Otis and the Rose Parade

Greetings all my Nifty Fifty Friends,
Yesterday I received my annual Email update from our classmate Otis Fox. Otis has lived in the Oxnard, CA area for years, is a retired pastor, and ALWAYS works on floats for the Rose Parade. This activity begins days ahead of the parade and is almost totally done by volunteers. As of last year Otis was "promoted" and now runs a crew of volunteer decorators. This year he says he is working on the "Life Source" float. So, be sure to watch for this float and think about all the hours
of work that Otis has contributed to this beautiful parade tradition.
Since my husband and I have lived in Fresno since 1955, we have had several opportunities to see the parade.........and have visited several of the big warehouses to watch the floats being decorated.
If you ever have the opportunity, it is a wonderful sight to see!

Happy New Year to all...........and a special toast to Otis!
Rosemary Farnsworth Erickson

Dale Pogue's First Fight at School

I only had one fight during all of elementary school. Rooster fights don't count! I have no idea what it was about but it was a dramatic production befitting Ali. The two fighters paraded across the school yard to the gravel road at the side of the school. We then marched on to OUR property! A safe haven. No one could touch us there! A circle was made by all the boys and the two contestants moved to the center of the ring. . We sparred a bit, never really getting in a good punch, when someone said, "Here comes Miss Lovett!". Smugly I said, "We're safe here. This is my property!". Apparently Miss Lovett did not understand private property rights for she marched across the gravel road and as the onlookers scattered, she came up and took us both by our ears.(We had perfectly good hands) Holding firmly to our ears she led us into our empty classroom.(It was recess). She bent us over the front desk and with her wooden paddle she gave us three solid licks. They hurt, but not nearly so bad as the thought that this woman beating me was the love of my life! I loved Miss Lovett. The entire legal scheme collapsed later that day when Miss Lovett informed my parents of her action. Instead of hiring a lawyer like any good parent would, my dad found a rather heavy belt and applied some more impressions to my wounded ego. Not a good day, but a memorable one.

For more wit and wisdom of Dale Pogue, go to Dale's website: http://dalepogue.com/

Nifty Fifties Article in Fort Smith Times Record

Classmates Kivel L. Weaver, from left, Dixie E. Weaver and Doris Neihouse enjoy chatting before lunch. They are members of the Nifty Fifties group, which includes dozens of 1950 graduates from Fort Smith High School, family members and friends from other graduating classes. The group meets monthly for lunch and hosts an annual reunion in Fort Smith. [Carrol Copeland - Times Record]

Monday, October 15, 2007
Fort Smith High School Classmates Stay in Touch After All These Years ... By Scott Smith

A broken leg, a concussion and initial confusion failed to slow down these football helmet-wearing females.They proudly participated in the only girls football game ever to be played at Fort Smith High School, keeping their sense of humor and knack for pranks intact, even though injuries and inexperience waved a wicked finger.Many of those who played in that match now are members of the Nifty Fifties group, which includes high school graduates from the 1950s who meet for lunch on the first Tuesday of each month at area restaurants. With memories as sharp as swords, they fondly look back on that Nov. 8, 1949, game, which they organized and played as members of the Fort Smith High School Pep Club. The legendary game was an exhibition staged as a fundraiser for the pep club, which made up both teams. Even the women’s male classmates got in on the twist, dressing up as female attendants for a gender-switching homecoming ceremony.“All those boys, you know, they were trained to play football,” said 75-year-old Catherine Graham Crosland, a 1950 graduate and director for the Nifty Fifties group. “We girls just came out onto the field and we played because back in those days, a girl didn’t really know how to throw a football. Things were a little different back then. Girls just didn’t play many sports at that time.”
Crosland smiled while discussing the game, which cost 50 cents for people to attend. She was a quarterback for that famous girls’ game, and even though she lacked the throwing arm of Joe Montana, Crosland held her own.“Oh, it was rough,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t throw a touchdown pass — heavens no — but it was so much fun. And I didn’t get hurt. I stayed out of the way, but poor Connie (Lichty Smith), she was knocked out.”Joan Davis, 75, remembers the football game as if it happened last week.“Yeah, I was one of the girls who tackled Connie, but I don’t know if she knows I was one of them,” she said in a shy tone. “But there were other girls who did it, too. I just can’t remember who.“But I do remember one girl who caught the ball and ran to the wrong goal posts,” Davis added. “Someone got their shoulder broken, too, so they banned having a girls’ football team there forever, which probably was a good thing.”That unpredictable game is one of the countless stories members of the Nifty Fifties group share with each other over sandwiches, hamburgers, salads and dessert. Comprised mostly of graduates of the class of 1950, the group started meeting in the middle 1970s as a way for females to play catch-up with each other on a regular basis. Don C. Holmes, a 77-year-old graduate from the class of ’50, crashed those plans for an all-girl group.“They used to meet out at Central Mall, and Don saw them over there and became interested,” said Holmes’ wife of 57 years, Mary Holmes. “He said he wanted to know what they were doing, so he went over there and talked with them. He said, ‘I’m going to see if I can join them.’ Then he became part of the group.”Several male classmates quickly followed Don Holmes’ lead, making the monthly get-togethers truly a co-ed affair. Even classmates from the late 1940s got in on the sentimental fun, boosting the attendance number to about 35 each month. Some graduates thrive on burning up the highway to make the luncheons, driving from as far away as Houston, Oklahoma City and Broken Arrow, Okla.“It’s great that we have people from other classes who meet, too,” said Sue McGee, a 1951 graduate. “You can see everybody talks and likes each other, and we have a good time. Plus, I just graduated, you know. I’m still young.”The group recently held a combined reunion for the classes of 1950 and 1951 and is hosting its annual Christmas party on Dec. 14 at the Lighthouse Inn.“We’ve all been friends since high school; that is the best part about all of this,” Crosland said. “Some of these friendships started out in grade school.”The lively hum of conversation never dipped during the group’s Oct. 9 meeting at Goodson’s on Greenwood. Their enthusiasm for discussion and a friendly debate never wanes, and they bond over the memories they have of the 85 classmates from 1950 who have died over the years.“I married Steve Crosland, who was also a graduate of 1950,” said Crosland. “We married in 1960 and he died in 2001. Yeah, we waited to get married after high school. I was having too much fun in high school to get married. But we ended up together and were together for a long time.”The chemistry found within the Nifty Fifties group appears infectious. Goodson’s staff members smiled from afar as the former students told jokes and funny stories.“Everybody really does like each other, and no one really has changed since high school,” said Crosland with a sparkle in her eye.Don Holmes agreed.“No one’s personality has changed since school,” he said with a gradual grin. “That’s why we still have this togetherness. It’s a great closeness we share.”So close that Peggy Boatright Putnam, Paul Gean and their Nifty Fifties fellow members hold annual class reunions. Their 50th reunion, held in 2000, drew 172 people to The Oaks by Goodson’s.“We used to have a Christmas dance every year, but now we’re just going to meet and visit for Christmas,” Crosland said.With each tale told at their luncheon, the Nifty Fifties group slowly peels back the “Leave-it-to-Beaver” misconception of the 1950s. They were — and still are — good, caring people, but many harbored a constant appetite for in-class pranks and after-class adventure, Crosland said.“We had some good times in school,” she said. “It was a wonderful, wonderful time back then.”One day in school, several future Nifty Fifties group members momentarily shoved their books aside to make a small bomb to be placed in the boys’ restroom. The contraption caused more of a scare and gossip than injuries, Crosland said. Another teenager was expelled from Fort Smith High School after masterminding a prank involving a four-legged animal, she said.“One guy dropped an opossum into Miss Edna Earle Massey’s piano, and when she played the piano, the possum ran out,” Crosland said. “And then Miss Massey ran out screaming. Then the kids ran down the hall screaming.”After his banishment, the guilty student tried his luck at St. Anne’s Academy, she said.“Well, the sisters at St. Anne’s asked the boy if he played ball, because they needed someone to play,” Crosland said. “He said that he did, so they asked his name. He told them his name and they suddenly said, ‘We have no room for you here.’ Just like that.”Cruising, or as Crosland and her friends called it, “Dragging the Gut,” was a favorite past-time of dozens of Fort Smith High School students, whether they rode in a convertible or in a vehicle with a hard top.“Oh yes, every Friday and Saturday night, we’d cruise Garrison Avenue,” Crosland said. “We’d go to the 22 Drive-in on Highway 22 and to the Sky View Drive-in up by Midland Boulevard to watch movies.”Sometimes, Crosland’s classmates felt like they existed inside a movie.“One time, we were driving by what is now First National Bank by the mall,” Crosland said. “Gene Boone was driving and we heard there was a gang fight in Van Buren, and we wanted to go over there and see what was happening.”Crosland then paused, as if she wasn’t going to finish the story.“Well, we took the corner there by where the bank is, and all I remember is seeing the car seats up in the air and I was sitting on the car’s ceiling,” she said. “I saw the lights turn over, and we had flipped. Thank goodness we all walked away from that OK, except I lost my shoe. My shoe must have flown out the window. We never found it.”Crosland made sure she wore shoes when she and her high school peers participated in impromptu jitter-bug challenges at the Branding Iron.“We loved to dance, and they had live bands play there for those dances; it was exciting,” she said. “It was a great time, and the owners of the Branding Iron even came to our wedding.”Jerry Hendrix remembers the sunny afternoon when his track coach busted him for skipping class.“Me and some friends — pretty much all of the starters on the track team — skipped and went to Waterfall Park, between Van Buren and Alma, to swim,” said the 76-year-old Greenwood resident. “We later tried to get back in time for practice. Well, we came back and coach Thompson was standing by the gate, watching. He said, ‘If I hadn’t made plans already for the track meet in Missouri, I’d cancel.’ So we had to report to Sunshine Study Hall for a week.”One of Jackie Bell DuPree’s most vivid memories is the girls’ football game. She played a tailback, and in her mind, the bruises, sore muscles and small ponds of blood on the field were worth the effort.“It was fun and we made quite a bit of money for the pep club,” DuPree said. “And we got to see the men as the queen and attendants. That was funny.”John Baker, and his wife, Peggy, like to reminisce about their first couple of dates in high school that led to an on-again, off-again relationship for about three years.“We took our time getting married — 47 years,” he said. “We knew each other in school and then met again in 1998, and we got married in 2000. Both of us lost our spouses before.”Bill Etzkorn is glad the Nifty Fifties members have an open-door mentality for potential friends. A 1947 graduate from St. Anne’s Academy, he pledged his love and faithfulness to Fort Smith High School student Margaret Breedlove and, in his words, “married into” the group.“My favorite thought of all this is, I’m just glad I’m out of high school,” Bill Etzkorn said as his classmates erupted into laughter.“I think the main thing is, we all graduated,” Don Holmes added.Unlike the spirit of the Nifty Fifties group, Fort Smith has changed drastically over the last 30 years, he said.“When they first opened Central Mall here, I said, ‘What are you doing?’ Don Holmes said with a laugh. “When it started, it was out in the country. In Fort Smith, you could drive three blocks back then and be out in the country. The city is so different now.”“Yes, it is different,” Crosland added. “Back then, there was no gum-chewing, no hand-holding and no running in the school halls. These days, it’s no sex, no drugs and no guns in school. These are different times.”The Nifty Fifties group was created as a way to celebrate the past and the present, despite the world being a more serious place now, she said.“Getting together is a highlight for us each month — we are uptown here,” Crosland said with a laugh. “But there really is no organization here. If you can make the lunch, we are glad you are here. If you can’t make it, it’s OK. We’ll miss you, but we’ll see you the next time.”

15 Minutes of Fame...Maybe

This past week Scott Smith, a reporter for the Southwest Times Record, emailed me about a letter he'd received from Joan Gutensohn Davis about our upcoming class reunion. He wanted to do a story about it. Since it was after the fact, I emailed him about the Nifty Fifties monthly lunches instead and gave him Catherine Graham Crosland's name as a contact.

Long story short: He will be coming to the Nifty Fifties lunch on Tuesday, October 9, at Goodson's on Old Greenwood Road to get a story for the paper.

'50-'51 Reunion Dinner

Eighty-five people attended the reunion dinner at the Lighthouse Inn on Saturday, September 29. The occasion marked the 56th reunion for the class of 1951 and the 57th reunion for the class of 1950. Attendance was about evenly divided between the two classes with a few from the classes of '48, '49, '52, and '53.

Buddy Moore welcomed everyone and Paul Gean gave the blessing. Most of those who attended live in Arkansas, but there were quite a few from Oklahoma and Texas; and one each from Georgia and Florida. The "prize" for traveling the farthest, however, would go to Otis and Joyce Fox who flew in from Oxnard, California.

MOLLY BREWER CROCKETT

Mollie Brewer Crockett, 74, of Fort Smith passed
away Sunday, Sept 9, 2007. She was born in Fort
Smith to Hugh H. & Christine Brewer. She was a retired
mechanical engineer. She attended Ft. Smith High School;
graduated from University of Ark School of Mechanical
Engineering and a member of Society.

A Memorial service was held September 12 at Oak Cemetery
Pavillion.

She is survived by two daughters, Betsy Blake Berrier of
Fayetteville and Nancy Blake Gollier of Mansfield, TX;
two sons, Carlton Blake of Burbank, CA., and Kelly Blake of
Ft. Smith; one brother, Hugh Brewer of Fayetteville; eight
grandchildren and four great-granchildren.

To place online tributes, please visit www. edwardsfuneralhome.com

Question: Senior Ditch Day

Hi Nifty Fifties,
For the last few months I have been "in the loop" of my younger brother Justin's exchange of nostalgic Emails with his high school friends. What a fun and crazy time it has been. He occasionally had to defer to me to clarify some memory, and that's how I got in the loop.
I think we could have just as much fun if we post a few questions to each other to see what each of us remembers about our unique school days in Fort Smith. I truly know and believe that we grew up in a "charmed" era and in a very unique place that provided us wonderful opportunities but highly unusual freedom, compared to today.
But all that is for another day.
I am trying to remember where so many of went on our senior ditch day. Was it Lee's Creek?
I remember a rope swing..........maybe a bridge you brave guys jumped off of?
What do you recall?
Rosemary

"Comin' outta Chute Five on Firefly .................." -- by Justin Farnsworth

This isn't much of a story. Just a little relaxing possibility on the couch of FS memories for a short spell.
Everybody has some kind of memory of the Ark-Okla Rodeo, either loving the carnival rides on the Hammer or not liking the smell of the manure trapesing through the livestock halls looking at the heifers with blue ribbon prizes and weight/height stats, wondering, since we were really Big City people, in a relative sense, and could not divine why one heifer was "better" than another.
Like with women, the Rodeo was a big deal, and it's charms varied and changed as you grew older. Earliest memories were probably cotton candy and the ferris wheel. A year or two later it was hanging around the aforementioned Hammer hoping to find a quarter that fell out of some loose-pocketed boy who took so much effort to get his date on the infernal ride to make her scream.
Somewhere in the age spectrum you wanted to see the freak show Hairy Lady from the Amazon, later show off your pitching arm knocking five metal milk bottles off a stand with three miserably soft baggy "baseballs", hoping for a stuffed panda, ending up with a plastic token with Roy Rogers in bas relief.
No matter what, it was exotic to us City Dwellers, we had our nice superiority complex all in place over the rural dwellers, although, we felt we somehow had to pay respect to our antecedents and heritage, the truth of which was much more real to us when watching Hopalong Cassidy serials at the New or grand panoramas of Randolph Scott riding across the range, later in life found out to be nothing but a few square miles of space in the Chatsworth Hills.
And beribboned jars of elderberry jelly, heck, what was the big deal? Grandmother did all that stuff anyway.
And the core of it all, also with a bit of displaced excitement, the rodeo itself, getting splinters in your butt while watching Buck Somebody comin' out of chute five on Firefly. Heck, again, Buck Somebody was announced as bein' from Agua Frio, Texas or Whitlock, Arizona, someplace you never heard of and could not identify with.
The City Elders really promoted the Rodeo, I guess there was closer enjoyment to their past, and the Rodeo Parade was a big deal, getting a few thousand people down on Garrison and the spin off of accidentally wandering into Tilles and seeing a dress that was needed, or a sack of Kresses popcorn for little Jimmie, he needed that while waiting for the Camp Chaffee part, they were going to have a halftrack this year with the commanding officer. And lots of horses and riders that some people seemed to know, The Queen, wow, and afterwards, road apples on Garrison that would last for a week until they were squashed to apple sauce and burned up in the sun to dust, possibly washed away by a June thunderstorm.
My strongest Rodeo memory was a parallel thing, only happened once, which was the promotional two day Rodeo Tour. It was a big deal for me, my junior year of high school.
By that time it was known that I could sing Kawliga, I was cheap, and so I was invited to go on the promotional tour. I was to sing at every stop they set up. The Tour consisted of maybe twenty cars of men, a couple of pickups, and a Camp Chaffee 6x6, the most interesting aspect, for me, as a sergeant and a private drove it and in the back was a 30 caliber machine gun.
We would go into a town, find the town center, easy if it was a county seat as that would mean the square and the courthouse. The soldiers would drag the 30 caliber out of the 6x6 and set it up with a belt of blanks. Somebody set up the audio system and mike, all run by a car battery pack, the cars of men would disperse into the gathering crowd to hand out leaflets and schedules. The soldiers would fire off a belt of blanks to attract everybody and anybody out of the stores, barbershops, and lawyers offices. Then somebody would start telling the good citizens that they had to come to Fort Smith for the Ark-Okla Rodeo. At some point little Justin would sing Kawliga, Quinton Somebody would ride his unicycle around, more talk and pleading to come to the Really Big Event in Fort Smith.
Now we wandered down hwy 22, zigzaged down to hwy 10, and and all the ladder rung roads in between, on the way to Hot Springs to overnight. I must have sung twenty times in every hamlet over 1,000 in the swath between Fort Smith and Hot Springs.
Only later, I wondered about some things. We stayed at the Arlington, they put me in a room with some nice old gentleman. BUT, the twenty cars of men, they transformed into boys in Hot Springs. That destination was chosen, I am sure, with odd logic during the planning. I have to admit that I was a bit shocked at what I saw, er, how the pillars of Fort Smith, drunk in the halls at 3 AM, brown paper bags of Four Feathers discarded, a floozy or two, incoherent conversations on the floor all night about how much money they won or lost, and general behaviour that Mizz Thorworth, my Sunday School teacher, would not have approved of.
So, it was an occasion, when our men became boys, and probably a lot of memories that could only be shared with very few, or else they would be in deep kimshee with wifey. We will never know. But after that trip, I guess I became a little wiser about the ways of boy-men, when they were allowed to come out of chute five on Firefly, in the Arlington Hotel, in the den of iniquity of Hot Springs.
I am sure more people from Sallisaw came to the Rodeo than Hot Springs...

LADONNA COFFMAN

Ladonna Coffman departed this earthly life on July 23, 2007, after a long battle with cancer. She was born June 2, 1934, in Clinton to Cora and John Hale. Ladonna was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Odie Hale of Clinton. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Edwin Coffman of Fort Smith; son, Phillip Coffman and his wife, Jane, and granddaughter, Kristin, all of Los Angeles; son, David Coffman and his wife, Beth, and grandchildren, Matt and Carol Ann, all of Tulsa; son, Dr. John Coffman and granddaughters Erin and Hannah, all of Fort Smith; sister, Zenobia Peacock and her husband, Clarence of Nashville, Tenn.; and brother, Sanford Hale and his wife, Judy of Tulsa; as well as many caring nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Ladonna was a retired nurse, a member of the Sparks Guild and the Nifty Fifties. She was a devoted wife and loving mother as well as a giving friend to so many. She loved visiting her hometown of Clinton, keeping in touch with friends on trips and fun excursions and taking care of her home. Ladonna also enjoyed tremendously the years she spent as den mother to her Boy Scout troop and over the years taught probably 50-plus kids to water ski on Lake Ouachita. Ladonna always thought of others before herself, was interested in everyone she met and will be missed by all who knew her for years or if they had just been introduced. Memorial service will be 11 a.m. Thursday, July 26, 2007, at Goddard United Methodist Church with a private family committal at the U.S. National Cemetery under the direction of Edwards Funeral Home. Family will greet friends from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at Edwards Funeral Home. Pallbearers will be Mitch Jones, Bryan Whitaker, Bryan Mason, Kenny Irwin, Danny Johnson and Johnny Johnson. Honorary pallbearers will be Nifty Fifties, retired members of Medical Society, Jim Selig, Roger Robertson and Ben Lockerd. In lieu of flowers, memorials would be greatly appreciated by the following organizations: Peachtree Hospice, 4300 Rogers Ave., Fort Smith, AR 72901; Goddard Methodist Church, 1922 Dodson Ave., Fort Smith, AR 72901; Sebastian County Humane Society, P.O. Box 10953, Fort Smith, AR 72917; or a charity of one’s choice. To place an online tribute, please visit http://www.edwardsfuneralhome.com/.

GARY DON STIPSKY

Gary Don Stipsky, 75, died Tuesday, July 17, 2007, in Fort Smith. He was a retired employee of the Whirlpool Corp. as a tool and die maker. He was a member of the South Side Baptist Church, the Elks Club and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was instrumental in forming of the Drug Awareness Program for children and he was a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He is survived by one daughter, Yvonne Griner of Fort Smith; stepdaughter, Carol and her husband, Mac McGrew of Fort Smith; one son, John and his wife, Connie Stipsky of Frisco, Texas; one sister, Utanah and her husband, Dave Williams of Pocahontas; three grandchildren, Rachel McGrew and her husband, Aaron, Katie and Elizabeth Borengasser, both of Fort Smith; one stepgrandchild, Megan McGrew. He was preceded in death by his first wife and the mother of his children, Betty June Stipsky; and his second wife, Christine Stipsky. Funeral service will be Saturday, July 21, 2007, at 10 a.m. at Edwards Funeral Home Chapel with burial to follow at the Woodlawn Memorial Park all under the direction of Edwards Funeral Home. Pallbearers will be Dave and Jeff Williams, Jay Pankey, John Harris, Jerry Lofts and Mac McGrew. The family will greet friends at Edwards Funeral Home on Friday evening from 5 to 7 p.m. Memorials may be made to the Fort Smith Girls Shelter, 2600 Raleigh St., Fort Smith, AR 72901 or the Elks National Foundation, P.O. Box 6236, Fort Smith, AR 72906.
To sign an online guest book, visit www.edwardsfuneralhome.com.

LaDonna and Eddie Coffman Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary

JERRY SLAUGHTER - (CLASS OF 51)

Jerry Lee Slaughter, 74 , of Arlington, Texas, died Sunday, May27,
at his home. He was born March 29, l933, in Fort Smith, AR. He
graduated from Fort Smith High , was a former FBI agent, retired
from SBC as division staff manager security and claims in Texas.

Memorial service was held Thursday May 3l at St. Alban's Episcopal
Church in Arlington. Arrangements were under the direction of
Arlington Funeral Home of Arlington.

He is survived by his wife, Susan; two children; two stepchildren;
a sister, Jean Deislinger of Fort Smith; and six grandchildren.

Dr. THOMAS "TOM" DU PREE

Dr. Thomas "Tom" DuPree, 76, of Booneville died Wednesday,
May 23, 2007, in Booneville. He was born April ll, 1931, in
England, AR.

Graveside service will be l P.M. Friday May 25, at Carolan
Cemetery near Booneville. Memorial service will be 2:00 P.M.
Friday at First Methodist Church in Boonevilleunder the
direction of Roberts Funeral
Home of Booneville.

He is survived by his wife, Jackie Bell DuPree ; a daughter, Debbie Strom
of Booneville; two sons, Thomas and James DrPree, both of
Booneville; a brother, Jim DuPree of Newport; and five grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be grandsons.

The family will visit with friends from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the
funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Tom DuPree Scholarship
Fund, c/o First Western Bank in Booneville or the Booneville First
United Methodist Church renovation fund.

CHRISTINE WATKINS - STIPSKY

Christine Watkins - Stipsky departed this earth on May 3, 2007. She is survived by her husband, Gary Stipsky of Fort Smith; her mother, Pearl Kilgore of Moberly, Mo.;
three brothers and families; and one sister and family; one daughter, Carol McGrew and husband Mac of Fort Smith and numerous grandchildren and step-grandchildren.

She and her late husband, Harold Watkins, were formerly owners of the Red Barn Steak House,
along with other successful restaurants in Fort Smith. She was devoted to The Girls Shelter for
more than 30 years as a member of the board of directors, associate director and as executive director. She was an accomplished seamstress and artist.

Services were held May 8 at the Lewis Funeral Chapel.

For complete information and to place an online tribute to to: www.lewisfuneralchapel.net

HARRY BLACKMAN

Harry Blackman, 80, of Fort Smith died Saturday, March 17. 2007
in Fort Smith. He was owner/operator of Blackman Communica-
tions; retired from the Lucent Corp; was a member of the Grand
Avenue Church, Philatelic Society and he served the U. S. Navy
on the U.S.S. Currituck AV-7 during World War II.

He is survived by his wife, JANE NEISLAR BLACKMAN of the
home, the Rev. Greg Blackman and his wfie Debbie of Summerville,
GA.; and two grandchildren, Whitney Blackman of Kennesaw, GA.,
and Kristin Blackman of Summerville, GA.

Service will be Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 11 A.M. at Edwards
Funeral Home Chapel in Fort Smith and burial to follow at
Stoud Cemetery in Greenwood.

For further info....visit www.edwardsfuneralhome.com

JERRY GREEN

Jerry Durden Green, 74, of Richmond, TX; died Wednesday,
Feb. 28, 2007, in Richmond. He was born June 13, 1932, in Fort
Smith, AR. He attended Fort Smith High School and University
of Arkansas. Was an Air Force veteran; was in the wholesale
remodeling industry and owned Texas Building Products.

Funeral was held March 5, 2007, at Rosenburg, Texas.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy; a daughter, Jeri Jobe of
Columbus, TX;two sons, Randy Green of San Antonio
and Douglas Green of Houston; and six grandchildren.

PEGGY SMITH BUCKNER

Peggy Joyce Smith Buckner, 74, of Charleston, AR died Thursday, February 22, 2007, in Fort Smith. She was born June 18, 1932, in Lavaca. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Charleston and a 1950 graduate of Fort Smith High School.

Rosary was held Sunday at Smith Mortuary Chapel in Charleston. Funeral was Monday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Charleston with burial at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Charleston.

She is survived by her husband, Everett; five daughters, Melinda Pillstrom of Charleston; Melissa Wattinger, Mary Quick and Martha Hudy, all of Austin, TX; and Mand Holt of Pfugerville, TX; a son, Willaim Buckner II of Charleston; 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Charleston Fire Department, Charleston, AR 72933.