Past and present holders of government offices, once renowned college athletes, judges and attorneys, physicians, faith leaders, restaurateurs, media giants, craftsmen and business tycoons are among the Arkansans who died in 2023.
Marion Berry, the folksy former seven-term U.S. representative from this state’s 1st Congressional District, died this year as did current elective office holders Arkansas Treasurer Mark Lowery and Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Robin Wynne.
Pulaski County in particular lost three local government giants: former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays, Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore and former County Judge Buddy Villines.
In the news media, Meredith Oakley, a former political columnist and editor for this newspaper, died in July. Jim Pitcock, who spent more than three decades as news director at KATV Channel 7, died in October.
More than 30,000 peopledie in Arkansas every year. In 2022, that number was 37,850, down from 38,132 in 2020 and 40,081 in 2021, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is highlighting a fraction of those who died in the past 12 months. The list of Arkansans featured here is subjective and does not in any way include everyone who made life better or interesting for their families, their communities, and their state and nation.
Information about the individuals comes from articles and obituaries in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, from funeral homes and from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Robert “Marion” Berry, 80, died May 19. A pharmacist and a farmer, Berry was elected to Congress from Arkansas’ rural 1st District in 1996 and served seven terms, ending in January 2011. A Blue Dog Democrat, Berry was known as a straight-talker who advocated for farmers, for an end to the Cuban trade embargo and for rural health care. House Democrats on the Agriculture Committee called Berry a champion of American agriculture who brought “tractor-seat common sense to Washington, D.C.”
Berry once referred to a congressional colleague on the House floor as a “Howdy-Doody-looking nimrod,” The Associated Press reported. And unhappy with a Federal Emergency Management Agency response to an Arkansas disaster, he called the agency “https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/31/noted-leaders-business-figures-among-arkansans/”an incompetent bunch of nincompoops that simply can’t run their agency.”
A former alderman in Gillett, Berry was a backer of the annual “Coon Supper,” a fundraising event where raccoon meat is served that evolved into a must-attend rite of passage for the state’s aspiring and veteran politicians.
Former President Bill Clinton earlier this year called Berry a “fine leader, a completely authentic person and a great friend. For more than 40 years, Hillary and I treasured his support, valued his no-nonsense advice and loved his amazing sense of humor.”
Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Robin Wynne, 70, of Fordyce died June 21. On the state’s high court since 2014, on the Court of Appeals for four years before that, and a former state legislator, Wynne said in 2022 that he had written more than 250 opinions while on the Supreme Court. Those included decisions on a voter identification issue and on allowing a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana to be on the ballot, The Associated Press reported.
Wynne also was on the court in 2017 when eight executions were scheduled over a two-week period — before the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug expired. The court faced an onslaught of appeals during that time. Wynne was part of the majority that blocked three of the executions. Arkansas ultimately executed four inmates.
“Justice Wynne could have been anything — a pastor, a politician, a businessman — and chose instead to devote his life to Arkansans and the law,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in June. “For that, we are all eternally grateful.”
Arkansas Treasurer Mark Lowery, 66, of Maumelle, died July 26 after suffering two strokes in previous months. The Republican who served 10 years in the Legislature, 2013 until early this year, had just been elected to the treasurer’s office in November 2022.
“Mark was a lifelong public servant and a dedicated advocate for Arkansas’ children and families,” Sanders said about Lowery. “To those who knew Mark, it was no surprise that he threw his hat into the ring and ran for the statehouse in 2012 — and it was even less of a surprise that in his decade-long tenure as a state representative, he brought about several major reforms to Arkansas’ education system,” Sanders said.
Other judges who died in 2023 included William Howard “Dub” Arnold, 87, of Hot Springs died Feb. 1. Arnold was an Arkansas Supreme Court chief justice from 1997 to 2003 during which he presided over the landmark Lake View school funding case. The son of a county sheriff, Arnold was a bull-rider and calf roper for the rodeo before becoming a prosecutor, municipal judge and circuit judge.
Jack Wilson Holt Jr., 93, died March 5. Holt served as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1985 to 1995. In his earlier career as a criminal defense attorney, Holt and others brought lawsuits that caused the entire state prison system to be declared unconstitutional. He was an advocate for court system reforms, including the development of juvenile courts and a system for disciplining and removing judges for ethical violations.
Jack Lee Lessenberry, 92, died March 15. After 28 years in private practice that focused on criminal defense, Lessenberry successfully ran for a circuit judge in Pulaski and Perry counties. He served there for 10 years during which time he established the state’s first drug court to give qualified defendants an opportunity to reclaim their lives.
Robert H. Dudley, 89, died April 1. A Jonesboro native, Dudley served on the Arkansas Supreme Court for 16 years, retiring in December 1996. On the bench Dudley concurred in the court’s order that the state’s public schools were operated illegally because the state had failed to to ensure that every child had a suitable education. In another one of his decisions, the court ordered Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne, to remove an expansive Christmas light display that was a nuisance to neighbors.
Wiley Branton Jr., 72, died Aug. 21. Branton initially followed in the footsteps of his civil-rights attorney father who represented the Little Rock Nine. But in 1993 the younger Branton was appointed as a juvenile court judge in the 6th Judicial District of Perry and Pulaski counties, a position created by state law to reduce the crowded juvenile docket. He retired in 2020. “I feel that I’m tasked, or charged, with the responsibility of changing people’s behavior from something that may not be acceptable to something that’s acceptable,” he said. “There are no throwaway people.”
Among those who died in 2023 were high profile lawyers and lawmakers.
Boyce “Bobby” Hogue, 83, of Jonesboro, died Jan. 2. A former school administrator in Kensett, Piggott and Jonesboro school systems, Hogue moved into the insurance business in 1979, the same year he was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives where he served for 20 years. He was speaker of the House for two consecutive terms.
Roy C. “Bill” Lewellyn, 71, of Marianna, died March 21. Lewellen was one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers for the rural Lake View School District that in 1992 successfully challenged the constitutionality state’s school funding system. Lewellen served for 10 years in the Senate starting in 1990 and was sponsor of the law that created the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.
Herbert Charles Rule III, 85, died April 3. Rule, an attorney, was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1966, defeating in the Democrat Party primary incumbent Paul Van Dalsem who had famously quipped that in Perry County they kept women barefoot and pregnant. Rule served in the Legislature until 1971 during which time the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act was passed. He wrote the Private Club Act that allowed — with local approval — mixed drinks to be sold at restaurants, private clubs and hotels. A Little Rock native, former U.S. Marine and a lover of performing arts, Rule served on the Little Rock School Board from 1978 to 1984 and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress in 2012 against now Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
William Bridgforth, 82 of Pine Bluff, died May 11. An attorney for nearly six decades, farmer- advocate Bridgeforth was a called-upon speaker on agricultural regulatory matters. He was the 2004 president of the American Agricultural Law Association. In 1995 he was appointed to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and served as chairman of the Commission in 2001.
Josetta Wilkins, 92, of Pine Bluff died Aug. 25. An educator and mother of five, Wilkins was elected in 1991 to the first of four terms in the House of Representatives. She was the primary sponsor of the Breast Cancer Act of 1997, the precursor to the Arkansas Department of Health’s program to increase early detection of breast and cervical cancer among Arkansas women.
Philip Sidney Anderson, 88, died Aug. 15. Anderson practiced law for nearly 60 years — mostly as a principal in the Little Rock firm of Williams & Anderson — and was president in 1998-99 of the American Bar Association. Anderson defended the Arkansas Democrat newspaper when it was sued by the Arkansas Gazette in 1984. The Gazette lost the lawsuit in March 1986 and was then sold the Gazette to Gannett Co. In 1991 Gannett closed the Gazette and sold the newspaper’s assets and name to the Arkansas Democrat.
Dan Harmon, 78, died Sept. 22. Harmon was a former prosecutor in Saline, Grant and Hot Spring counties who was convicted of taking money and drugs from criminals in exchange for dropping charges against them. He was imprisoned from 1997 until 2006. Earlier, Harmon led a grand jury investigation into the suspicious and still unsolved deaths of two teen-agers whose bodies were found on train tracks.
Government leaders
Ronald Eugene Harrod, 75, of Warren, died June 8. Harrod served on the Arkansas Highway Commission from 1983 to 1993 during which more than 3,200 highway projects were undertaken at a cost of more than $2 billion, and more than 9,000 miles of roads and 900 bridges were constructed or improved, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
Charlie Daniels, 83, of Bryant, died July 9. Daniels’ career included 18 years as Arkansas’ commissioner of state lands where he increased annual revenue from $300,000 to $12 million and began a program for the preservation of historic land records. His eight years as secretary of state included carrying out changes in statewide election processes and enabling people to see ballots and information about their polling places online. Additionally, the office established online business and commercial application services. As state auditor for four years he oversaw the beginning of an online system for connecting citizens to their unclaimed property. Earlier in his career he was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Labor by then-Gov David Pryor.
Joan Williams Baldridge, 81, died Aug. 19. Baldridge was assistant chief of protocol for the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton administration where she helped coordinate official state visits for foreign dignitaries.
Patrick Henry Hays, 76, died Oct. 4. Hays was North Little Rock mayor from 1989 to 2012, the city’s longest serving mayor. He, then-Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey and then-Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines were known as the Three Amigos for their collaboration on new development in Little Rock and North Little Rock. Dickey Stephens Park and what is now Simmons Arena were opened during Hays’ tenure.
Bruce Moore, 57, died Oct. 14. Moore was Little Rock’s city manager for 21 years serving with three mayors and the city’s Board of Directors. He was praised for his administrative expertise, his shepherding projects to completion, his familiarity with all aspects of the capital city’s operations, and his ability to be a consensus builder.
Floyd Galloway “Buddy” Villines, 76, died Oct. 21. Tagged “Buddy the Builder,” Villines was elected county judge in Pulaski County in 1991 and held the position for 24 years. During his tenure the county saw the expansion of bike and pedestrian trails and bridges — The Big Dam Bridge and the Two Rivers Bridge — as well as the renovation of the Junction Bridge. The construction of what is now the Simmons Bank Arena and the expansion of the Statehouse Convention Center are among the projects that Villines championed.
Pastors
Victor “Vic” Harmon Nixon, 82, died Feb. 21. Nixon’s long career as a minister concluded with an 18-year-stint as pastor of what had become the 4,000-member Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock. In 1975, Nixon presided in the marriage of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham in the Clinton house living room in Fayetteville.
Hezekiah Stewart, 80, died Sept. 20. The South Carolina native began his Little Rock ministry in 1976, which extended beyond the pulpit to what has become the Watershed Family Resource Center in Little Rock. He was known for his advocacy for justice and compassion.
Darius Lamar Nelson, 52, pastor of music and arts at Saint Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock, died Oct. 6. His direction and gospel music expertise enabled the church choir to take top honors at national music competitions and give performances at the White House and on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Journalists
Mary Mae Fowler Fisher, 73, of Danville, died July 22. For more than 50 years, Fisher — along with husband David Fisher — was an editor and co-publisher of the Yell County Record, Dardanelle Post Dispatch and Perry and Conway County editions of the Petit Jean Country Headlight.
Meredith Lynn Oakley, 72, died July 19. Hired by the Arkansas Democrat newspaper in 1976, Oakley worked as a reporter, editor, columnist on local and state politics, and as second-in-command to Managing Editor John Robert Starr. “His word is dirt,” Oakley said in 1991 when then Gov. Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president. For the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Oakley wrote columns and steered the paper’s Voices page until she retired in March 2011.
“She was the lioness of Arkansas journalism,” David Barham, editorial page editor for the Democrat-Gazette, said of Oakley.
James Dean “Jim” Pitcock, 83, died Oct. 8. Pitcock was news director for more than 3o years at Little Rock’s KATV, Channel 7. During that time he presented news to Arkansas viewers from all across the state as well as from political conventions, the Soviet Union, Romania, Vietnam, and 42 states.
Business
James Daniel “J.D” Simpson III, 82, died Feb. 19. In more than 50 years at Stephens Inc., Simpson was the company’s analyst for Walmart and was a part of the team that helped the company go public. He also worked with Tyson’s Food throughout the years.
Robert “Drake” Keith, 87, of Oklahoma City, died March 17. Keith was president and chief executive officer of Entergy Arkansas from 1989 to 1999. He was instrumental in starting a foundation for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. After retirement Drake was appointed chairman of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission by Gov.Mike Huckabee.
William Gravely Underwood, 90, of Fayetteville, died April 2.While attending the University of Arkansas, Underwood started Underwoods Fine Jewelers on Dickson Street with a $1,000 loan. He was president from 1988-1990 of the American Gemological Society.
Jess Jacob Wilkins, 37, died May 5 in a motorcycle accident. Wilkins was a self-educated artisan mushroom farmer and founder of Wye Mountain Mushroom Farm that provided produce for local farmers markets and restaurants.
Marion Taylor McCollum Jr., 81, of Stuttgart, died June 21. McCollum built Mack’s Prairie Wings out of the hardware store business his father started in 1944, turning it into what has been recognized as America’s Premier Waterfowl Outfitter. In 1995, then Gov. Jim Guy Tucker appointed McCollum to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission where he served until 2002.
Loyd Charles Stanley, 84, died Oct. 4. Stanley was the operator of Stanley Jewelers Gemologists, starting in 1959 when he joined in the the family business. He became the sole owner when his parents died and he ran it with the help of his daughters until its closing in 2017. “We know diamonds” Stanley routinely said in radio advertisements for the store.
William Cravens, 89, died Oct. 31. An industrial engineer, accountant, and banker, Cravens played leadership roles at Alltel Information Services, Pinnacle Bank, BancorpSouth, and Oaklawn Jockey Club. He was chairman of the board for more than a dozen community, business, higher education and medical organizations.
Athletes
Henry Moore, 88, died Jan. 29. Moore was an inductee in the Arkansas Hall of Fame after starring in football at what was then Little Rock High School and in the mid-1950s at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He played two seasons in the National Football League for the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts.
Gerald Nelson Nesbitt, 91, died April 27. As No, 31, Nesbitt played fullback and outside linebacker and also handled punting and place kicking for the University of Arkansas Razorback football teams in 1955, 1956, and 1957. In the 1957 East-West College All-Star game Nesbitt was awarded the William F. Coffman Trophy as the outstanding player. Nesbitt ultimately played four seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League.
Brison Manor, 70, died June 22. Prior to a career with the National Football League’s Denver Broncos , Manor was a defensive lineman for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks in 1973 and 1974. He was part of the first large wave of Black players to sign with Arkansas, according to news reports from earlier this year.
Ryan Michael Mallett, 35, died June 27 in a drowning accident. Mallett was a quarterback for the University of Arkansas Razorback football team and a third-round draft pick for the New England Patriots. There, he played three seasons behind football great Tom Brady. Mallett then played two seasons with the Houston Texans, and another three with the Baltimore Ravens. Most recently Mallett was head football coach at White Hall High School.
Charles Balentine, 60, died Aug. 2 in Texarkana. Balentine played in 104 games for the University of Arkansas basketball team from 1981 to 1985 under then Coach Eddie Sutton. Balentine’s jump shot with five seconds left provided the game-winning points in Arkansas’ 65-64 win over No. 1 North Carolina on Feb. 12, 1984.
Alex Collins, 28, died Aug. 13 at Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., in a motorcycle accident. The high-profile, Irish-dancing Collins was a 5-star signee for the UA Razorback football team in 2013. His rushing total of 3,703 yards ranks second at Arkansas. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2016.
Keith Stokes, 59, of Dardanelle, died Aug. 18. Stokes was the long-time breeder and handler of the live Tusk mascots — Russian boars — for the University’s athletic teams.
Physicians
Dr. David A. Lipschitz, 79, died March 6. A native of South Africa, Lipschitz was an Arkansas physician, newspaper columnist, and radio host who focused on the medical needs of older people.
Dr. Joseph Henry Bates, 90, died Sept. 29. Bates served 35 years as chief of medical service at the John L. McClellan Veterans Hospital, while also serving as vice chair of Internal Medicine at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He was a member of a tuberculosis research group that helped bring tuberculosis under control. Later he and other others collaborated in 1998 to establish the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement to guide the formation of the UAMS College of Public Health.
Restaurateurs
James “Buster” Corley, 72, of Dallas, died Jan. 2. He was a co-founder of the Dave & Buster’s restaurant /arcade-entertainment and sports bar chain — an idea born in Little Rock when he opened his own Buster’s Restaurant in the city’s Union Station.
Rhoda Adams, 85, of Lake Village, died Aug. 16. Adams was the owner of Rhoda’s Famous Hot Tamales and Pies in Lake Village. Adams was among the inaugural class inducted into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame in 2017.
Scholars and Artists
Griffin “Griff” Jasper Stockley, 78, died Jan. 4. Stockley authored the Gideon Page series of legal mystery novels for which he received a Porter Prize. He also wrote the historical non-fiction books “Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919;”https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/31/noted-leaders-business-figures-among-arkansans/”Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas” and “Black Boys Burning: The 1959 Fire at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School.” Stockley was the first staff attorney for the Arkansas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Melinda Ruth Dillon, 83, died Jan. 9. Born in Hope as Melinda Ruth Clardy, Dillon was best known for her role as Ralphie’s mother in the movie “The Christmas Story.” Dillon was nominated for Oscars for a best supporting actress for her work in “Close Encounters of a Third Kind,” and for her role in “Absence of Malice.”
Mark Spitzer, 57, died Jan. 17. Associate creative writing professor at the University of Central Arkansas, Spitzer was founder and editor of the Toad Suck Review literary journal, the author of more than 30 books and a fisherman, particularly of the alligator gar about which he wrote “Season of the Gar: Adventures in Pursuit of America’s Misunderstood Fish ” and “Return of the Gar.”
Walter Barackman Roettger, 81, died Jan. 29. The 16th president of Lyon College, from 1998 to 2009, Roettger’s tenure was marked by the 2003 opening of the $11 million Derby Center for Science and Mathematics. In 2001, U.S. News and World Report recognized Lyon College for the first time as one of America’s “Best Liberal-Arts Colleges.” And in 2008, Lyon College provided each student with a laptop computer, the first school in the state and one of about 200 nationally that provided students with laptops.
Robert Thomas Coleman, 68, of Rogers died March 20. Coleman was an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and freelance photojournalist, and a musician who sang as well as played the harmonica, guitar and the Irish tin whistle. He served a term as president of the Ozark Blues Society of Northwest Arkansas. Active in the Catholic church, Coleman was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and a subgroup of motorcycle riders called Knights on Bikes.