Happy Birthday to Jacque Dunn, Senior Library Assistant!

After checking in that morning, I headed down to Texarkana, Texas with Chris Erwin from the School of Continuing Education & Academic Outreach. We left early because we wanted to have plenty of time to get there. We were going to an event at the Silas Hunt Community Development Center celebrating the fact that the School of Law had awarded a post humus degree to Silas Hunt this year on the 60th anniversary year of his admission to law school.

Chris and I arrived at the Courtyard Marriott hotel and had just enough time to spruce up before heading to the community center. On the way to the community center, Chris drove through Texarkana a little bit and we stopped at the state line. The court house there, for those who don’t know, straddles the Texas and the Arkansas border there in Texarkana. We took a few pictures before continuing on to the center.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a small group who had gathered at the Silas Hunt Community Development Center, including Janis Kearney. You may know about Janis’ amazing life. She was born in Gould, Arkansas as the 14th of 19 children born into a sharecropping family. She has written an autobiography of her life entitled Cotton Fields of Dreams. Though I haven’t read it yet, it’s on my “to read” list. Janis published the historic Arkansas State Press for a number of years and later joined President Clinton’s administration as his diarist. The Arkansas Alumni Association awarded her a distinguished alumni award from the University of Arkansas Alumni Association in 2006. Janis is truly an amazing person, and she’s warm and gracious on top of it all.

Among the many other attendees were some Arkansas alums, Carlton Jones who was a 1988 University of Arkansas Law School grad and an ‘85 undergraduate graduate of the University of Arkansas along with Imogene Scott who is also an alum of the University of Arkansas, and a classmate of Silas Hunt. It was a very wonderful, warm and welcoming group joined later by Stephanie Flowers who was there to commemorate the fact that as a result of legislation she sponsored in the legislature, February 2 is now Silas Hunt Day in the state of Arkansas. Representative Flowers’ dad was Harold Flowers, civil rights leader and lawyer for whom Arkansas’ National Bar Association Chapter Affiliate in Arkansas is named.

After we visited briefly, Precious Williams, Director of the Silas Hunt Community Center gave a few welcoming remarks which were followed by brief remarks from Chris Erwin and me. Afterwards the end of the program, there were munchies for everyone to enjoy. Chris and I went from there to dinner at the Red Lobster restaurant next to the hotel. It was really a fun dinner. We had a blast, then returned to the hotel to turn in early because the program was to start early Saturday.