HIGH PROFILE: Larry Don Vaught

SCOTT -- On all but a handful of Sunday mornings for about 37 years, Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Larry Vaught could be found directing the choir at the front of the diminutive, quaint All Souls Interdenominational Church on Walkers Corner Road, just off U.S. 165 in Scott.

Where he was the rest of the week varied -- a high school campus, a law school classroom, a campaign trail or a courtroom -- depending on the phase of his career.

Vaught, now senior judge on the Court of Appeals, was a high school band director in 1976 when he began helping the church choir director. He took over the post at All Souls in 1980.

There was no money in the church budget to pay him, so he volunteered and has received -- nor requested -- nary a penny since.

"The choir has always been a therapy for me," says Vaught, 69, who adds pizazz to his black judicial robe and his blue choir robe with snazzy bow ties and boldly patterned, brightly colored socks. "It's something I enjoy doing."

He is retiring as choir director and will be the guest of honor at a celebration at All Souls on Aug. 14. A reception will be held after the 9:30 a.m. service, followed by a special worship service at 11. Music will be provided by the current 12-member choir, as well as several choir members of the past, and there will be testimonials by All Souls pastors who have come and gone during Vaught's tenure.

All 18 pews in the cozy All Souls sanctuary will undoubtedly be filled, but those who don't find a seat will be able to watch via live stream from the fellowship hall next door.

The Rev. Ward Rudolph of All Souls calls Vaught "a wonderful teacher and an inspiring leader."

"His love of music just comes through in everything. It's afforded this church a music quality we probably wouldn't have had otherwise," he says. "We are so blessed because he is amazing."

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has proclaimed Aug. 14 Judge Larry Vaught Day.

Stodola is a former neighbor of the Vaughts' and knows the judge through legal and political circles.

"Larry and his wife, Shelia, are certainly good friends and neighbors, and I have a tremendous respect for his judicial temperament and his legal analysis, even when I don't prevail," says the mayor, who concedes that their relationship has been contentious on occasion.

Stodola served as city attorney in Little Rock at the same time Vaught was civil attorney for Pulaski County. In 1990, Stodola was elected prosecuting attorney and in 1993, Vaught was elected Pulaski County Municipal Court judge.

Vaught was elected to the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 2000. He was re-elected for two eight-year terms in 2006 and 2013 and served as chief justice from 2009 to 2013.

"We do cases that involve people's lives," Vaught says. "We do all the [Arkansas Department of Human Services] cases that involve children, and we do all the workers' compensation cases involving worker's rights when they're injured on the job.

"We do most of the criminal cases other than the death penalty cases -- most of the big-time stuff like that goes to the Arkansas Supreme Court," he says.

Considering appeals is a long, detailed process, but Vaught knew from the private practice work he did between 1982 and 1989 that it was built on the reading and researching tasks he most enjoyed.

The cases that go before the court greatly affect the parties involved, but Vaught rarely allows himself to lose sleep over the decisions.

"That's one thing you have to learn about being a judge early on," he says. "The cases that you decide have an impact. But without the judges who decide them, that impact is never felt by anyone. In order to make a difference someone has to make the decision and that decision is not always easy," he says.

"You have to make that decision, and once it's made you have to move on to the next case. You can't dwell on it. I'll agonize over a decision, but once that decision has been made, I move on to the next case," he says.

STRICTLY BUSINESS

Judge Sam Bird, who retired from the Court of Appeals about seven years ago, served with Vaught. The men and their wives have been close since.

"He's easy to get to know because he's a very sincere person, and at the court he was a very stable source," Bird says. "Like all judges we didn't agree on everything. Sometimes we disagreed, but Larry has the ability to disagree without being disagreeable, always polite, and although we may have differed in our judgment, it never became personal with him."

"It's strictly business," Bird added.

Bird has been in the audience as Vaught played the trombone on stages with the Natural State Brass Band and the North Little Rock Community Band, and has listened to Vaught informally strumming the guitar, which he took up a couple of years ago.

He says Vaught is musically talented, singing and playing a variety of instruments. Bird says he is jealous that Vaught has become so proficient at the guitar so quickly, when Bird has been trying to learn for two decades.

"He just has an aptitude for music and music-related things. Unfortunately his musical talents did not transfer to his golf game," Bird quips. Vaught took up golf after he joined the appeals court. "He loves to play, he's very persistent, he's determined and he really enjoys his occasional successes at it."

Vaught did start his music education considerably earlier than putting practice.

He grew up in Little Rock's Hillcrest neighborhood, the son of Terry and Leoma Vaught, the general manager of an appliance company and a stay-at-home mother.

He took band class at Pulaski Heights Elementary.

"Back in those days they started kids in band in Little Rock public schools in fourth grade, so I've been playing the trombone since I was 10 years old," he says. He played in the bands at Pulaski Heights Junior High and Hall High School, too.

"I was a dyed-in-the-wool bandie," he says.

Outside of junior high band, he was selected for and played in an all-city honors band, which pulled talent from all the junior high schools.

"We got to go on little trips and perform for places, and that was mostly a spring and summer group, so that spread over into the summer and we had [regular school] band then, too."

In the middle of those harmonious times, adversity struck. Vaught's mother died of cancer.

"My mother was a fantastic musician. Any musical talent I have comes directly from her," Vaught says.

Leoma Vaught played the piano at every church where the Vaughts were members.

"She was one of those people who could read music -- could sight-read anything, plus she could play anything by ear," the son recalls. "And she could transpose in her head. She took piano lessons as a kid but those are not things that you're taught."

He says the same of his sister, Linda Bonilla, who lives in Atlanta. But Vaught never took to the piano. He had a "cool" uncle who played the trombone, and that's what inspired him to take up the brass instrument.

Vaught went on to play in the band at Washington University in St. Louis, where he took a few law courses as electives.

"With everything that was going on in the '60s, with the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam and the politics of the era, I was very much engrossed in politics and thought that the law was an interesting way to get into the political sphere," he says.

TRADING BATON FOR GAVEL

Vaught wanted to follow his bachelor's degree in history with law school, but he didn't have the means, so he taught for a while instead. His first job out of school in 1969 was directing the music program -- a band and a small girls' glee club -- at Prairie Grove High School. He was there for three years before he became the band director at Cloverdale Junior High in Little Rock.

It was at Cloverdale that he met his wife. She taught English and social studies.

One of the most important talents she brought to the table -- she had been the cheerleader sponsor at a previous school.

"As band director, I needed a sponsor for my majorettes, so she did that for me. We worked together in that, and that's how we eventually ended up getting together," he says. "We were quite the item at Cloverdale Junior High in 1984."

Shelia Vaught grew up behind All Souls and has been going to that church since childhood.

The couple married in 1975 and she quit teaching to open Little Rock School of Dance. Vaught continued as band director at Cloverdale while starting night classes at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.

"My intent was always to go to law school. Teaching was a means to get there," Vaught says. "Not that I didn't enjoy teaching -- I did. But I never intended to do it as a full career. I always wanted to go to law school and when the opportunity arose, I did." He graduated in 1979.

A decade later, Vaught left the private practice he was in to be Pulaski County civil attorney. Ben Jordan was pastor at All Souls that year.

"He and I talked a lot about careers and I told him, 'Larry, you have the demeanor of a judge.' Sure enough he did," Jordan says. "I was always impressed by his integrity and his character. He's such a thoughtful, deliberative, decisive person. ... He's deliberate in his thoughtfulness."

Gale Hess was in the choir when Vaught joined All Souls and has continued singing since Vaught became director.

"It was never about Larry. It was always about Larry's service to the church," Hess said. "That was his gift -- his service to the church as the choir director. It was never about his ability. It was always unselfish.

"His heart was in leading the choir," she adds.

When Vaught became choir director, he ambitiously instituted Easter and Christmas cantatas, adding three months of practices and preparation to his Sunday worship service duties.

Hess, who grew up in Scott next to Shelia Vaught, relished the little trinkets the couple would place under choir members' chairs for them to find at dress rehearsals for those Christmas and Easter programs.

"It could be candy, it could be a Starbucks gift card ... for Easter one time we had a little bunny statue, bracelets for the girls, just any kind of little trinket. It was very sweet," she says.

Shelia Vaught was busy with the dance studio on many evenings while their two daughters were growing up, and he became the parent who helped their girls, Ashley Dixon of Seattle and Sherry Kuebler of North Little Rock, with homework and got dinner on the table.

"I like to cook," he says. "Nothing fancy, just standard stuff. My specialty is lasagna. I have a special recipe for lasagna, I use a lot of beer in the sauce. That was not something I made every night."

Kip Moore, who met Vaught at All Souls in the early '70s, notes that Vaught cooks at church also, for men's breakfasts and churchwide events.

He has quietly taken on other tasks, too, like picking up elderly choir members for practice, cleaning up after cantatas and buying choir music that isn't in the church's budget.

Though Vaught is retiring as choir director, he doesn't necessarily plan to stop doing those other things.

"If the mood strikes me I will start singing in the choir after a few months, but I want to take a few months and just relax and not have that obligation every Sunday," he says. "I'm sure I will miss it. But it's time."

High Profile on 08/07/2016