If Lawrence Hamilton, the late Broadway performer from Arkansas who starred in Ragtime, knew he was to be the namesake of a meeting room in the soon-to-reopen Robinson Center performance hall in Little Rock, he'd be humbled and grateful, his sister said.
Hamilton, who died at age 59 in 2014, joined eight other former Arkansas and Little Rock residents honored Thursday with rooms bearing their names in the new Robinson Center, which will officially reopen Nov. 10 after more than two years of being closed for renovations.
During his career, Hamilton performed with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and directed the Philander Smith College Choir. He performed at the White House for President Ronald Reagan and at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. He played the lead role of Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime and appeared in a revival of The Wiz.
"He's the younger brother. He's always been gifted for us. He was a joy, and he never met a stranger," his sister Phyllis Hamilton said at a name-reveal ceremony Thursday morning. "He came from a minute place called Foreman, Ark. Our father would take us out on the porch and we would look at the sky and we saw satellites. His thing was, 'Where are they going?' He said, 'When I get older, I will travel.' And he did."
Lawrence Hamilton's name will grace the center's Meeting Rooms B and C, along with the late Art Porter Sr. and Art Porter Jr.
The elder Porter, a pianist, composer, conductor and music teacher, performed at former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration. Porter's son was a jazz musician who played the drums, saxophone and piano. The younger Porter inspired Act 321, known as the "Art Porter Bill," which allows minors to perform in clubs while under adult supervision.
"As gifted as they were, they were also very humble, so this would be probably a shock to them," said Benita Porter Browning, the daughter of the elder Porter. "They walked through life with their gift God had asked them to do, and that was to share their talents and give back to the community."
The others honored with their names on Robinson Center rooms are:
• William Grant Still, the Grand Ballroom. Still was the first black conductor of a major American symphony orchestra in the U.S. and the first black composer to have an opera produced by a major opera company.
• Florence Price, the Ballroom Registration. Price is the first black woman to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra.
• Stella Boyle Smith, the outdoor terrace. Smith founded the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Youth Orchestra.
• Gail Davis, Meeting Room A. Davis starred as Annie Oakley in the groundbreaking TV Western series by that name. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
• Ben Piazza, Meeting Room D. Piazza was a member of a small group of Broadway stars who established "off Broadway." He was an actor, director, author and playwright.
The only living person to have a room named after him is Barry L. Travis, the former chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau. A special patron's lounge, adjacent to the center's historic lobby and performance hall, will be named for Travis.
"This room will feature the original 1939 southern yellow pine floor, and historic photographs of the original structure will grace" the walls, said Gretchen Hall, the current CEO of the bureau.
Travis' name also was on the former exhibition hall at Robinson, but that area was demolished to lower the theater stage in the renovated facility.
Travis was named Arkansas Tourism Person of the Year in 1989, and the Arkansas Hospitality Association inducted him into its Tourism Hall of Fame in 2002.
"Barry is very well loved" by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Hall said. "He loved the historic structure of the original Robinson Auditorium. We felt a patron's lounge was the perfect place to grace his name."
Metro on 10/14/2016