A void in Fordyce

LITTLE ROCK — It was bad news last month when this newspaper reported on its front page that the Klappenbach Bakery was closing its doors in Fordyce. For 36 years, the bakery had graced the downtown of the Dallas County seat. After Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, it was the thing people most associated with Fordyce.

The drive through the pine woods of south Arkansas will never be the same.

I understand the decision by the owners. Norman and Lee Klappenbach were tired. Norman is 80, and Lee is 77. A bakery is the kind of business that requires you to show up for work by about 3 a.m. Their son, Paul, also was worn out by the 65-hour workweeks. Yes, I understand, but that doesn’t mean I can’t mourn the fact that Klappenbach closed.

We sometimes identify places by their most famous eating establishments. When I think of DeValls Bluff, I think of meals I’ve enjoyed through the years at Craig’s. When I think of Brinkley, I think of the many Sunday nights spent in the back room at Gene’s. When I thought of Fordyce, I thought of the bakery.

As the hardworking owners of such establishments die or decide to retire, there’s often no one to take their place. Their kids have no interest in the long hours and limited revenue streams. Buyers can be hard to find, especially in areas of south and east Arkansas that are losing population. Once these places are gone, they’re gone. That means we best enjoy such independent establishments while we still can. In large swaths of rural Arkansas, what we’re too often left with are convenience stores with fried chicken and “tater logs” under heat lamps.

A case in point was Shadden’s near Marvell. I’ll never forget that Thursday afternoon in the spring of 2010. I was on my way to a speaking engagement in Mississippi. As I passed the Shadden’s store just west of Marvell on U.S. Highway 49, I noticed that one of my favorite Delta barbecue joints was closed. I hoped nothing was wrong. I had no way of knowing at the time that it was Wayne Shadden’s final full day of life. He died the following day at age 77.

Like the Klappenbach Bakery, Shadden’s was a place that drew people from miles away. Wayne Shadden’s wife, Vivian, was tired when her husband died and had no plans to keep the store open. The kids were far away. One son was in Washington, and another was in California. One daughter was in Texas, and another was in Virginia. Seventeen months later, Shadden’s remains shut down, a black wreath still on its front door.

The wooden building that housed Shadden’s is almost a century old. Inside, the walls were covered with newspaper clippings and photos. I have several bottles of Shadden’s barbecue sauce at home, which I pull out like fine wine for special occasions.Turkey Scratch native Levon Helm would have Shadden’s barbecue sauce shipped to his home in Woodstock, N.Y., by the case.

I’m also reminded of a visit I had with Bobby Garner a couple of years ago at his Sno-White Grill in downtown Pine Bluff. The landmark restaurant opened in 1936, one year before Walt Disney produced his first full-length animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Garner purchased the restaurant in February 1970 from Roy Marshall, who had owned it the previous 27 years.

Though he’s not sure how the restaurant got its name, Garner once had figures representing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs attached to the outside of the building. They came down the day Garner received a visit from a local lawyer who had been hired by the Walt Disney Co. to ask for royalty payments. There are still some notable things at the restaurant-one of the few remaining Lou Holtz dolls and a cardboard cutout of John Wayne that looks out over the dining room.

The chances are if you’re in Sno-White, so is Garner. He’s there six days a week at 5:30 a.m. and even comes in on Sunday mornings to clean up.

“I’m the only one who has a key,” he told me.

Garner is now 75. Why does he still do it? He joked, “I checked with my board, and they said Sno-White doesn’t have a retirement plan.”

What happens when Garner decides he has had enough? Will it be what happened when Wayne Shadden of Marvell died and when the Klappenbachs in Fordyce decided to retire? I fear so. There once were a number of locally owned, fullservice restaurants in Pine Bluff likeSno-White. As the city has lost population and economic vitality through the years, those numbers have declined. Garner can rattle off the names of places that no longer exist such as John Noah’s and Wonderland.

Restaurants aren’t the only thing disappearing in south Arkansas these days. This is what Garner told me as I sipped my cup of coffee that morning: “Most of my friends have either died or moved. There’s a void there.”

There’s also a void in Fordyce where the Klappenbach Bakery once did business. Fortunately, this state still has quite a few independently run restaurants like Sno-White. The loss of Shadden’s and the Klappenbach Bakery reminds us to enjoy these places while we still can. You just never know when the end will come.

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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.