Ruth Hogan Powell

Ruth Hogan Powell, 88, wife of former Arkansas Gazette editorial editor and columnist James O. Powell, passed away on Friday afternoon, March 18, 2011 in Little Rock. She was one of the earliest female managers at the US Department of Agriculture in the 1940s and 1950s, and later was active as a social hostess and did philanthropic work for many years in Little Rock. A memorial service will be held, Thursday afternoon, March 24, 2011 at Second Baptist Church in Little Rock at 1 p.m. Rev. Matt Cook, Rev. Ray Higgins, director of the Arkansas Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; and Rev. James Thomasson officiating. In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution either to Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, or to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas, which does philanthropic work for low-income people in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, among many other constructive activities. The address of Second Baptist Church is 222 East Eighth, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72202. The address of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas is 1504 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72202. To read the full obituary and to sign the on-line guest register, please visit www.arcremation.com. Ruth Hogan Powell was born in Red Level, Alabama. She began her career at the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency during World War II and rose through the ranks at that agency's regional offices in Montgomery, Alabama. She attended the University of Alabama. She began her career at USDA during World War II and continued to advance in federal service after the war and eventually became a supervisor of 17 staff members. Her son, Lee Riley Powell, followed in her footsteps at USDA Rural Development as a Clinton administration appointee in the 1990s, and her daughter-in-law, Caroline Thorpe Powell, continues the family tradition by working at USDA national headquarters in Washington, DC. Ruth Powell's rise to a managerial post back in the 1940s and 1950s was highly unusual for that era because almost all managers at that time were men, so she served as a strong role model for many other women who wanted to work at USDA or elsewhere in the federal government. After marrying James O. Powell, Ruth Powell was an enthusiastic and strong supporter of her husband's career as Associate Editor of the Tampa Tribune in Florida before they moved to Little Rock later in the 1950s, where James Powell served as editorial editor and columnist at the Arkansas Gazette for the next 30 years. She was proud of her husband's progressive support for the civil rights movement and other just causes over the years. She enjoyed meeting the major public figures of her era, and was especially fond of the great Arkansas leaders, from Congressman Brooks Hays, J. William Fulbright, Bill Alexander, and Dale Bumpers to Bill Clinton. She recalled many anecdotes from that era: for example, when President John F. Kennedy came to Arkansas in the fall of 1963, she told the President that her then very small child, Lee, would vote for Kennedy if he were old enough to vote and wanted to shake his hand. President Kennedy smiled, told the tyke "Thanks for the endorsement," and then, bad back and all, bent down to shake the child's hands to the delight and laughter of everyone there. Ruth Powell enjoyed the trips with her husband to the American Society of Newspaper Editors conventions. In 1964, she went to a ball at the White House where President Lyndon Johnson danced with many of the ladies there. As she was leaving, she exclaimed "Mr. President, this was a wonderful event but I was so disappointed that I didn't get a chance to dance with you." Whereupon President Johnson, who could be a gallant Southern gentleman when he chose to be, told the Arkansas Gazette editor's wife "Why, we'll dance right here." So they did an impromptu waltz in the foyer, and this charming event made the front page of the Washington Post society section the next day. She also enjoyed traveling with the Arkansas Gazette's owners and publishers, Hugh and Louise Patterson, on trips throughout much of Europe and Latin America. She was a devoted friend of the Patterson family, including their son Carrick, also editor of the Gazette later on, and his wife Pat Patterson, a talented reporter in her own right who later performed remarkably dedicated work for Mrs. Powell throughout her life, including the final stages of her illness. She was heavily involved in philanthropic work in Arkansas. She did a tremendous amount of volunteer work for the Second Baptist Church in their project in the 1970s and 1980s for the renovation of the former Albert Pike Hotel, which the church bought and turned into a residential facility for low-income senior adults. The pastor at the time, Rev. Dale Cowling, asked her to do this work, and she found it very rewarding to work on a project to help these people who greatly needed help. In later years she was very supportive of her son Lee Powell's work as director of the nonprofit Delta Grassroots Caucus to fight poverty in the Delta region in Arkansas and seven other Delta states, and was a regular participant at Delta Caucus events in Arkansas for many years. She had a longstanding interest in the Delta region, due to her son's work but also such sentimental ties as the fact that she danced with her husband on the deck of the famous riverboat, the Delta Queen, in New Orleans. In one of her last conversations with her son she reminisced about that charming episode on the Delta Queen.