Dinner, donations, dancing
“The stars are not wanted now, put out every one. Pack up the moon …” “Funeral Blues”
W.H. Auden
And kill the klieg lights and box up the table cloths and take down “Wally Allen Ballroom” inside the Statehouse Convention Center because the Gala for Life hosted the most distinguished gala ever in any Little Rock social calendar year. Everyone, go home permanently and reminisce about the last great black tie affair.
“You’ll be out of a job, you know,” says I to myself. “It’s called hyperbole.” Yes, the annual fundraiser for the Withrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences felt like a dinner party on the eve of invasion: Everyone was there. Chuck and Terri Erwin, Cindy and Chip Murphy and Daniel and Tiffany Robinson, all three Cranford brothers, immediate past event chairmen Jennifer and Steve Ronnel, Lee and Beverly Bodenhammer, David and Lila Ashmore, Rick Fleetwood and Gary Davis, Ed and Connie Bennett, Gloria Redman, Andrew and Yvette Parker, Jonnie and Dr. Kent Westbrook, Penny and John Burkhalter. And event chairmen Dr. Hershey and Denise Garner toted a representative delegation of the Northwest’s pre-eminent socialites — Pat Walker, Susan and Dr. Tony Hui, Reed and Mary Ann Greenwood, Brock and Lindsey Gearhart, Sandy Edwards.
The evening began in the lobby bar of the newly renovated Little Rock Marriott downtown, where guests sipped champagne and Moscow Mules (ginger beer with vodka and lime garnished with mint, typically served in a stamped copper mug). It moved to the second-floor gallery outside the Wally Allen Ballroom. Inside for the event, there was a brief presentation from the Garners, then dinner for 900.
The menu included seared scallops, salad, braised short ribs (pot roast where I come from), and for dessert, turtle cheesecake and passion fruit mousse.
Over the din of the dinner discourse, “Marriott hotel staff manager Alfredo” sang a few bars of opera from the stage at the request, he claimed, of some cancer institute benefactor. He was one-upped by “Jean-Marc,” a French waiter, who said he’d solicited a yet-greater donation for the hospital. The Italian and the French tenors tussled, joined by a third server, “Joseph.” In fact, the whole thing was an act by “The Three Waiters” (a play on The Three Tenors) — Grant Norman, Brian Minyard and Todd Mummert, all of Orlando — an international touring show with different casts.
The program began with a video thanking Ginger and Gov. Mike Beebe. Voices included spokesman Matt DeCample, former legislator Kathy Webb, Beebe chief of staff Morril Harriman, Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux of Russellville, and others.
Incidentally, both of the leading gubernatorial candidates, Asa Hutchinson and Mike Ross, were there.
The Garners took the stage and thanked everyone for coming. After a spell, the camera — the whole affair was televised like Sunday services at a mega-church — panned to 5-year-old Asher Ray, who two years ago was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma and received treatment at the Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Center, a part of the institute. The cancer was in remission in January when Asher learned she had a mass in her lungs.
When the cameras picked her up she was dancing in front of her chair. Dancing without music.
“Why don’t you come up on stage, darling,” the governor called to her. “You’re stealing the show anyway.”
There was a giving match on the night from Marge and Tom Schueck and Dr. Gene Joyce and family (together, the two families contributed about $100,000). These contributed capitally to the night’s $900,000 haul.
The night ended with a performance by Emerald City out of Dallas, and guests took a cue from Asher and danced. — Story and photos by
Bobby Ampezzan