Hillside of flowers afford a colorful legacy
Every year, as the wintry days meander into springtime, my wife begins watching for the flowers on the hill between Rogers and Pea Ridge at the top of the north slope coming up from Brush Creek. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Mary Durand in her Autumn Place article referred to Effie’s flowers in bloom, and mentioned an apparent yearly contest among friends to see who will first spot Effie’s jonquils blooming on the hill.
It seems that as springtime approaches each year, watching for Effie’s flowers has become a tradition for many Pea Ridge folks. I first learned to think of those flowers as Easter flowers, and they, even more than the Easter lilies, are to me signs of the Easter season and of the restoration of life.
Sometimes I wonder how many Pea Ridge people think about Effie and Harry Johnson as they travel past the Tuck’s Chapel turnoff going south toward Rogers and start the gentle slope down to Brush Creek? Effie and Harry lived in a house just up the hill above those beautiful flowers. The house isn’t there any more, and it takes a bit of imagination to picture a house in that location, but it was there until several years ago. I can’t even remember if there was a driveway to the house. If a driveway existed, Effie and Harry probably didn’t really need it. As best I remember they never had a car. They always either walked to Pea Ridge or Rogers or wherever they needed to go, or they caught a ride with someone on the way.
As is probably the case with many small towns, Pea Ridge has had its several colorful people who lived in the area and were frequently seen about town. Enter Effie and Harry.
It is interesting to me that this colorful local couple, especially Effie, has left us such a colorful legacy, one which renews itself year by year, such that many of us acknowledge the arrival of Spring when we see Effie’s flowers in bloom. Sometimes as we live through our years, we may hope that something we do will be remembered with appreciation, even if we never attain to celebrityhood, and even if we don’t have many claims to personal fame.
Effie grew up as Effie Clanton. She was a sister of our well-known local blacksmith, Johnny Clanton. She grew up in the early 1900s, and would have attended school at the old Cross Lanes School which stood east of Pea Ridge between Buttram’s Chapel and old Leetown. As all local families did in those days, the family struggled through the Great Depression, through the days of World War II, and even during the recovery years afterward. Though not highly educated, Effie was imaginative and found ways to enjoy life.
As some of us remember her, Effie loved things western. She was a huge fan of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and their western movies. Those walks to Rogers or Pea Ridge would often be for going to the movies. Effie would dress up in western outfits, including the holsters and six-shooters, and when Roy Rogers was in a gunfight with the bad guys and one of the desperadoes was about to ambush him from behind, she might call out a warning: “He’s behind that rock, Roy!” Roy Rogers should appreciate that he had such a fan looking out for him! I suppose today many drivers might hesitate to pick up a couple walking home from the movies in the dark, especially if the lady was packing guns on the right and the left. But, it was different back then (and they were cap-pistols of course).
Effie may even have dreamed of being in the movies with Roy and Dale. Possibly, given the opportunity, she would have aspired to be a western movie star. And, if she had had a movie opportunity, she certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be one of those protected pretty girls; she would have wanted to be out there helping Roy round up that gang of crooks.
Well, in life we are not always remembered for the things we dream of being remembered for. But how great and fitting it is that, although she has now been gone many years, Effie is still remembered for her wonderful flowers flowing over the hillside. As you drive to Rogers from Pea Ridge, be on the lookout as you start downhill to the Brush Creek swoop. Do you see those flowers spreading up the hill on the west side? Those are Effie’s flowers!
Editor’s note: This colunn was originally published on April 2, 2008. Jerry Nichols was a native of Pea Ridge and an award-winning columnist and vice president of Pea Ridge Historical Society.