BOOKING A COOK: Celebrity cook Paula Deen visits Hank’s & More Fine Furniture in west Little Rock from noon to 3 p.m.
April 26 to meet with fans and sign books. Why a furniture store? In addition to her books and cookware, Deen also has a line of furnishings, the Paula Deen Home Collection. Those who take an item to donate to a local women’s shelter - Women & Children First: The Center Against Domestic Violence - will be given a complimentary copy of the book, Cooking with Paula Deen, for her to autograph. Drawings will be held every half-hour for cookbooks and cookware.
The grand-prize drawing is for one of the collection’s side tables that Deen will sign.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: On Nov. 30, two professional truck drivers - Fredrick Robatcek from Sauk Rapids, Minn., and Peter Holland of Waterdown, Ontario - were at the Denny’s in the Pilot Flying J Truck Stop in Texarkana when Kaycee Triana, visiting family in Fulton, went into labor.
The umbilical cord was wrapped around her son’s neck. Robatcek, who was on the phone with emergency personnel, gathered information while Holland pushed the baby back inside the mother enough to move the cord so the baby could safely be delivered. For their assistance, the Truckload Carriers Association recently recognized them with Highway Angel awards.
BROADCAST NEWS: Katherina-Marie Lozano Craft - a former backpack journalist with KATV, Channel 7, known on air as Katherina-Marie Yancy - has resigned from the station and accepted a position as co-host of a national two-hour daily morning talk show, The Point, which will begin airing on Soul of the South Network in May. The TV network, which offers local and national news as well as Southern-themed programming focusing on the lifestyle and culture of black southerners, is based in the former Equity Broadcasting Co.’s facility in west Little Rock. The network airs locally on KMYA-TV throughout the South and also in some northern and midwestern cities.
GOING GREEN: Instead of having a white wedding, Jami Anderson, formerly of Texarkana and now of Nashville, Tenn., is going green. The designer and art director was first noted here in 2007 when, after winning a contest for a wedding dress she designed from bathroom tissue, she created a second dress for the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum in London, England.
Anderson - who has family in Arkansas, including dad Ron of Little Rock and grandparents Milly and Bob Kannon of Beebe, will marry Russell Kirchner here July 5.
Her zero-waste wedding at Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center near Little Rock will include invitations made of shredded paper, laundry lint and herb seeds that guests can later plant; compostable plates and cutlery and Mason jars; and recyclable decorations. And, yes, she’s making her wedding dress, but this time it will be made from men’s neckties.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 04/13/2014