Dedicated teacher of scripture dies at 97

Mrs. Jordan died Sunday, Jan. 9 from pneumonia, a complication of gallbladder surgery in December. She was 97.

She and her husband, the late Emmitt Garland Jordan, came to North Little Rock in their retirement years to be near their only child, Leland Jordan, and his family. They moved into a house next door to their son, where Mrs. Jordan lived until her death, enjoying her independence but also treasuring the close bond with family nearby, alway welcoming their visits and the chance to chat.

"She always appreciated conversing with people and kept up with current events," her son said.

But Bible study was paramount in her life and the first order of business each day before breakfast. After that, on many a morning, recounts her son, she was ready to enjoy her favorite breakfast, hot chocolate and an Egg McMuffin, with him or her daughter-in-law, Louise.

A member of Levy Baptist Church for 30 years, Mrs. Jordan served 12 years as director of the Women's Missionary Union, as a senior adult Bible teacher and for 10 years, from 1989 until her retirement last summer, as associate Bible teacher, providing Sunday school lessons for homebound members over a telephone hookup.

Church leaders say she was an excellent teacher - dependable, encouraging and effective.

"She wanted to be sure her students grasped her message, " recalled longtime collegue and friend, Doris Waymack, coordinator of adult Sunday school at Levy Baptist. "She was a teacher from the word go."

Mrs. Jordan had made teaching her vocation, working in the classrooms of elementary schools in south Arkansas for 42 years. She had started at the age of 18, qualifying with a teaching certificate she'd earned through correspondence courses.

Her zeal for the scriptures and for teaching she got from her father, the Rev. Neal Walker, acircuit preacher of Ashley County, who traveling by "foot, horseback and wagon, organized many churches in southeast Arkansas,: her son Lelan said.

She was the eldest of seven children, born Sept. 30, 1902, to the preacher and his wife, Bess, whose family also included 12 children from his first marriage and was supported by farm and timber work.

Mrs. Jordan first taught in the tiny logging town of Crossett Camp, then Tanner and Pine Hill where in 1923 she met and married Emmitt Jordan, a farmer 12 years her senior.

Together they had one son and ran a farm of 40 acres, raising primarily cotton and vegetables, while she continued to teach.

She was a petite 5 ft. 4 inches tall, but because of her husband's poor health most of their married life, she shouldered additional farm work to make it easier for him and her young son.

"She was always willing to take the big load off of me," her son said.

Even with the demands of farming and family life, Mrs. Jordan tenaciously pursued her dream to better herself, enduring a difficult 30 mile commute over rough country roads to attend Monticello A&M College and earn a bachelor's degree in education at age 46. During subsequent summers, she attended Peabody College-now Vanderbilt University-in Nashville to earn a master's degree in education and school administration at age 58.

Passing over opportunities for higher pay, she preferred to teach in small rural towns, where she believed "she would do more good in reaching the students," her son recalled.

The last 26 years of teaching career were in the Wilmot Public School System, where she served 21 years as grade school principal.

Her care for students did not stop at the classroom door. If a child needed clothes, food or money for books-they were not provided by the schools then-Mrs. Jordan would help them even if it meant doing with less herself, according to those closest to her.

"She was intent not only in developing herself but in being instrumental in developing others," her son noted. "She cared about the total person."

She was preceded in death by her husband, Emmitt G. Jordan, her parents, three sisters and four brothers.

Besides her son Leland and his wife Louise, she is survived by granddaughters Kathleen Blackman and Dutchie Wilson; five great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Wednesday, Jan. 12, at Levy Baptist Church. Burial was at Pinewood Memorial Park in Crossett.

The family requests that memorials be made to Levy Baptist Church Choir Robe Fund,3501 Pike Avenue, North Little Rock, AR 72118

The Times - 1/20/2000
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GARLAND L. "G.L." SMITH JR.

Generous former assistant police chief dies at 73

A life-long North Little Rock resident before moving to Sherwood recently, Mr. Smith's life held a number of high points; rising to assistant chief of police in his home-town; graduating from the FBI National Academy and scoring a perfect 100 on its handgun target course, and being named North Little Rock Man of the Year in 1979.

But is was a reputation for responsibility, dependability and warmheartedness that endeared him to his community.

Mr. Smith died Tuesday, Feb. 15, from complications following a burst blood vessel in his brain. He was 73. The son of Garland L. Smith Sr., a railroad worker, and his homemaker wife, Harriett, Mr. Smith grew up in the Baring Cross neighborhood and attended Baring Cross Baptist Church.

While in junior high school he met another Smith - Margaret, a year his junior - who lived just a few blocks away and attended the same church. She says it was a feeling of youthful envy at age 16, sparked by seeing him go out with another girl, that prompted her to "get him before anybody else did."

They became high school sweethearts and continued dating after graduation - he in 1944, she in 1945-when Mr. Smith joined the Merchant Marines.

And it was after one tour that Mr. Smith made one of the key decisions of his life, recounted his son, Joe Smith, now North Little Rock's director of commerce and government relations.

"He was offered a scholarship to King's Point, the Merchant Marine Academy. But he turned it down," his son said. "I guess he decided he missed my momma too much."

The two got married and settled in North Little Rock, where they raised daughter, Phyllis, and son, Joe, and where Mr. Smith worked as a police officer for 25 years, retiring as the department's assistant chief in 1979 with a reputation for reliability and innovation.

"He really was dedicated to his job as a policeman and thought an awful lot about the department," said William "Bubba" Younts, who was chief of police from 1974-1983."You never had to worry about it any time he had a job to do."

Younts said that Mr. Smith also came to be a close fiend and a trustworthy confidant, "somebody you could talk to."

"There's very few of them that come down the pipe like him," said Younts.

Clark Thorne, who worked alongside Mr. Smith as a detective sergeant for 13 years, credited him with helping improve marksmanship among officers.

"He was one of our first firearms instructors. He was very instrumental in building a pistol range for the department," Thorne said.

Thorne also said that as Mr. Smith traveled to other states, transporting prisoners for the U.S. Marshal's office, he would pick up report forms from other departments and incorporate their best aspects into the North Little Rock system upon his return.

"He was always very helpful and very calm and very thorough," he said. "He was just a nice fellow to be around."

After retiring from the force, Mr. Smith took a position as head probation officer for the Fifth Division of the Pulaski County Chancery Court, and retired Judge Jack Lessenberry said Mr. Smith proved to be much more than a good probation officer.

"He looked after a variety of administrative chores for me," he said.

But more importantly, Mr. Smith also had a knack for making people feel comfortable in the harried, often intimidating atmosphere of the courtroom, which could be "a traumatic experience" for people unaccustomed to the system, the judge said.

"G.L. was awfully good about making people feel comfortable," he said. "He was helpful to the jurors and the witnesses and the litigants. He was just the kind of person you knew you could trust."

In 1994, Mr. Smith retired again, but he did not stay idle. Both he and his wife volunteered at Baptist Memorial Hospital, where they frequently manned the front desk to greet patients and visitors.

"He was from here all his life, he knew everybody," hisson said.

He also took up woodworking, a hobby that eventually produced gifts for his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and co-workers.

"He probably gave something to everybody," his son Joe said.

"Daddy was always giving 90 percent and taking 10 percent," he continued. "He just never wanted anything from you, he wanted to give things to you. Not only to his children, but his friends and coworkers.

Besides his wife Margaret, son Joe and his wife Missie, he is survived by his daughter and son-in-law Phyllis and Tom Benton of Harrison; sister Pat Davis of North Little Rock; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held last Friday at Baring Cross Baptist Church with the Rev. Marty Watson officiating. Entombment was at Edgewood Mausoleum. The family requests that memorials be made to the North Little Rock Boys & Girls Club or the North Little Rock Wildcat Education Foundation.


The Times -2/24/2000
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ROBERT TAYLOR SR.

Choral director, family man dies at 61

A lifelong music instructor with a master's degree in choral direction and an opera-quality tenor voice, Mr. Taylor spent his life imparting a love of music and singing to his students and family.

Cornelia Redwine Taylor, his wife of 36 years whom he nick names "Corny," said their house "was full of music all the time" and they he serenaded her off and on for their entire marriage.

But his devotion to music education was just as intense, and this passion carried over from school to home.

"He taught private voice lessons, and our house was full of kids every afternoon and Saturday morning." said his wife. "His kids and his choirs, that was his life."

An only child, he was born in North Little Rock, graduated from North Little Rock High and attended North Texas State University, where he soon became the singer in the school's one O'Clock Jazz Band, succeeding Pat Boone in that position.

He continued performing publicly throughout his life, including appearances as tenor soloist for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's performance of Mozart's "Requiem." Mr. Taylor's favorite composer, however, was Johann Sebastian Bach, his son Robert "Rob" Taylor Jr. said, and his favorite singer was tenor Jussi Bjoerling, known in the 1950s as "the Swedish Caruso." At times his father would even record himself singing Bjoerling songs, and found the comparison favorable, his son said.

"He was my hero," said his son, himself a choir director and instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma. "I completely followed in his footstpes and I did it deliberately and lovingly."

Many of Mr. Taylor's other former students credit him for evoking their own appreciation of music.

"God gave me the love of music, but Bob Taylor showed me how to use it," said Karen Haynes, a student of his from 1974-1977. "He always made sure kids enjoyed learning music."

When she found out that Mr. Taylor was moving back to North Little Rock for his retirement, Haynes said, she immediately signed her own daughter up for voice lessons.

"He lived, ate, and drank music and the kids that were involved with it." she said. "We all felt part of his family."

That love of music was accompanied by a professional attitude and drive for perfection, added another student.

"He was looking for the best tones at all possible times," said Michael Driggers, a student from 1976-78. "There was no slack time with him. When you were in his choir and in his room it was serious business."

By the time he joined the choir, Driggers said, it was already "steeped in tradition...his accomplishments through his choir had been phenomenal."

Mr. Taylor's own biggest influence was his high school choir director, Dorothy Bridenthal Bean. When he was a senior at Old Main, she took him to visit her alma mater, North Texas State, and shortly thereafter he successfully auditioned for the music program there.

"He was a tenor, and for his age he wasn't just any high school choir student," Bean recalled. "I think that he probably could have been a success {Professionally} if he had sought that."

Instead, she said, he turned his energies into instruction, and his approach and intensity developed "superior, superior choir groups every year."

Just a few years ago a local college music director was still talking about him, his son said. "He said 'Year in, year out, over a span of 22 years, Bob Taylor's Sylvan Hill a cappella choir [Program] was consistently the most outstanding choral ensemble in Central Arkansas,'" Rob said.

But he also had other sides to his life, his son added.

"After music and family, learning was his passion," Rob said. "He was a voracious reader, one of the most well-read men I've ever known, particularly in history and philosophy."

He was an avid Razorback fan, too, rarely missing games or the Frank Broyles show.

And "he was a very loving, sensitive man," his wife said. "I was just always very proud to be Mrs. Bob Taylor."

Besides his wife and son, Mr. Taylor is survived by his mother, Pauline Denman of Sherwood; his daughter-in-law, Mary Taylor; and one granddaughter, Kiri Noelle Taylor.

Graveside services were held Monday at Rest Hills Memorial Park.

The Times - 3/27/1997
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LORINE I WILSON

Hard Worker, church activist dies at 74

"She really focused her life on the important thengs: family, church, and her job," said the Rev. Kaye H. Evans, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church where Ms. Wilson was a member.

Ms. Wiilson died at home of a stroke on Monday, Feb. 3, at the age of 74.

Born in Lonoke, the fourth of nine children of a cotton farmer, she graduated from Union High in Furlow, then worked at a Jackson's Cookie Co. in Memphis and then at the Jacksonville Arsenal during World War II.

As the war was ending, she landed a job on the assembly line at the Timex Corp. where she specialized in placing bands on the watches, a job she would hold for 38 years before her retirement nearly 15 years ago.

Her asset to employers was her indefatigable work ethic, family members say.

"She worked all the time, often six and seven days a week." said her sister Hazel Miller of Scott. "I don't suppose she missed any days until she retired. She had practically perfect attendance."

Despite such devotion to her work, Ms Wilson, warm and upbeat, always found time in her life for her loved ones and for her church.

She took particularly good care of her mother. The two lived together until her mother's death in 1966.

"Lorine worked hard to support and feed mother," her sister Hazel Miller said. "They had a good arrangement: Lorine did the working, and Mom did the cooking."

And she was an equally thoughtful and loving sister, Miller added.

"She would call you on the phone a lot, just to see how you were doing. Plus, she was always offering to babysit for her niece's and nephew's children."

At Trinity United Methodist Church, she was a devoted member of both the Asbury Class and United Methodist Women, an organization that raises money for various missions such as the Union Rescue Mission homeless shelter and the Camp Aldersgate retreat.

Ms Wilson retired from Timex in 1982 and spent much of her new found leisure time reading. The Bible was her favorite, family members say. So were the monthly editions of Better Homes & Gardens.

"She was a faithful church member, employee, and family member," said the Rev. Evans." She went through life with a quiet dignity, and she had love in her heart for everyone."

Survivors include one brother, Jerrald Wilson of Scott; three sisters, Miller, and Mary Overton and Margaret Stuckey, both of North Little Rock; a brother-in-law, Ralph Stuckey; a sister-in-law, Genny Wilson; and a host of nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held on Thursday, Feb. 6, at Trinity United Methodist Church with the Rev. Evans and the Rev. Robert Marble officiating. Burial was in Concord Cemetery.

The family requests that memorials be made to the Concord Cemetery Fund.

The Times - 2/13/1997
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