| John "Shorty" Reddig | Louise L. Boswell | Thomas Anthony Mabrey | Aretha Ball | Alice Barton |
By Eric Francis
John James "Shorty" Reddig Sr. of Sherwood made his living as a sheet metal worker and welder. But friends and family said his desire to help other people and his community let him to join the Sylvan Hills Volunteer Fire Department shortly after it was created in the 1950s, and that association literally became a second career for him. Mr. Reddig died Jan. 23 in Little Rock after a long illness. He was 72.
Born to William and Susie Doss Reddig of Plumerville, Ark., Mr. Reddig was the last of six sons and 10th of their 12 children.
He joined the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II and was stationed in San Diego before returning to Arkansas where he worked as a sheet metal and welding contractor as a member of the 249th Sheet Metal Workers Union.
The skills he learned in that job would become invaluable during the 35 years he put in at the Sylvan Hills Volunteer Fire Department, which he joined about a year after its founding in 1955.
In the early days, they would buy a truck chassis that just had the cab on it and then build a fire truck on the rest of the frame, and "Shorty was the ramrod on that kind of thing," said Ferrell Gresham, who joined the department in 1969. "[He] could fashion pretty much anything out of metal."
And since founding Fire Chief Austin Wheeler was a plumber by trade, Gresham continued, between the two men they could either build or oversee almost every aspect of creating a reliable pumper truck.
"They weren't necessaryily the fanciest rigs in the country," but they served their purpose, Gresham said. "We just have a lot of real good memories of Shorty."
During his three decades with the department, Mr. Reddig would serve as its assistant chief and, from 1984 to 1990, its chief; during that period a new firehouse was built at 10205 Hwy. 107.
During that time he was also married twice, both times ending in divorce, and had two sons and a daughter.
Charles Burns of Sherwood, who served as training officer while Mr. Reddig was chief, said he "had a lot of pride in the department and what they'd done to protect the community."
He also said that Mr. Reddig was one of a cadre of log-timers who would play cards, often late into the night, at the department.
"Progressive rummy was the game after training," recalled Burns. "Somemes we'd play [from 8:30 or 9 p.m.] until midnight.
There was no gambling involved, just a lot of camaraderie and talk, and occasionally putting younger firefighters who joined the games "in our place," Burns said.
But the volunteer job wasn't without its risks. Mr. Reddig once narrowly escaped serious harm while driving a truck during a woods fire off Hwy 107; the truck became mired and was overtaken by the flames, but Mr. Reddig managed to get away without serious burns.
Bill Johnson of Sherwood, a member of the fire department's board of commissioners who also served as interim chief after Mr. Reddig, said it took someone with "a special quality" to handle all the demands and headaches the department presented, and that Mr. Reddig "put his heart and soul in it."
"Shorty was Shorty," said Johnson. "If you needed a friend, he was a friend, and if you wanted an enemy, he could be an enemy, just like anybody else." But he was far more likely to be your friend, even if he didn't know you, close associates say.
"He's one that would help anybody do most anything, he liked everybody," said John Sturdy, another former member of the fire department.
"The fire department and drinking coffee, that was his thing," said Gresham. There wasn't a fancy bone in his body. He was down to earth and would help anybody, anytime."
Preceded in death by his parents and seven of his siblings, Mr. Reddig is survived by two sons, John J. Reddig Jr of Malvern and Austin G. Reddig of Sherwood; a daughter, Tamy Dingmon of Sherwood; one brother, Dave Reddig of North Little Rock; three sisters, Louise McArthur and Rose Kurtz of Plumerville and Jean Lear of Sherwood; and six grandchildren.
Funeral services were held in the chapel of the Bob Neal & Sons Funeral Home in Morrilton with the Rev. Tim McMinn presiding. Burial was at the Plumerville Cemetery in Plumerville, Ark.
The Times - February 10, 2000
She was an Air Force wife whose creative outlets were long limited by her lifestyle to making her daughters clothes, designing the many homes they lived in and helping to decorate at various officers' wives-club functions.
But after her husband left the Air Force and after her children were grown and she grew tired of real estate, Lou Boswell took up painting and found her passion and muse.
"It was never possible for her to completely satisfy herself," said her teacher and colleague Amy Hill Imler. "But she was a powerful painter. The power was in the big shapes and colors she used."
Louise L. Boswell of Sherwood died Wednesday, Dec. 2, of a heart attack. She was 73.
Born in southern Illinois and raised in Texas, where she met the engineer-turned-military pilot who would become her husband of 53 years, Mrs. Boswell, a meticulous homemaker with a flair for design, adapted well to the military life of frequent moves, according to her daughter Jan Smith of Hot Springs.
Innately interested in the world around her, she found facinating things to do and learn wherever they lived, studying hat making under a milner in Montana and taking a sculpture class during another tour of duty, for example.
But after her husband retired from the Air Force and both daughters were grown, the Boswells also happily retured to Arkansas, where they had once had a tour in Blytheville, and to the Little Rock area, where she had stayed and started a career in real estate while he was in Vietnam.
Her flair for design was such that during the years she was selling real estate people would see her home and want to buy it, so she would sell it to them and move them into another, her daughter lovingly recounts. Finally, she designed a home for their retirement with a sort of butler's pantry room for all her projects that would eventually became her studio, her daughter said. Then she agreed to get out of real estate.
It was about 18 years ago, her daughter estimates, that Mrs. Boswell took first an oil painting class and then, at the urging of her art-major daughter, a watercolor class at the Sherwood community Center.
And it was there that she discovered not only a medium she loved but also a group of artist friends that would become a veritable "Rat Pack" support system, her daughter said.
Imler was their teacher and mentor, and they met every Thursday for several hours of painting and talking and supportive critiquing followed by a lunch out together.
"I was never sure whether they would paint to eat or eat to paint," Jan Smith joked.
The group continues to meet, Imler said, though the members, who have taken several trips together to Santa Fe and Taos and other gallery hubs over the years, feel the void left by the death of its "mom supporter."
"She listened but she did not really give advice," Imler said. "She was very intelligent, very up on all of the arts in Hot Springs and other places, and she kept us all informed.
Gloria Wiggins, another member of the group, said Mrs. Boswell was a fun-loving bright spot of the group because she was always so interested in so many things.
But she was also respected for her abilities, especially for the florals and paintings of animals that became her specialty.
"There was a freedom in her work that people strive for in watercolor," Wiggins said.
She was the chairman of the Burns Park Arts and Crafts Show for more than a decade, and she was a member of the Arkansas League of Artists and the Mid-Southern Watercolorists.
Besides her husband, Sherwin W. "Bos" Boswell of Sherwood and her daughter Jan Smith of Hot Springs, she is survived by another daughter Nancy B. Colver of Hot Springs; a brother, Thomas J. Hill of Knoxville, Tenn.; her mother, Eulah Hill Trainer of Knoxville; and a granddaughter, Ashley Kaye Smith of Wichita, Kan. She was preceded in death by a grandson, Kevin D. Smith.
Funeral services were held Saturday, Dec. 5, in the chapel of Griffin Leggett Rest Hills funeral home. The family requests that memorials be made to the Mid-Southern Watercolorists, No. 8 Alanbrook, Sherwood, AR 72120.
The Times - December 17, 1998
Thomas Anthony "Tom" Mabrey, an outgoing insurance and investment broker who was active in many civic affiars in North Little Rock before moving to Gallatin, Tenn., on a preservation mission eight years ago, died Dec. 6 of obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 71.
One of four children of Harold Deck Mabry, who worked in employment security, and his wife Charlotte, who taught school for many years in North LittleRock, Mr. Mabrey was a graduate of Park Hill Elementary, Fourth Street Junior High and North Little Rock High School - in 1945.
A talented athlete who loved football all of his life and who coached many recreation teams in Lakewood over the years, he was a member of the Wildcat Varsity team that defeated the archrival Little Rock High School Tigers on Thanksgiving Day 1944 and sparked much local celebration.
A World War II veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division in Europe, he pursued a degree after the war at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where he also played football.
He would marry a North Little Rock school friend several years his junior, start his own insurance business at 415 Maple St., settle in Lakewood when it was just starting to unfold and immerse himself in raising two sons as well as getting involved in the community.
He was a founding member of Lakewood Methodist Church when a few members of First Methodist Church in Argenta decided their new neighborhood needed its own church, his ex-wife Betty Mabrey recalled. He taught Sunday School, coached Saturday morning football for the Lakewood Property Owners Association League and regularly took his sons and their friends on duck hunting and trout fishing expeditions, his son Dr. William Mabrey, an opthamologist and retinal surgeon in Little Rock recalled.
A founding member of the North Little Rock Jaycees, Mr. Mabrey made an unsuccessful bid for the state legislature at age 30 on a platform of tax reform in 1958 and capaigned actively for the successful passage of North Little Rock's first bond issue for the building of Memorial Hospital.
"He had a wonderful personality and a marvelous sense of humor" that drew people around him, his older sister Mary V. Keller of Park Hill said. "He was also a wonderful storyteller," his son William recalled.
Like his mother, a proud member of the DAR and his sister, who taught history for many years, Mr. Mabrey was also fascinated with the stories of his forefathers, and his interest increased as he delved deeper into his heritage in his later years. He was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of the American Revolution.
Eight years ago he moved to Gallatin, Tenn., to work on the preservation of historical sites settled by his ancestor, frontiersman Anthony Bledsoe, who was born in Virginia in 1733 and established a fort in Sumner County, Tenn. Today that fort is the Bledsoe Fort Historical park because of a land purchase and donation by Mr. Mabrey that stopped a proposed road project from taking the site.
In recent years archeological excavation work under the direction of Middle Tennessee State University and Sumner County has begun at the park, in large part also because of the efforts of Mr. Mabrey.
"It was his enthusiam which led me to work with him so students could work in the park," Dr. Kevin Smith, a professor of anthropology told a local Tennessee newspaper reporter recently.
"Even though he was only in Gallatin eight years, he had made many friends there and people at his funeral spoke of how many contributions he had made," his sister said.
Besides his son William and sister Mary Keller, Mr. Mabrey is survived by his wife Carrie Dismukes Mabrey of Gallatin, his other son Cdr. Beau Mabrey of Baston Rouge, La., and six grandchildren.
A memorial services was held Saturday, Dec. 12, at the First Presbyterian Church in Gallatin with Dr. James Wagner officiating.
The family requests that memorials be made to the Bledsoe Lick Historical Association, c/o Ken Winter, 677 Nashville Pike, Gallatin, Tenn. 37066.
The Times - December 17, 1998
By Nancy Dockter
Sociable, caring, and a skilled conversationalist, she had a knack for uniting family, and as receptionist to the mayor, knew how to sooth disgruntled residents who'd come to City Hall to complain.
Hired by Mayor William "Casey" Laman in 1963, Atheta Shuffield Ball proved to be the perfect pick for a job that demanded tact, patience and a knowledge of city affairs.
"She was a good listener and had a pretty good grip on what was going on in the city," Laman recalled. "She could mollify a lot of things for me. She was an immense help and a loyal city worker.
Mrs. Ball, who died Sunday, March 12, had suffered from Parkinson's disease and had been in declining health for several years. She was 82.
A longtime resident of Park Hill and Indian Hills, Mrs. Ball took the receptionist post a few months after the death of her husband, James Herbert "Curly" Ball. She continued in the mayor's office during the tenure of Bob Rosamond, then tranferred to the Parks & Recreation Department, where she was senior office assistant who handled reservations until retiring in 1993.
Born October 30, 1917, Mrs. Ball was on of the three children of James and Marye Shuffield of Mineral Springs, near Nashville in southwest Arkansas. Her father owned a general mercantile store and moved the family to Little Rock just before World War II. After graduation from high school Mrs. Ball attended Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) in Conway,majoring in home economics. While a student there, she began dating upperclassman "Curly" Ball, an all-state football player. She taught home economics briefly in Ola before the couple married in 1940 and moved to Searcy where he coached high school football until they moved to North Little Rock in 1950.
Mrs. Ball chose to stay at home to rear their one child, and enjoyed cooking and organizing family get togethers, always sharing her latest dishes with them.
"She was the sunshine committee for our family," said her daughter, Becky Witcher, who husband, Murry, is an alderman and a former School Board member.
Doting on family members, she looked after her nephew while he attended medical school in Little Rock.
"She sent a cake to him every weeek," Becky Witcher recalled. "And when his son, her great-nephew, was in college he lived with her."
"She was always fixing and doing for somebody," Witcher said. "She was a very caring person."
She is preceded in death by her parents, sister and husband and is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Becky and Murry Witcher of North Little Rock; two grandsons, Andy and Allen Witcher; a brother, James Shuffield of Beaumont, Texas; one niece and four nephews.
The funeral service was Tuesday, March 14, at Park Hill Baptist Church. Interment was at Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway.
The family requests that memorials be made to the R.L. South memorial Scholarship Fund at Park Hill Baptist Church or the William F. Laman Library.
The Times - March 16, 2000
By Nancy Dockter
A young single mom with no car and three children to raise, Mary Alice Barton began selling classified ads for The Times out of her home in the early 1960s. In time, she was able to afford a car, "A used VW," her son Frank recalled, that enabled her to build accounts in the business community that endured until she retired in 1996.
"All her customers loved her and many still ask for her," recalled Eva Bakalekos, Times sales representative and former co-worker of Mrs.Barton.
Mrs. Barton, who had been ill with heart and pulmonary disease for several years, died Sunday, March 12. She was 68.
Born on April 15, 1931, Mrs. Barton was the second oldest of four children of Jack White, a propane gas salesman, and his wife, Mable White, of Perry County. Her beginnings in this life were less than ideal: One of twins, with the other stillborn, she weighed only two pounds at birth, with the doctor at the little country hospital in Morrilton doubtful she'd survived, recounted her son, Frank. So small that her first crib was a shoebox, she was placed for warmth by her grandmother's wood stove, flourished and proved the doctor wrong.
As a young teenager, she moved with her family to North Little Rock, where she attended high school, graduating in 1949.
She married her high school sweetheart, attended business school for two years, then became a homemaker, but her marriage did not last.
"She never commplained, raised her three children on her own and did a fine job," recalled former co-worker Mary Jo Riddle. "She was a kind, sweet, honest, faithful person. Everybody adored Alice."
Mrs. Barton was preceded in death by her father, Jack White, and her brother, George White.
She is survived by her mother, Mable White; her two sons, John White of North Little Rock and Frank White and his wife, Denise, and their son Jack and daughter, Hannah, of Heber Springs; a daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Alan Shurr, and their sons, Christopher and Patrick, of Rowayton, Conn.; her sister, Yvonne Whalen, of North Little Rock; and a brother, Rex White of North Little Rock.
Funeral services were yesterday at the Church of Christ on Somers Avenue, and burial was at Rest Hills Memorial Park. The fmily requests that memorials be mnade to the American Lung Association;
The Times - March 16, 2000