Villines to get spot on county’s committee

The Pulaski County Quorum Court plans to appoint the wife of the late County Judge Buddy Villines to the arena board.

A resolution to be presented before the Pulaski County Quorum Court’s agenda committee, which meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Pulaski County administration building, Room 410, Little Rock, recommends Beverly Villines to the Multi-Purpose Civic Center Facilities Board for a term that will expire Oct. 30, 2025. The Pulaski County Quorum Court will formally approve the resolution at a later date.

Buddy Villines, who died at age 76 in Little Rock on Oct. 21, 2023, after a brief illness, served 24 years as county judge. His accomplishments included county-wide voter support in August 1995 for, among other projects, the construction of what is now Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock. The facilities board is the governing body of the 18,000-seat arena. It opened in October 1999.

The arena has been home to various athletic events, including minor league hockey and basketball; several Southeastern Conference women’s basketball and NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournaments; and the SEC gymnastics championships in 2007.

It is also a venue for major concerts, including a rare appearance in Arkansas by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in March 2000, when he performed his 1973 song “Mary Queen of Arkansas,” a number Springsteen does not regularly sing live.

Beverly Villines, 73, who went to Hendrix College in Conway, worked as director of corporate accounting at Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and, later, as executive director of the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church Foundation.