01/18/2016
I am not a native of Ashley County. I grew up near Grady in Lincoln County. My family were farmers, cotton and soybeans mainly. My father and his father farmed roughly 320 acres of rented land for 40 years without ever having a written contract with the landowner.
I am uploading a photograph of my mother, brother and me when I was about 5 and another of me taken just before a baseball game. As you can see the house was not much. The bathroom was a one holer. I was looking in its direction in the photograph with Mom. We got an indoor bathroom and a television about the same time, probably within about a year of the photograph. The house was surrounded by cotton fields except for the gravel road in front.
Ours truly was a family farm. My parents could both hand pick as much as 400 lbs of cotton in a day. I picked 100 lbs in a day when I was five years old and worked ten hour days during the summer chopping cotton or irrigating from the time I was six. On Fridays all of the hands lined up to get paid including me. My mother was at the end of the line to collect my pay from me. It went into her purse until time to buy school clothes. In late August we went to JC Penneys for jeans, shirts, socks and underwear purchased with my pay.
I cannot remember a time when I did not know that I was going to college. I remember in elementary school my parents telling me that I had to be valedictorian to get a scholarship so I could go. I was. I got a scholarship to UCA, then Arkansas State Teacher’s College, that paid tuition. My father took me to Production Credit Association, his farm lender, and co-signed for me to get a school loan. He also helped me get a job with the County Farm Extension Office as a cotton insect scout for the summers. During school I worked various jobs, maintenance or on the garbage truck, picking up garbage from the dorms. That was an education by itself. Later I got a radio broadcaster’s license and worked at the campus radio station.
I graduated from UCA in 1971 after serving six months of active duty with the Army Reserves. My old high school basketball coach and principal offered me a teaching job at Grady. It took three years teaching, driving a school bus and scouting cotton in the summers to repay my school loan.
I continued to teach at Grady, to scout cotton and added coaching baseball to support my family while I attended law school at night at what is now the Bowen School of Law in Little Rock. It took four more years and I graduated in May 1978 and passed the bar exam in August.
Over the more than 37 years since, I have defended a capital murder case, won a large jury verdict in a defamation case, represented many clients in personal injury cases, worker’s compensation cases, social security disability cases and bankruptcy. I cannot say that I have never represented a bank or insurance company, I have, but, by and large, I have represented working people.
For the last 25 years I have had the privilege to serve the people of Ashley County as a part time district court judge for Crossett. Beginning January 1, 2017 there will no longer be a Crossett District Court or Hamburg District Court. There will be an Ashley County District Court. There will be one full time judge. With the changes in jurisdictional limits that will take effect, there will likely be more than 10,000 cases per year that will be heard in the new State District Court. More people will have contact with district court than any other court.
Judicial candidates are generally not supposed to comment or make promises pertaining to cases that might pass through the court system. I have always tried to be fair and impartial and can promise that I will continue to do so. I can promise that I will work hard as I always have, and I will not forget where I came from.
When I joined the Army, I took an oath to support the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and six times I have taken the oath as district judge to support and defend the constitution and laws of the State of Arkansas and the United States. I am so proud to have served. With your vote and support, I hope to continue that service.
