Arkansas

‘Pray’: Arkansas’ longest married couple share the secrets of love, life

Published

1 year ago

September 29, 2023

‘Pray’: Arkansas’ longest married couple share the secrets of love, life

“Pray,” Arwilda Whiteside said Thursday afternoon. “Know how to get on your knees, and get you a bible because that bible is going to have to take you through all kinds of storms.”

That’s the 98-year-old’s advice for lovebirds thinking about getting married soon.

Arwilda and her husband, 102-year-old Cleovis Whiteside, married in July 1939. Now, they’ve got 84 years of marriage under their belt.

The White Hall, Arkansas residents were honored Sunday by the nonprofit Arkansas Family Council for being the longest married couple in the state.

Traditional marriage and stable families are the foundation for any healthy society, the group’s governmental affairs liaison, Charisse Dean, said on Thursday.

“Children that grow up in healthy, stable, two-parent households do so much better,” she told USA TODAY. “Married people do better financially, they’re healthier, they live longer, and their mental health is better … We think it’s important to highlight this traditional family value of marriage, just to show how important it is for our society.”

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What is the Arkansas Family Council?

The Arkansas Family Council is a conservative Christian organization launched in 1989.

The group works with local legislators and community members to promote values such as religious traditions, traditional marriage, protecting children and protecting life, Dean shared.

The nonprofit began its search for the longest married couple in 2018, asking community members to submit information for couples who have been married for at least 70 years.

Previously, I.B. and Ima Jewel Williams took the top spot. When they passed away, the Whitesides became the nonprofit’s honorary couple.

How their love story began

Cleovis and Arwilda met when he was 13 and she was 9 years old. It happened “in the fork of a road,” Arwilda told USA TODAY Thursday afternoon.

Cleovis was with his uncle Elmo, who had a mental disability. His uncle would often approach young ladies and grab their hands, said the couple’s daughter, Kathy Whiteside-Sims.

Cleovis, who was taller, would often step in and tell him to let the girls go.

One day, as Arwilda walked down the road, her friend told her to run to the taller boy, Cleovis, because he would protect her. When Arwilda ran to him, he knew he was going to marry her, he said.

He later saw her at a boxed supper event at church where girls and women made boxed meals for local boys and men to buy.

“Daddy bought her boxed supper for 40 cents,” Whiteside-Sims shared.

The pair also went to school together, because at the time, children attended a one-room school. Some students were older and sharecroppers, so they didn’t attend all the time, Whiteside-Sims said.

They were married on July 24, 1939, when she was 13 and he was 17.

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The Whiteheads were ‘pillars in the community’ helping raise children outside of their own

Life forced Cleovis and Awrilda to spend time apart as he left in the early 1940s for World War II. He returned home in 1945 and later went to study auto mechanics at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College.

Cleovis’ time away at school came as a shock since he traveled over 60 miles from Clarendon to Pine Bluff to sign up. He was instead told he had to start the same day, his daughter said.

“He wasn’t able to go back home to Clarendon,” Whiteside-Sims said. “It was a process of calling somebody to call somebody to go and tell somebody ‘I’m not coming home. I’m in school.’”

After finishing school, he got a job at the Pine Bluff Arsenal while Arwilda was a stay-at-home mom and housewife, their daughter said.

During their marriage, the pair undertook the challenge of raising 12 children of their own, in addition to providing other local children with a safe place to lay their heads, if needed.

“Sometimes they had children that lived with them,” Dean, from the Arkansas Family Council, told USA TODAY Thursday. “They were just pillars in the community.”

Generosity is a huge part of what Arwilda loves about her husband, she said.

“He is always trying to help people,” she told USA TODAY.

And if you ask Cleovis to whittle down his love for his wife to one favorite thing, he simply can’t do it.

Instead, he has a short but sweet response, “I love 99% of her.”

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Arkansas

Mizzou, Arkansas Official Availability Report Ahead of Week 14 Game

Published

7 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Mizzou, Arkansas Official Availability Report Ahead of Week 14 Game

The No. 21 Missouri Tigers enter their final regular season game with the least injury questions than they have had for most other games since the beginning of November.

But, there was a few new additions to the team’s availability report ahead of the Week 14 game against Arkansas. Below is the full availability report for the Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

This post will be updated throughout the week with new availability reports posted Thursday, Friday and 90 minutes before the 3:15 p.m. kick off.

Missouri Initial Availability Report:

Note: Missouri players with injuries previously reported to be season-ending are not listed on this post.

• DB Shamar McNeil – OUT
• LS Brett Le Blanc – OUT
• OL Logan Reichert – OUT
• RB Kewan Lacy – QUESTIONABLE

True freshman running back Kewan Lacy took one carry against Mississippi State in Week 13 before exiting the game with injury. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz said in the week leading up to that game that he would expect Lacy to see more opportunities going forward.

Le Blanc handles punting long snapping duties for Missouri, while Trey Flint takes care of field goals and extra points. Expect Flint to slide in for Le Blanc Saturday.

Arkansas Initial Availability Report:

• DL Nico Dalliver – OUT
• DB Jaylon Braxton – OUT
• K Kyle Ramsey – OUT
• DL Anton Juncaj – DOUBTFUL
• RB Braylen Russel – QUESTIONABLE
• DB Anthony Switzer – QUESTIONABLE

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Arkansas

Arkansas Children's enhances care with Press Ganey partnership

Published

15 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Arkansas Children's enhances care with Press Ganey partnership

The partnership will improve Arkansas Children’s service and care for patients and their families. Credit: Vita Monart/Shutterstock.

Arkansas Children’s, a private, non-profit paediatric care organisation, has partnered with Press Ganey to improve paediatric patient experience.

Beginning 1 January 2025, this collaboration is aimed at bolstering the paediatric care organisation’s commitment to improving service and care for patients and their families.

Arkansas Children’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer Jamie Wiggins said: “We believe that every interaction with our patients is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

“By leveraging Press Ganey’s expertise and industry-leading pediatric benchmarks, we will gain valuable insights that will empower our teams to continuously improve and innovate in delivering compassionate care.”

Press Ganey will offer its patient experience and provider star-rating solutions to help Arkansas Children’s monitor feedback and enhance care quality.

The partnership will enable Arkansas Children’s to leverage Press Ganey’s AI-powered text analytics.

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This will help analyse open-ended feedback from online reviews and post-visit surveys, providing an understanding of patient and family perspectives.

The goal is to gain actionable insights that can further improve the patient experience.

Press Ganey provides experience measurement, data analytics and insights to health systems and caters to more than 65% of all freestanding paediatric hospitals.

This partnership will allow Arkansas Children’s to benefit from shared learning and innovation within Press Ganey’s network of institutions.

Press Ganey CEO and chairman Patrick Ryan said: “Families trust Arkansas Children’s to provide the highest quality care for their children.

“This partnership reflects their dedication to listening to families, responding to their needs, and innovating to create a world-class paediatric healthcare experience.”

Arkansas Children’s network includes two paediatric hospitals, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, a research institute, a USDA nutrition centre, and numerous education and outreach programmes.

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Arkansas

Homicide suspect causes barricade situation in east Arkansas jail

Published

22 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Homicide suspect causes barricade situation in east Arkansas jail

PHILLIPS COUNTY, Ark. — A suspect in a Helena-West Helena homicide caused a barricade situation Tuesday as he was being processed in the Phillips County Detention Center.

Authorities said a prisoner who was being processed at the jail was able to get hold of some type of instrument and cause harm to himself.

He barricaded himself in the processing area and pepper spray was used to subdue him.

The prisoner was taken to the local emergency room for treatment. No one else was injured.

Helena-West Helena Police Chief Vincent Bell said he doesn’t know much more about what happened at the jail, but said the inmate is connected to a fatal shooting Tuesday afternoon.

The suspect was being held in connection to an incident where a man was shot dead in the doorway of O’Reilly Auto Parts in West Helena.

The shooting was the result of a disagreement that started in front of a motel, and the victim ran to the front of O’Reilly’s where he was fatally shot.

Chief Bell offered no details on a motive or the name of the victim.

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