Kin, friends remember good times

Lenon Main, of Amity, Ark., climbs up on a flood debris pile to search and remove debris, near Langley, Ark., Sunday, June 13, 2010. Search and recovery efforts continue after flooding swept through a nearby campground early Friday, killing at least 18 people.
Lenon Main, of Amity, Ark., climbs up on a flood debris pile to search and remove debris, near Langley, Ark., Sunday, June 13, 2010. Search and recovery efforts continue after flooding swept through a nearby campground early Friday, killing at least 18 people.

— Generations of families slept in cabins and campers along the Little Missouri River in the Albert Pike Recreation Area early Friday.

Many visited the federal campground every summer.

Among them were doting grandparents, aging high-school sweethearts and towheaded kids - best friends who did everything together.

Who knew that the pounding rain would cause the river to grow 20 feet in only four hours and surge over the bank, rising so fast that at least 19 campers couldn’t escape its reach?

Seven children died that morning, the youngest just 2 years old.

Several families are grieving for more than one lost relative.

“You just feel empty. You just - it’s unbelievable - I don’t know how to describe it,” said Linda Williams, whose sister, niece and great-nephew died. “Your heart just empties out.”

Julie Freeman, 54, of Texarkana, Texas, enjoyed shopping for and spoiling her granddaughter, Kylee Sullivan, 6.

Freeman and her husband, Gerald, lived next door to their granddaughter. The two joined Kylee and her best friend, Gayble Moss, 7, and Kylee’s parents, Amanda and Clark Willis, on their first trip as a group.

“[Gayble] was so excited about Albert Pike,” said Amanda Willis, who survived along with her husband. “She had never gone to camp before.”

Gayble and Kylee, who called each other sisters and wore “best friend” necklaces, often stayed over at each other’s houses.

The girls loved to sing and dance for friends and family, Willis said, and they both showed great compassion toward others. Kylee, who had three dogs, two gerbils and10 fish, would only adopt “rescue animals.”

“That was her own rule,” Amanda Willis said. “She had a big heart.”

According to Gayble’s family, she had a “fun and impish” personality, and she loved going on “adventures.”

The two girls had just finished first grade at St. James Day School in Texarkana.

When you stepped into Leslie Jez’s home in Foreman, “you automatically smiled,” her aunt, Linda Williams, said, because “that house was so full of love.”

Jez’s 3-year-old son, Kaden, might be wearing yellow boots helping his “Nana,” as he called his grandmother, Sheri Wade, 46, paint.

Or maybe she was teaching him how to barrel-race, because she loved the rodeo.

Jez, 23, and her husband, Adam, were immensely devoted to each other and to their son, Williams said. Wade, Leslie’s mother, shared that devotion. Adam Jez survived.

Williams, who was close to her sister Sheri, said she will miss “the closeness we had, and the love and the laughs, and the being able to pick up the phone and call her anytime.”

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Eric Sultz, 38, of Nash, Texas, who was camping with Wade and her family, was part of a close-knit family of boys, including a twin brother.

“He was great brother,” Todd Sultz wrote on Facebook Saturday morning of Eric. “You were loved by alot of people ...You will be dearly missed.”

Debra McMaster of Stamps taught geometry and algebra at Spring Hill High School near Hope, said Superintendent Dickie Williams. Despite the difficult subjects, students loved her.

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“The good Lord made very few exceptional math teachers,” Williams said. “But she was one of them.”

McMaster, who was married with children, had worked for the Spring Hill School District since 2006. Before beginning her career as an educator, Williams said, McMaster worked as a pharmacist.

When Williams asked Mc-Master why she left her career as a pharmacist, she told him she felt called to teach.

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Robert “Lynn” Shumake, 68, his wife, Wilene, and their 8-year-old grandson, Nicholas Shumake, all of DeKalb, Texas, left in the middle of last week with their camper to spend a long weekend at Albert Pike.

They had been camping there for decades, said Robert’s cousin, David Shumake.

David, who called his cousin “Lynn,” said the Shumake couple grew up in the small community of New Hope, just outside DeKalb.

“Wilene was his childhood sweetheart,” David said.

Lynn retired from the Red River Army Depot about four years ago. Since then, he and Wilene spent much of their time with “Nic,” whom one of their sons adopted more than six years ago.

“We called him firecracker,” David said of the boy.

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Asked why, he laughed and said, “Because he was a live wire. He was fun to be around and he loved to be with his grandparents.”

Anthony Smith, 30, of Gloster, La., and his family camped in southwest Arkansas four or five times a year.

He usually stayed at Camp Albert Pike, adjacent to the Albert Pike Recreation Area, with his children, Katelynn Smith, 2, and Joey Smith, 5.

Smith often camped with Shane Basinger, 34, and his family.

But by Friday, they had moved to the recreation area for electrical hookups, said Smith’s friend Jesse Lowery, manager of Camp Albert Pike.

“He was an amazing and very unique guy,” Lowery said of Smith. “He was so smart about so many different things.”

Smith, a computer tech, repaired one of Lowery’s computers on the back of a truck’s tailgate one year at the camp.

And Basinger was “more of a good ol’ boy,” he said.

Lowery and Basinger would trade hunting stories and catch up whenever they saw each other.

Lowery said he knew Basinger and Smith better than he knew their children, but “the kids were just adorable and well behaved.

Smith’s son, Joey, often rode his bicycle through the campsites.

“He rode that bicycle faster than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Lowery said.

Lowery said he was always happy to see the Smith and Basinger families.

“They were exceptional people, exceptional families. Warm, welcoming, you know, ‘Eat supper with us. C’mon,’” Lowery said. “Not everybody’s that way.”

Kay Roeder, 69, of Luling, La., had been visiting the campground since she was 9 years old.

Her daughter, Cindy Roeder, told The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans that her mother continued the tradition for two weeks each summer for her entire life.

On this trip, her son, Bruce Roeder, 51, his wife, Debbie,52, and more than a dozen other relatives joined her.

Bruce Roeder “woke up, must have heard the water,” family friend Kerry Hotard told The Times-Picayune. She said Roeder ushered many of the family members up a hill to safety. But as he turned to go back to get those who remained, the water was too high, Hotard said.

Information for this article was contributed by Sean Beherec and Kenneth Heard of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/14/2010

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