Nancy Hendricks doesn’t like to talk about herself too much, but ask her about Hattie Caraway, and she can’t say enough.
Hendricks, who’s become quite a scholar on Arkansas’ first woman United States senator, loves to tell Caraway’s story.
Hendricks, who lives in Hot Springs Village, is the author of Senator Hattie Caraway: An Arkansas Legend, which was published in 2013. Also a professional actor, Hendricks, who has taken her program across Arkansas, portrays Caraway as well.
Caraway, of Jonesboro, served in the U.S. Senate from Dec. 9, 1931, until Jan. 3, 1945. She was appointed to serve out her husband, Thaddeus Caraway’s, Senate term upon his death in 1931, and in May 1932, she announced she would seek a full term in the upcoming election. She won the November 1932 general election and ran for, and won, a second term in 1938. Caraway lost her bid for re-election in 1944 to J. William Fulbright.
Hendricks, 63, said her father, who knew Caraway during World War II, first told Hendricks about Caraway and shared stories about her.
“But I never fully understood the enormity of her achievement until entering public service myself with former Texas Gov. Ann Richards more than half a century later. Even then, a woman in politics was not an easy role,” Hendricks said.
“Caraway may have been called ‘Silent Hattie,’ but I knew I wanted to help sing her praises,” Hendricks said.
“Hattie was passionate about education and our military,” said Hendricks, whose research into Caraway’s life includes visits with her granddaughter and hours spent in the archives at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, among other places. Hendricks holds a master’s degree in English from ASU, where she taught English and, most recently, served as director of alumni communications. She also has a doctorate in education from the U of A.
“Hattie established Army college training detachments as a way to bring our military serving during World War II stateside to learn new skills … on Arkansas college campuses,” Hendricks said.
“Arkansas colleges had already lost students due to the Great Depression, and when the United States entered the war, even more students, and faculty members, left the campuses,” Hendricks said. “These training detachments helped keep these schools open.”
Hendricks said Caraway was also instrumental in assisting Arkansas colleges in receiving proper financing for constructing new buildings.
“She helped bring nine more buildings to Arkansas State,” Hendricks said. “Many of them are still in use today. She also helped bring about the GI Bill.
“This is all part of the legacy of Hattie Caraway,” Hendricks said. “Many people don’t know her, and many dismiss her as being ineffectual, … but she was highly effective when people needed it most.”
Her research into Caraway’s life has led Hendricks both near and far.
“The Lord led me to the University of Arkansas and her papers that are housed there,” Hendricks said. “That’s where I started my research. To see [Caraway’s] own handwriting was special.
“The Lord brought me to Arkansas State University and Jonesboro, where Buddy Kays, the son of former ASU President V.C. Kays, had donated V.C.’s papers. It was there, in the basement, I found boxes and boxes of letters between V.C. and Hattie about getting buildings constructed on campus.”
Hendricks’ research also led her to Caraway’s granddaughter.
“She came to trust me. She sent me a parcel of family letters and photos,” Hendricks said.
“All of this came together at the same time. It was not by providence. … The good Lord led me to do this,” she said.
“It was about this same time I saw a lot of friends suffering from age problems. And I thought, ‘If not now, when will I begin to have these problems?’
“I quit my job at ASU two years ago, have been touring with the Hattie book and have now been blessed with two more book contracts. I am now able to support myself as a writer, something I have wanted to do all my life.”
Hendricks’ most recent book, Terrible Swift Sword: Long Road to the Sultana, was published in February. She is currently touring with this book, too, and portrays a Southern woman recounting this maritime disaster.
“I love to share the account of the steamboat Sultana,” Hendricks said. “It’s the Civil War story no one knows. Though Sultana remains America’s worst maritime disaster, it did not get the attention that the Titanic did 50 years later. The boat remains lie near Marion, Arkansas, yet few Arkansans know the story.”
As she continues to tour with her books, she said she also wants to be of service to the community, to be useful.
“I moved to Hot Springs Village about a year ago,” Hendricks said, adding that she lives in Washington, D.C., part of the year.
“I love it here,” she said. “There are a lot of retirees here. For most people, retirement is great, but there are those who have suffered a loss or are at loose ends for one reason or another. I want to tell them, ‘You have so much to give. There is no better feeling that feeling useful. Whether it’s serving on the [property owners association] board or tutoring at the local school, you have so much to give.’
“That said, I hope to continue to go out and meet people. I am a Rotarian, and our motto is, ‘Service above self.’ This is what I want to do.”
Hendricks’ books can be found at local booksellers and online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon websites.
Hendricks graduated from high school in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and received her undergraduate degree in English and drama from Southern Connecticut State University.
“I got involved in theater in high school,” she said. “I went to college in New Haven (Southern Connecticut State), which had an agreement with the Yale School of Drama. I was selected to participate in that program, the same one Paul Newman was involved in. I was blessed to be a part of that program.”
After college, Hendricks continued her acting and finally ended up in Arkansas.
She has become active in the local community and is a member of the Hot Springs Village Rotary Club, the Hot Springs Village Players, the Hot Springs Village Writers’ Club, the Garland County Historical Society, the Garland County Civil War Roundtable and the American Association of University Women.
Hendricks is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and has chaired a national playwriting competition. She has been a newspaper and magazine columnist and is a contributing author of entries for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
She is also the author and editor of America’s First Ladies: A Historical Encyclopedia and Primary Document Collection of the Remarkable Women of the White House and To Can The Kaiser: Arkansas in the Great War, to be published within the next year. She is a contributing author for America’s Historic Sites and National Landmarks; Music Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia; Women in American History: A Social, Political and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection; and Disasters and Tragic Events: An Encyclopedia of Catastrophes in American History.
Hendricks is a founding member of the National Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C. She also belongs to the Southern Association of Women Historians and the Queen Elizabeth I Society.
She most recently received the Women in American History Award from the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, which was presented to her at the Arkansas State Society Daughters of the American Revolution state conference in Little Rock.
Hendricks is also the recipient of a Pryor Award for Arkansas Women’s History, the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award and the White House Millennium Award.
For more information or to schedule a program, contact Hendricks at nhendricks@astate.edu or nhendricks1123@hotmail.com.