‘Heart for service’
Hospital volunteer spreads laughter, joy
SEARCY — It was a hot May afternoon as Buddy Muirhead cranked the motor of his perfectly restored 1924 Ner-a-car motorcycle that sat in his driveway. His boyish grin was evidence that he has a passion for antique motorbikes, and this one has been in his family since it was purchased more than 85 years ago.
“This was marketed as a ‘clean machine, suitable for ministers and ladies,’ because ladies didn’t have to throw their limb over,” he said, leaning in to whisper, “they wouldn’t dare say leg.”
Muirhead’s uncle owned the bike, but when he stopped riding it, it hung in his barn. He sold it to Muirhead’s brother for $12 in 1943.
“He rode it for two years and wrecked it,” Muirhead said.
In 2003, he said he was visiting his brother and bought the old motorcycle from him.
“I worked on it for three years, and I quit counting the dollars,” Muirhead said. “I find broken parts and make parts.”
The bike only goes 35 mph, so he said it isn’t safe to ride in today’s traffic. However, he does enjoy showing it off and “making people smile.”
Tucked safely inside a small trailer, with Muirhead’s likeness painted on the side, the bike makes its rounds, usually winning the People’s Choice Award at shows.
“It fascinates people,” he said about his antique bike.
But one other thing that catches people’s attention is when Muirhead wears his 1920s-style outfit that his late wife, Alice, made for him.
Muirhead not only makes people
smile with his Ner-a-car; he also makes them smile when they enter the hospital, sans the bike. He has been a volunteer at White County Medical Center for nine years.
“When my wife volunteered, she volunteered me, too,” he said with a laugh. “She worked in the gift shop, and I worked in admissions.”
Jamie Laughlin, director of volunteer services at WCMC, said Muirhead is the epitome of a Southern gentleman. She said he escorts patients to where they need to go, and he helps make them feel more at ease.
“He really has a heart for service,” she said.
Because Muirhead has had two knee replacements and has a pacemaker, he is able to encourage the patients who are going in for surgery that they’ll come through just fine.
He even does a little dance for them sometimes to demonstrate that his new knees are better than ever.
“He’ll do a little jig,” Laughlin said with a laugh. “He’s a mess.”
Muirhead also served as president of the WCMC Auxiliary.
“When he was president, he really helped to bridge the relations between other hospital auxiliaries,” Laughlin said.
Before Muirhead moved to Searcy, he lived in Mississippi, where he was a riverboat captain.
fter serving two years in the Navy during World War II and four years in the Air Force in the Korean War, he went to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Vicksburg District in Mississippi.
He retired from the Corps on Sept. 1, 1989, after more than 32 years of service.
“I retired, but I didn’t want to leave the river,” he said.
So he applied to be a relief captain of the Mississippi Queen, and he ended up working full time as a master, with one stipulation, that is wife could accompany him. After 10 years of piloting the elegant riverboat and hanging out with famous people, Muirhead, along with his wife, decided that moving inland would be a good decision. They chose Searcy to be close to one of their daughters and their grandchildren.
“The boats are fascinating,” he said. “We really carried people back in time. … I had an interesting career, and I love boats — not outboards, though. I wouldn’t give you a nickel for one of those.”
Anyone who goes through admission at WCMC on the days that Muirhead is working may get to hear one of those interesting stories or see him dance.
To learn more about volunteering at WCMC, call Laughlin at (501) 380-1055.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline. com.