News

Rose Clemmons Gladner, 60, Hot Springs, July 30. The wife of Arkansas Broadcasters Association Executive Director Neal Gladner, Gladner worked for nearly 30 years in sales, mainly in print and broadcast media.

June Biber Freeman, 95, Scottsdale, Arizona, July 4. The wife of Edmond Wroe Freeman, IIIinois, Freeman met her future husband as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. The couple then moved to Pine Bluff, where Edmond published the Pine Bluff Commercial with his brother. In the early 1960s, she led the effort to create the Little Firehouse Community Arts Center, which grew to become the Southeast Arkansas Arts and Science Center, the predecessor of the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. From 1975 to 1980, she worked as director of state services for the Arkansas Arts Center, where she transformed a large van into a mobile art gallery for residents of small towns and rural areas. Freeman also wrote the “Artline” column in the Pine Bluff Commercial From 1986 to 1995.

News in 1978 and served as editor, photographer and co-publisher until 2005, when he sold the newspaper. In 2006 he joined the Texarkana Gazette as the Southwest Arkansas reporter and worked there until his retirement in May 2019.

Dixie Lee Williamson Martin, 86, Sherwood, October 26. Born in Bastrop, Lousiana, Martin held a degree in English from Louisiana Baptist College. A lifelong high school English and journalism teacher, she taught at Jacksonville High School early in her career and finished her career at Sylvan Hills High School, where she was the longtime faculty advisor to the student newspaper and yearbook staff. In addition to her duties at the high school she was invited to teach classes and workshops at UALR and Ball State University.

Shirley Ann “Susie” Minton Roberts, 80, Little Rock, October 22. Roberts earned her degree from Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas, in 1964.

magazine in Little Rock, then in 1988 he became general manager of Helena Daily World. In 1991, he returned to Louisiana as publisher of the Minden Press Herald. After he left the newspaper business he worked as communications manager for Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, then as manager of Clay County Electric Cooperative before retiring to Mount Ida.

Sidney Craig Woodall, 86, Malvern, May 22. Woodall started as a carrier for the Malvern Daily Record at age 11. At age 15 he worked for Malvern Amusement Company as a projectionist, and later served as assistant manager for the Ritz Theater, the Joy Theater and Malvern Drivein Theater, and the Sunset Drive-in Theater in Hot Springs. Around 1956 he returned to the Malvern Daily Record, working in circulation for a short time, after which he was promoted to advertising manager, a position he held for 23 years. He left the Daily Record to become advertising coordinator for Gibson’s Discount/ Kirchoff Stores, Inc. He then worked as an assistant manager at Davis Lumber Company for 17 years, until his retirement in 2002.