LITTLE ROCK — IT'S NOT clear just where the line is drawn between planter and farmer in these latitudes, or just when one description went out of fashion and the other came in. We do know that a gentleman farmer is one who pursues farming as an adjunct to another vocation, the way the tirelessly inventive Thomas Jefferson supervised Monticello as a sideline to politics, accomplishing so much in both agriculture and statecraft.
Gentleman farmer, however, just won't do as an appellation for Earl H. Clemmons Jr. of-in successive order-Tamo, Pine Bluff, and Little Rock, Ark., because he seemed fully devoted to whatever he was doing at the time. The man had no sidelines, only callings. That observation applied whether he was managing his family's farm (Willowbank) in the Arkansas Delta or promoting the general advancement of agriculture and civic life throughout Southeast Arkansas. Then there was his lifelong devotion to his church. (Mr. Clemmons was the only native of Tamo, Ark., we know to have been part of not one but two papal audiences,one at the White House.)
If Earl Clemmons wasn't serving on some civic or bank board, he was getting somebody else to join him on one. His death this week at 83 marked the end of a life so fully lived with family, friends, co-workers and community that to read his obituary in Wednesday's paper was to realize anew how many vocations he'd pursued, how many callings he'd heeded.
No, the term gentleman farmer won't do to describe Earl Clemmons. What he was, was a gentleman and a farmer. There was a fairness about him that showed not just in his dealings with others but on his features as he grew older.
It was just like Mr. Clemmons and his family to remember in that obituary notice those who had taken care of him at home and in the hospital during his last illness-from the always cheerful Georgia Brown (just to lay eyes on that woman is a blessing, especially when you really need cheering) to the medical and nursing staffs who treated Mr. Clemmons with "love, respect and support." Which is just the way he treated so many others.
Editorial, Pages 22 on 10/26/2007