Other days

100 YEARS AGO

Oct. 4, 1918

For shooting himself through the right foot with a rifle, Private James C. Henson was sentenced to five years at Fort Leavenworth prison, dishonorable discharge from the army, and a forfeiture of all pay and allowances, it was announced yesterday from the judge advocate’s office at camp headquarters. Henson was a member of Co. E, Fourth Training Regiment, and shot himself August 16. The charge on which he was convicted alleged that he shot himself to escape service in the army.

50 YEARS AGO

Oct. 4, 1968

The opening of the Arkansas River waterway upstream to Little Rock was described Thursday night both as a working instrument for progress and as a monument to the “faith and stubborn courage” of the men who worked for a quarter century to make navigation a reality. Don McBride, a former assistant to two Oklahoma congressmen and now a member of the Board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, described at a dinner at Hotel Marion the efforts to get the $1.2 billion Arkansas River project authorized and keep construction on schedule.

25 YEARS AGO

Oct. 4, 1993

JONESBORO — “Writing a country song is like writing a novel in three minutes,” says Jerry Hawkins, a Jonesboro stockbroker and country music songwriter. Hawkins, a financial consultant for Smith Barney Shearson for 16 years has been writing country songs as a hobby since 1986. And although he has a southern accent, he doesn’t wear a cowboy hat or jeans. “I think most people in Nashville will tell you that if you wear a cowboy hat and jeans there you are from out of town,” Hawkins said in an interview last week.

10 YEARS AGO

Oct. 4, 2008

CONWAY — Developer John Pennington is giving residents of two upscale subdivisions in west Conway exactly what they wanted and then some. Pennington can’t remember when he last mowed the overgrown grass and weeds — already up to perhaps 4 or 5 feet — on the mostly vacant property at Prince Street and Country Club Road. The reason: He says he’s starting a hay farm, since the City Council last year refused to rezone the property from agricultural to single-family residential after complaints by neighbors. After the city’s denial, Pennington said, “I began to look at the uses that were allowed by right under the [agricultural] zone. The hay farm had a distinct advantage over the others by requiring no start-up costs to begin operation; however, I continue to evaluate my options.”