| Sherry Lee Campbell | Ken Snodgrass | Monroe Love | Fred Worthington | Opal Adams |
This energetic, working mom of two teenagers who happily immersed herself in all her daughters' activities over the years just viewed these events as creative outlets that needed help that she could offer.
So she fit them into her busy life-and did them with panache.
Mrs. Campbell died of a brain tumor Monday, July 31, just weeks after her first symptoms of the cancerous growth inside her.
She was 42. Born in Little Rock, the youngest of two children of an Arkansas National Guardsman dad and a mother who worked as a beautician when she was little. Mrs. Campbell eventually moved with her family to North Little Rock and graduated from Sylvan Hills High School in 1975.
She would meet Randy Campbell, her husband of 23 years, through mutual friends when she was still in high school, though by then he had already graduated. The two were married after dating for about two years, he said.
Her daughters say their mother had a natural artistic flair, and had thought about becoming an interior designer, even taken a few courses in decorating along the way.
But instead she found outlets for her creative energies in the church her husband had grown up in and as a room mother or team mom. And those, along with helping her husband in his carpet business in Sherwood, seemed to satisfy her artistic longings.
On the job, as the business manager and enterprising front line for C&P Carpets customers, her engaging smile and unpretentious warmth was a major asset, her husband said.
"She was the glue that held the business together," he said.
And customers, like everyone else she met, were immediate friends whom she wanted to please and put first.
"She just exuded love," her husband said.
But there was nothing superficial about her connection to people, friends and family members stress, and she seemed to have this amazing radar for sensing how she might lighten a friend's load, or do or say something nice for them.
So when Margie Burton was traveling on business and promised to fly in to meet the other cheerleading moms at a competition in Corpus Christi, Texas, earlier this summer, she arrived to find that her friend of 13 years, who had driven a whole carload of teenagers there from Little Rock and had a million other things to think about, had thought to tuck in an extra lawn chair in her trunk for Burton.
And when Mrs. Campbell's close friend Debbie Jackson lost her husband very suddenly last fall, it was Mrs. Campbell who "held my hand, just listened or stopped by always seeming to know when she was needed...and she'd say to me "I wish I could take away your pain, take your broken heart and fix it."
The Rev. J.N. "Freddie" Holmes, the retired pastor at Faith Baptist Church who gave the eulogy at Mrs. Campbell's funeral last Wednesday, described her "a very giving and loving person, and, of course, in order to give you have to love first."
Still, her daughters say, they always knew that they were her major life focus, that their mother made a point of being involved in their lives and the lives of their friends, and the message to them of her working at the concession stands at ball games, and helping with their T-Ball and softball, cheerleading and church activities was that she cared about them and she was there for them.
"She never said 'No'," said Melissa Duncan, Sylvan Hills High School cheerleading coach, recalling how even in the chaos of the day of one national competition, Mrs. Campbell had French-braided the hair of every girl on the squad to help make them look and feel even more spectacular.
"A lot of my friends said she was like their second mom. They even called her on Mother's day," said her daughter Julie, who hopes to be a nurse some day.
"I think it was because she was very open, very non-judgmental. She'd notice when they were feeling down, give them a hug and say, 'Are you okay? You know, if you want to talk, I'm here.'"
Besides her husband, Randy and daughters Julie, 16, and Jennifer, 19, all of North Little Rock, Mrs. Campbell is survived by her father, Buddy Davis of Malvern; her mother, Janie Chandler of Austin; older brother, Steve Davis of Benton and stepsister, Michelle Priebe of Little Rock.
Funeral services were held Wednesday, Aug. 2, at Faith Baptist Church with the Rev. Robert Francis officiating. Burial was in Rest Hills Memorial Park.
The family requests that memorials be made in Sherry's memory to the SHHS Cheer Squad c/o Melissa Duncan, sponsor or the SHHS Booster Club c/o Sue Clark, principal, 484 Bear Paw Road, Sherwood, AR 72120.
The Times-Aug 10, 2000
KEN SNODGRASS
Ken "Babe" Snodgrass may well have worked a brief stint as a movie extra in Hollywood sometime in the late 1940's and also occasionally sung on the radio with the Ray Anthony Band in his earlier years.
But family members say Mr. Snodgrass spoke little about that time and will be remembered mostly as a great storyteller and avid golfer who knew just about everyone who played at Little Rock's Rebsamen Golf Course in the last 20 years.
Mr Snodgrass died Sunday, July 23, at his home in North Little Rock at age 83.
Born in the tiny town of Haysprings, Neb., one of two children of a railroad worker and his homemaker wife, Mr. Snodgrass and his family moved first to Stuttgart and then to North Little Rock because of the railroad.
With only an eighth grade education, he managed to land jobs at a Little Rock refrigeration company and eventually at a movie theater where he met his wife Helen Carnahan.
The couple married on July 4, 1941, and had one daughter, Sharon.
Ever mindful of the limitations of his own educational background, he would stress the importance of school to his daughter, who returned to college to get a degree in accounting after she had two children.
"The guys at the golf course would always joke about me running the company in the future, because my father would always tell them how proud he was of me getting my degree," she said.
For many years he worked selling paint and wallpaper for the Sherwin Williams Paint Co., retiring in 1979 at age 63. He also was involved in the Young Men's Business Association, and the Pulaski Heights Masonic Lodge #673.
After retiring, Ken went to for the City of Little Rock at Rebsamen Golf Course, working as a game starter and marshal there for the next 20 years.
"He was very colorful on the golf course, he'd have on his little hat, green knickers, and a Bruce Jenkins Golf shirt, with white shoes to golf." his daughter said.
In his later years, whenever his health permitted, he would still play a full round of the game he loved even if it meant having someone drive him around the golf course.
And he was good at it, said Rick Jenkins, a protege of Mr. Snodgrass. "He was liked and respected...Anyone who spent any time at Rebsamen probably knew him."
Anyone who had breakfast at Roy Fisher's Steakhouse probably knew him, too. After his wife's death in 1993, he ate breakfast and lunch there every day, said owner CheChe Fisher.
"He was a very colorful, and never complained. He would sit and read the newspaper to us. He would bring bananas to put in my pies. And he loved his grandchildren and daughter. He always commented on how smart they were" Fisher said.
Besides his daughter Sharon Schlegal and son-in-law Fred Schlegal, he is survived by two grandchildren, Kimberley Kay Kreth and Stephen Anton Schlege, all of Springdale.
Funeral services were held Thursday, July 27, at Pine Crest Cemetery.
The Times- Aug. 10, 2000
MONROE LOVE
The mounted patrol officers standing guard at Pinecrest Memorial Park last Saturday for the funeral of former Pulaski County Sheriff Monroe Love were more than appropriate, considering the legacy of this career law enforcement officer.
It was Love who, recognizing the need in the most rural sections of the county for an alternative to the patrol car, started the department's horseman patrol during his eight years in office, and it was one of his proudest accomplishments, his son Barry said.
His other most significant achievement, no doubt, was expanding the department itself from an office of eight deputies to one with closer to 60, his son said.
Love, a no-nonsense, straight arrow who served as the elected sheriff of this county from 1969 to 1977, died suddenly of pneumonia after a few days in the hospital last Wednesday, July 26, at the age of 86.
He was probably the first honest sheriff this county ever had," his son and only child asserted.
For Tom Brown, a North Little Rock car upholsterer who worked for Love as a sheriff's deputy for about five years, he was also a boss who led by example.
"It was a testament to him that the department grew by leaps and bounds while he was there," Brown said. "He was always very fair, very dedicated."
The youngest of nine children of a farmer, he was born in Chattanooga, Okla., and moved to rural Nevada County with his family when he was 12. He would complete high school in Prescott, then join the Nevada County Sheriff's department until the country went to war and he joined the Army.
The lucky assignment of Doris Frahm of Iowa, fresh out of telegraphy school, to the railroad telegraph office not far from Prescott allowed Sheriff Love to meet the woman who would become his wife of 56 years.
They were married in Michigan, after he got orders in 1944 to go to battle in the South Pacific and, as it turned out, endure a lengthy recovery in a stateside hospital from a back injury he incurred overseas.
He would join the Arkansas State Police in 1946 and stay there until 1951, when he moved to Conway to take the job of that city's chief of police.
Two years later he returned to this area to work in the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office and settle with his wife and son in Park Hill. Fifteen years later, five of those spent with the Pulaski County School District running its transportation department, he decided to run for sheriff, serving in that elected post until 1977, when he decided to step aside for health reasons, his son said.
His had been an interesting tenure, however, not only in terms of the growth of the department but also in terms of its move from the old jail to the river, which was eventually torn down, to the new jail off Roosevelt Road, Brown said.
Retirement would provide him more time for the golf and hunting and crappie fishing in Lake Nimrod and the Old River lake he loved and which were the backdrop for some wonderful father-son memories growing up, his son said.
So he would give up those pastimes grudgingly when he broke his hip on the golf course a few years ago. But he never gave up his garden in the backyard of his home on Ridge Road, his son allowed.
"Vegetables. That was his thing," he said. "He had the best tomatoes in the whole neighborhood and green beans and squash."
Sheriff Love was a graduate of the FBI Training School and the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy at Camden and attended numerous special training institutes over the years.
He was a member of the Western Star Lodge #2, Arkansas Consistory, American Legion, D.A.V., Arkansas and National Sheriffs Association and the Arkansas Peace Officers.
Besides his wife of 56 years and son Barry and daughter-in-law Lou of Baltimore, he is survived by two grandsons, Bryan Love of Atlanta and Daryl Love of Austin, Texas.
The family request that memorials be made to the American Cancer Society.
The Times- Aug. 3, 2000
FRED WORTHINGTON
For 60 years, Fred Worthington worked in downtown Little Rock, from 1939 until Friday, Nov. 29., the day he died of a heart attack, just four days before his 81st birthday.
He had come to Little Rock at the tail end of the Depression from the tiny sawmill town of Tinsmen in south Arkansas, still a teenager, and found work in the bookkeeping department of the Union National Bank From there, he carved out a successful career as an investment broker, and he is reputed to have had one of the longest careers in securities sales in Little Rock.
Mr. Worthington, a resident of Rose City, was last employed by Sterne, Agee & Leach, which hired him about 10 years ago, at the age when most people have already retired. And even at 80, he had no firm plans for quitting, according to his wife, Martha Worthington.
Mornings as he prepared to leave for the office, he would often say: "I've got to get down there; I've got to be an example to the kids."
And indeed, it was his younger co-workers who took his death especially hard, said Bob Landford, manager director of Sterne, Agee & Leach.
"He was a true friend to all and a Southern gentleman," Landford said. "He was always honest, forthright and his clients were his friends."
Mr. Worthington was the only child of Adolph Worthington, school superintendent and then postmaster of Tinsmen, a small but once thriving lumber town south of Fordyce. His mother, Fannie Bess Worthington, a teacher, died when he was 3, requiring care by relatives until his father remarried a few years later.
Outgoing and fun loving all his life, he earned the nickname "Goosie," which stuck with him ever after, from one particularly memorable boyhood prank. Seems when he was about 10, he and a couple of other boys caught a goose and locked it in the schoolhouse one night, thinking it would be a grand surprise for teachers and classmates the next morning. Instead the housekeeping mess created by the fowl caused school to be canceled that day to give the boys time to do some scrubbing.
After high school, he briefly left Tinsmen to live with relatives in Louisiana and work as an electrician, but soon returned to his home town, planning to stay. But the sawmill had moved away and many other businesses had also been forced to close, prompting his father to advise him, "This is where I make my living, but you'll have to go someplace else," his wife recounted.
So Mr. Worthington headed north to Little Rock, where he found work at Union National Bank, then located in the grand marble building which once stood at Louisiana and Fourth streets. With his skill with numbers and strong work ethic, he soon proved himself and moved on to supervise the bookkeeping department, a position he held until the 1950's. But with a wife and three young children, he looked to a more lucrative career in investments, and went to work for his uncle, Warren Bass, a Little Rock broker.
There he traveled a weekly circuit by bus - he didn't own a car - that took him through Malvern, Camden and El Dorado and other south Arkansas towns, seeking the well-to-do - doctors, bankers and dentists - as his customers.
After his first marriage ended in divorce, a friendship begun in 1947 with a Union Bank co-woker, Martha Mercer, was renewed. After dating a couple of years, the two were married in 1982.
In his latter years, his church, grandchildren - who called him Papa Fred - and sports were his main interests. He was also an active member of First United Methodist Church of North Little Rock, serving as president of the Ambassador Sunday School Class.
Through a stroke in 1996 had slowed his step a bit, it hadn't diminished the twinkle in his eye or his zest for life, friends and family members say.
"He always had a funny story to tell, but he was always uplifting," Mrs. Worthington said.
Survivors include his wife of 17 years, Martha Worthington; daughter, Anne Maxey; sons, Fred Worthington and wife, Nova; step-son Larry Croft and wife, Phyllis; granddaughter, Sherri Maxey; grandsons, Ron Pitts, John Maxey, Scot Worthington and Brent Worthington; step-grandchildren, Claire and Hunter Benson, and Kim and Jennifer Croft; and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, Nov. 2, in the chapel of Griffin Leggett-Rest hills Funeral Home with the Rev. Don Nolley officiating. Burial was at Rest hills Memorial Park.
The family requests that memorials be made to the American Heart Association, 909 West 2nd Street, Little Rock, 72203 or to First United Methodist Church of North Little Rock, 6701 JFK Blvd., North Little Rock, 72116.
The Times - November 11, 1999
OPAL ADAMS
Opal Adams' neighbors in the Edgemont portion of Park Hill may miss her cooking the most. At their annual block parties, neighbors say they would ignore many a fine dish just to save room for Mrs. Adams' lemon pepper chicken.
Opal Adams, a homemaker with taste-tempting culinary skills and an extraordinary heart for neighborhood and friends, died March 21 of what family members believe was a ministroke. She was 85.
"No one wanted a baloney sandwich, or even a steak sandwich if they could get what she was cooking," said Audry Burturm-Stanley, a longtime neighbor and friend. Mrs. Adams' claims to fame, say all who knew her, included her fine yeast rolls, her savory dressing and her pies, said to have the flakiest, most delicious crusts ever to line a pie tin.
"She made the best coconut pie in the world," said her son, Thomas R. Adams of Little Rock. "He piece de resistance, though, was her chocolate pie."
Born and raised in North Little Rock, the middle child and only daughter of Bruce Huddleston, Pulaski County Tax Assessor for 26 years, and his homemaker wife Margie, Mrs. Adams grew up in the Baring Cross neighborhood, up in Gardner Memorial Methodist Church.
A classmate of former Mayor William F. "Casey" Laman, she, like he, was a member of the first graduation class of Ole Main in 1930.
Laman described her as outgoing and upbeat, a woman who lived by the maxim "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all...I rated her A-1 all the way around," Laman said.
After high school, she worked as a secretary for Pulaski County Judge Arch Campbell until her marriage to Ray Adams. After that, except for a short stint running a variety store downtown, she stayed at home to raise her son and keep the books for her husband's plumbing business.
It was during those years, busy with child-rearing and bookkeeping, that she honed her cooking skills. Still she also made time to be neighborly, was always ready to lend a hand to friends, particularly where children were involved.
It was something she had learned from her own parents, her son said, recalling the night when he was a teenager when he was stranded downtown without a ride home and his grandparents drove over in their pajamas to rescue him, happy to do it and not fussing about being disturbed from their sleep.
So when Opal Adams learned that Burtrum-Stanley's young son, James, wanted a pair of leather pants, the exper seamstress measured the youngster and sewed him a pair in no time. Her sewing expertise was used on many a Halloween costume for her grandsons Steven, Jason and Bryan Adams, too.
When neighbor Aileen Flurry's sons started at Park Hill School, Opal Adams was listed as the name to reach if parents weren't available.
"She always knew where I was. If the secretary at school couldn't get me, she would call Opal, and Opal would get my boys and bring them home," Flurry said.
Leisure time was spent watching basketball of television, playing canasta with friends.
But she also had a charming sense of humor, said Burtrum-Stanley. Proud of her green thumb, Mrs. Adams was having problems with her day lilies, Burtrum-Stanley recalled. So just as a joke, Burturm-Stanley bought some plastic lillies and planted them next to her neighbor's less-than-spectacular live ones. When Mrs. Adams saw them, she was so pleased, she tried to pick one.
After the prank, Burturm-Stanley offered to take back the fake flowers, but Mrs. Adams wouldn't let her. She wanted the prank in place for the next visitor to her garden, she laughed.
"Everybody needs a Mrs. Adams in the neighborhood," Burtrum-Stanley said. "Edgemont is a lesser place without her."
She was preceded in death by her holder brother, Ardis Huddleston.
Besides her son, she is survived by her younger brother Maurice Huddleston of Memphis and her daughter-in-law, Gay Adams.
Funeral services were held March 27 at Griffin-Leggett/Rest Hills Funeral Home. Burial was in Pine Crest Memorial Cemetery in Little Rock.
The family requests that memorials be made to First United Methodist Church in North Little Rock.
The Times - April 9, 1998