100 years ago
Sept. 19, 1918
COTTER -- Ira Wilbur, who was charged with the murder of May Cockrum, near Hayney, was acquitted in the Baxter county Circuit Court. He was acquitted at the March term of court on a charge of murdering her mother, Ellen Cockrum. The affair was a double tragedy, the shooting having occurred last December between Hayney and Lone Rock. For several months the killing was a mystery. The two women had been missing from their cabin home for several days, when a search was instituted and their dead bodies were found in the woods, both having been shot to death with a shotgun. Several arrests were made before Wilbur was arrested. His plea was insanity. It is said that the two dead women enticed his wife away. This, it is said, deranged his mind.
50 years ago
Sept. 19, 1968
• The Little Rock Post Office expects to receive orders for nearly a half-million first-day covers of the Arkansas River navigation commemorative stamp to be issued October 1 at Little Rock, Postmaster Roy L. Sharpe said Wednesday. Requests for first-day covers are beginning to arrive in volume from stamp and souvenir collectors throughout the United States. Some have purchased special envelopes from the stamp stores bearing printed pictures or drawings on the left side calling attention to the navigation project... The stamp will show a ship's wheel against a background that includes a barge and a power transmission tower. The words "Arkansas River Navigation," will be printed across the bottom.
25 years ago
Sept. 19, 1993
• More than 500 military personnel and their families gathered Saturday to welcome the newly appointed adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, Brig. Gen. Melvin C. Thrash. In his speech during an outdoor ceremony at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, Thrash said he would uphold the standard of quality and discipline maintained by his predecessor, retiring Maj. Gen. James A. Ryan. "I pledge that the Arkansas National Guard will remain ready," Thrash said after he was sworn in by Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.
10 years ago
Sept. 19, 2008
• Eyeing dollars flowing to businesses in neighboring states, Arkansas retailers -- great and small -- urged legislators Thursday to allow the sale of clothing, computers and school supplies to be sales-tax-free in Arkansas for three days each year. Five of the six states adjacent to Arkansas have tax-free sales periods, often called tax holidays. They last two or three days, usually around back-to-school time. It's time for Arkansas to join the practice, legislators heard from lobbyists for small stores and Dillard's Inc. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, favors the tax holiday as well, a spokesman said later Thursday.
Metro on 09/19/2018