Other days

100 YEARS AGO March 21, 1924

■ From 3:30 o’clock yesterday afternoon to about 9 o’clock last night, several hundred friends of the Arkansas Children’s Home Society crowded the rooms of the home’s beautiful new dormitory for girls, to extend their good wishes. … Governor McRae was the principal speaker. … The dormitory, located at 801 Battery street, formerly was the H. H. Tucker residence. It was acquired by the Children’s Home through bequests in the will of the late John Kendrick. The home now owns the entire block, from Eighth to Ninth street and from Battery to Wolfe. The site for the new children’s hospital now under construction is in this block.

50 YEARS AGO March 21, 1974

■ The Republican Party kicked its only candidate for governor out of the race today. The candidate, Joseph Harry Weston, 62, of Cave City, was notified by mail that the party organization has concluded that he is not qualified legally to run for the party’s nomination for governor. The $1,500 filing fee paid by Weston earlier this month was sent back to his home in Cave City by state Sen. Jim Caldwell of Rogers, the state party chairman. Caldwell acted on the basis of a legal opinion by attorney Bob Scott of Little Rock, the party counsel. Scott said that state law requires that the holder of any party office be registered as a member of that party, that the Republican Party’s rules provide that the party nominee for governor is automatically on the party executive committee, and that Weston must therefore be registered as a Republican. However, Weston is not registered as a Republican.

25 YEARS AGO March 21, 1999

■ “Leotard” knocked out the first competitor. “Strophulus” stumped someone down the line. And after 31 rounds, only Leslie Crain, 13, was standing, making her queen of the state spelling bee. The final word she spelled correctly was “acrolect.” Not in a lot of dictionaries, the winning word is defined by Merriam Webster as “the language variety of a speech community closest to the standard or prestige form of a language.” In one of the toughest competitions in recent memory, the Conway teenager won the contest held at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Saturday morning.

10 YEARS AGO March 21, 2014

■ A new online-only university for older, nontraditional college students won unanimous support from the University of Arkansas board of trustees at its meeting Thursday in Fort Smith. The UA eVersity will enroll learners who may have children and a job, for example, but still need “a high-quality, affordable education,” Michael Moore, the UA System’s vice president for academic affairs, told the 10-member board. The new university will focus on courses only six weeks long that support “career-relevant” degrees, Moore said.