| Mary Szczepaniak Borecky | May Clark | J.W. Lewis | Alonzo Richard Williams | Loyd Delphard Healy |
Mary Szczepaniak Borecky's roots were firmly planted in North Little Rock soil.
Born in a small Baring Cross house to traditional Polish parents, Mrs. Borecky devoted her life to family, said those who knew her.
"She was dedicated to hearth and home. She always did for others," said Mrs. Borecky's only daughter, Katherine. She never lived more than a mile from her birthplace.
Mrs. Borecky, who died at home Monday, May 16, after a prolonged illness complicated by Alzheimer's and a stroke, was 83.
Mrs. Borecky's deep commitment to family stemmed from the "old world" influence of her parents - Thomas and Katherine Szczepaniak, her daughter said.
Katherine Szczepaniak moved from Poland to Germany at 10 to work as a seamstress and gardener. She came to America eight years later to marry an Emerald Park mine rock crusher, a friend of her sister who saw her photo.
"Back then, there was none of this romantic hoo-ha. They didn't marry for physical beauty of money," Katherine Borecky said.
But Thomas Borecky's career was cut short due to a respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica. From that time on, his wife balanced a career as a seamstress with motherhood, footsteps in which Mrs. Borecky would follow.
The middle of three children, Mrs. Borecky graduated from North Little Rock High School and went ot work as a seamstress for a Main Street tailor shop, having learned her trade from her mother.
"She worked as a tailor and refined her skill...[then] went to work across town at M.M. Cohn," Mrs. Borecky's daughter said.
But a young Victor Borecky, who owned Victor's Shoe Store across the street from the tailor shop, caught Mrs. Borecky's eye.
A co-worker at Cohn's and a friend of the Borecky family introduced the young couple at a WPA dance - at her request, Victor Borecky recalls now.
"She told Mr. Pouser that she wanted to meet me," he said. The couple was married in 1942, nearly six years later.
"I remember my mother telling me that it took him forever to ask her," Katherine Borecky laughed.
After a honeymoon to New Orleans, World War II and Victor Borecky's stint in the Air Force would keep the couple from having children for five more years. But at the age of 33, Mrs. Borecky gave birth to her first son, Thomas.
The Boreckys lived in a Frank Street house given to them by her mother as a wedding gift. Her parents lived across the alley in a home they eventually bequeathed to Mrs. Borecky's older sister.
As her mother had done before her, Mrs. Borecky balanced raising four children with working in the shoe store, sewing stuffed animals for church bazaars and planting beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, Katherine Borecky said.
"I remember she was always up working in the garden by 5 a.m. and she never went to bed until after we were all asleep," she said. "She had hardworking, gnarled hands."
But commitment to family was important to Mrs. Borecky, and a difficult task never daunted her, Katherine Borecky said.
"She was the tomboy type...I don't know how she did it...She just kept on going," Katherine Borecky said.
After the Boreckys closed their shoe store in 1982, the couple stayed close to home. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary that year with a polka party at St. Mary's Catholic Church, an event repeated ten years later.
"They were homebodies, but they could cut a rug when they had the opportunity," Katherine Borecky laughed.
Mrs. Borecky spent the next decade taking oil painting and ceramics classes at Heritage House and gardening, while her husband spent his days fishing, duck hunting and collecting decorative whiskey bottles.
Mrs. Borecky laid the red brick walkway leading to her home of 57 years, across the street from her older sister, and built planters for her flower gardens. Her paintings and ceramic pitchers, tea pots and figurines decorate the home.
"She always had an artistic inclination, but when she was rasing the children, she didn't have time for it," Katherine Borecky said.
Mrs. Borecky became sick with pneumonia and a kidney infection four years ago and never recovered. She was bedridden until her death.
"She died at home. That's where I wanted her to die, and I think that's where she would have wanted it to happen," Katherine Borecky said.
And she passed down to her children her love for art and gardening, as well as her dedication to family and home. The four Borecky children all live withing a five-mile radius of each other.
Besides her husband and daughter, Mrs. Borecky is survived by three sons and their vives, Thomas L. and Marilyn Borecky, Robert M. and Rita Borecky and Steven D. and Margie Borecky, all of North Little Rock; one sister, Lottie Elizabeth Szczepaniak of North Little Rock; and six grandchildren, Stanley, Richard, Christopher, Paul, Patrick and Amy Borecky.
A Rosary was held May 17 at Ruebel Funeral Home in Little Rock. A Mass of Christian Burial was held May 18 at St. Mary's Catholic Church with the Rev. Paul Worm officiating. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.
The family requests that memorials be made to St. Mary's Catholic Church or to St. Mary's School.
The Times - May 27, 1999
MAY CLARK
She belonged to a generation of survivors, men and women who endured two World Wars and the Great Depression as well as the advent of the car, the television and the home computer. So they learned to take the ups and downs of life in stride.
But maybe because she came from even less material wealth than most, lost all that she had ever saved when the town bank failed and never expected life to be easy, May Clark exuded a perserverance, vitality and depth of faith that inspired friends and family alike, her children and grandchildren say.
Mrs. Clark died on Friday, March 21, after months of failing health, hanging on even then beyond what her frail body would have seemed to allow, family members say, because "she just chose life."
The second youngest of six children whose mother died when she was five, Mrs. Clark was born in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania and moved to Arkansas when she was 8, about the time her father married the family housekeeper and moved them all to a farm in Hope.
A bright child indentified early as a quick learner who loved to read, she nevertheless quit school as most young women did back then to help out the family farm. Eventually she took a job as a waitress in the railroad town of Gurdon, Ark., where she met her future husband, one of the Clarks of Clark county, who worked as a brakeman for Missouri Pacific.
But the close of the 1920s was approaching and the economy faltering, and soon the railroad was laying off scores of workers, including Ted Clark. Then the stock market crashed and the local bank with all their life's savings failed, forcing the young couple, with two children by then, to move in with Ted's parents in Okolona.
He would help his father farm cotton, hay and corn and she would manage the vegetable garden and make her own everthing to sustain their brood of four while they waited for an occasional call from the railroad for Ted to come back to work for $3.60 a day.
"She made all of our clothes, even our boxer shorts. And she made her own peanut butter and crackers," her son Jerry recalls, though he has few fond memories of those tasteless crackers.
Eventually a call back to fulltime work came from the railroad in 1934, and by 1936 the two had stashed away enough savings all over again to buy their own farm and seven or eight cows, from which she quickly developed a little side business selling butter, cream and milk in Russellville.
"She was a worker," recalled her daughter Esther Crawford, now the assistant superintendent for elemenatry education for North Little Rock Schools.
In 1942, the Clarks moved their family to North Little Rock, where the railroad jobs were better and steadier, and where, relieved of the hard physical work of the farm, she quickly immersed herself in the community, joining the First Methodist Church on Maple Street where she would run the nursery for the next several decades. Ever a self learner and lifelong reader, she became active in the PTA and insisted that her children reach for higher degrees.
"They never talked about it, they just lived their work ethic," Crawford said. "There was no question that we were all expected to get an education."
But she also had a heart for those who had never had the chance to learn to read, assisting an illiterate neighbor with her correspondence for many years so that her friend could keep in touch with her children who had moved far away.
After the family moved to the city, her frugal ways remained important in order to provide for her teenagers on a brakeman's salary, and her children say the remember her going to the finest department stores, inspecting all of the latest styles, and coming home and copying them for their clothes. They also remember all the foodstuffs this petite, four foot-tall woman with such boundless energy made from scratch, her famous chicken pies, her sugar cookies and the dinner rolls she made fresh every day.
In 1964 her husband retired from the railroad and, with their children grown, the couple bought a trailer so they could live and fish on Lake Ouachita during the week and return to North Little Rock and their children and grandchildren on the weekends.
Her son Jerry's daughter, now a career woman in Chicago, remembers her sweet "MawMaw" indulgences, like letting her eat her Fig Newtons before her dinner, the beautiful things she crocheted for her and the way she never fussed if she made a mess of a project in her house.
Indeed, her granddaughter JoAnn Clark said, she lived by the words of an old Methodist hymn she loved: "Be strong, we are not here to play, to dream, to drift."
And even when she lost her sight and could no longer walk, she found ways - she listened to 250 books ayear on tape - to continue to enjoy the world around her.
It was her gift, said JoAnn Clark. "She welcomed the everyday mechanics of life with anticipation."
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ted Clark. She is survived by two sons, James Clark of North Little Rock and Jerry Clark of Houston, Texas; two daughters, Esther Crawford and Mary Beth Stage of North Little Rock; three sisters, Estelle Moyers of Kilgore, Texas, Betty Tucker of nacogdoches, Texas and Clara Boyce of Hoope; eight grandchildren; and sixteen great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Monday, March 24, at Roller-Owens Chapel. Burial was in Ceter Ridge Cemetery in Clark County.
The family requests that memorials be made to Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church.
The Times - APril 3, 1997
J.W.LEWIS
By Eunice J. Hart
In his later years, J.W. Lewis loved to travel, but he had two stipulation about his trips.
"He wouldn't get on an airplane," said his oldest daughter Maryanne Bransford, 45.
And he didn't care much for hotels, both his daughters said. So he and his wife of 46 years, Anne, would generally climb into their RV and make that their accommadations - except for the time they went to Europe, something that Anne had always wanted to do "because she was from Italy," Bransford recalled.
The two stipulations of the Lewis' travel in their later years seem ironic now, considering that Mr. Lewis spent 20 years as an Air Force pilot stationed in many different countries from Europe to the Pacific to the Caribbean.
Mr Lewis, an Arkansas native of many interests, including a deep desire to see the world, died of pneumonia on Sunday, Dec. 21. He was 81.
Born and raised in the Bayou Meto area of Jacksonville, he was the oldest of two children of Golden Judson and Mary Roe Lewis who managed a farm in the area.
"Wh had orchards, grew cotton, corn and other vegetable to sell and for our own use," said his younger sister Norma Cato of Little Rock.
Mr. Lewis' younger daughter Susan Lewis, 43, said the family lost part of their land during the Great Depression, but it was an otherwise successful middle class farm.
He attended the old Bayou Meto School, though he was unable to attend one year when the school, which had an enrollment of 10 students at the time, burned down.
As a result of that missing year, Mr. Lewis was 19 when he graduated from Jacksonville High and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
And it was his family, who later opened a grocery store in the area, who eventually donated land to the school district to build what is now the new Bayou Meto Elementary School, his sister, nine years his junior, recalled.
But even as a young man, Mr. Lewis always wanted to travel, and the Air Force would be his ticket to such places as Germany, Turkey, Japan, the Philippines, Panama and Cuba, where his oldest daughter was born.
The highlight of his career was his assignment with the Special Air Mission in Washington D.C. flying member of Congress as well as Alben Barkley, the vice president to Harry S. Truman, from 1949 to 1953.
But surprisingly, he spoke little about that period or that assignment to his children, his daughters said.
He was just real quiet," Bransford said. "He was real modest, and he had alot of integrity."
It was while he was stationed in Washington, D.C. that he met his wife Anne. The two were married in 1951.
After retiring from the Air Force in 1958, Mr. Lewis went to work as a sales representative at 555 Auto Parts in Sherwood. Later he moved to North Little Rock where he took up his many hobbies, including fishing, golfing, hunting, camping - and more travel with his wife, mostly around the United States and mostly in their RV.
"He like being outdoors, and most of his hobbies were outdoors," his younger daughter Susan said.
Brnasford said she never knew why her father had so many interests, but she envied the hectic pace he was able to keep up in his later years."I don't know, but I wish I could do it."
He was preceded in death by his wife, whom he considered his best friend; and by one daughter, Lorna Phillips.
Besides his two daughters and one sister, he is survived by a son, George Lewis of California; and four grandchildren.
Private graveside services with full military honors were held at the Little Rock National Cemetery at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 24.
The family requests that memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association, 10002 W. Markham, Little Rock, Ark. 72205.
The Times - January 1, 1998
ALONZO RICHARD WILLIAMS
Maj. (Ret,) Alonzo Richard "Al" Williams, 79, of North Little Rock, known for his local church and masonic activities, died Tuesday, Dec. 23. He was a major in the Army Medical Service Corps, retiring after 27 years of service. Later he retired from the Arkansas State Employment Security Division after 16 years.
When he came to Arkansas in 1942 he became a member of the First United Methodist Church in North Little Rock, where he was a member of the Ambassador Sunday School Class. He was past president of the Crescent Lodge #403, Past High Priest of the Iris Chapter-York Rite Masons, a Thirty-Second Degree Mason-Scottish Rite, past president of the Orleans Chapter National Sojourners in Orleans, France, and a member of the Scimitar Temple. He was an honorary member of the Big Rock Masonic Lodge #633 and Mount Sinai Masonic Lodge #749.
He was the North Arkansas Conference United Methodist Man of the Year, and he was known for playing Santa Clause and handing out the Metal Fish and Crosses he carried in his pockets at all times.
Mr. Williams was preceded in death by his wife, Evelyn C. Head Williams and two brothers, Thomas H. Williams and Shelton Faust.
Survivors include daughter Mary Tedford of Little Rock; son Richard A. Williams of Saline, Mich.; brother Morgan J. Williams Jr. of Pottstown, Pa.; sister, Jeanne Keiser of Nanticoke, Pa.; granddaughters, Molly A. Williams and Robin S. Williams of Dearborn, Mich., Tori E Tedford of Little Rock and Rachael and Rebekah Williams of Saline, Mich.; sister-in-law Hilda Head Russell of North Little Rock and Lily Jean Heller of Germantown, Tenn.; and brother-in-law James Head of Russellville.
Funeral services were held Saturday, Dec. 27, in the First United Methodist Church with the Revs. Don Nolley, Larry Kelso and Earl Carter officiating. Interment was in Edgewood Memorial Park.
The family requests that memorials be made to First United Methodist Church Children's Ministries.
The Times - January 1, 1998
LOYD DELPHARD HEALY
Loyd Delphard Healy Sr. was a natural music maker. Influenced by his fiddle-playing father, Mr. Healy taught himself to play a wide array of musical instruments, including the guitar, banjo, piano and organ. But the fiddle was by far his favorite instrument, and the one that he relied on most often to bring joy to his loved ones' lives.
"My father was musically inclined. He could beat a guitar...and he could play a banjo, but he shined on the fiddle," said Mr. Healy's son, Loyd Healy, Jr.
Mr. Healy, who played in and won many fiddling contests during his life, died at his home in North Little Rock last Thursday following a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 87.
Born in White County to William Douglas and Marth Jane Healy, Mr. Healy spent the first 12 years of his life in Plants Chapel, where he helped his father farm cotton and corn. He was the second of four children born to the couple, who also had 12 other children from previous marriages. He was preceded in death by all his siblings.
The Healy family moved in 1924 to Romance, where Mr. Healy would meet his furture wife, Birdie Mae Watson.
"I was best friends with his sister," his wife recalled, "and he was best friends with my brother, so we always knew each other."
The couple went to church together and began dating during their teenage years. Mr. Healy often serenaded his future wife at school dances, where he played the fiddle with the Romance Ramblers, a quartet that also consisted of another Healy brother, a childhood friend, Henry Davis and Davis' brother.
Still another Healy brother often accompanied the band with "the bones,"highly polished and carved hickory sticks that are played like the spoons.
Nearly 70 years since those teenage serenades, Mrs. Healy can still remember the line of the song he sang to her most often.
"If I could but win your heart little girl, then I will have treasures untold," he sang. And captured her heart. The couple was married Aug. 15, 1934.
It was a weekday, and they had borrowed a car to drive to Liberty to meet a justice of the peace, who just happened to be a school teacher as well. So the Healys were married in front of the Liberty school during recess with all the students watching. They were married for 64 years and had three children.
In 1937 they moved to North Little Rock, where Mr. Healy farmed for awhile and then went to work as a machinist with Missouri Pacific Railroad. He retired in 1975, after which he spent much of his time making music and traveling across the country in a camper with his wife and close friends, Henry and Nora Davis.
Mr. Healy thrived on entertaining people with his music, said his youngest daughter, Pat Brown of Oklahoma City.
"My father said he couldn't stay in a motel [when he traveled] because then he couldn't play his music for people," she said.
Indeed, the fiddle won them friends wherever they went, Mrs. Healy said.
"After setting up camp, he and Henry [Davis] would begin to play around the campfire. The first thing I knew, there would be people coming from every direction to listen," she said.
It got so that some park staffers would not accept their camping fees in appreciation for the entertainment he provided, Mrs. Healy chuckled.
And relatives could count on his organizing a fiddle fest whenever he came to visit.
"Before he would come to visit us, he would call all his fiddle-playing friends in Oklahoma to let them know he was coming," his daughter said. "The phone would start ringing off the hook the day before hearrived and wouldn't stop until he left. It was just like having a teenager come home."
Around home Mr. Healy would play his fiddle for area nursing home residents and would hold special concerts in his living room for family and close friends.
"It was really kind of an honor to be asked over," his daughter said.
But entertaining with this instrument was absolutely his passion, and he seemed to adore the fiddle as much for its sound as for the family heritage it represented.
It was just in his blood, his daughter explained: "His father had played the fiddle, and gave the the fiddle that he learned to play on."
Besides his wife, daughter Pat and son-in-law David Brown, Mr. Healy is survived by his son Loyd D. Healy Jr. and his wife Billie, of Maumelle; daughters, Glenda Daniel and her husband, Jim, of Texarkana; six grandchildren, Bill Reams of Siloam Springs, Suzanne Williams of Conway, Lori Teel of Tucson, Stuart Healy of Maumelle, Doug Brown of Oklahoma City and Jennifer Brown of Denver; five great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were held last Saturday at Somers Avenue Church of Christ, where Mr. Healy was a Deacon, with Oran Burt officiating. Burial followed at Rest Hills Cemetery.
The Times - April 29, 1999