Notable Deaths of 2024

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The noteworthy Arkansans, or those with Arkansas ties, who died this year included beloved politician David Pryor, advertising great Jim Johnson, firebrand Tommy Robinson, civil rights icon Thelma Mothershed-Wair and airport director Bryan Malinowski, who died after a shootout with federal law enforcement officers.

January

Richard Edward “Mickey” Cottrell, a Hollywood film publicist and actor who was raised in Little Rock, graduated from Catholic High School and attended the University of Arkansas, died Jan. 1. He was 79. Cottrell was known for his advocacy for independent films and appeared as an actor in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Voyager” and the film “Ed Wood.”

Paul Harvel of Mount Ida, longtime leader of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and later president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber, died Jan. 12. He was 80. Harvel helped lead construction of the Little Rock Chamber’s downtown headquarters and the expansion of the Statehouse Convention Center.

Gus Wingfield of Delight, 97, former Arkansas legislator, state auditor and state treasurer, died Jan. 21. Wingfield was the executive officer of the Bank of Delight for many years and served on the Delight School Board.

Marion Burton of Little Rock, an aviator who served as director of Winthrop Rockefeller’s successful 1966 campaign for Arkansas governor, died Jan. 27. He was 93. Burton, a trustee of the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, was instrumental in the creation in 2018 of the Governor Winthrop Rockefeller Endowment, a gift of more than $100 million to support the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

Ellen Gilchrist, 88, a novelist, short story writer and poet who lived and taught for many years at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, died Jan. 30.

February

Bob R. Brooks Jr., chief deputy attorney general of Arkansas, died Feb. 11. He was 61. Brooks, who grew up in Fort Smith, was the first director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, appointed by then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Dean Weber, 78, who trained thousands of student-athletes at the University of Arkansas, where he served for 41 years, died Feb. 13. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Wayne Ridout of Searcy, co-founder of Ridout Lumber Cos., died Feb. 19. He was 80. Ridout now has 15 locations across Arkansas and in Joplin, Missouri. Ridout also established Arkansas Wholesale Lumber Co., Ridout Door Manufacturing Co. and Ridout Truck Line.

Bruce Engstrom of North Little Rock, founding partner of what became EGP, one of the largest accounting firms in Arkansas, died Feb. 20. He was 76. Engstrom was a civic leader who served on the North Little Rock Planning Commission and the Arkansas State Lottery Commission.

March

William Whitworth, 87, a Hot Springs native who was a writer and editor at The New Yorker and The Atlantic, died March 8 at his home in Conway. Raised in Little Rock, Whitworth was editor in chief of The Atlantic for 20 years.

Bryan Malinowski of Little Rock, executive director of the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, died March 21, two days after a shootout with agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives at his home. He was 53. Malinowski, who had worked at the airport for 16 years and was named director in 2019, oversaw improvements at the facility totaling millions of dollars.

Bill Sage of Bentonville, founder of Assembled Products Corp. of Rogers, a manufacturer of mobility products like the Mart Cart, died March 26. He was 79. The company, founded in 1983, now has 140 employees.

Shayne Smith, 61, of Little Rock died March 29. Smith worked for Acxiom for 30 years, retiring in 2023 as general counsel. A native of Little Rock, Smith served on the board of the Volunteers’ Organization Center for Arkansas Legal Services.

April

O. Jerome Green, a lawyer and president of Shorter College in North Little Rock since 2012, died April 8. He was 69. Green increased enrollment at the college, seeing it rise 32.9% from fall 2019 to fall 2023.

Randy Oates, 80, who worked in marketing management and public relations at major banks in Little Rock, including First National, Worthen, Union and what became Bank OZK, where he retired in 2004 as senior VP for marketing, died April 10.

Ivory Lyles, 65, former director of the Cooperative Extension Service of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, died April 16. The university, which described Lyles as a “trailblazer,” said he was the first African American to head an extension service in a predominantly white university system when he was appointed director of the Extension Service in 2000.

David Pryor, a former U.S. senator, U.S. representative, governor and state legislator, died April 20. He was 89. Pryor, a Democrat, earned the love and respect of people across the political spectrum. He was a Camden native whose father and grandfather were both sheriffs. Pryor, with his wife, Barbara, founded a weekly newspaper, the Ouachita Citizen. He was first elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1960 and graduated from law school at the University of Arkansas. He was elected to the U.S. House, representing Arkansas’ 4th District, in 1966. After losing a race for U.S. Senate in 1972, Pryor was elected governor in 1974. He went on to election to the U.S. Senate in 1978, serving until 1997.

Jack Wagoner, a Little Rock lawyer who worked to legalize same-sex marriage in Arkansas, died April 23. He was 62.

Dr. George Mitchell, who served as president and chief executive officer at Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield from 1975 until his retirement in 1993, died April 29. A member of the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, Mitchell was 92.

May

Don Gibson, one of the founders of Legacy National Bank of Springdale, died May 4 at the age of 76. A civic leader, Gibson was also co-founder of the Ryan Gibson Foundation, a charitable organization in memory of his oldest son, Ryan.

Wayland Holyfield, an Arkansas native and country music songwriter who wrote “Arkansas, You Run Deep in Me,” died May 6 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82.

Benny Petrus of Stuttgart, a former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, died May 17 at the age of 67. Petrus’ friend Marvin Childers told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Petrus, a businessman who owned several car dealerships in Stuttgart, was someone who “just loved helping people and he was interested in anything agriculture. Benny took care of the land.”

Alice Stewart, 58, a political commentator who once worked for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, died May 18. Stewart began her career as a weekend anchor for KARK-TV and went on to work on five Republican presidential campaigns.

James Wesley “Jim” Strawn III of Little Rock, third-generation owner of Strawn’s Fine Furniture, died May 24. He was 81. Strawn later worked in the financial services industry, spending 20 years at Smith Capital Management until his retirement.

Melba Shewmaker, a noted Bentonville philanthropist who was the widow of Jack Shewmaker, a senior Walmart executive, died May 25. She was 85.

Loren Hitchcock of Higden, former director of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, died May 28. He was 70. Hitchcock was instrumental in the passage of Amendment 75 to the state Constitution, which sets aside 1/8th of 1% of the state’s sales tax for the G&FC, Arkansas State Parks, Arkansas Heritage Commission and Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

June

Ernest Cunningham, former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, died June 11. He was 87. Cunningham, who represented Helena-West Helena and part of eastern Arkansas, became a lobbyist after leaving the Legislature. His clients included the Arkansas Health Care Association, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Arkansans for Better Schools. He was instrumental in the development of the Helena-West Helena-Phillips County Port Authority, the Helena River Park, the Delta Cultural Center and the Civil War Trail

July

Roger Collins, former chairman and CEO of Harps Food Stores of Springdale, died July 1. He was 75. Collins began his career at Harps in December 1986, serving as vice president of finance. Under his guidance, Harps transitioned from being family-owned to employee-owned in 2001. After the retirement of Gerald Harp, Collins became chairman and CEO, leading Harps through the first 15 years of employee ownership.

June Freeman, a supporter of art and architecture in Arkansas and a member of the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame, died July 4 in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 95. Freeman, who lived in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, founded and served as director of the Architecture & Design Network and was a civil rights activist as a member of the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools.

Tommy Robinson of Brinkley, 82, a former congressman representing Arkansas’ 2nd District and a former Pulaski County sheriff, died July 10. Robinson, who made an unsuccessful race for governor, was known for his attention-grabbing stunts, such as chaining prisoners to the fence at a Pine Bluff prison in response to overcrowded conditions at the Pulaski County Jail.

Ed Nicholson, retired senior director of community relations and social media at Tyson Foods, died July 26. He was 71.

September

Dr. Morriss Henry of Fayetteville, an ophthalmologist who helped establish the Jones Eye Institute at the University of Arkansas for  Medical Sciences in Little Rock, died Sept. 8. He was 92. Henry also served as both a state representative and state senator, working to improve rural health care, expand emergency services and strengthen environmental protections.

Tommy Van Zandt of Fayetteville, co-founder of real estate company Sage Partners, died Sept. 16. He was 65. Van Zandt became a quadriplegic in 2009 after falling off a ladder, but continued to work at his real estate firm, becoming known for his positive outlook

October

Thelma Mothershed-Wair, one of the nine African American students who desegregated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957 and who became ever after known as the Little Rock Nine, died Oct. 19 in Little Rock. She was 83. Mothershed-Wair taught home economics and was an elementary school counselor in East St. Louis schools for 28 years before retiring in 1994.

Robert Riggs, 92, a scientist and teacher noted for his impact on the soybean industry, died Oct. 21. Riggs, who retired in 2006 from the University of Arkansas as a professor emeritus, focused on nematodes, a threat to soybean crops.

November

Craig Campbell, 76, a former aide to Arkansas Sen. John L. McClellan who went on to become co-chairman of the Stephens Group of Little Rock, a private equity fund, and chair the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, died Nov. 9.

Mitch Chandler of Little Rock, a former TV news producer who later worked at the Arkansas Department of Economic Development as director of executive communications, died Nov. 28. He was 62.

Charolette Tidwell, a former nurse who founded and led the nonprofit food pantry Antioch for Youth & Family in Fort Smith, died Nov. 28. She was 78. “I believe in community effort,” Tidwell said in 2021. “And I believe people do inherently want to help other people.”

Jim Johnson, 89, one of the founders of what became Little Rock advertising agency CJRW, died Nov. 30. Johnson’s most famous creation is the “Arkansas” logo that has appeared for a generation on license plates and promotional items. “His unique sense of humor and keen insight into how to best connect with consumers made him one of the most sought-after creative minds in the business,” CJRW CEO Darin Gray said.

December

Bob Holt, longtime and much-respected sports reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, died Dec. 4. He was 65. Holt was inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters & Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2022.