Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Barina has family ties to ‘God’s country’
BELLA VISTA — Marla Barina moved from Grapevine, Texas, to Bella Vista in 2005, after discovering she had roots of a sort in the town.
She was a real estate broker in Grapevine around 2003 or 2004 and decided the market was going to “bust,” she said, and decided to sell all her real estate and move. She put in a few variables in a computer program, and Northwest Arkansas kept popping up as what she was looking for, she said.
“I couldn’t remember if I’d really ever been here,” she said, except for once when she was about 10 years old, and she was in a church choir and sang at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.
At the time that she was planning to move she was engaged, and her future husband wanted to get out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area as well. He told her to check it out. She began looking around each community, and Bella Vista was the third one she visited. There was something appealing about it, she said.
“The more I spent time in Bella Vista, the more I knew this was something I would really think about,” she said.
She called her dad and told him she was getting ready to move to Bella Vista, Ark., and he gasped, she said.
“That’s God’s country,” he told her, adding he had spent the best times of his life here. Unbeknownst to Barina, her father’s parents had owned a cottage in Bella Vista and the family had spent the summers here. She had never really known her father’s side of the family and had thus never known about the cottage, she said.
She has some old black and white photos that say Ozark Studios on the back that may have been taken in Bella Vista, especially based on the terrain in the photos, she said. There is not a photo of the cottage.
After she talked to her father, she decided to make a second trip to Bella Vista. She went to the different club houses. At Metfield she walked in to have breakfast, and the neighborhood association was there. They were warm and welcoming, she said.
She went to the Highlands Club for dinner, and they had pianos set up with people singing, and it was a nice atmosphere.
She went to the Yacht Club, which was still around at the time, she said, and there was music and dancing. Barina, who is also a musician, found all the music a huge incentive to move here, she said.
“The beauty of the area, the serenity of the area, the older population was a plus, because I always had friends that were older. At that time a large percentage of the population was retired,” she said.
By 2005 she had sold most of her property and she and her fiance purchased a home in Bella Vista. They got married here, and Barina’s father came to the wedding.
She now teaches music, and she discussed her history as a musician.
She started playing piano at age 5, and she was always involved in choirs at church. Eventually she became more of an organist, “on a bit of a professional level” when she was a teen, she said. She was playing at a restaurant when she was 16 or so, and then the whole organ industry collapsed, she said. She got a bit lost because she did not enjoy the piano as much. She concentrated on college and career instead.
Ten years went by. She got involved with the Fort Worth Symphony’s Oratorio Chorus for 13 years. It disbanded by the time she moved to Bella Vista. Several years ago, she found out that a large group of people had purchased organs and needed lessons, so she taught lessons every week for a few years, but they were older students, so they died off or became unable to play, she said. Now she has a few piano and keyboard students and occasionally vocal students. She also sometimes gets to play at different places.
She said covid disrupted some things. She used to play piano for happy hour every week at Concordia Retirement Community for 12 or 13 years until covid happened. In the past year she has played there a couple of times, perhaps, she said. She also used to play frequently at Sassafras Vineyards in Springdale, a winery and wedding venue, however, covid put a stop to that as well. She said she has played at several places around Northwest Arkansas. She used to play at the Yacht Club when it was still around, she said.
“Our POA facilities are not the way they used to be with the music and dancing. That’s what I miss,” Barina said. “People think I’m talking about the ’80s, but it was in 2004.”
She added there was jazz played at Gear Garden in Blowing Springs Park not too long ago. She said she hopes one day Wonderland Cave can be reopened as a jazz club again. She said she is more of a jazz musician than a classical musician.
She has also composed some original songs, including one called “Bella Vista Dream.” It can be found on Jango Radio under Marla Barina.
She added she thinks it is interesting that her grandparents built a cottage and spent a lot of time here.
“Maybe that’s why I felt such a connection,” she said.
“The beauty of the area, the serenity of the area, the older population was a plus, because I always had friends that were older.” — Marla Barina