News

News in 1978 and served as editor, photographer and co-publisher until 2005, when he sold the newspaper. In 2006 he joined the Texarkana Gazette as the Southwest Arkansas reporter and worked there until his retirement in May 2019.

William Thomas Taylor, Sr., 95, Little Rock, March 5. Taylor started at the then – Arkansas Democrat as a paperboy at age 13 in 1941.

June Biber Freeman, 95, Scottsdale, Arizona, July 4. The wife of Edmond Wroe Freeman, IIIinois, Freeman met her future husband as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. The couple then moved to Pine Bluff, where Edmond published the Pine Bluff Commercial with his brother. In the early 1960s, she led the effort to create the Little Firehouse Community Arts Center, which grew to become the Southeast Arkansas Arts and Science Center, the predecessor of the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. From 1975 to 1980, she worked as director of state services for the Arkansas Arts Center, where she transformed a large van into a mobile art gallery for residents of small towns and rural areas. Freeman also wrote the “Artline” column in the Pine Bluff Commercial From 1986 to 1995.

William Alvin “Bill” Whitworth, 87, Conway, March 8. Raised in Little Rock, Whitworth attended the University of Oklahoma, where was editor of OU’s student newspaper, the Oklahoma Daily, and worked for the Arkansas Democrat.

Rose Clemmons Gladner, 60, Hot Springs, July 30. The wife of Arkansas Broadcasters Association Executive Director Neal Gladner, Gladner worked for nearly 30 years in sales, mainly in print and broadcast media.

Linda Dee Rooney Card, 69, Caddo Gap, April 18. A native of Kiefer, Oklahoma, Card was a long-time contributor to the Montgomery County News through her weekly column, “Norman News with Dee Card.” Under the name Dee Rooney she was the author of the 2023 novel, “Annie’s Heart,” and had just published her second novel, “The Devil’s Bathtub,” on March 8. A former Arkansas Tobacco Control Agent, Card, had also served as a member of the Caddo Gap Volunteer Fire Department and was a member of the Diamond Writers Association.

Jessie Elizabeth Christner Bain, 99, Hot Springs, September 30. A native of Flint, Michigan, Bain retired from The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, where she worked for many years in the advertising department.

Vivian Lee Asbury Heyl, 74, Brookland, April 18. Heyl was born in Peoria, Illinois and graduated from Mammoth Spring High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Arkansas State University.

Edward Michael Freeman, 82, Bella Vista, November 13. A lifelong newspaperman, Freeman began his career at the Decatur Daily in Decatur, Alabama before becoming editor of The Montgomery Advertiser and Alabama Journal in Montgomery, Alabama.

Peggy June Barentine, 88, Jacksonville, June 1.The mother of APA Director of Operations Terri Cobb, Barentine married her high school sweetheart, Buford Barentine on May 27, 1955. She retired from Dillard’s Department Store after working many years in mortgage banking and was a former member of the North Little Rock chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.