I was a voracious reader as a boy, and trips to my grandparents' house in Benton meant reading things I couldn't get at home.
There was the afternoon Arkansas Democrat. My grandfather preferred an afternoon newspaper. We were a morning Arkansas Gazette family at our home in Arkadelphia, so those visits to Benton were the only time I saw the Democrat.
There also were magazines we didn't receive, such as the one published by the fraternal benefit society Woodmen of the World, which my grandfather had joined decades earlier.
And because my grandparents had a small cabin northwest of town on Lake Norrell, for which electricity was supplied by a rural electric cooperative, they received the magazine published by Arkansas Electric Cooperatives. That magazine, with its photos of everything from big watermelons to cows being milked, gave me a sense of life in rural Arkansas.
I didn't know her name at the time, but it was then that I first read stories by Ouida Cox, a pacesetter among female journalists. Cox died last month at age 98.
"Ouida was an Arkansas treasure and pioneer for journalists within the electric cooperative family," says Rob Roedel, director of corporate communications for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives. "Her dedication to serving her people in rural Arkansas was coupled with her charming personality. She hated to talk about her accomplishments, but that was another piece of her selfless servant charm."
After 63 years of service to the state's electric cooperatives, Cox retired at the end of 2012. She had edited Arkansas Living (formerly Rural Arkansas) since 1968. The lady known by most as Miss Ouida was involved with production and distribution of almost 800 issues of the magazine, which now has a monthly circulation of more than 380,000, the largest of any publication in the state.
Cox went to work in July 1949 as one of the first four employees of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc., a statewide service organization for 17 electric distribution cooperatives. She had grown up in the Southside community near Damascus and was familiar with what made rural Arkansas tick.
Before joining AECI, Cox had worked as a home economist for the Farmers Home Administration in the Lake Village and Nashville/Murfreesboro areas.
The first edition of what was then known as Arkansas REA was distributed in November 1946 to 19,000 members. After being hired in 1949, Cox oversaw production of what was titled the Women's Department, which included everything from dress patterns to recipes. The magazine's editor was Ed Thomas, a former newspaperman.
"He was the best copy editor," Cox once said. "He could take a pen, mark up your copy and always make it better."
Cox had studied art, home economics and chemistry at what's now the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She determined that photography and page design were her favorite parts of the job.
In a December 2012 feature story on Cox in Arkansas Living, it was written: "In her never-ending pursuit of stories and photographs of rural Arkansas, Cox traveled dirt and gravel roads day and night. She was fearless in this effort, and as a result, she has chronicled life in the Arkansas countryside like no other. Not even snow and ice storms would slow her down. In fact, they presented opportunities for some of her finest photography.
"Other times, she would stop while driving down a road and knock on the door of a home served by an electric co-op. She would visit with the homeowner and often leave with a photograph and story. One of her favorite photographs, which features a couple standing outside their Ozarks farmhouse with their dog Pete, was the result of such a stop."
Cox said: "I've always tried to remember that the magazine is first and foremost for the members, those people out there at the end of the line."
In addition to her magazine duties, Cox often was called on to demonstrate the proper use of electric appliances and lights at meetings. She also mentored editors of other statewide publications. Her favorite line when meeting a new editor was this: "Sit down. You've got a lot to learn."
"I loved the way she kept going and was such a spark for the statewide editors' groups," says Mona Neely, editor of Colorado Country Living. "I was in awe of her long career and all she had seen and done in the electric industry."
Cox would even sell ads for the magazine. She spent hours each week fulfilling requests for recipes and talking on the phone with rural residents who considered her a friend. Despite all the travel and work, she and her husband Jim found time to raise two sons.
"It's my way of life," she wrote in a story marking the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1996.
Among the many awards Cox received were the 1971 Cooperative Communicators Association's Klinefelter Award and a 2008 lifetime achievement award from the Little Rock chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.
In the months before her retirement, Cox spent time identifying and organizing thousands of photographs she took through the decades. They represent the history of rural Arkansas.
There are photographs of 11 U.S. presidents and dozens of congressmen and state legislators. Cox, however, always preferred photographs she took of rural Arkansans. A number of those photographs were taken with the Speed Graphic camera she was issued when she joined the staff in 1949.
"While those who followed her can read about the history of rural electrification in Arkansas, she lived it," Roedel says.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.