Other days

100 YEARS AGO June 19, 1917

■ Construction work on the railroad to the site of the Twelfth Division cantonment, three miles north of Little Rock, will be begun Thursday. E. A. Hadley, chief engineer of the Iron Mountain, and a corps of assistants now are surveying the route. The contract for building the road-bed has been awarded to John J. Ball of Little Rock. Five hundred laborers will be employed. The work will be completed by September 1. The spur track, which will be approximately two miles long, will adjoin the Fort Smith division track at Dalhoff, Levy postoffice.

50 YEARS AGO June 19, 1967

■ American born diamonds are rare but they do exist. The biggest known diamond found in America was discovered in Murfreesboro, Ark., in 1924. It weighed 40.23 carats in its rough form and was named after everybody’s “Uncle Sam.” Another American diamond has a name that sounds as peppy as Yankee Doodle. This is the Punch Jones diamond named after the boy who found it near Peterstown, W. Va.

25 YEARS AGO June 19, 1992

■ Mention Ku Klux Klan members seeking public office by pretending to be mild-mannered, conservative-looking republicans in business suits, and U.S. Attorney Chuck Banks gets angry. “I don’t want to be perceived as asleep at the wheel,” Banks said this week when asked about the right-wing white supremacy activity in the Eastern District of Arkansas — where he is the chief federal prosecutor. One thing that irks Banks is Klan members seeking office in Arkansas by pretending to be clean-cut members of his party.

10 YEARS AGO June 19, 2007

PRESCOTT — An Arkadelphia woman who admitted to serving as the getaway driver for three teenagers charged in the July 2004 shooting death of a Nevada County produce vendor pleaded guilty Monday to first degree murder. Tekelia Williams, 24, was originally charged with capital murder in the July 15, 2004, shooting death of James Cummings, 80, and could have faced the death penalty had the case gone to trial. But under the plea agreement announced Monday, Williams was sentenced to 30 years for the lesser charge of first-degree murder and 20 years for aggravated robbery. The sentences will run concurrently.