George Eugene Wimberly, a former Little Rock mayor, city director, state representative, pharmacist and once-powerful political figure, died Sunday at 92.
Wimberly, of Little Rock, gained particular notoriety in the 1988 suicide of former Little Rock Police Chief Jess F. "Doc" Hale, who had been charged with stealing less than $200 from the cash register at Wimberly’s store, Buice Drug Store at 3013 W. Markham St.
Wimberly and the well-liked and respected Hale had once been friends. There was no doubt that Hale repeatedly took cash from the register; hours of surveillance video clearly showed his hand in the till. But Hale said that Wimberly had allowed him to take change from the register on a regular basis.
Hale was charged with misdemeanor theft in March 1988. He fatally shot himself in his home near Cabot in April 1988. He had pleaded innocent to the theft charge.
After Hale’s death, which shocked central Arkansas, Wimberly’s political clout declined.
Wimberly, a Democrat, was a state representative at the time of his former friend’s suicide. He was defeated by Jim Lendall, who filed as an independent, in his bid for re-election to House District 52.
Wimberly, however, reportedly continued to run his drugstore, which had once been a hangout of politicians and the politically powerful, until just recently.
Little Rock Funeral Home at 8801 Knoedl Court, Little Rock, is handling the arrangements.
His guest book can be signed at the funeral home’s website, LittleRockFuneralHome.com.
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