Other days

100 YEARS AGO Feb. 9, 1924

■ William Pendergrass of Charleston, aged about 40, former state mine inspector, must serve a seven-year penitentiary sentence imposed by the Logan County Circuit Court for the murder on January 13, 1922, of Clay McIlroy, former treasurer of Franklin county. The killing occurred at Ozark, and was the result of the charge that Pendergrass was the father of an illegitimate child born to McIlroy’s young daughter. After having lost his case in every court of competent jurisdiction in the state, as well as an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, Pendergrass, in a final effort to escape serving his sentence, appealed to Governor McRae for executive clemency. At the close of a three-hour hearing yesterday afternoon, the governor announced he would not interfere with the decision of the courts.

50 YEARS AGO Feb. 9, 1974

■ David Rockefeller announced to an invited group of prominent Arkansans Friday at the Arkansas Arts Center that the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, of which he is a trustee, would give $1.5 million to the Art Center endowment fund if it is matched by $500,000 to be raised locally. … The announcement came exactly two weeks before the first anniversary of the death of the former governor, who had supported the Arts Center vigorously from its inception in 1957 to his death February 22, 1973.

25 YEARS AGO Feb. 9, 1999

■ Kirby Keith Kehoe pleaded guilty Monday to racketeering and admitted belonging to an organization that conducted terrorist activities, murders and robberies to create a “racially pure white” nation. Kehoe, 50, also admitted to stealing guns from the Mueller family, who lived near Tilly in Pope County. Kehoe’s son, Chevie Kehoe, is accused in the same robbery as well as in the deaths of William Mueller, 53, Nancy Mueller, 28, and her daughter, Sarah Powell, 8. Kirby Kehoe’s guilty plea came three weeks before Chevie Kehoe and another man, Danny Lee, are to stand trial in federal court in Little Rock, accused of charges that include racketeering and murder.

10 YEARS AGO Feb. 9, 2014

■ The weather that set the stage for more than 150 traffic accidents Friday night and early Saturday morning in the Little Rock area and numerous others in central and southern Arkansas is expected to recur tonight and Monday, meteorologists warned Saturday. Friday’s few inches of snow likely will be gone by today as temperatures climb into the 40s, but the reprieve will be brief because a cold front is on its way, according to the National Weather Service. Unlike in some previous storms, the power stayed on Friday for most Arkansans, but traffic came to a dead stop on some interstates and local streets, especially in west and southwest Little Rock. Many drivers simply abandoned their vehicles, police said.