LITTLE ROCK — Saturday’s sale of personal collectibles, memorabilia, trinkets and toys from the Jennings Osborne estate offered a window into the passions of the late Little Rock businessman and his family.
One by one, the items all sold. The signed photographs from presidents, movie stars and famed athletes; the dozens of barbecue cookbooks; the model cars; even the vintage Playboy magazine collection and a pair of shorts that once belonged to famed Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.
They all had to go, except for one - a custom-designed lapel pin, fashioned out of diamonds in the shape of Mickey Mouse, a Disney image that, along with barbecue, Elvis and Christmas lights, often comes to mind when Osborne’s name is mentioned.
He wore the pin with every jacket, which meant he wore it almost every day, according to his daughter, Allison “Breezy” Osborne-Wingfield.
Unable to keep the pin out of the auction, Osborne-Wingfield decided to show up Saturday and bid on it herself.
And she got it.
“It’s dad. It’s pure diamonds and it’s something that he loved,” she said. “It was one of his things I’d like to be able to hold on to ... and one day give to my daughter.”
The whirlwind of auctions, which began Wednesday, was unavoidable, according to Osborne-Wingfield and her mother, Mitzi Osborne.
Fewer than five months after Osborne died from complications caused by heart problems in April 2011, his family was hit with a lawsuit by Metropolitan National Bank that sought to foreclose on two properties and the family’s airplane to cover a nearly $2 million debt.
In February, Osborne-Wingfield and her mother were hit with another lawsuit claiming the two owed Metropolitan $181,000 from a 2010 loan.
The auction has attracted hundreds of people over the past few days, including a host of professional collectors and online retailers.
For Osborne-Wingfield, watching the items sell, lot by lot, bid by bid, to a mix of friends, acquaintances and total strangers, was bittersweet.
“I was dreading the auction of the house,” she said. “I walked into [the auction Friday] and I can smell my family. Our furniture is here. Our beds are here. ... It’ll be easier once this is all over with.”
On Wednesday, the Osbornes’ home at 4 Robinwood Drive and two adjacent properties, which once boasted the family’s famous Christmas light displays, sold for a combined $471,000.
On Friday, the furniture, the crystal and Mitzi Osborne’s fur coats were sold.
On Saturday, the ventriloquist dummies and the sets of signed baseballs, bats and Razorbacks football helmets all were sold.
There also was a living room’s-worth of Elvis and Disney paraphernalia that belonged to the larger-than life Little Rock philanthropist and entrepreneur.
“When we weren’t working or barbecuing, we were buying,” Mitzi Osborne said. “He loved autographed pictures. ... He loved to collect.”
Even the odder items, like the vintage camera equipment and, yes, the Fleiss shorts, were all Osborne, according to his daughter.
“Dad was very proud of things like that. He liked to find things no one had,” Osborne-Wingfield said. “He liked the shock value of having something like that for people to see and look at.”
For Brad Wilkerson, like many of the professional collectors who went to North Little Rock this weekend, Saturday’s auction was an opportunity.
The Little Rock-born businessman makes a living in Kentucky buying, selling and trading items through eBay.
He said many of Osborne’s Disney collectibles were limited editions, or even unique. And since the family donated its Christmas light collection to the Disney theme parks, Wilkerson said the Osbornename attracts a lot of interest among hard-core Disney merchandise collectors.
The other items for sale also impressed Wilkerson. The variety of items, ranging from turn-of-the-century presidential campaign buttons to vintage Pac-Man and Donkey Kong arcade games, painted a picture of a man with far reaching tastes, he said.
“If he wanted it, he bought it,” Wilkerson said. “[His style] was only the best.
Everything was top of the line.”
And it was a lot of everything, according to auction officials.
Bill Hartnedy, who works with Blackmon Auctions, said that between Friday and Saturday, his company sold roughly 1,300 lots.
Hartnedy declined to say how much money the sold lots took in.
John Varnadore put up $500 for a custom Tinker Bell plate, one of only 100.
The father of a family of “big Disney fans,” Varnadore and his wife and daughter used to help serve food at Osborne’s large public barbecues. Years ago, Osborne helped pay the Varnadore family’s way to Disney World in Florida, a trip that has long since become a tradition.
“[Osborne] had the same love of Disney that we do,” Varnadore said.
As the auction wound down Saturday, Mitzi Osborne said she wants a chance to clear the family debts and “break even.” The auction of their Hot Springs lake house will take place today.
“It’ll be a relief when it’s over,” she said.
For Osborne-Wingfield, the end of the auction marks the opportunity to grieve and move on.
“It’s been very nerve-racking that [the auction] had to go on,” she said. “But there will be a sense of peace now that it’s over.”
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 06/10/2012