| William Chandler Page | Georgia Mills Berger | Neal Edward Brown | Walter Warner Davidson | Elaine Irene Davidson |
William Chandler Page, 86, of North Little Rock died Sunday of a kidney infection. Maj. Gen. (Ret) William C. Page Jr. of Maumelle, his son, said his father won Southeast Conference laurels as a light heavyweight and middleweight at Mississippi State University, where he served as student president in his senior year and earned a degree in agricultural engineering in 1933.
As would luck have it, the Olympic team's loss was his gain; instead of boxing for Old Glory, Mr. Page met his wife Venola in Tupelo, Miss.
The Pages moved to south Arkansas in 1934 and he mapped the region for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Part of his job was helping depression-era farmers reclaim land, his daughter, Billie Ann Myers of Jacksonville, noted.
Then, as later, he "Never turned people down when they needed help," she said.
World War II sent him to China and duty as a U.S. Army infantry captain until 1945 when the Red Chinese arrived to shell Kunming.
Mr. Page returned to the Soil Conservation Service in Forrest City before going into the farm equipment business, which occupied him up to 1955 when Gov. Orval Faubus called on him to become the Guard's assistant adjutant general.
For nine months during the Central crises, when Adjustant Gen. Sherman Clinger was under federal orders, Mr. Page served as acting adjutant general.
"He had a very calming influence on people" when tensions rose at Central, Myers said. He was the highest level meetings, she said and was able to exert leadership that helped stabilize the situation.
Mr. Page had a key role in organizing the National Guard in east Arkansas and restructuring the state organization, the family said. He retired from the Guard in 1970.
William Page Jr. said his father loved to fish and that they took fishing trips on the White River for 30 years. He said his father influenced him to become a career military officer, though it sometimes meant traveling long distances from overseas bases to come home.
Page recalled his father was encouraged in 1958 to run for governor when the thinking was that Faubus would not seek an unprecendeted third term. He didn't get his chance because Faubus went against convention, and he, in turn, remained loyal to the governor.
Mr. Page, who also played end on the football team, was inducted into the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.
"He believed he had an obligation to put the very best of himself in whatever he did," Myers said.
Mr. Page was born in Red Bay, Ala., and is preceded in death by his wife, Venola. He us survived by Myers and William Page Jr.; a grandson, William C. Page III of Little Rock; three granddaughters, Lee Ann Martin of Paragould, Olivia Farrell of North Little Roc, and Allison Carpenter of Fort Worth, Texa; and seven great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Thursday, Dec. 19, at Rest Hills Funeral Home Chapel with burial in the National Cemetery, Little Rock; - The Times, 12/19/1996
Georgia Mills Berger loved people and like to be involved in organization that brought people together and accomplished things.
Active in her church, an organization of the wives of railroad worker and a small circle of North Little Rock High Scool graduates of the Class of 1929, she was an upbeat woman of boundless energy and enthuiasm about everything from flower arranging to cooking to entertaining, and, in her later years, doting on her two grandchildren.
Mrs. Berger died Wednesday, Sept. 22, of deteriorting health following a fall a few months ago that had broken her hip. She was 89.
Born in Little Rock, she was the next to the youngest of six children of Ida Rosamond and George Mills, who moved when she was still in school to North Little Rock where her father drove a bread truck.
A walk down a street at age 14 would determine much of her future, when the then 13-year-old Charles Berger spotted her, asked his aunt who that beauty was and vowed: "I'm going to marry that girl."
And marry her he did. The two began dating in high school and married soon after graduation.
He worked at Watson's Grocery in the Mid-City neighborhood, where they would eventually build a house on Magnolia Street, and it was not long before they had their first and only child, Charles junior.
In time her husband would take a job with the railroad working his way up to locomotive engineer in the days when one perk of that job was a once-a-year "foreign pass" for the family that allowed them to travel on other railroad lines to other states as well as Canada and Mexico. Her son said those summer trips were treasured memories for the three of them that drew them very close together as he was growing up.
But Mr. Berger also treasured her various circles of friends and kept up with them by graciously entertaining small groups in her home as well as by being active in various organization and social gatherings around town.
She especially enjoyed the monthly luncheon of the Twenty-Niners Club, a group of 1929 graduates of North Little Rock High who got together regularly for many years.
"It was really a treat for her," said her son Charles Jr. of North Little Rock.
She was similarly active in the Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, an organization of railroad wives who, among other things, lobbied for better working conditions for their husbands.
In the Mid-1950's she took a job in the purchasing department of St. Vincent's Infirmary hospital where she worked for nearly two decades. She retired in 1974.
Her church, First United Methodist in North Little Rock, became more important to her after her retirement, her son says. She, in return, also became more important to the church.
She organized the VIP group there, a social group of congregation members age 55 and older that still meets once a month for a potluck and program. She was also a member of the church's Morton-Wayland Circle that works to raise money for missions both in the city and abroad.
At home her favorite pastime was making decorative crafts like rooster made entirely of peas and beans - man making arrangement with the roses that her husband grew so beautifully in their yard.
Her niece Carol Sterne also recalls the beautiful, life-like silk irises Mr. Berger could make.
You would think they were something you could [only] buy in a store," Sterne recalls.
And ineitably she would give these beautiful things she had made to friends and famiy members - token of friendship from a woman who more than anything was a "people person," Sterne said.
"She loved her family...she loved being with people...and she always smiled a lot," said her son Charles.
She was preceded in death four years ago by her husband, Beside her son and his wife Paulette Berger of North Little Roc, and her niece Carol and hre husband Joe of Little Rock, she is survived by two grandsons, Alan Berger of Dallas, Texas, and Mike Berger of Fayetteville.
Funeral services were held Saturday, Sept. 25, at Roller Owens Funeral Home. The Rev. Don Nolley officiated. - The Times October 7, 1999
He and his wife and three of their children moved into their new Park Hill home on Starfield Drive just last September, but eight months later this outgoing man had already had an impact on them.
"He was the type of person who loved to visit, and he always accepted people as they are and gave them the benefit of the doubt," recounted his wife of 26 years, Brenda Brown. "We've only been here a few months, but all the neighbors were at the funeral.
Mr. Brown died Monday, April 12, from a stroke following a heart attack one day before he was 52.
An employee of Union Pacific Railroad for nearly 25 years, Mr. Brown was transferred to North Little Rock in 1986 from Salt Lake City, Utah, his birthplace.
He was born June 16, 1946, the only son and youngest of two children of Edward Brown, a car man for Union Pacific Railroad, and his wife Afton.
His sister, Sandra Sargent remember her brother as "a towhead, a chunky kid, kind of shy with a dry sense of humor" who tended to play by himself. Sensitive and artistic, he loved to draw and paint and build model cars.
After high School his creative talent lead him to a two-year course in carpentry at a technical school, followed by several years working in wood working.
It was during that time that Mr. Brown met his future wife, Brenda Johnson, who was from Kanosh, a small farming community in the middle of Utah and who had a job in Salt Lake City during Summer break. One of her co-workers, who was the wife of a friend of Mr. Brown, arranged the blind date.
Mrs. Brown said it wasn't long before she decided he was the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
"He was so easy to talk to, I felt comfortable with him right from the start," she said. "I knew from the third date I wanted to marry him."
After a nine-month courtship the couple married on Aug. 19, 1972.
Soon after Mr. Brown completed a four-year apprenticeship with Union Pacific Railroad which launched his career as a machinist.
In his spare time, he pursued his wood-working love, taking up furniture-building when their first child was still a baby.
"We were afraid she'd bounce out of a single bed, so he built a bed with rails to fit the crib mattress," his wife recalled. Since then, he has built more bedroom furniture as well as a 10-foot dining table and matching china cabinets.
He also nurtured his lifelong love of drawing, making cartoons for the children's rooms when they were little, sketches from photos or life - whatever struck his fancy - in praphite and colored pencil.
He also loved to take his children fishing, which he did on the Saturday before he died. That night he visited with his sister by phone for an hour and a half. The next evening, when he was building planter boxes for his front yard, he had a heart attack.
"The last two days, he was doing things he loved," Mrs. Brown said. "He was very dedicated to his family and hildren. Not only was he my husband, he was my best friend."
Besides his wife, survivors include his son, Dustin Brown of North Little Rock; four daughters, Tamara Marlatt, and her husband, Mark, of Sherwood; Brittany Brown of Jacksonville; and Lacey and Tevette Brown of North Little Rock; a sister, Sandra Sargent of Murray, Utah; and four grandchildren, Morgan and Brandon Marlatt, Chystena Gist and Adisha Minor.
Funeral services were Saturday at Sylvan Hills United Methodist Church with Rev. Jerry Collins officiating. Interment was at Rest Hills Memorial Park. - The Times - April 22, 1999
The ninth of 10 children of a grocer in Rogers, Ark., he was a cum laude graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law where he served as editor of the Law Review.
Later he found the law firm of Davidson, Horne & Hollingsworth, where he practieced for 29 years and built a reputation for his forthright and aggressive litigation skills.
He was appointed by Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller as the Arkansas Securities Commissioner in 1969. He was inducted as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1989.
Committed to helping to improve understanding among people of different races, creeds and sexes, he served over the years as chairman of both the National Conference of Christians & Jews and Common Cause of Arkansas. He also was a member of the NAACP, the ACLU, Lion's Club International and the League of Women Voters, also the Pulaski County and Arkansas Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Arkansas Bar Foundation.
Closer to home, Dr. Davidson was a charter member of the First United Methodist Church, where he taught a Sunday school class for more than 30 years, a class that honored him a few years ago by calling themselves the Walter's Seekers."
He was as thorough in his reading of the Bible as he was in his practice of law," said his brother Mark Davidson of Rogers. "He must have read the Bible at least 50 times.
Over the years his other hobbies and interests included travel, playing tennis and golf, hunting, fishing, church activities an coaching his sons' little league football team and lending a helping hand to those in need.
But quietly and always behind the scenes, he also involved himself for many years in the state's Democratic Party, including the presidential campaigns of Sen. George McGovern in 1972 and Bill Clinton in 1988.
Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Jane Williams Davidson; two sons, Derrick Mark Davidson of Batesville and Darrin Franklin Davidson of Memphis; four grandchildren, Landon, Tyler Taryn and Barton; brothers, Victor Davidson of Huber Heights, Ohio and Mark Davidson of Ward; sisters, Ann Ahrens of Fort Worth, Texas, and Cherri Furrow of Sherwood.
Funeral services were held Monday, Jan. 11, at First United Methodist Church of North Little Rock with the Revs. Donald Nolley and Sam Teague officiating.
Interment was at the Gainesville Cemetery in Gainesville.
The family request that Memorials be made to the University of Arkansas Law School at Fayetteville or the First United Methodist Church in North Little Rock.; - The Times - January 14, 1999
ELAINE IRENE DAVIDSON
She was very determined, and she had so much pride," Fudge said of the way her childhood mentor approached the terminal cancer that was sapping her strength "She was such a fighter,"
Mrs. Davidson, of Cabot, a teacher at Lakewood Elementary School in North Little Rock for more than a decade, died of pancreatic cancer Friday, Jan. 1, at UAMS with her family at her side. She was 69.
Born in Detroit and raised on a farm in Port Huron, the second of four children of a Polish immigrant turned entrepreneur and his wife, Mrs. Davidson learned from the hart time of her partents how to stay upbeat and how to lift the spirits of those around her, family members say.
"She was such an encourager, very complimentary. She made everyone feel special," said her colleague Cara Clinton, who taught in the classroom across the hall from her at Lakewood Elementary.
"She had a way with kind words, he alway called me 'her little Cara,' and she loved the kids and the kids loved her."
But she also had a very unique style about her, loved the color purple, wore her reddish hair in a beehive, always had a tan, and always kept her hands perfectly manicured with pink frosted nail polish, Clinton recalled.
Fudge said Mrs. Davidson's beautiful nails helped her identify her as her former teacher that first day she was admitted to the hospital.
"I had gone into her room to take her vital signs, and I noticed those nails and her name and I said, 'Mrs. Davidson. You were my teacher."
She had come to Arkansas when her Air Force husband, who she had met shortly after she had started her teaching career, was assigned to the Little Rock Air Force Base.
After he retired, they decided they liked Arkansas so much they would stay here, said her daughter, Laura Stanley, who has settle with her doctor husband and three small children, in North Little Rock herself.
Mrs. Davidson's husband would open the Mr. Dunerbaks delicatessen in McCain Mall, and Mrs. Davidson would teach school.
While she enjoyed gardening and singing, she especially enjoyed touching the lives of other people and encouraging them, family and friends say.
She had a delightful sense of humor that children, just loved, her daughter said. But she also felt enormously challenged by the district's new integrated classrooms to get the black and white youngsters to accept eah other and their differences.
"She taught us to get along with each other, that race and other differences didn't matter," Fudge recalled. "She was a very beautiful person."
She was preceded in death by a son, Timothy Brian Davidson.
Besides her daughter Laura and son-in-law, Dr. Robert Stanley, she is survived by her husband, Lt. Col. Richard Earl Davidson of Cabot; son, Brian Richard Davidson and his wife, Myra, of Little Rock; two brothers, Roman Krupczak of San Diego and Peter Krupczak II of Chicago; one sister, Christine Anderson of Pompano Beach; and one aunt, Mary Krupczak Patrick of Amsterdam, N.Y.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, Jan. 5, at St. Jude Parish in Jacksonville with Father Charles Thessing presiding.
The family request that memorials be made to the Arkansas Cancer Research Center. - The Times- January 14, 1999