A PERSONAL THANK-YOU: When college basketball prospect Lis Shoshi arrived in Little Rock a couple of years back on a recruiting trip, the Kosovo native was surprised to learn that the airport he was walking through was named for Bill Clinton. At the time, Shoshi said of the former president, "He saved my country." Clinton, he explains today, is a hero in Shoshi's country, honored there with a statue.
"He helped us win the war," says Shoshi, now 22. He is majoring in finance and will be a senior this fall. Shoshi transferred to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock last year from a college in Texas.
The turmoil in Shoshi's country was traumatic, with his family being uprooted when he was 4 and fleeing to Albania. Upon returning to their homeland, family members found the majority of it destroyed.
Hearing Shoshi's story, Kevin Crass, an attorney with the Friday, Eldredge & Clark law firm in Little Rock and a big fan of UALR, coordinated a meeting between Shoshi and Clinton at the golf course where Clinton was playing while in town recently.
The basketball player was grateful he had the opportunity to personally express his gratitude to Clinton for his assistance during the war.
"I told him, 'Thank you for what you did for us,'" he tells Paper Trails. "It was an awesome experience," he says of the meeting.
Shoshi says the former president responded by sharing his memories of that time during his presidency.
"He told me all he did during the time of war and then we talked about basketball some," he says, adding, "It was amazing."
A JEWEL OF AN HONOR: Sissy Jones of Sissy's Log Cabin was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Jewelry Association this past Monday at an award ceremony in New York. Jones, who has spent more than 45 years in the jewelry business, began her business in Pine Bluff, selling antiques and jewelry out of an old rented log cabin. Today, her jewelry business has locations in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Jonesboro and Memphis. In addition to this award, Jones was previously named Retailer of the Year by the association. Jones, battling cancer, was unable to attend the ceremony and her son Bill accepted her award.
She did record a message to be played at the ceremony.
"Our motto at Sissy's Log Cabin is, 'Life's too short for ordinary jewelry,' but I also hold the belief that life's too short for an ordinary day," she said. "Today is certainly not an ordinary day. It'll be a day I will always cherish and remember."
WEDDING BELLS: Nate Coulter, a lawyer and director of the Central Arkansas Library System, and his longtime girlfriend, Nathalie Massanelli, tied the knot this past Tuesday while on vacation. "After 13 years of dating, Nate and I decided to get married in Highlands, North Carolina," the bride posted on their Facebook pages the next day, along with a photo of the couple taken at their wedding.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 07/31/2016