colinga, Calif.; a sister, Lisa Freeman of Tulare, Calif.; a great-grandfather, John Holland McGowan of Strathmore, Calif.; and numerous other relatives and friends.
Visitation will be 7-8:30 p.m. Monday at Shinn Funeral Service.
A private family burial will be at a later date.
Harry Tucker
Harry Tucker, 74, of Russellville died Saturday, Nov. 13, 2004, at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Russellville.
The son of Grover and Mildred Tucker, he was born June 9, 1930, in Tyrone, Okla. He married Lois Whorton on Aug. 31, 1953, at Flat Rock. He retired from Coca-Cola after 33 years of service. He was a member of the NRA and a faithful 30-year member of the Pottsville Assembly of God, where he loved to sing bass. He showed his deep faith in God by his actions and daily life. He served as a mentor to his kids, grandkids and many other people throughout his years on this earth. He was preceded in death by his parents, one brother, Frank Tucker, and one sister, Myrtle Short.
Survivors include his wife, Lois Tucker of Russellville; two sons, Alan Tucker and Kent Tucker and wife Karen, all of Russellville; a daughter, Sandy Davis and husband, Robbie, of Weatherford, Texas; six grandchildren, Jeff Tucker and wife, Sarah, of Bentonville, Jaclyn Tucker of Fayetteville, Ryan Tucker of Russellville, and Chloe and Charlie Davis of Weatherford, Texas; two brothers, James Tucker and G.C. Tucker Jr., both of Russellville; five sisters, Florence Sutherland and Pearl Cothren of Russellville, Verna Shinn and Ida Baker of Salem, Ore., and Beulah McKinsky of Seattle; and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at Pottsville Assembly of God. Rev. Mike McNeely will officiate. Burial will be at Bethel Cemetery at Russellville by Humphrey Funeral Service. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.
Pallbearers - Danny Tucker, Glenn Tucker, Duane Cothren, David Hughes, Joe Grant Jr. and Wes Sutherland.
Raymond Jones
Raymond D. 'Pee-Wee' Jones, 83, of Russellville died Friday, Nov. 12, 2004, at the Russellville Nursing Home.
A Marine Corps veteran of World War II and a Pearl Harbor survivor, he was a retired aircraft mechanic and a member of the disabled American Veterans Association. He was preceded in death by his wife, Elaine Jones.
Survivors include a daughter, Donna Lanham of Russellville; a granddaughter, Tamara R. Brown of Russellville; great grandchildren Samantha Herbold of Russellville, Kristal Brown of Indiana, Kassondra Brown of Indiana, Kayle Holmon of Lamar, Dakota Herbold of Ozark and Katie Sanford of Ozark; and a brother, Harold Jones of Ozark.
Funeral will be 9 a.m. Monday at the Arkansas Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.
Martha Smoke
Martha Jean Alewine Smoke, 49, of Russellville died Friday, Nov. 12, 2004, at Saint Edwards Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith.
Born June 24, 1955, to James and Betty Mullins Alewine of Russellville, she was a member of First Assembly of God in Russellville, where she served for many years as Teen Bible Quiz coach. She was employed in the engineering department of CenturyTel in Russellville. She was a 1973 graduate of Russellville High School and a 1977 graduate of Arkansas Tech University. She was also a member of the Arkansas Valley Arts Center.
Other than her parents, she is survived by her husband of 22 years, Charles Kevin Smoke, son of Clifford and Betty Smoke of Russellville, as well as two sisters, Judy Johnson of Ozark and Cheryl King of Lafayette, La. She was a loving aunt to Clay Johnson of Little Rock, Sarah Johnson Fitzgerald of Wenatchee, Wash., Daniel King of Lafayette and Michelle Smoke of Russellville.
Funeral service will be 2 p.m. Wednesday at First Assembly of God in Russellville, with Brother Larry Moore officiating. Burial will be in Old Baptist Cemetery under the direction of Shinn Funeral Service.
Pallbearers will be Jim Smith, Larry Aycock, Bill Aycock, Mike Price, Scott Smith and Clay Johnson.
Visitation will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
