Stories from Monday, March 31, 2003

A new access point for Kings River floating and fishing is being developed north of Berryville at a site known by locals as the "Romp Hole." Jim Price, with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said folks in the early days would load up their wagons for a trip to the river on Saturday night for a bit of banjo picking and grinning, thus the name "Romp Hole."...

Financial institutions across the state, and even the nation, are focusing on a Carroll County lawsuit scheduled to be heard Thursday in Little Rock before the Arkansas Supreme Court. The suit originated out of the county's Western District when a Huntsville area developer, Floyd Carroll Evans, filed suit against Bank of Eureka Springs and then-Bank President John Cross...

BERRYVILLE ---- During a drug raid Wednesday, Carroll County Sheriff's deputies may have uncovered evidence of a child pornography operation based in a camper trailer at the RV park behind the visitor's center. The incident began when Green Forest Police Chief John Bailey told Sheriff Chuck Medford about information of a possible marijuana buy that was to happen early Wednesday afternoon at the RV park...

Highlander golf coach Aaron Hall said the team traveled to the Big Sugar course in Pea Ridge this week and took on the Blackhawks team at one of Arkansas' toughest courses. "It is tough, and has the highest slope rating around," Hall said. "The Holiday Island course is rated 117, and Big Sugar is 149. It's really a nice course, just two or three years old. We took four boys and one girl."...

Green Forest Tiger coach Tony Coffey tried a different approach with his team before a game with the Farmington Cardinals on Monday and was rewarded with a 15-2 1AAA East conference win. The team also pitched a one-hitter, had a grand slam home run, and 11 hits, so Coffey's strategy worked, big-time...

The Berryville Bobcats took on one of Oklahoma's top teams last Saturday, Vian, and found out in two lopsided losses how the game can be played. The team used that lesson to good effect on Monday to pound 1AAA East conference member Shiloh Christian 14-8, upping Berryville's record to 6-5 overall, 3-1 in conference play. Their only loss was to Gravette...

Norma Turner, 90, of Holiday Island, died Monday, March 24, 2003, at her home. She was born Nov. 8, 1912, in Iowa Falls, Iowa, daughter of Darrell and Agnes Hadley. Mrs. Turner was a member of the Holiday Island Presbyterian Church. She was also a member of the 99 Women's Pilot Association, Little Switzerland Radio Club, and the Carroll County Republican Women...

Roy Theo Hayden, 82, of Belle, Mo., died Saturday, March 22, 2003, in Jefferson City, Mo. He was born Sept. 26, 1920, near Oak Grove, one of eight children born to Robert Junior Hayden and Flory Mae Humbard Hayden. He grew up on a small dairy farm in Carroll County. He attended high school in Arkansas and began attending Arkansas Tech at Russellville. During college he joined the National Guard unit...

Dora Ann Fryar, 65, of Green Forest, died Tuesday, March 25, 2003, in Hollister, Mo. She was born April 13, 1937, in Hindsville, daughter of Albert and Sadie (Moppins) Lane. Mrs. Fryar was a homemaker and a member of the Osage Baptist Church. On Jan. ...

Mabel Marie Ferrell, 73, of Oak Grove, died Sunday, March 23, 2003, in Springfield, Mo. She was born May 23, 1929, in Owensville, Mo., daughter of George Andrew and Elsir Myrtle (Rogers) Pope. Mrs. Ferrell was a nurse's aid. She attended the Oak Grove Freewill Baptist Church...

Virginia Mae Birchfield, 70, of Eureka Springs, died Sunday, March 23, 2003, at the Carroll County Nursing and Rehab Center in Berryville. She was born Aug. 26, 1932, at Wylie, Texas, daughter of Lou Anna Smith. She was a retired nursing assistant and had been an employee of Meadowview Healthcare and Rehab in Huntsville and Pleasant Valley Nursing Home in Springdale. She was preceded in death by the father of her children, Jesse Alfred Foster; and by her mother, and several brothers and sisters...

by Larry Elkins Recently on our way to Colorado we took a side trip to Oklahoma City. This was our third visit to the site of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The first was when the remains of the bombed out building were still being cleared. We stopped, walked the fence, read the stories and poem, saw the pictures and memorials for the lost. We also saw the plans for the monument, and the statue "Jesus Wept." It was powerful, depicting the horror felt by all who saw the bombing...

With only a brother 16 years my senior, I have little first-hand experience with sibling rivalry. As the grandfather of twin boys, I have a great appreciation of how big a problem sibling rivalry can be. When they visit, they constantly squabble and fight, further enhancing my almost-serious belief in the Robert Heinlein theory of child-rearing: Put the kid in a 55-gallon oak stave barrel and feed him or her through the bung hole. When the kid turns 18, plug the hole...