| Sanford Mertens | Raymond Jackson Lackie Sr | Dan Winn | Mary Gaye Bickell | Chuck Jones |
It was just one of the quirky and endearing qualities of this family man, retired pipefitter, and to longtime residents, the owner of the late 1940s donut shop on East 13th Street, who died of a heart attack last week at age 83.
Nicknamed "red" by friends and family for his ruddy complexion and rust colored hair, he had in recent years loved watching old reruns of the crusty sitcoms "Sanford and Sons" and All In The Family" or any John Wayne Western he could find on television.
Unless, that is , his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, were playing.
"You could tell there was a game on, because he would be screaming at the television," chuckled his daughter, Mary Rogers.
Always his own person, he was the youngest of five children of a farmer from Casscoe, Ark, who left home at age 16 at the start of the Great Depression and headed for Little Rock, where he found work first as a carpenter, then in a night club owned by his sister and brother-in-law. But soon the first rumblings of war began, and he signed up with the U.S. Army and eventually headed off to fight the war in an artillery division in Europe, where he rose to the rank of master sergeant.
Returning hom in his mid 20s, he would beet his wife-to-be in a bar in Fort Sill, Okla., when he rodered a drink and slammped his glass down so hard that he broke the glass. And she, the waitress who had served him, made him pay for it.
"He gave me 35 cents, and tol me to put the [broken] glass in a paper bag because he like to keep what he had paid for," his wife Ann recalled.
In time the two were formally introduced by a mutual soldier friend and dated for a year before they set a wedding date.
But the day came and she got wet feet. "He was ready to go through with it, but I wasn't...so we didn't get married. And after that,neither he nor his friends would talk to me." she said.
A year passed, and she moved away, but somehow he kept tabs on her, paid her a cordial visit and changed her mind.
The two were married on Feb. 4, 1944, and moved to Little Rock and then North Little Rock, where they raised two daughters.
In early years of their mattiage, Mr. Mertens and his wife owned and operated the Melocreme Donuts shop on 13th Street, a bustling sweets shop that also served soft ice cream and was frequented by many teenagers and North Little Rock Police officers among others.
"The shop would be filled with kids from the local schools standing in line," said his daughter Mary, who still remembers getting up early to go on donut delivery routes with her father.
In 1951, he sold the demanding business, which was later demolished to make way for the freeway, but "to this day, people still want the recipe," his wife said.
Meanwhile Mr. Mertens had begun training with the Plumbers Steamfitters and Pipefitters Local No 155 to be a union pipefitter, a job that would support his family well but take him all over the United States to missle bases and power plants and arsenals as far away as Alaska. And his daughter Mary says for years later he could recall the year, month and day of virtually every one of those assignments.
Back home he liked to play cards and fish for fun-and follow his favorite sports. He was also a 32nd Degree Mason and member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Indeed, his wife said his legacy will be his good nature.
"He was the easiest man to cook for, I had no complaints as long as there was enough food on his plate. He also cooked the best buttermild biscuits in the world," she said.
His daughter Mary agreed that his was a good cook, but she frowned at the thought of his favvorite sandwich of peanut butter, onion, and raw potato.
An through all of his rugged individuality, she saw his good nature, too.
"He roared like a lion, but was as gentle as a lamb." she said.
He loved to light up the faces of his children, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she said.
"He had this little dance called the Hendaw Shuffle he would do for the children to make them laugh."
Besides his wife, and fadaughter Mary Rogers of the home, he is survived by his other daughter and son-in-law, Debbie and Bob Williams of Gravel Ridge; one Granddaughter, Michael Ann Galloway, (Dr. Randy Galloway) of Dallas; three grandsons, Tony Alan Rogers, of the home; Aaron B. Williams and Clayton M. WIlliams both of Gravel Ridge; step-grandson; two great-grandsons, Hunter and Micah Galloway, of Dallas; and one step-daughter, Jessica Weiner. Funeral services were held Tuesday, June 27 at the North Little Rock Funeral Home chapel with the Revs. K.Alvin Pitt and Harold Chandler officiating. Burial was at Pinecrest Memorial Park. The Times - July 6, 2000
RAYMOND JACKSON LACKIE SR
A native of Enland, Ark., the next to the yhoungest of nine children of a laborer and his homemaker wife, Mr. Lackie had been a stellar athlete already in high school, playing on the football and basketball team, where in 1940 he won the state championship in the 440 and second place in the 880.
He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941, rising to the rank of master sergeant and serving during World War II primarily in the South Pacific, for which he was awarded the American Defense Medal, the Asiatic Theater Ribbon with four stars, and a Unit Citation Devise with an oak lear cluster.
"He told me he saved one man's life, he and another fellow pulled him out of a fire, although the man ended up dying later," his wife Sue said. "But he didn't like to talk about that time of his life very much. I suppose it was too painful."
In 1945, he retured from the war and soon thereafter met his wife-to-be in the post office in nearby Carlisle. They would marry in 1946 and raise three sons.
He was working in a rice mill when a friend told him about a job with Kimball Motor Freight, his wife recalled. That would be his introduction to the trucking and eventually lead to his 15-year stint with ABF Freight in charge of statewide marketing and sales.
With close ties among local trucking circles, he served for a time as president of Central Arkansas Traffic Club, an association of trucking officials.
But he was similarly know for the many hears he coached Little League and Pony League baseball at Burns Park while his two sons were growing up and for the nearly 30 years he spent officiating at high school and college basketball games.
"He was always very athletic, and he loved basketball, and he also loved to fish and hunt," his wife said.
He was also active in Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church, where he was a member of the Crusaders Bible Class and a tireless organizer and promoter of the annual fish fry fund-raiser.
"Someone said if he could have been at his own funeral he would have been there selling tickets to that fish gry," his wife allowed.
Besides his wife of 54 years, Mr. Lackie is survived by his three sons and their wives, Jackie and Vicki Lackie of North Little Rock, Jimmy and Margie Lackie of Memphis, and Josh, Taylor, and Chloe Lackie, all of Memphis, and Jana Lackie Dallas.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, June 27, at Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church, and burial was in the Carlisle Cemetery.
The family requests that memorials be made to the Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church or to a scholarship at the UAMS College of Nursing, a tribute, his wife said, to how good the nursing staff there had been to him in recent months. - The Times - July 6, 2000
DAN WINN
That showed his devotion to his career as a radio engineer, which he started in 1929 and worked at nearly until his death, which came Monday at age 86.
Winn wa a natvie of Gilmer, Texas, attended the Gulf Radio School in New Orleans and came to Little Rock in 1930 for what he thought would be a temporary position at Radio Station KGJF, whick later became KARK and eventually KARN.
Winn stayed 47 years, leaving in 1977 to start his own radio-engineering consulting business, Dan Winn and Associates.
In those early days there were only three station in the Little Rock area-KGJE, KGHI and KLRA-and just 13 in the entire state; today there are 120, and Dan Winn has served the equipment at most of them.
You had to really love the job in the early days because stations ran off batteries and motor generators, and therefore, could operate only a few hours a day. Networks were just getting started, phonograph records were too poor quality to be broadcast so everything was live.
Ted Snider, the retired president and owner of KARN, said Winn knew more about AM radio transmitters than anyone in the country.
"He was the consummate engineer, who could fix anything, a truly amazing person." Snider marveled at how well Winn adapted to the changes in radio.
But still his job, with KARK and on his own, was difficult. The only time a station really needs a radio engineer, Snider pointed out, is when something is wrong, which usually is caused by severe weather. Hundreds of time over the years, Winn would load his tools in the back of his station wagon at his home at 3128 North Magnolia and take off in the middle of a storm to put somebody's radio station back on the air.
In later years at KARN, Winn was instrumental in creating three state networks of radion stations-Southern Quality Network, Live Better Electrically and the Arkansas Radio Network. Win was a member of the Nation Radio Pioneers, president in 1956 of the Little Rock Institute of Radion Engineers and was honored twice by the Arkansas Broadcasters Association.
He also found time for civic work in North Little Rock, serving 16 years on the Planning Commission and one term on the Chamber of Commerce board.
Youngsters in the Park Hill neighborhood knew Winn well. He liked to show them his collection of radio-station microphones and also his pride and joy-his orchids. For years he raised them in a greenhouse that at first was in an underveloped area behind North Little Rock High School but that he later moved to his back yard. The Winns traveled all over the country to attend orchid shows.
Snider remembered that hobby well. "Every year at our Christmas party, Dan brought my wife Pat an orchid," he said.
Winn is survived by his wife, Johnnie Lindsey Winn, a native of Little Rock. They were married in 1936, and Mrs. Winn soon became the first woman in Arkansas to become a licensed amateur radio operator. Mrs. Winn found Park Hill Florist in 1956 and operated it until 1970 when she sold it. The Winns had one daughter, Jan, who died in an automobile accident in 1967.
Funeral services were held Tuesday at the North Little Rock Funeral Home by the Rev. Larry E. Kelso. Burial was in Roselawn Memorial Cemetery. - The Times - 3/26/1998
MARY GAYE BICKELL
"She'd never seen an episode of Seinfeld," said her husband of 14 years, David Bickell, stil amazed by his wife's indifference to what is the centerpiece of so many households in the 1990s.
Mrs. Bickell, a computer programmer with a zest for life and a tender way with children, died on Sunday March; 15 after a year long battle with cancer.
She had grown up in North Little Rock attending Levy Elementary School, Ridge Road Middle School and North Little Rock High School in the Class of 1980.
Then she attended Pulaski Vocational Technical School, majoring in computer programming before taking a job at Eclipsys for about 10 years.
Edith Lewis, Mrs. Bickell's mother, describes her daughter as very active and athletic, a child who had grown up loving kickball, volleyball and even tetherball."Anything with balls," Lewis said.
She carried that interest into motherhood, never missing the chance to play ball or swim with her two sons, ages 7 and 10, said her longtime friend Brenda Smith.
She had met her husband through mutual friends, and the two were married on Aug. 13, 1983.
But church work was important to her, too. Together her friend Brenda and she had been part of a the bus ministry at Glad Tidings Assembly of God when they were teenagers, picking up children to bring to church. She also helped out in the Sunday School classes there.
"She was very loving and she did love children," smith said, "She loved to help in the children's church.
In fact, later when she and her husband joined First Assembly of God Church, "we worked [together] in the nursery at the church," David Bickell said.
She had thought of going into a career that worked with children, she had told him. And unlike most couples, she actually enjoyed it when it was their turn in a group that did date night babysitting for each other.
For most of her boundles energy she saved for her famil, friends and family members say.
"When she wasn't at work, she was with her family," going to the lake, the beach, or taking the kids to the ball field, Brenda Smith said.
And she expecially liked an activity that amounted to a good workout, her husband said.
"She loved to eat sweets," he said, "so she exercised so she wouldn't feel bad [about eating them]
"But what friends and family members say they will remember most about this remarkable young woman was her warmth and vibrancy.
"Anyone Mary came into contact with she made a connectin with," Smith said. "When she worked at Western Sizzlin' [for about three years] people would come in and ask for her."
Besides her husband and Mother, she is survived by sons Justin and Kyle.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. on March 18 at First Assembly of God Church with the Rev. Alton Garrison officiating. Interment Was at Edgewood Memorial Park Cemetery.
The family requests that memorials be sent to Arkansas Children's Hospital. - The Times - March 26, 1998
CHUCK JONES
As an engineer on some major public and private projects around the state, Mr. Jones was charged with ensuring that proper standards were met. But even those contractors who had to bend to hisengineering directives said he had the ability to explain the needed requirements, be it a project engineer or the worker in the field, with amazing expertise as well as empathy for what it would require.
Mr. Jones, who spent 34 years as a civil engineer and manager of the construction division of Graver Engineers, died unexpectedly on Sunday, Feb. 18, at age 82.
Born in Muskogee, Okla, the grew up in Mena, the youngest of eight children, in a family with limited finances managed almost entirely by his mother, said Clara Jordan JOnes, his widow and second wife.
"His first job was digging worms and selling them for a penny when he was 8 years-old," she recalled the stories he had told her about growing up. "He clipped hedges, then later got a job at the movie theater. He was too young to work there legally and they would hide him if there was anybody there to check for child labor."
But he was bright and motiviated, played football in high school and was alway very popular, family members say. And his memtors were his older brothers, two of whom became judges later in life.
He would make his way fro Mema High School to the University of Texas in Austin by balancing various jobs and by making good grades, family members say. After college, Mr. Jones worked a brief stint with the state highway department befor joining Garver.
Clara Jones said one common thread throughout her husband's life was his love for his children and step-children.
"He would read tot hem from his favorite children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are.' He would wave his hands and do all the different voices, and they all loved it. He loved to dance, but had no rhythm. He'd clap his hands but couldn't clap to th e beat. He loved to sing, but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. He would waske the children, and me up every Sunday singing "Amazing Grace" at the top of his lungs."
Causey Cromer, Mr. Jones' step-daughter, agreed, recalling how he always treated her like he was her real dad.
"He disciplined us like were were his own and he loved us like we were his own," she said.
Mr Jonews' civil engineering coworker Michael Griffin and Mr. Jonnes was similarly strct but fair on meeting specifications on construction jobs.
"He had a reputation all over the state, and all over the region, for making contractors tow the line," Griffin said. "I got a lot of lessons from him, and contractors did too...He had more knowledge about his job in his pinky finger than most people" have in the heads.
Township Builders owner Spence Churchill, one of may contractors who leaned on Mr. Jones for advice on projects, spoke of his professionalism.
"I'm going to miss his wisdom," Churchill said.
His accomplishments included directing the Rock Street Tunnel in Little Rock and the North Little Rock Hydroelectric Plant. He also oversaw work at the Little Rock and North Little Rock airports.
Neil Bryant, chairman of the North Little Rock Airport Commission for 15 years, said Mr. Jones was a perfectionist, but always willing to work with eople toward a solution.
"The most recent time I worked with him was about three weeks ago on the area drainage project," Bryant said. "He had a marvelous wealth of knowledge and a good dose of common sense to go with it. Many times he didn't need to refer to books, he could just look at something and know what was needed...And he always had a story to liven things up. He brought a lot of joy to any group.
So it was not surprising, Bryant said, that more than 500 mourners packed the Lakewood United Methodist Church last by the Rev. Don Eubanks.
Jones' secretary, Nedra Rouse said his loss is a major blow to Garver Engineering and all who knew him.
"He will be so missed," she said." He was the best boss you could imagine."
Besides his wife, Clara Jordan Jones and stepdaughter Casey Cromer, he is survived by four other children, Jamie Smith of Big Pine Kay, Fla., Chuck Jones of Sarasota, Fla., Hal Cromer of Memphis and stepson Patrick Cromer of North Little Rock; five grandchildren, Jacob Smith of Big Pine Key, Fla., Anthony Jones and John Michael Jones of Sherwood and Bailey Jones and Sarah Jones of Sarasota, Fla.
The family requests that memorials be made to the Garver Scholastic Scholarship Fund or the American Diabetes Association. - The Times - March 1, 2001