GROUP EFFORT: The latest issue of the Quapaw Quarter Association's Chronicle online publication featuring "2015 in Review" offers a recap of those honored by the organization with its Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards.
Among them? One called "The Group," which was given the Jimmy Strawn Award "for their long-time investment and rehabilitation of the Governor's Mansion Historic District and their commitment to downtown Little Rock." The award is named for Jimmy Strawn, one of the founders of the association who also restored the Villa Marre historic home and later donated it to the organization, which used it as a house museum before later selling it.
What's not explained in the Chronicle is what The Group is or who its members are. An accompanying slide show includes numerous photos of others honored during the award presentation. But for The Group's award, there's only a vintage photo of Strawn standing in front of the Villa Marre.
A call to Rhea Roberts, executive director of the association, was not immediately returned Friday. But an Internet search of The Group revealed more information, via a December 2010 news obituary by the Arkansas Times' Max Brantley of W. Dixon Bowles, founder of the Little Rock-based Aristotle Internet service provider and Web design company. Brantley wrote that Bowles was "also known as the founder of The Group, a communal living arrangement that began with a group of musicians in the 1960s" who "established a home on Big Piney Creek in the early 1970s and eventually moved to Little Rock, bought adjacent homes in the Quapaw Quarter and undertook a number of business ventures."
LARGER AUDIENCE: The Whole Famn Damily -- yes, the spelling is correct -- is a musical group originally from Conway that describes its genre on its Facebook page as "folkestra." The group has been included in National Public Radio's Tiny Desk contest; to see its video, visit arkansasonline.com/papertrails.
ROCKIN' WRITER: Rickie Lee Reynolds -- an original member of the Southern rock band Black Oak Arkansas who now lives in Memphis and still tours with the band -- is giving the writing world a whirl. The Manila native's first work of fiction, Evil Thingies, is being published by Cowboy Buddha Publishing. The fantasy tale is based on bedtime stories he told his daughters. The stories revolve around everyday people who resort to their inner strengths to save the Earth from annihilation. He'll hold a book signing March 5 at That Bookstore in Blytheville.
SPIRITED WORK: Former Little Rock resident Spirit Trickey has joined the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Trickey, a former interpretive ranger with the National Park Service at Central High School National Historic Site, is also the daughter of Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the nine students who integrated Central High in 1957.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
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