Fred Poe

Fred Poe, aged 81, died November 27th, 2015. Born to Fred Poe Sr., a World War One hero awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French Government and Hortense LeLaurin whose father emigrated from France to Pine Bluff in opposition to his native country's role in the infamous Dreyfus Affair. The Poe family were early pioneer settlers in Saline County before Arkansas statehood. Educated at Little Rock High School and the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Poe graduated from Vanderbilt University where we wrote the college musical comedy and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Upon graduation Fred moved to San Francisco becoming part of the Beatnik subculture and playing ragtime and jazz piano in clubs. Drafted, he served as a translator in Germany in the US Forces and did graduate work at Mainz University in Eastern European History. He apprenticed in the travel agency field with agencies in Montana and Washington State and returned home to open Poe Travel in 1961 as likely the youngest travel agency owner in the country. Poe Travel has had international success in its field and is now operated by his daughter Ellison and partner Margaret Farrell Kemp. The family lived for two sabbatical periods in Vienna and the agency now boasts a branch office in Istanbul. Poe married Tina Bohlinger of Billings,Montana in 1961, a union resulting in divorce 24 years later. Children include Ellison LeLaurin Poe of Little Rock, Antoine "Tony" Poe and wife Laine Rosen Poe of Little Rock and one grandchild, Jane LeLaurin Madden. He is also survived by a former son-in-law, Joe E.Madden Jr of Little Rock and former brother-in-law the former Lt. Governor of Montana John Bohlinger of Helena. Also surviving is his sister, Betty Stevenson of Louisville and a host of nephews and nieces. Poe, a lifelong and proud liberal, was active in the Civil Rights Struggle among other accomplishments having sat-in at the Memphis Airport Restaurant which resulted in its racial integration. He is a member of the ACLU, a former president of the Little Rock SKAL club made up of travel professionals and was a lifetime member of the Country Club of Little Rock. As a travel writer he enjoyed great success in local publications, published at Bicentennial Guide to the USA for the German speaking market and was frequently quoted in such publications as the NY TIMES, the CONDE NAST TRAVELER, TRAVEL AND LEISURE and the WALL ST JOURNAL. He was a serious scholar with a fine library on the subject of the Nazi Holocaust and a dedicated art collector with especially significant items from the Russian Avant Garde and 20th Century Austrian schools. A world traveler from his first solo trip at age nine on the Rock Island's "Doodlebug" from Little Rock to El Dorado, Poe visited 168 countries (a country being defined as one which issues its own postage stamps) include such arcane destinations as Tristan da Cunha, the Faroe Islands, Afghanistan's Wakkan Corridor and Upland Togo. Poe Travel was the first American travel agency to arrange tourist travel to the Peoples' Republic of China as that nation's Cultural Revolution wound down with son Tony Poe led an early group of Americans to North Korea. He loved automobile trips and drove in each of the 50 states and every province and territory of Canada save Nunavut which he visited only by air. A celebration of his life will be held Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 from 3:30 until 5:30 p.m. on the Mezzanine level at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock. In lieu of flowers memorials should be made to the Arkansas Arts Center. Arrangements are under the direction of Ruebel Funeral Home, www.ruebelfuneralhome.com.