It was great fun to again take part in the annual Six Bridges Book Festival presented over the last two weeks by the Central Arkansas Library System. During a live online session, I talked with the authors of two nonfiction works about crime in the 1800s.
Dean Jobb wrote The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, which is a disturbing, but fascinating look at a physician who mostly targeted sex workers for poisoning. Also joining me was Dr. Courtney E. Thompson, author of An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in 19th Century America. It delves into what for a few decades was considered a way to determine various things about people, including criminal intent, based on the shape of their heads.
Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for the second year in a row the festival was held virtually via Zoom. I was in my office at KUAR, while the authors joined me from their homes. While I miss meeting authors face-to-face and moderating sessions in-person, the online format has allowed the festival to be expanded from four to 11 days, and there are fewer concurrent events.
Festival Coordinator Brad Mooy discussed the trade offs during an interview with me on KUAR before the start of the festival.
“Of course I enjoy having authors come to Little Rock who have never been here or to the south before, but there is some convenience to the virtual aspects. The virtual festival allows us to get a few authors who might not have been available to us if it were fully in person,” Mooy said.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
With Arkansas leading the nation per capita in new coronavirus cases, blamed on the spread of the especially vicious delta variant and the state’s low vaccination rate, I spoke with state Epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Dillaha on Arkansas PBS about the situation.
“This variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is highly infectious. It causes more severe disease, it’s more quick to put people in the hospital and at younger ages,” Dillaha said. “For these reasons, we are experiencing a large number of new cases because the younger people are not the ones who’ve been getting the vaccine. It’s been the older adults who are now protected.”
She said health officials are “trying to communicate the urgency of the situation” and that people who are not vaccinated need to do it as quickly as possible since it takes five or six weeks to develop full immunity.
Over the last week, Gov. Asa Hutchinson held a series of town hall meetings around the state in Cabot, Batesville, Blytheville and Texarkana. These are smaller towns and cities where people are less likely to be vaccinated. Participating in these meetings have been community leaders, including church pastors, with the governor specifically calling on them to encourage their congregations to get vaccinated.
Dr. Dillaha praised Hutchinson for going into areas where people are less likely to be vaccinated. She said for many people, the decision on whether to get a vaccine largely depends on their social network.
“If there are a lot of people in a rural area that are not vaccinated, it’s harder for individuals to go against what their community is doing. It takes a lot of courage for people to do that. And so, by addressing this at a community level in the smaller rural areas, that enables the community to get vaccinated together,” Dillaha said.
“I think that’s an important strategy because we are influenced by who we associate with and those are the people we trust. So, if we can get good information into those communities so that they can make informed decisions, I think more people will get vaccinated.”
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
A mug shot of Si-Fu Frankie Parker on May 22, 1996.
The BBC World Service podcast Witness History recently looked back at the 1996 Arkansas execution of Si-Fu Frankie Parker. I was surprised to learn about his case getting renewed attention when I received a request to use audio from an interview I had recorded with Parker two weeks before his execution. I had also spoken exclusively with then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose first official act as governor was scheduling Parker’s execution date. The interviews were used in a half-hour program I produced for KUAR which aired August 8, 1996 in the hours before his execution.
The BBC program, which you can find on this link or listen to below, also features a recent interview with Anna Cox, a Buddhist leader who had gotten to know Parker when he expressed interest in Buddhism after 30 days in solitary confinement on death row. She acknowledged that Parker had been a mean person who did horrible things.
In 1984, Parker kidnapped his estranged wife, killed her parents, and shot and wounded a Rogers, Ark. police officer. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. While in solitary confinement, or what was known as “the hole” for committing infractions, the only reading material inmates were allowed was a Bible. Parker said after becoming restless and requesting a Bible, a guard instead threw a copy of the Dhammapada into the cell, which is a book of Buddhist teachings. After initially being even angrier, Cox said Parker eventually read the book and by the time he emerged from isolation had memorized the verses and was a changed man.
Cox would eventually meet Parker, and they became close friends. It also led to her becoming a spiritual advisor, not just for Parker, but also other inmates. On the day of his execution, Cox and other Buddhists set up a tent outside the gates of Cummins Prison. She described the scene for reporter Ibby Caputo 25 years later, which was eloquently told for the BBC feature.
AUDIO: My original half-hour program for KUAR that aired on August 8, 1996 in the hours before Si-Fu Frankie Parker’s execution. It includes parts of my interviews with Parker and then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. The program would win a first place award from the Arkansas Associated Press for Best Enterprise/ Investigative Reporting.
The experience of interviewing Parker in the weeks before his death and meeting many of his friends had a big impact on me. I had covered many executions by that point, but never had any contact with the inmates or served as a media witness. This was also the only time I had spoken with a governor about an execution. Most governors would sign the orders without comment to the press.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
The Baring Cross Bridge over the Arkansas River linking Little Rock and North Little Rock has a fascinating history going back nearly 150 years. I was happy to be invited to talk about the history of the railroad bridge for the Division of Arkansas Heritage’s program Sandwiching in History. The series had been in-person events held at places being discussed until the pandemic arrived in Arkansas last year, which led to the program now being produced videos available online. The episode on the Baring Cross Bridge was released last Friday and can be viewed below.
The Cairo and Fulton Railroad announced plans to construct the bridge in 1872, but didn’t have money to complete the project. So the Baring Cross Bridge Company was formed, which completed the bridge the following year, opening on Dec. 21, 1873. Within a few years a highway deck was added, charging tolls for carriages and pedestrians. Dr. Bill Pollard shared several images of toll booth passes and vintage photos of the bridge from his collection, which I was able to include in the presentation.
During historic flooding of the Arkansas River in April 1927, the bridge was washed away by the swift-moving, rising current. An attempt to anchor the bridge down with loaded coal cars had failed. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, which had acquired this stretch of track by then, rebuilt the bridge to more modern standards, making it a double track bridge for the busy mainline that cuts from the southwest corner of Arkansas to the northeast corner. The only major modification since then was replacing the swing span with a lift span, which was done to all three railroad bridges over the river at Little Rock, as part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
A roofing crew completes putting new shingles on the roof of the Perry Depot on Aug. 3, 2020. Photo: Michael Hibblen.
(Dec. 10, 2020) – Arkansas has nominated the former Rock Island depot at Perry to the National Register of Historic Places. It will now be up to the National Park Service to determine if it meets the criteria to be listed. Meanwhile backers of the project have met with an architect to determine how to proceed with the restoration and are working to raise money that will be needed to get matching grant funding from the state.
Members of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program’s State Review Board met on Wednesday, Dec. 2, to consider nominating several properties, including the depot. The state’s National Register/ Survey Coordinator Ralph Wilcox gave a presentation detailing the history of the depot, which was built in 1918, and its impact on the region. Because of the mountainous terrain, the area was sparsely populated until the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad laid tracks through western Arkansas in 1898 and 1899.
“The railroad changed everything,” Wilcox said. “A temporary depot was set up at North Perryville, just three miles north of the county seat, and quickly attracted businessmen and other professionals. When a post office was established in 1899, the name was shortened to Perry.”
In 1902, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, as a part of a national expansion, acquired control of the CO&G through a hostile takeover. Wilcox noted the importance of the line, which moved freight through the center of the country and provided passenger service between Memphis, Tenn. and Los Angeles, Calif. via connecting service with the Southern Pacific at Amarillo, Texas.
“The Perry depot is significant to the people of Perry and Perry County because it functioned as an essential community gathering place during the heyday of rail transportation as people journeyed to the depot to get merchandise, got the latest news, and bid farewell to loved ones,” he said.
A split screen Facebook live feed of the Dec. 2 meeting of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program’s State Review Board looking at historic photos of the Rock Island Perry Depot while hearing a presentation by Ralph Wilcox.
While showing photos of the depot through the years, Wilcox spoke of how passenger service was eliminated in 1967 shortly after a mail contract was ended by the U.S. government, how the depot continued being used to coordinate freight until the end of the Rock Island in 1980, and how it initially served as the office for the Little Rock & Western Railway. He also explained that when the shortline railroad announced in 2017 it was going to tear down the depot, the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, with guidance from Preserve Arkansas, began raising money to eventually move the depot 150 feet to an adjacent piece of land owned by the city on the same side of the tracks.
Wilcox then took questions from board members. One asked why the foundation constructed earlier this year to place the depot on was built so high. Rachel Patton, executive director of Preserve Arkansas, responded in the comments section of the web feed that the height was determined based on how high water had risen during last year’s record flooding of the Arkansas River.
The flooded Perry depot on May 30, 2019 while it was sitting on a trailer waiting for a new foundation to be built. Photo: Buford Suffridge.
Another board member, while acknowledging he wasn’t familiar with the demographics of Perry at the time of the depot’s construction, asked why it had segregated waiting rooms. Wilcox said the layout likely came from standard depot designs by the railroad. It might also have been because of Jim Crow laws of the era.
Finally, a motion was made to nominate the depot to the National Register, which was seconded, then approved by the board on a voice vote. The whole process took just under 15 minutes. The following day a letter from Arkansas Historic Preservation Program Director Scott Kaufman was sent to Perry Mayor Willie Summers sharing the news.
In anticipation of the nomination, Patton had spoken with architect Gary Clements of Clements & Associates in North Little Rock who has worked on historic preservation projects throughout the state. He agreed to prepare a grant application for the AHPP’s Historic Preservation Restoration Grant program at no charge unless the grant is awarded. His fees would be built into the grant.
“He thought it was a fantastic project. Whenever I called and told him what we wanted him to do he was really excited,” Patton told me in October.
Clements recently finished the latest phase in the restoration of a two-story wooden train station in Warren, Ark., which was built in 1911 by the Warren and Ouachita Valley Railway. The company would be bought by the Rock Island in 1948, with Warren at the end of a branch line. That station, which is today owned by the city, was added to the National Register in 1977. It has been restored in phases over the years, receiving multiple grants from the state and exemplifying how these can be continually ongoing projects.
On Oct. 12, Clements and Patton went through the Perry depot with Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society. Clements wanted to get an idea of the condition of the building and talk about what they hope to accomplish. He took a lot of photos of the interior and exterior of the depot and discussed what needed to be addressed first. With the Warren project fresh on his mind, Patton said Clements felt some of the same approaches could work in Perry.
The Warren station features a long freight room, which has been converted into a community meeting space. While the Perry depot’s freight room is not as big, it could still serve as a nice meeting and event space. A nearly $10,000 grant we received last year from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services was provided with the intention of creating a community building with exhibit space inside the depot.
Suffridge says Clements found the building to be “structurally pretty sound.” Rotted floor joists had been replaced before the depot was set on the new foundation earlier this year. Work to fix the roof’s eaves was also completed, while roofing shingles were replaced in August to prevent any further deterioration underneath.
The Perry depot in November 1983, three years after the Rock Island had been shut down, still showing the final color scheme for the railroad. At that time it was being used as the office for the Little Rock & Western Railway. Photo: Bill Pollard.
Clements recommended a thorough examination of the building to find what urgent repairs need to be made and to allow him to come up with a plan for what it will take to completely restore it. But everything can’t be addressed at once. It will take several phases.
“I can see that it’s probably going to take longer than I had hoped for,” Suffridge said. “Of course, he did say that there’s really no limit to what you can spend on a project like that. He said basically you have to decide what can you spend on it and you go from there.”
Walking through the depot, Clements noticed places in the floor that were weak. There is also a dropped ceiling in the office and no telling what might be found above it.
He recommended applying for a $20,000 grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, calling that a realistic amount to ask for. It would require $10,000 in matching donations to show there is support for the project, so more fundraising will be needed. We would need to have a plan together and the cash match by March 1, 2021.
We will need to be successful in getting the depot listed on the National Register to qualify, but Patton and state officials feel the odds are good.
Clements suggested the first phase of work should be a basic preservation of the exterior of the building. That would involve fixing the siding, replacing rotted wood near the bottom, and striping off old paint, then priming and putting a new layer on. The windows are in pretty good shape, but some panes are missing. This would ensure the depot is sealed so that vermin and rain can’t get in. Improving the appearance of the exterior would also show people that visible progress is being made.
There will be a lot of additional hard decisions and challenges ahead, but at this point it feels like we are making solid progress in preserving this piece of history. If you can support the project with a donation, any amount would be greatly appreciated. Online donations can be made through our Go Fund Me account.
If you would prefer to send a check, make it out to the Perry County Historical Museum, which is part of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society.
Perry County Historical Museum
P.O. Box 1128
Perryville, AR 72126
You can read more about the background of the depot and my previous posts as this project has progressed over the last three by clicking on the link below:
Also, if you haven’t heard my newly-listed podcast Rock Island in Arkansas, you can find it on Apple Podcasts. Episode 2 is an hour-long look at the history of the Perry Depot, featuring interviews with Buford Suffridge, former Rock Island employees who worked in Perry, and Danny Majors, the son of longtime depot agent Joe Majors.
UPDATE Jan. 15, 2021 – Great news! The National Park Service notified us today that the Perry Depot will be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I’ll have more soon and we continue with this joyous preservation project!
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 35-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
On the web since 2002, this is the online home and archive of broadcasting news veteran Michael Hibblen. Starting in 1989, I've worked for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country. Today I'm Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS. This website tells the story of my career, including audio, photos and videos. Also featured are various interests I've researched, primarily about broadcasting and railroad history.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas, as well as other states in the middle of the U.S. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
