Featured Collection the Donna Axum Whitworth Papers • Featured Collection Whitworth Papers

Fall 2012 Volume 6 • Issue 2 CONTENTS Featured Collection The Donna Axum Whitworth Papers • Featured Collection Whitworth Papers .............. 1 By Diane Worrell • Leadership Report ...............2 The papers of Donna Axum • Laurence Luckinbill Whitworth (MC 1806) tell the story Papers ...............................3 of a small town Arkansas girl who rose through the pageant ranks to • Thanks to Our Donors ........3 the title of Miss America, earned undergraduate and master’s degrees • Rick Mayes and from the University of Arkansas, Dickson Street ...................4 Fayetteville, and enjoyed a success- • Tim Nutt Appointed Special ful career in teaching, broadcast- Collections Head ...............5 ing, consulting, public service, and motivational writing and speaking. • Images of Arkansas: Donna Axum Whitworth University of Arkansas .....6-7 was born in 1942 and grew up in El Dorado. During her senior year • Featured Researcher in high school, she began enter- Jerry Hogan .......................8 ing regional pageants and won the Miss Union County, Miss Hospitality, • Morrill Act/Land Grant Miss University of Arkansas, Miss Colleges..............................9 Dixie, and Forestry Queen pageants. • Arkansas’s Environmental Following her high school gradu- History ............................. 10 ation, Whitworth enrolled in the University of Arkansas, where she Whitworth at Cypress Gardens, Florida, during her reign as • Staff Profile pledged the Delta Delta Delta soror- Miss America in 1964 (MC 1806) Box 2, Folder 25. Martha Parker ....................11 ity and helped found the Uarkettes “singing ambassadors” group. from the University of Arkansas. • Humanities Grant ................11 While working toward her Whitworth received dozens of bachelor’s degree at the University, awards and honors for her public ser- • Are You Arkansas- vice. As an energetic supporter of the Literate? ........................... 12 Whitworth won the Miss Arkansas pageant, which enabled her to compete University of Arkansas, Whitworth in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic worked with the Campaign to Restore City, New Jersey. She was crowned Old Main and served on the steer- Miss America in 1964. After her reign ing committee for the Campaign for ended, she used her Miss America the 21st Century. Whitworth estab- scholarship money to continue her edu- lished an endowed scholarship fund cation, earning both her bachelor’s and for Arkansas high school students master’s degrees in speech and drama with financial need, and she gave a continued on page 5 Leadership Report From the Desk of Tim Nutt If you are reading this, you as Tom’s successor and hope to con- survived the end of the world, tinue his (and previous directors’) as many thought might happen work in preserving Arkansas history. on December 21, 2012. As we In April the Arkansas Historical begin a new year, I’d like to reflect Association held its annual conference on some of Special Collections’ in Fayetteville, and Special Collections accomplishments and milestones co-sponsored the opening reception from 2012. Of course, as every- with the Washington County Historical one knows, Tom Dillard retired as Society. Since the reception was held head of Special Collections after at the historic Tebbetts House, many nearly eight years at the helm. We departmental employees got into the Tim Nutt, Head of Special Collections miss seeing him every day, but he spirit by dressing in period costume stays in touch and shows up every and welcoming conference attendees. now and then at our events. I was Larry Luckinbill was not in his Dearest Letty, a collection of selected honored to have been selected Sybok costume from Star Trek when World War II letters between journal- he donated his professional and per- ist Leland Duvall and his wife Letty. At sonal papers to Special Collections the event we welcomed members of the in June, but he did perform two of Trulock family who presented Special his one-man shows while he was Collections with their collection docu- here. Larry is a native of Fort Smith menting southeast Arkansas before and has appeared in numerous films and after the Civil War. We are hon- The Special Collections Department of the and Broadways plays, but he is best ored to have this significant collection University of Arkansas Libraries collects, known for his solo performances of in our holdings, and I want to thank preserves, organizes and provides access to Clarence Darrow and Presidents Teddy the Trulock family for their donation. research materials documenting the state of Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. These are just a few examples of Arkansas and its role in the regional, national, In September Special Collections activities we sponsored in 2012. We and international communities. Arkansian is was pleased to host a celebration, titled are already planning for 2013 events, an old name by which our early ancestors called themselves, as well as the name of an “40-50-100: Milestones in Arkansas’s including the third issue of Arkansauce antebellum newspaper in Fayetteville. The Ar- Environmental History,” marking the that promises to be just as tantalizing kansian is published twice a year. anniversary dates of three milestones. as the previous ones. Thank you all Inquiries should be directed to: The year 2012 marked the fortieth anni- for your continued support of Special Diane Worrell, editor versary of the creation of the Buffalo Collections, and please drop by and University of Arkansas Libraries National River, the fiftieth anniversary visit if you are in Northwest Arkansas. 365 N. McIlroy Avenue of the founding of the influential Ozark Fayetteville, AR. 72701-4002 Society, and the 100th anniversary of Dr. Tim Nutt Telephone 479/575-5577 Neil Compton’s birth. These histories Head of Special Collections Fax 479/575-3472 are so intertwined that it seemed fitting E-mail [email protected] to honor all three together, and we were University of Arkansas Libraries The Arkansian is available online at: pleased to have speakers representing 365 N. McIlroy http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/ each anniversary. Special Collections news/arkansian/ Fayetteville, AR 72701 holds numerous archival collections Phone: 479-575-5577 Information about the Special Collections that document Arkansas’s environ- Email: [email protected] Department is available online at: http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/ mental history, including the papers of Dr. Compton, Congressman John Paul Editor: Diane Worrell Hammerschmidt, and Gus Albright, as Photography: Valerie Robertson, Diane Worrell well as the records of the Ozark Society. Designer: Joy Caffrey We also hosted our annual Archives Month event in October. Our speaker, Ernie Dumas, gave a won- derful presentation on his new book 2 Actor, Director, and Playwright Laurence Luckinbill Donates His Papers By Diane Worrell Special Collections recently acquired the papers of University alumnus Laurence Luckinbill, an award-winning film and stage actor, director, producer, and playwright. The collection consists of both personal and professional materials, including photographs, yearbooks, scripts, plays and screenplays, play bills, and drafts and clippings of articles Luckinbill authored. Film and theatre posters, audio and video recordings, plus copies of Luckinbill’s film work are also contained in the collection. Some of the more interesting items are props, makeup kits, wigs, glasses, moustaches, and a plastic action figure of Luckinbill in his role of Sybok, a character in the movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Laurence Luckinbill (right) and Special Collections Head Tim Nutt, fight over an action figure of Luckinbill's Sybok Luckinbill was born and raised in character from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Fort Smith, Arkansas. He discovered his passion for drama while studying at the University of Arkansas. He is especially known for writing and everything,” said Tim Nutt, head of Special Collections will begin performing critically acclaimed one- Special Collections. “In his papers, processing the collection to make it man shows portraying prestigious researchers can learn about his Broad- available to researchers. Luckinbill men of history, such as Clarence way performances and see photo- plans to continue donating mate- Darrow, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore graphs and scripts and other memo- rials as his career evolves. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. rabilia from his roles on the myriad The announcement of of television series, plays, and feature Luckinbill’s donation of materials to films in which he has appeared—from If You Prefer an Special Collections was made during the soap opera The Secret Storm to the Electronic Arkansian . his June 2012 visit to the campus groundbreaking The Boys in the Band to as one in a series of guest scholars Bonanza to Barnaby Jones to Mary Tyler brought to campus this year as McIlroy Moore to Murder, She Wrote, to Cocktail If you wish to discontinue Family Professors in Performing and and, yes, even to Star Trek V. Trekkie your print subscription of Visual Arts in the J.William Fulbright or not, who does not get a thrill when College of Arts and Sciences. During looking at an original script from a The Arkansian and receive his visit, he hosted drama workshops Star Trek movie? These materials are an electronic version, please and gave performances, including not only interesting, but they will be contact Valerie Robertson Clarence Darrow Tonight! and Teddy valuable to theatre students and fac- Tonight! ulty. Future actors can learn about at [email protected]. “Larry is one of those types of the craft they love through the papers donors that archivists love—he saves of someone who has experienced it.” 3 Rick Mayes Collection Offers a Glimpse into the Rehabilitation of Dickson Street By Erin Robertson Bed race held during the annual Springfest on Dickson Street, ca. 1987 (MC 1935), Box 1, Folder11. A juggler entertaining the spectators at Springfest, ca. 1987, (MC 1935), Box 1, Folder11. Thanks to Our Donors! Rick Mayes, former manager of the Campus Bookstore in Fayetteville, was invested enough in Northwest Arkansas Donations to Special Collections, January – June 2012 to try to make a difference.

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