AND THE WINNERS ARE …

In a copyrighted story in the Searcy Daily Citizen, my ole buddy, (Dr.) Warren Watkins reports, in part:

The Sullards Annex at Searcy High School echoed with praise and anecdotes Thursday night as the Searcy Education Foundation held its fourth annual banquet, inducting four SHS alumni into its hall of honor.

Inducted were Searcy Superintendent Tony Wood, Larry Crain, Cal Skaggs and E.D. Yancey.

Foundation Vice President Watson Bell served as master of ceremonies, providing humorous insight into the personalities on the program.

Larry Crain

Larry Crain’s first trip to Searcy from his birthplace in Crosby, eight miles west of town, was in a horse-drawn wagon. Today he lives in Searcy but presides over his businesses from corporate headquarters in Sherwood. From there he oversees car dealerships including eight locations and 12 franchises. Crain Investments, a real estate company, is also run from the Sherwood headquarters, as are other small businesses, including insurance companies.

The building is also the home office for another Crain investment, the Arkansas RimRockers, a minor league professional basketball team which plays in Alltel Arena in Little Rock.

Media holdings include radio stations KSMD (licensed for Pangburn), KAWW (Heber Springs), KWCK AM and FM (Searcy) and KCNY FM (Greenbriar and Conway).

Crain Automotive Parts has its home office in Memphis.

Crain is a 1959 grad of SHS.

E.D. Yancey

Searcy businessman and philanthropist E.D. Yancey graduated from Searcy High School in 1956. Formerly with First Security Bank, Yancey is the developer and general manger of the River Oaks subdivision, and developed The Course at River Oaks.

This note for newcomers: the "E.D." stands for "Elmer Dale." The E.D. thing didn't start until he went off to college at the U of A.

Calvin Skaggs

Dr. Cal Skaggs, who graduated from SHS in 1954, is a film producer who was the Director of Arts and Professor of American Literature and Cinema at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey before leaving to produce “The American Short Story” on Public television. As head of Lumiere Productions in New York City, where he resides, Skaggs has produced numerous films.

The full story is available for a limited time at this link:

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2007/01/27/news/top_stories/top01.txt