Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sandy Bradley
Problem? She fixes it
Sandy Bradley credits the American Heart Association of Central Arkansas’ Sweetheart program with saving her daughter’s life. When Lauren Bradley was in 10th grade, Tammy Quick, who is with the
Heart Association, began hounding
Sandy
Bradley about her daughter joining the Sweetheart program. Bradley resisted, saying her daughter was more into science and studying than formal gowns and balls.
But Quick was relentless, arguing the program isn’t only about glamour but includes knowledgebased training on heart disease.
“I just firmly believed in my heart that it would be good for [Lauren] and I was right,” Quick says.
Lauren “blossomed and grew” while participating in the program, Quick says. “So even though Sandy did not think the program was for her — until I pushed and pushed — it was exactly the program for her in many ways.”
The Sweetheart training — as well as hundreds of hours of volunteer service — made Lauren realize there was something wrong with her heart.
Several times, Lauren told Bradley, “Mom, my heart is doing it again.” Bradley dismissed it, thinking her daughter was just under stress from studying for tests. But after two EKGs, Lauren was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia or SVT, an abnormally fast heartbeat.
“It’s exactly what she was trying to tell me she learned about at Sweethearts, and I’ll be danged if she didn’t self-diagnose herself,” Bradley says.
Lauren, now 22, will graduate this year from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a
“How do you tell somebody no when the program has saved your child’s life? How do you do that? And even if it saves one child or a person … you start thinking about how critical this program can be. My kid was persistent in pursuing this because it was something she learned from that particular program. She wouldn’t have learned this otherwise.”
degree in history. She hasn’t outgrown the condition, as many children do, and she’s on medicine to keep her heartbeat under control. And when Lauren calls saying, “My heart is doing it again,” Bradley and her husband, Roy, tell her to “get her butt to the ER.”
Quick asked Bradley to co-chair the 2018-19 Sweetheart program, and she couldn’t say no.
“How do you tell somebody no when the program has saved your child’s life? How do you do that?” Bradley asks. “And even if it saves one child or a person … you start thinking about how critical this program can be. My kid was persistent in pursuing this because it was something she learned from that particular program. She wouldn’t have learned this otherwise.”
On March 2, Bradley will have to come “out from behind the curtain” — as she calls it — and take center stage at this year’s Heart Ball, where the sweethearts will be presented and honors will be bestowed. Lauren is the current recordholder of the most volunteer hours — 635 hours — well above the required minimum of 20.
Bradley juggles volunteerism with a fast-paced job as chief of staff of McLarty Companies, a global firm with interests in the automotive industry, international consulting, private equity and the real estate sector. Bradley says her specialty is “making other people look good,” including the company’s chairman Mack McLarty, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.
TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
Bradley grew up in Valley View, which has since been absorbed into the city of Jonesboro. Her parents, Gail and Ralph Boling, raised their two children on a ranch with cattle, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, cats and dogs.
Ralph owned a security company, and Gail was a stay-at-home mom who ran their farmhouse. Like most of the people in the area at that time, the Bolings were staunch Democrats.
In the seventh grade, Bradley became fascinated with politics. Watergate was happening, and she devoured magazines like Time and Newsweek. On Saturdays, her dad would ask her and her brother what they wanted to be when they grew up.
Her brother, Brien, always wanted to be a doctor. He is now a gynecologist in Missouri. A young Bradley didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she became very interested in the concept of a two-party political system.
“One Saturday, I got up and Dad said ‘What are you up to?’ And I said ‘I am going to be a Republican,’” Bradley says. “Dad said ‘OK,
hopefully that’s a fleeting thought,’ and I remember him telling Mom, ‘She’ll get over it.’”
She says at that time, “you couldn’t find a Republican in Craighead County.” She did some research and learned John Paul Hammerschmidt was a Republican congressman in Northwest Arkansas. She contacted his office and asked for information on Gerald Ford. They complied, sending pamphlets, bumper stickers and other “incredibly interesting things that alarmed my parents.”
Next she learned Republican Lynn Lowe was running for governor against Clinton. Bradley called Lowe’s campaign and was told he would be in her area. She asked the principal of Valley View High School if Lynn could speak at their school.
The principal said he could if Bradley could get all of the teachers to agree. They did. She did not tell her parents.
“He talked about values, and he talked about a two-party system. He also was a very good speaker, and he turned out to be one of the most dear mentors of my life,” she says.
The next morning, Bradley’s picture was on the front page of the Jonesboro Sun newspaper with Lowe.
“My dad got the morning paper and was like ‘Oh, my God. What have you done?’ He said, ‘Honey, you don’t understand. I get it you want a two-party system. This state is not two-party. I run a business here. Everybody that is my client is a Democrat. You understand what you are doing here?’”
Lowe lost the gubernatorial race. But he was named sergeant at arms of the 1980 Republican National Convention.
Her classmates asked if it was possible for Lowe to speak at their graduation. Bradley called, and he accepted. After his speech, he
announced that he would like to take Bradley to the convention with his family.
“It was a very quiet trip all of the way home,” Bradley says of her father’s reaction.
GEORGE BUSH AND LIZ TAYLOR
Before the convention, Bradley was tasked with driving George H.W. Bush to a campaign event in Jonesboro. On the drive back to the airport, Bradley — who was a new driver — missed the turn and pulled over at a gas station to get her bearings. When she finally arrived at the airport, a group of Bush supporters was waiting, worried about what took so long.
Just as a local Republican official was about to berate Bradley, Bush invited her to tour his plane. Inside, he sat her down and explained campaign advance work and how it is important to know the route and anticipate problems. Then he told her his wife, Barbara, would be in Jonesboro in a few weeks, and she was invited to meet her.
“It was just one of those life lessons,” she says. “That could have been so bad. That could have ended everything about me. I could have been beat down, but that man lifted me up.”
A few weeks later, Bradley and her mother had lunch with a small group of Republicans who wanted to meet Barbara Bush.
“She said, ‘Are you Sandy? George told me to look for you,’” Bradley recalls.
At the Republican National Convention, Bradley shared a room with Lowe’s two daughters, Martha and Ruthie. Many politicians and celebrities were staying at their hotel, including the Bushes.
“We would leave the door open. We wanted to see who was going to walk by the door,” Bradley says. “And who should walk by but [U.S.] Sen. John Warner
and Elizabeth Taylor. That was my mom’s favorite actress in the whole wide world.”
Bradley was told Taylor did not sign autographs. She got one anyway. It happened when Taylor locked herself out of her room and asked to use Bradley’s phone.
“I wouldn’t do anything like this today, but I was 18 and I said ‘Yes, ma’am. You can use my phone if you will sign my autograph book. My mom is your biggest fan,’” she says. “She did not like that. She signed it, but it was a very hard signature that went through a couple of pages.”
At the convention, Bradley was seated next to Donny and Marie Osmond. She watched as Ronald Reagan won the GOP nomination.
After Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter, Bradley accepted Lowe’s invitation to accompany him and his family to the inauguration. She was a freshman at Arkansas State University.
“If George Bush had been rude to me, if Mr. Lowe had not taken me under his wing and mentored me in a national scope, I don’t think I would have been successful,” she says.
MEETING ROY
Bradley was close to completing her degree in public relations/public information at ASU when she got the opportunity to work on Republican Asa Hutchinson’s U.S. Senate campaign. She talked her parents into letting her move to Little Rock with the promise that she would complete her degree and then go to law school.
“Sandy worked in my 1986 campaign for the Senate. It was her first job, and it was my first campaign,” says Hutchinson, who is now governor. “She was a trooper throughout that campaign, and we’ve remained friends through the years. It’s great to see her success in life.”
She got her undergraduate degree but didn’t go to law school. Instead, she fell in love with Roy Bradley, a certified public accountant. She met him when she babysat for a couple who are friends with Roy.
“I fell in love with Roy, and I decided law school wasn’t as important. And I decided what I really like to do is make other people look good,” she says. “Everything in my life, I believe, has been divinely inspired. I firmly believe that.”
After a couple of jobs, Bradley landed a spot at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. She started out as a receptionist and quickly moved up. She spent 16 years at the chamber before deciding she needed a change in December 2006. Paul Harvel had just retired as chief executive officer of the chamber, and Jay Chessir was named as his replacement.
Bradley asked Chessir if she could send an email to the chamber’s board of directors and Fifty for the Future members, letting them know she was looking for a new challenge. The first person who responded was Skip Rutherford, dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
“Long before heart disease had an impact on her family, she had a big heart,” Rutherford says. “She has always just been so sensitive and caring about others. She is always looking out for other people.”
After a brief stint “trying out” a job at at Little Rock City Hall, Bradley interviewed for a position with McLarty Companies. When she walked in the door she was terrified. The office was on the 38th floor of the Simmons Bank building, and she is scared of heights.
She was offered the