Other days

100 YEARS AGO

July 7, 1920

MORRILTON — The biggest picnic in the history of Conway county was held here yesterday. Barbecued beef, pork, mutton, pickles, and bread were furnished by the residents of Morrilton to a crowd estimated at approximately 12,000 people, five or six counties being represented. The occasion was the opening of the new steel bridge spanning the Arkansas River.

50 YEARS AGO

July 7, 1970

JONESBORO — Governor Rockefeller opened the first of 15 regional headquarters here Monday afternoon with free food, cold drinks and entertainment and a few remarks on the campaign. Between 400 and 500 persons gathered outside the headquarters at 826 South Main Street to hear Mr. Rockefeller and listen to the General Store, a Little Rock band.

25 YEARS AGO

July 7, 1995

■ Little Rock public school students will have to follow a stricter code of conduct when they return to classrooms this fall, in keeping with new policies and laws the school system introduced last year. The school board unanimously accepted changes to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook at a special meeting Thursday. A committee of teachers, parents, students, administrators and police resource officers recommended the changes after reviewing the handbook for a month. Last year, an updated version of the handbook resulted in an outcry from parents and teachers who thought it was too lenient. Since then, however, the Little Rock School District issued a tougher policy on weapons and fighting. In addition, new federal and state laws have clarified definitions and responses required of the district.

10 YEARS AGO

July 7, 2010

■ Marla Rodgers Sizemore of Pine Bluff and White Hall was merely expecting to enjoy a nice Fourth of July weekend during her vacation in Florida with her husband Mike, 13-year-old son Scout and 10-year-old daughter Weston. Instead, last Friday afternoon she became an eyewitness to a plane crash that claimed the lives of two men. Early Friday afternoon and one week into her two-week family vacation, she was relaxing on the beach while her husband returned to the condo for a moment and her children frolicked in the water. Thankfully, her children’s backs were turned toward the Gulf of Mexico and they didn’t watch as the vintage “war bird” plane crashed into waters off Destin, killing Tim McDonald of Niceville, Fla., and his brother-in-law, Tim Turner of Omaha, Neb. But Sizemore saw it all unfold — a mere three quarters of a mile away. “It was a horrible experience,” she tells Paper Trails. “It will be embedded in my eyes for a long, long time.”