BALD KNOB — Doyle Wallace may be the mayor of Bald Knob, but his involvement in a Bald Knob Veterans Memorial is a personal venture.
Wallace is a Korean veteran, and the veterans memorial committee he formed is made up of Carl White, David Miller, Roger Heathscott and Clois Cox, all Vietnam veterans.
“I came up with the idea from seeing the [memorial] in Bradford,” Wallace said. “Actually, it was a campaign promise.”
The veterans mural in Bradford was finished about eight years ago, said artist Gene Reagan, who also painted a veterans mural in Newport in 2010.
“Things have pretty much taken off from there,” Reagan said about painting the mural in Bradford. “It’s an honor to beasked to do that.”
The memorial in Bald Knob has insignias to represent each branch of the military, as well as other military symbols, such as a bull dog, an airplane, a tank, a rifle with a helmet and combat boots, and a ship.
“I’d like to see it done by Veterans Day, depending on the weather,” Reagan said.
Veterans Day is Nov. 11.
Once the mural is finished, Wallace said, names of war veterans will be added.
“To qualify, you have to have been in during wartime and in awar zone and be from the Bald Knob School District,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the estimated cost of the memorial is $2,500. The memorial is a 10-by-30-foot mural on the side of a vacant building owned by John Fisher at the corner of Main Street and Arkansas 367. When Wallace commissioned Reagan, of Bradford, to create the mural, he said he wrote Reagan a personal check for $1,000 to get him started. Through fundraising efforts, Wallace said, he hopes the committee will raise enough money to cover the cost of the memorial.
Wallace said he was visiting with Reagan one day whilehe worked on the mural, and a “young lady” came across the street and asked about the memorial.
“She had this little purse,” Wallace said, “and she had $6 and some change, and she insisted on giving us that $6. I didn’t ask her, but she probably had a dad or a grandfather in the service.”
For more information on the Bald Knob Veterans Memorial or to donate to the memorial fund, call Wallace at the mayor’s office at (501) 724-6371.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 47 on 10/27/2011