Opinion

It came to pass, through a series of circumstances, that I spent my Father’s Day afternoon alone, at least in a figurative sense.

Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova is a human dynamo.

You and I and others who at occasionally look past Arkansas’ borders, we spent some time recently considering three global figures, each of them until recently their nation’s head of state.

Editor’s Note: This column was originally published in 2020. I share it this week for three reasons: I’m on vacation, Father’s Day is June 18 and I remain immensely proud of my sons and my grandsons. I’ve updated things just a bit.

Imagine growing up in New York City, dreaming of open ranges and taming wild horses. That’s exactly what Kitty Canutt did.

MOBILE BAY, Ala. — Not long ago a reporter on assignment for one of his state’s largest newspapers was breaking bread and sipping suds with some fellow journalists at Little Rock, and absorbing with remarkable grace their pot-calling-the-kettle- black gibes about his birthplace.

In a small chapel, a handful of men with clear eyes and wise souls gathered to honor one more of their fallen brothers. These are the Air Force Navigators, a brotherhood bound by their passion for thrilling flights, dangerous missions and the reward of a mission accomplished.

It wasn’t the “nimrod” business that flashed into my mind at word that former U.S. Rep. Marion Berry had died. Nor the Gillett coon supper, the annual January evening assembly in Arkansas County, a scholarship fundraiser held just across the way from Berry’s farm, that every politician regarded as mandatory. And not his “aw-shucks” demeanor and molasses drawl.