Amanda Lee Smith Taylor spent her entire adult life in the Sherman Park area of North Little Rock, and her legacy can be seen everywhere, family and friends said this week.

Mrs. Taylor, a retired teacher and relentless advocate for her neighborhood, died last Thursday after a long battle with diabetes, cancer and other ailments. She was 71.

Born in Des Arc, Mrs. Taylor's family moved to Scott while she was young; at age 17 she came to "the city" - North Little Rock - to find better work. And it was during a stint as a waitress that she met her future husband, Samuel Taylor Jr., her daughter Vickie Coby recounted.

The first time they saw each other, he "blew her away" and she "knocked his socks off," their children later heard. Mr. Taylor gave her a big tip, then waited until the bar and grill closed so he could walk her home.

Less than a year later, Coby said, they were married.

"When he decided to marry her, he went up to the house where she was sitting on the porch," she said. "He, Mandy, we're either going to get married or I'm going to hop a train to St. Louis."

When Mrs. Taylor didn't respond right away, he started walking down the street; but she ran to catch up with him and accepted his proposal. They had been married for 49 years when he died in 1996.

In 1960, after working a series of jobs, Mrs. Taylor's cousin Gloria White, with who she had been living, suggested she come along to St. Augustine Catholic Church where White taught school. Mrs. Taylor fell in love with teaching, especially the youngest of children, and remained with the school until it closed in 1976, then stayed on at the day care there until her retirement in 1992 - 32 years after she first walked in the door. In the end she was teaching the children, and even grandchildren of her early students.

Sister Carol Mishke, director of the day care, said Mrs. Taylor was ver loving of the children but also set high standards for them.

"She had very High expectations for the children and so they did things because she helped them believe they could," Niske said. "She was especially attentive to children who were having a hard time at home.

That attitude extended to everyone in her neighborhood, Mrs. Taylor's children said. People who couldn't read or write would often come to the Taylors' house for assistance, and Mrs. Taylor would help people get city help when they either didn't know where to turn when she knew the cause was something the city was not doing enough to fix.

An early example of her advocacy for people, her son Angelo Taylor said, happened when sewers were being installed in the neighborhood some 30 years ago. When Mrs. Taylor saw men were working wih shovels in the bottom of the ditch, she realized it was a hazardous situation. She went out and complained to the foreman that there should be a trench box to protect the men from possible collapses.

Her son said he tried to "shush" her because "it wasn't her business," but later she explained to him that sometime people can't speak out for themselves. Had the workers complained, she told him, they might have been fired.

"It always kind of stayed with me," her son said. "If people couldn't stand up for themselves, she'd speak out for them."

In the past few years, Taylor had concentrated her efforts of several neighborhood projects, including the Sherman Park Community Developement Corporation, which built its first house on a lot right across Second Street from Mrs. Taylor's; the Washington Avenue Community Oriented Policing substation and library; and the rededication of Sherman Park itself, whre she would go and sit on any days she felt up to it in recent months.

Outside of her nieghborhood activities, Mrs. Taylor was "an expert cook," enjoyed crafts such as sewing and, most of all, loved to sing in the choir at Bethel A.M.E. Church and anywhere else she was invited.

In fact, as her illness progressed and she had to cut back on activities, she sacrificed her neighborhood work first so she could continue attending Thursday night choir practice and Sunday services. Eventually she had to give up choir, too, so that at least she could still attend church for worship each week.

"She always taught us that faith in God would always get us through," said her daughter Vickie Coby.

Mrs. Taylor was preceded in death by her husband. She is survived by her mother, Azzlee Willians; five children; Son Angelo Taylor and wife Jeanette, son Samuel Taylor III and wife Margaret, daughter Nola Radford and husband Lee, daughter Vickie Coby and daughter Latanya Taylor; two brothers, Harrison Williams and Hayes Williams; two sisters, Earsie B. King and Betty Sisk; eight grandhcildren; one great-grandchild; and her expecially close cousin, Gloria White.

Funeral services will be held at 10/30 a.m. today at Bethel A.M.E. Church, Sixth and Cedar. Burial will follow at the National Cemetery in Little Rock.

The family requests that memorials be made to St. Augustine Catholic Social Services.

The Times - June 22, 2000

RANDY LEE BREWER

Brandi N. Montgomery

Family and friends say Randy Lee Brewer was the sort of man who would lend you his last 50 cents if you needed it, then go borrow 50 more so you would have a dollar.

Generous to a fault, they say, he was also a deeply religious man, so when his brother needed a kidney a few years ago, he willing gave him one of his.

Brewer, owner of Southern Painting & Remodeling, a home improvement contracting company, died suddenly last Monday, June 12, one day before his 20th wedding anniversary. Doctors have said they believe he had a massive heart attack. He was 43.

Born in the tiny town of Norwalk, Calif., Mr. Brewer, was the second of five children, born to Eddie Brewer, A welder from Sherwood and his wife Sue, who had grown up in North Little Rock and who decided to return to Central Arkansas to raise their youngsters.

Mr. Brewer graduated from Oak Grove High School in 1976 and worked in a number of local jobs with Coca-Cola, Teletype, and Dover's Elevators. Barbara Brewer said she noticed him first when she was just 19.

"I told his cousin I wanted to go on a date with him, so he arranged it,: she said. The two were married in North Little Rock on June 13, 1980.

His wife said that what attracted her to him were the same upbeat traits that also drew so many friends around him.

"Randy has had a very strong faith in God, he always believed in helping other people," she said.

A family friend of 15 years, Jessie Greenfield agreed: "He was a joker, who always made you smile when you were down and out."

On the job at Dover's one day, Mr. Brewer hurt his back and decided to return to California, where he worked for Hollis Williams, a construction company and learned to paint. He also learned a lot about the home construction business, enough to decide he wanted to strike out on his own. About that time, Barbara was pregnant and the couple decided to return to North Little Rock to raise their family and to let Mr. Brewer start his own business back in his hometown.

Initially, the Brewers managed the business together until it was established sufficently to allow Mr. Brewer to hire some helpers his wife said. But it was still a grueling schedule for him, she recalls.

"He could get four hours of sleep, and still work a full day."

Raymond Speigats, who worked occasionally for Mr. Brewer for 13 years, said Mr. Brewer was a joy to work for.

"He was a good natured person, very nice, generous, he always had a joke to tell and was fun to be around."

At home, daughter Charity Brewer said she will always remember her father's big heart and priority for family.

"If he borrowed money from you he would pay you back double. He would even give you more if he coud," she said.

And he loved getting the family together for backyard barbecues, fishing, camping and deer hunting.

But Mr. Brewer's youngest son Christopher Brewer, who accompanied his father on many Jobs, shared his father's love for construction and will help complete any unfinished jobs on his father's schedule, said his father's sense of humor was his strong point.

"He was like a kid, young at heart. He like to take out his teeth, and stuff pieces of gum in his mouth, then try to chew" just to get folks laughing, he said.

Mr. Brewer was a devoted sutdent of the Bible and member of Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Levy.

And after he donated a kidney to his brother Rick he loved to share his testimony regarding the miracle he believed the lord helped make possible and became a vocal advocate for organ donations. And when he died, he had always told his family, he wanted the minister to remind those in attendance about the imporatance of donating organs.

He had also hoped to give his remaining kidney to his brother but doctors told the family it was too late.

Besides his three children, Regina Nolley of Jacksonville, and Charity and Christopher Brewer of the home, Mr. Brewer is survived by his parents, Sue Brewer, Eddie R. and Lee Nell Brewer, Two grandchildren, Marcus and Nicole Nolley, both of Jacksonville, a stepmother, Lee Nell Brewer of Sherwood, grandmother, Irene Coen of Sparks, Nev., and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held at 10 last Thursday at the North Little Rock Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Kenny Meckfessel officiating and fulfiling Mr. Brewer wishes to talk about organ donations.

Burial was at McGinty Town Cemetery in Greenbrier.

The Times - June 22, 2000

THELMA DAVIS WEILER

Beloved Lakewood grandmother dies at 76

By Matthew Hodges

Thelma Davis Weiler will be remember for many things, amoung them, as a beloved wife, mother and Sunday School teacher, her family said.

But they insisted that her greatest talent lay in the role of grandmother, or "nannie," as her eight grandchildren were fond of calling her.

"Her grandkids were so important to her," her daughter Becky Finley said. [when she was dying in the hospital], there was a sparkle in her eye every time they walked in to see her."

Mrs. Weiler, 76, succumbed Saturday, June 24, to congestive heart failure brought on by cancer.

A resident of North Little Rock all of her life, Mrs. Weiler attended North Little Rock High, where she met and married her husband Robert at the age of 17.

The two remained married for the next 58 years.

While primarily a homemaker, she also had various employments as a secretary and office manager.

Mrs. Weiler was also a member of the Park Hill Baptist Church since 1958, and she taught Sunday School there for several years in it Primary department.

Friends and family remember her as an outgoing personality replete with charm and wit, and who was always concerned for the welfare of others. When you brought a gift to her house, they said, you would return home with something yourself as well.

She was a lifelong learner who never failed to take on artistic challenges, restoring various antiques which ranged from old chests to library tables. The origins of one of her granddaughter's beds lied in being rescued from a junkpile by Mrs. Weiler. With care and craftsmanship, its iron was sanded down and the frame was fully restored.

"She loved finding the hidden qualities in things and bringing them out," Finley noted.

While her husband loved to tend to their garden, Mrs. Weiler took pleasure in cooking and canning the vegetables it produced. Many times, that produce became the delectiable pleasures of others.

"She was a gift giver," recalled her sister and best friend, Jean Martin, "Whether it be a few peppers from the garden, cookies, or whatever, it was always something."

"If you were negative about someone or ever griping, she would always take up for them," remember daughter-in-law Jackie. "And after that, you would wind up feeling differently.

She was very health consciouse always maintaining a slender figure and youthful complexion. Her son, Robert Jr., recalled being chided once about his unhealthy lifestyle. And yet, her maternal instincts prompted her to spoil her son.

"She would be the first to offer me a piece of cake," he laughed. And she was always fashionable.

"Everyone's latest outfit were her yucky clothes," remember Finley. Dr. Cary Heard, who presided at her funeral, remarked that he could picture Mrs. Weiler in the heavenly streets of gold with all her finery.

Besieged by poor health brought on by cancer, Mrs. Weiler was unfatigued in spirit until the end of her life. Never complaining, her family says she was the perfect patient for her doctors.

Even though she was suffering through her illness, it was in the hospital that she would wink t those she loved who visited her, especially the grandchildren.

"Just to let you know that everything was 'all right,' recalled Finley.

Besides her sister, daughter, son and his wife, Mrs. Weiler is survived by her husband Robert Weiler Sr.; son-in-law Harry FInley of Cabot; brother Jimmy of North Little Rock; and grandchildren, Hayden and Casey Finley both of Cabot, Kerri Burris, Blake and Creed Weiler, all of Fort Smith, and Will and Julianne Whitehead, both of Maumelle.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at the chapel of Griffin Leggett Rest Hills Funeral Home and burial followed at Rest Hills Memorial Park.

The family requests memorials be made to the Park Hill Baptist Church Building Fund, 201 East "C," North Little Rock, Ark. 72202.

The Times - June 29, 2000

BERNARD CALDARERA JR

By Melissa Phillips

Family members say it was no coincidence that Bernard Caldarera Jr. was a lifelong fan of crooner Frank Sinatra.

The grandson of an immigrant, Mr. Caldarera was just as proud of his Italian roots as Old Blue Eyes and just as fond of the primciple espoused in one of Sinatra's most famous singles: I Did It My Way.

He was a stubborn, hard-headed Italian, and wanted his own way all the time," his daughter Diane Wittig recalled endearingly of her father.

But he also lived with great gusto, and when friends and family gathered this week to mourn his sudden death July 6 at age 77 of what doctor's believe was a stroke, they talked a lot about his capacity to appreciate the good things in life like dancing and spaghetti dinners with friends and famly.

Or water skiing and go-carting with his grandkids."He always remember the good and forgot the bad," Wittig said.

A handsome man with a face many said resembeled the swashbuckling Earol Flynn, he grew up on a dairy farm in Fort Smith and lived there with his parents and four siblings until he moved out on his own as a teenager and settled in North Little Rock.

Here he took a job first with the Falstaff beer distributor and then with Coca Cola. And it was while at the latter that he met his future wife, Mary, then still a student at Mount St. Mary's, whom he affectionately called "Mama" and to whom he frequently sang: "I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck."

"My mother saw a good-looking man and snagged him up," Wittig said of their courtship. The couple would raise four children and a slew of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whom Mr. Caldarera adored taking water skiing, go-carting and fishing.

In a sense it was even because of the interest of his grandchildren, that he became involved in beekeeping, Wittig said, but he would end up immersing himself in the hobby enough to became a member of the Central Arkansas Beekeepers Association and to harvest enough of his own homey to sell at the gas station he co-owned with his son-in-law.

The B & M Inc. gas station and car wash at 47th and Camp Robinson was his work world for 31 years, even after he lost one leg to diabetes, and it was a workplace that only served to fuel his lifelong love of cars, family members say.

If he brought a new car home, he just expected everyone to drop everything to marvel at it and want a ride in it, they said. So, of course, he taught his children how to drive at a very early age.

"He would teach us how to drive by sitting us on his lap and letting us steer," Wittig recalled.

His zeal for life made him the sort of loyal friend who would help financially if it were needed and the sort of father who never missed a football or basketball game of his children's.

He was also the sort of father who noticed immediately when his daughter, who he was just teaching to swim, was in trouble when she fell into the water at Willow Springs. Instinctively he swam over to rescue her before she went under, Wittig said.

He was adamant about watching certain televiosn shows, especially the soap operas "As the World Turns" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" in his later years, and during its long run, the glamorous "Dallas," which he would watch at his daughter Laura's house every Friday Night.

But he was just as adamant about being a hard worker and a devout Catholic. And he loved to dance, fill up on spaghetti and meatballs every Saturday night and be surrounded by family.

At Holiday gatherings "the beer was flowing, dancing was going on and spaghetti was being eaten," Wittig said. He danced all his life and insisted that everybody [else] dance."

Besides his wife, Mary Garstka Caldarera, and daughter Diane Wittig, he is survived by a son, Bernard "Mickey" Caldarera of Shreveport, La.; two other daughters, Laura Robinette and Deb Phillips, both of North Little Rock; a brother, Louis Caldarera; thee sisters, Ouida Nagel, Mary Cimarossa and Earlean Hermsen; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Monday, July 10 at St. Mary's Catholic Church. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.

The family requests that memorials be made to the Carmelite Nuns, 7201 w. 33St., Little Rock, Ar 72204, or a favorite charity.

The Times - July 13, 2000

STEVE PHAUP

He was committed to kids and his community

By Eric Francis

As a youth in New Hampshire, Steve Phaup was the kind of student every principal knew by name - usually because he had been sent to them for causing trouple.

Tempered by the guiding hands of coaches at his local Boys Club and instilled with self-discipline during a four-year stint with the U.S. Marines, however the rambunctious youth grew into a man dedicated to his community and committed to helping children with special needs. He would go on to earn a doctorate in special education administration and became director of the North Little Rock School District's special services department - until he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and retired to commit all his energy to fighting it.

The battle lasted almost eight years. Dr. Phaup died on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at age 57.

Born in Sanford, Maine, Walter Stephen Phaup was the third of four children of a factory worker and his wife who spent much of his early youth in Manchester, N.H., where he hung out at the coaches who eventurally influenced his life. But when he was 15, his father, who worked for a shoe manufacturer, was transferred to a new plant in Osceola, Ark., where by age 16, in trouble again, he was kicked out of school.

He decided to join the Marines and that decision helped turn his life around, recounted his longtime friend Ward 4 Alderman Murry Witcher.

We talked often about our military experience, said Witcher, who delivered th eulogy at the funeral. I think that was drfing time in his life. He developed self-confidence and self-discipline. He got his GED and was able to go back to school and get his bachelor's and master's degrees.

After he left the military, Dr. Phaup enrolled at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where he met a young woman from Carlisle, Valerie Fletcher, who would become his wife of 32 years.

A media specialist with the North Little Rock School District today, she recalls exactly what attracted her: "He was a Yankee," she said, and that made him interesting.

"But he gave up all that Yankee stuff a long time ago," she quickly added. "He was a Southerner at heart.

The two started dating almost immediately and "just fell head over heels," she said. They were married about a year later and eventually brought two children, into the world.

Dr. Phaup went to work at Jonesboro High School and started his master's degree studies in special education. He alway kidded that he chose his graduate major according to which department had the most attractive female professor sitting at the table on registration day, his wife said. But she knew better.

"He alway had a special place in his heart for kids with special needs," she said. "Kids and the community - that was his focus" his entire life.

Later the couple moved to Alabama, where Dr. Phaup went to work at the University of Alabama, started his doctoral studies and became a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Coach Bear Bryant and the Crimson Tide - a loyalty he would never lose, even after they moved to Marianna, Ark., in the mid-1970s.

"I always blamed Steve Phaup for my oldest son going to the University of Alabama," joked Witcher. "He took a good, loyal God-fearing Razorback kid and turned him into a rabid Alabama fan."

The Phaups spent 10 years in Marianna, where Dr. Phaup decided the high school needed a baseball team.

"He came up with a proposal for the school board to build a baseball field," recalled his wife. "He really paid tribute to the men who had coached him at the Boys Club in Manchester, N.H."

He convinced the boad, then led the effort to build the field- just as he would do many times again at different locations including the North Little Rock Boys & Girls Club and at Lynch Drive Elementary School. Local businessman Bob Callahan was brought in on thos projects, providing equipment and manpower, often until late into the night.

"Seems like we did six or seven fields," Callahan recalled. "He just wanted to help kids, 'Super' is not enough for what he did for the kids."

After returning to Alabama for a year to finish his doctoral disertation, the family-including daughter Amberly and son Stephen-moved to North Little Rock where Dr. Phaup became director of special services for the School District, where he was in charge of everything from services for students with disablilties to school nurses.

Outside of work, Dr. Phaup loved to play golf-and to watch their talented son, who was name the state Junior Golfer to the Year. Dr. Phaup also enjoyed sailing, and the Phaups hosted a half-dozen exchange students over the years, as well.

But during his battle with cancer, him most constant companion was his dog, Fritz, whom Valerie Phaup called her husband's "therapist" The terrier was an honorary pallbearer at Dr. Phaup's funeral.

He was preceded in death by his fater. Besides his wife and two children, he is survived by his mother, of Sanford, Maine; brother Jim Phaup of Many, La., and Dick Phaup of Manchester, N.H.; and sister Phyllis Bachi of Wells Beach, Maine.

A memorial service was held Saturday, Sept. 12, at Park Hill Baptist Church with the Rev. Luke Flesher presiding.

Funeral arrangements were by cremation, with interment in Carlisle. The family requests that memorials be made to the North Little Rock Boys & Girls Club.

The Times - Septemter 21, 2000