Me Magazine, 2Wednesday, May 4, 2011News/Features

By: Indigo OutlawMe Magazine Staff

Downtown blaze in Conway

CONWAY – An early-morning blaze on Tuesday destroyed a row of stores in downtown Conway.

No one was injured, but three businesses burned to the ground on the same Oak Street block six months ago.

Conway Fire Marshall Randy Freeman, said inves-tigation on what caused the fire began this morning, but an estimate for the damage could not yet be provided.

However, merchants, who have just begun to re-cover

from the electrical fire in early November believe the damage will be more cost-ly and enduring this time.

Officials said Tuesday’s fire started at Premiere Tux-edo & Bridal at Oak and Chestnut streets and spread halfway down the block to a carpet store, a boutique and an empty storefront.

Shortly before 2 a.m., a patrolling state trooper spot-ted the smoke and called the city’s fire department.Firefighters respond-ed within minutes.

Fire Chief Bart

Castleberry said high winds made battling the flames doubly difficult.

In less than one hour, busi-ness owners and concerned residents congregated in a parking lot across the street from the back of the block.

Paula Duran, own-er of Bob’s Grill &

Cafeteria, which is located between the two fire scenes, recounted seeing flames on the east side of her restaurant.

“We thought it would be a total loss,” Duran said. It’s not often buildings survive two fires, she noted. By 4:30 a.m., the blaze was contained.

Balancing Act: Album release vs. school

Cobris is no stranger to music. She has been perform-ing since the age of three. “Music’s in my blood and it flows through my veins,” said the 20 year old college student. While she is no stranger to music, she said it is hard balancing her music career with her school life.

Cobris also known as Simone Lewis is major-ing in Media Production, Liberal Arts and Informa-tion Science. “It’s a bal-ancing act,” said Cobris.

She begins every morn-ing with a glass of pineapple orange juice. She says, “[Or-ange Juice] keeps me going.”

Her school life not only includes her class sched-ule, but running a school as well. Cobris is also the

By: Mando HernandezMe Magazine Staff

President of the UALR Student Government As-sociation. Cobris says that it is her most fulfilling role.

“Being president allows me to work in the field of public service every day,” she said. Cobris recently won a second term which began on May 1, 2011.

When she is not working on her homework or fulfill-

ing presidential duties she is in the studio. Cobris said the studio is the place where she relaxes. She often jokes that if she didn’t have the studio she wouldn’t be sane. Cobris has been work-ing on her newest mixtape, The Snakez Eyez: Volume I.

The release is sched-uled for the fall of this year.

Cobris says that this

Cobrisphoto courtesy of Cobris

MeMagazine

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album represents her growth as an artist.

The album contains tracks that document her life as well and that docu-ment her intelligence. Co-bris said, “I am getting to the point where it doesn’t matter what mainstream wants. My music is fi-nally about what I want.”

The rising artist has one more year of school left and hopes to attend gradu-ate school in the fall of 2013. She said that she will continue to perform and record while and school.

However, she said if a deal is offered, “I’m quitting school physi-cally and taking the deal.”

Cobris also said , “I can always earn a degree, but I can’t get a record deal ev-ery day of the week. Edu-cation is first right now.”

Snakez Eyez Coverphoto courtesy of Cobris

Wednesday, May 4, 2011Me Magazine, 3 Obituaries

Jimmy Dale “Jim” Smith, age 67, of Conway died Monday, April 25, 2011.He was born December 15, 1944, in Fort Worth, Texas.

He is the son of Royal and Buena Vista Evans Smith. He was a store planner, who worked for many large retail names in-cluding Dillard’s and Stage.

He was a member of the Bethel Heights Baptist Church and sung in the adult choir.He was predeceased by his mother. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Barbara; sons, Joe and John, both of Con-way; his father, Royal Smith of Kennedale, Texas; his sis-ter, Alice Jones of Rendon, Texas; and his brother, David Smith of Kennedale, Texas.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. on Friday, April 29, 2011, at the Woodland Heights Baptist Church and officiated by the Rev. David Hatfield.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at Roller-Der-by Funeral Home of Little Rock. Burial will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Emerald Hills Cemetery in Kennedale, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, me-morials may be made to the Bethel Heights Baptist Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 10677, Conway, AR., 72034.

Jimmy Dale ‘Jim’ Smith dies at 67

Geneva Jones, Arkansas jazz legend dies at 70

Geneva Jones, 70, of North Little Rock, died Sunday, April 24, 2011.Born April 24, 1941 in Win-chester (Drew County), she is the daughter of the late Jesse “Bob” and Rachel Smith.

She was a homemaker and a member of First United Method-ist Church in North Little Rock.

She was also preceded in death by her husband, Joe W. Jones.Survivors are sons, Cecil Jones of Atlanta, Alvin Jones of Prattsville, and Clyde Jones of North Little Rock; daughter, Deb-bie Wuppertal of Little Rock; sis-ter, Mary Doe of Jacksonville; brothers, Ray Johnson of North Little Rock and Michael Johnson of Benton; and eight grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at10 a.m. on Thursday at North Little Rock Funeral Home.

Burial will be held at 2 p.m. in the Black Cemetery in Cleveland County.Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the funeral home.

Dallas W. Houston, 91, of Benton, passed away Thursday, April 21, 2011 at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock.He was born Novem-ber 20, 1920, in Jack-sonville to the late Don and Betty Houston.

After serving in the Air Force during World War II, he attended Arkansas State Teachers College

in Conway (now UCA). He earned a doctorate

in education at the Univer-sity of Arkansas. He was a public school teacher, prin-ciple and a superintendent. Survivors include his wife, Lydia; two sons, Don Hous-ton and wife, Tanya, Darrell Houston and wife, Cynthia a daughter, Dotie James and husband, Jim, all of Conway; and four children.

Funeral services were at 2 p.m. on Monday at the First Baptist Church in Conway. Burial was by Roller-Derby Funeral Home, at the Oak Grove Cemetary in Conway.

Memorials may be made to the UCA Foun-dation/College of Educa-tion Fund, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway, AR. 72035.

Dallas W. Houston, local teacher and veteran, dies at 91

By: Clives Staples MurpheyMe Mag Staff

Me Magazine, 4Wednesday, May 4, 2011News

Elephant dies, inspires many with paintings

GREENBRIER – Mary's story requires trunk-sized tissues. The pregnant el-ephant at Riddle's Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary died earlier this week.

A longtime resident of the Riddle farm, Mary, 29, will be missed by pachy-derms and humans.

"We will remember Mary for her gentle dignity and heroism during this last phase of her life," said Scott Riddle, who owns the sanc-tuary with his wife. "This is not just the death of an elephant. It’s the passing of a family member who lived with us for 19 years."

Riddle called Mary's death a "heartbreaker" for him and his wife, Heidi, who is returning from India today.

He said the sanctu-ary's remaining 12 el-ephants are confused and distressed by Mary's ab-sence. "They've been looking for her," he said.

Mary arrived at the sanctuary in 1989 after a decade of giving rides and performances at a ca-sino in Reno, Nevada.

She was known by many as an artist,

because she used her trunk to paint masterpieces.

Kathy Hinson, a volunteer and support-

er of the sanctuary, said it has been painful to watch the Riddles mourn Mary.

Hinson is a founding resi-dent of the sanctuary, which is operated by an Arkansas nonprofit organization dedi-cated to preserving Asian and African elephants.

"The first time I met Scott, I saw him with Mary," Hin-son said. "That was 15 years ago. She just had an easy way about her, and Scott's voice was always low. I thought, ‘How can he have such control over an ele-phant when I can't even con-trol my kids or my dog?’"

Hinson, who is also a professional photographer, has taken dozens of photo-graphs of Mary’s paintings.

One of her photos is dis-played alongside Mary’s “Rocket’s Red Glare” paint-ing at the George Bush presidential library in Texas.

Mary was sometimes moody about her art, Hinson recalled. Hinson said, Mary once refused to use the color yellow on one of her mas-terpieces. "She used yellow on other paintings, but she kept handing Scott back the brush when he put yel-low on there." Hinson mar-veled. "People had always told me elephants were stupid and color blind."

Mary the Elephant paintingphoto by Cobris Aarons

Accident: Some injured, none fatal By: S. Ken HeadMe Mag Staff

JONESBORO – At least 15 people were injured, some criti-cally, Monday evening when a car sped through a crowded automobile auction house and plowed into a row of bleach-ers in Jonesboro. "People looked like bowling pens," said Rocky Rorie of Jones-boro, who was at the auction.

The accident occurred at 8 p.m. at the Jonesboro Auto Auc-tion at U.S. 63 and Gee Street, a longtime Wednesday night ven-ue where car dealers and cus-tomers buy and swap vehicles.

Lt. Roy Coleman of the Jonesboro Police Department, said a young male drove a Kia Sephia through an open garage door at the east end of the auc-tion. Police estimated the car was traveling 40 to 50 mph.

Witnesses said the driver ap-peared to swerve to the right, avoiding a parked car, and into a set of bleachers full of people. The car stopped when it hit a wall alongside the bleachers.

Coleman said 15 to 20 peo-ple were injured, none fatally."We have injuries rang-ing from critical to cuts and bruises," he said.

Paramedics worked for sev-eral minutes to free a young boy from beneath the car. He was not seriously injured, Coleman said.