News

William Thomas Taylor, Sr., 95, Little Rock, March 5. Taylor started at the then – Arkansas Democrat as a paperboy at age 13 in 1941.

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.

William Alvin “Bill” Whitworth, 87, Conway, March 8. Raised in Little Rock, Whitworth attended the University of Oklahoma, where was editor of OU’s student newspaper, the Oklahoma Daily, and worked for the Arkansas Democrat.

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.

Linda Dee Rooney Card, 69, Caddo Gap, April 18. A native of Kiefer, Oklahoma, Card was a long-time contributor to the Montgomery County News through her weekly column, “Norman News with Dee Card.” Under the name Dee Rooney she was the author of the 2023 novel, “Annie’s Heart,” and had just published her second novel, “The Devil’s Bathtub,” on March 8. A former Arkansas Tobacco Control Agent, Card, had also served as a member of the Caddo Gap Volunteer Fire Department and was a member of the Diamond Writers Association.

Jessie Elizabeth Christner Bain, 99, Hot Springs, September 30. A native of Flint, Michigan, Bain retired from The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, where she worked for many years in the advertising department.

Peggy June Barentine, 88, Jacksonville, June 1.The mother of APA Director of Operations Terri Cobb, Barentine married her high school sweetheart, Buford Barentine on May 27, 1955. She retired from Dillard’s Department Store after working many years in mortgage banking and was a former member of the North Little Rock chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.

The December board meeting of the Ozark Mountain School District was held at the Western Grove School where the board reviewed many different issues and proposals. Superintendent Jeff Lewis presented issues of personnel, petition for transfer of students, an AR DOT right-of-way at the Western Grove school location, E-Rate funding, and grants that were issued being the Professional Learning Grant, $18,000, McKinney-Vento Homeless Grant, $15,000, and the High Impact Tutoring Grant, $28,234 with the total grant money of $61,234.