One of the definitions of "salon" in the dictionary on my desk is "a periodic gathering of people of social or intellectual distinction." Though teachers will be warning their students in these opening weeks of the school year not to rely on Wikipedia, I kind of like the way the online source begins its "salon" entry: "A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation."
Though I doubt he ever used the word "salon" without the word "beauty" in front of it, W.R. "Witt" Stephens hosted the most famous of the Arkansas salons for decades. Stephens, who died in December 1991, was the Prattsville native who, along with his brother Jack, built Stephens Inc. into a nationally known financial services giant. Each weekday, Stephens would fill the private dining room of the company's building with a who's who of Arkansas business and politics. The cast of regulars included Ike Murry, the state's attorney general from 1949-53 and the founder 47 years ago of Murry's Dinner Playhouse in Little Rock; and federal judge Henry Woods. They were joined by a rotating cast of characters for Stephens' famous corn bread, country cooking and political discussions. What was said in the dining room stayed in the dining room.
Stephens met the Wikipedia definition of the "inspiring host," guiding conversations and taking delight in the fact that he could instigate heated discussions on topics of the day. In this landmark political year, as Arkansas plays host to perhaps the most-watched U.S. Senate race in the country along with a spirited contest for an open governor's seat, people have said to me that they wish there was a 21st Century equivalent of the Stephens salon. Well, there is. And it's hosted by a woman, Brenda Fulkerson, a delightful conversationalist who holds the luncheons at her home on what once was the Baucum Plantation near Scott.
Earlier this month, a group of us gathered around the dining room table. There were Democrats, Republicans and independents. A former congressman, a former state political party chairman, a well-known political journalist, high-profile attorneys, a sitting state legislator and some of the state's best-known lobbyists were there. They ate baked ham, homegrown tomatoes and more, telling stories of past political battles and dissecting the current landscape. I won't say much more since Fulkerson follows the off-the-record rule.
But I'm drawn back to Wikipedia and this description of the salon's history: "The salon was an Italian invention of the 16th Century ... some scintillating circles formed in the small courts, which resembled salons, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness." Brenda Fulkerson serves as our patroness, and an Arkansas touch is added with the country cooking and the setting, which requires driving down a gravel road with a rice field on one side and a cornfield on the other side.
Fulkerson began hosting the luncheons in the early 1990s as a way of introducing Winthrop Paul Rockefeller to a wide range of influential Arkansans. Stephens and Rockefeller were both wealthy, but their upbringings could not have been more different. Stephens, born in Grant County in 1907, picked cotton, sold peanuts, shined shoes and worked in a sawmill as a boy. He never attended college. At age 20, he began selling belt buckles and Bibles. Salesmanship and glad-handing came naturally to him. They didn't come naturally to Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, born in 1948 in New York City, the only child of future Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. His parents separated in 1950 and divorced four years later. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller grew up in New York and Europe, though he would spend large parts of each summer with his father in Arkansas. He fell in love with the Rockefeller ranch atop Petit Jean Mountain and received his degree in ranch management from Texas Christian University at Fort Worth.
Though he served for 14 years on the Arkansas State Police Commission and was active in the Boy Scouts, Winthrop Paul Rockefeller still didn't know the range of people he needed to win a statewide race. That's why Fulkerson began inviting people to visit with Rockefeller over lunch. He was elected lieutenant governor in a November 1996 special election, replacing Mike Huckabee, who had moved up to governor on July 15 of that year following Jim Guy Tucker's resignation. Rockefeller was elected to a full four-year term in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. He had announced his candidacy for governor in a bid to replace Huckabee in 2006 but pulled out of the race on July 19, 2005, due to a blood disorder. He died on July 16, 2006.
The Fulkerson luncheons ended with Rockefeller's death. In 2010, I was called by Fulkerson and asked if I would help put together the guest list for a new series of monthly events. On the day before the first one, I headed south to make sure I could find the home. I've always been fascinated by the Scott area. Just minutes from the bustle of downtown Little Rock, you find yourself in the Deep South, on land where cotton was once king and hundreds of sharecroppers raised their families.
Now those flat fields regularly see the cars of Arkansas power brokers heading to lunch. In a manner that would make Witt Stephens proud, they discuss Arkansas politics over good food, guided by a warm, witty moderator.
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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.
Editorial on 08/20/2014