Monthly Archives: March 2017

Women’s History Month: Eliza Cunningham, first First Lady of Little Rock

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Eliza Wilson Bertrand Cunningham was the First Lady of Little Rock.  She literally was the first lady and the founding mother.

She became the first permanent female resident when she joined her husband Matthew Cunningham in Little Rock.  She gave birth to Chester Ashley Cunningham, the first baby born in Little Rock.

When her husband, became the first Mayor of Little Rock, she was the first First Lady of Little Rock. They hosted the first Little Rock Council meeting at their house on what is now the block downtown bounded by Third, Main, Fourth and Louisiana Streets.

Her son Charles P. Bertrand, from her first husband, later served as Mayor of Little Rock, making her the only woman to be married to a Mayor and be mother of a Mayor.

Women’s History Month – Judge Alice Lightle, first female Little Rock District Judge

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Judge Alice Lightle was first appointed by Governor Mike Beebe in June 2007 to fill out the remaining term in Little Rock District Court, Third Division (colloquially known as Environmental Court). She became the first woman to serve as a permanent District (formerly Municipal) Judge in Little Rock history.

In November 2008, she was elected to a four year term in the Little Rock District Court, First Division (informally called Criminal Court). This made her the first woman to be elected a Little Rock District Judge.  She was re-elected in 2012 and again in May 2016, when she was unopposed.  She started her third term in January 2017.

Judge Lightle comes from a family of attorneys and public servants.  Prior to serving as a judge, she was a former assistant state attorney general and commissioner on the state Workers Compensation Commission.

Women’s History Month – Adolphine Fletcher Terry

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Photos from the collection of the Butler Center

Adolphine Fletcher Terry did not rely on her pedigree for her identity.  She made her own impact on Little Rock, on Arkansas, and on the US.  For over 40 years, she served on the Little Rock Public Library Board.  Not only is she the longest serving female on Library Board history, she is likely the longest serving female on any City of Little Rock board or commission.

The daughter of a Little Rock Mayor, daughter-in-law of a congressman, wife of a congressman, she was raised in Little Rock and spent most of her life here.

She is perhaps best known today for establishing the Women’s Emergency Committee in 1958 and for her subsequent deeding of the family house to the City for use by the Arkansas Arts Center.  But her entire life was based on civic engagement.  She was instrumental in establishing the first juvenile court system in Arkansas and helped form the first school improvement association in the state. She was long an advocate for libraries, serving 40 years on the Little Rock public library board.  Through her leadership, the library opened its doors to African Americans in the early 1950s. Today a branch of the Central Arkansas Library System (the successor the Little Rock public library) is named after her.  Another branch is named after her Pulitzer Prize winning brother.

After her husband’s death in 1963, she continued to remain active in civic affairs. In the 1960’s, she and her sister deeded the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House to the City of Little Rock for use by the Arkansas Arts Center upon both their deaths.  Following Adolphine Fletcher Terry’s death in 1976, Mary turned over the title to the City.

Women’s History Month – Judge Elsijane Trimble Roy, first woman on Arkansas Supreme Court

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judge-trimbleElsijane Trimble Roy was born the daughter of a judge. At an early age, she knew she wanted to be an attorney.  She would eventually become not only the third female to graduate from the University of Arkansas Law School, but the first female circuit court judge in Arkansas, the first female on the Arkansas Supreme Court, and the first female Federal judge from Arkansas.

She was also the first woman in the United States to follow her father as federal judge.  She presided in the same courtroom where her father had served for 20 years. She retired in 1999 after 21 years on the federal bench.

Judge Roy has received many awards and honors including being selected Woman of the Year by the Business and Professional Woman’s Club in 1969, Arkansas Democrat Woman of the Year in 1976, an honor that her mother also received, and Outstanding Appellate Judge of 1976-1977 by the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association.

While she was on the Arkansas Supreme Court (to which she had been appointed by Governor David Pryor), she administered the oath of office to Anne Bartley to lead the Department of Arkansas Natural and Cultural Heritage.  Ms. Bartley became the first woman in an Arkansas Governor’s cabinet.  In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the federal bench to succeed Judge Oren Harris.

Women’s History Month – Anne Bartley, first woman to serve in Arkansas Governor’s cabinet

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bartley_255x320px_0In 1976, Anne Bartley was sworn in as the first director of what was then known as the Department of Arkansas Natural and Cultural Heritage.  In that capacity, she was the first woman to serve in an Arkansas Governor’s cabinet.  She had encouraged Governor David Pryor to propose establishing the department and then had lobbied the Arkansas General Assembly to create it.  (Her oath of office was administered by the first woman on the Arkansas Supreme Court, Justice Elsijane Trimble Roy.)

Since 1968, Bartley had been involved in historic preservation, promotion of the arts, and civic engagement.   In 1979, Bartley was asked to establish a Washington Office for the state of Arkanas.  She later was involved in founding the Threshold Foundation (1981), the Funders’ Committee for Citizen Participation (1983), the Forum Institute for Voter Participation (1986), the Faith and Politics Institute (1991), Vote Now ’92 and ’94, America Coming Together (2004), Democracy Alliance (2004), America Votes (2005), and, currently, the Committee on States.

Some of the boards she has served on have been the New World Foundation, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rockefeller Family Fund. She is currently on the boards of the Bauman Family Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, America Votes, and on the Advisory Councils for Project New West and TAI SOPHIA.

Women’s History Month – Louise Loughborough, first female Little Rock Planning Commissioner

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louise_loughborough_fLouise Loughborough was the first woman to serve on the Little Rock Planning Commission.  Not only was the she first woman to serve on this body, she was the first to serve on any City commission other than the Board of Censors or Library Board.  Born Louisa Watkins Wright in Little Rock 1881, her ancestors included many early Arkansas leaders including Little Rock Mayor David Fulton.

In 1935, Loughborough was appointed to the Little Rock Planning Commission, and it was in this role that she first heard about the plan to condemn the half-block of houses that she had grown up admiring on Cumberland and East Third streets. Although the neighborhood had fallen on hard times, becoming a red-light district and slum, Loughborough feared the loss of several historic structures, including the Hinderliter House, the oldest building in Little Rock and thought to be Arkansas’s last territorial capitol. She mobilized a group of civic leaders to save these buildings. She enlisted the aid of prominent architect Max Mayer and coined the term “town of three capitols” to try to capture the imagination of potential supporters, grouping the “Territorial Capitol” with the Old State House and the State Capitol.

The Arkansas Territorial Restoration opened on July 19, 1941. The project was the first Arkansas agency committed to both the restoration of structures and the interpretation of their history, and it served as a model and inspiration for historic preservation in the state. Around the same time, she was a moving force behind the creation of a museum at the Old State House as well.  Today both Historic Arkansas Museum (as the Territorial Restoration is now known) and the Old State House Museum are agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

As founding Chairman of the Arkansas Territorial Restoration Commission, Louise Loughborough provided daily direction for the museum house complex through the first twenty years of its existence. She died in Little Rock on December 10, 1962 and was buried at Mount Holly Cemetery.

Women’s History Month – Joan Adcock, longest serving Little Rock city director

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joan-adcockLongest serving Little Rock City Director: Joan Adcock

In November 2016, Director Adcock was elected to her seventh term on the Little Rock City Board of Directors.  She is the longest-serving City Director of either gender in that form of government in Little Rock history.  (Only two aldermen have served longer on a City of Little Rock legislative body.)

She was first elected to the City Board in 1992.  She has subsequently been elected in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.  From January 1995 until December 1996, she served as Vice Mayor of Little Rock.

Director Adcock has been active in establishing neighborhood associations throughout the City. She is also active in Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) and has worked for Little Rock to host the national conference twice.  She has worked to establish the Landbank Authority and to create the Little Rock Animal Village.  Her latest creation is Working Together in the Community, which is focused on helping integrate the Hispanic population into Little Rock.