SPRINGDALE - Titia Grimsley was among the daughters and granddaughters who honored the memory of Jerry Stark during Saturday’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Arvest Ballpark, a fundraising event that drew an estimated 1,100 people.
Stark, who earned his doctorate in education from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, died about a year ago after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at least a year before that, said Grimsley, of Carthage, Mo.
“We look back now, and we realize there were signs,” Grimsley said after completing the walk in Springdale,along with Stark’s two other daughters, three granddaughters and great-granddaughter, who rode in her stroller.
Stark was superintendent of the Carl Junction School District in Missouri for about 25 years, his daughters said, and the school auditorium there bears his name: the Dr. Jerry B. Stark Performing Arts Center.
Grimsley’s sister, Gina Burger, said that as difficult as Alzheimer’s was on the entire Stark family, it took an especially high emotional, mental and physical toll on their mother, Jean Stark.
“It’s just a very different disease for the caregiver - our mother,” Burger said.
“The person you married is not that same person,” Grimsley added.
According to Stark’s obituary in The Joplin Globe, he “married the love of his life, Jean (Sanders) Stark,” on Dec. 21, 1958. Born in Heber Springs, Ark., in 1935, Jerry Stark died on July 1, 2012, at age 77.
Susie Davis, special-events coordinator for Saturday’s walk, said about 900 people registered to participate and another 200 or so came out Saturday.
Walkers chose from a 3-mile or 1-mile course, “Or you can just walk around the concourse,” she said. Saturday’s event marked the first time that the event included a 5K run, which had been requested last year. However, Davis added, “The walk is still our main focus.”
“Fundraising was down a little this year,” Davis said, but money will continue to be raised for another 30 days after the event. The funds payfor services such as care consultations and educational programs.
On July 1, the Oklahoma-Arkansas chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association split into two groups, Davis said, giving Arkansas its own statewide chapter with a website at www.alz. org/arkansas.
The association estimates that 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, according to the group’s website, with the numbers expected to grow as the baby boomer population ages.
The disease - which has no cure - is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States overall and the fifth-leading cause for those 65 and older. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia.
“While ambiguity about the underlying cause of death can make it difficult to determine how many people die from Alzheimer’s, there are no survivors,” according to the website. “If you do not die from Alzheimer’s disease, you die with it.”
“It’s not a normal part of aging,” Davis said, but rather a fatal disease that needs a cure, a way to slow progression and a known prevention.
Like Stark’s family, Elizabeth Beam of Centerton also was part of a family team, clad in purple T-shirts Saturday.
“My grandmother passedaway from Alzheimer’s disease five years ago,” Beam said of Mary Gene McConnell. Beam had her toddler daughter with her as well as her husband’s aunt, Maria Beam.
“We kind of have a double cause,” Elizabeth Beam said, speaking of Maria’s father, Kenneth Beam, who suffered from dementia and died in 2010. Doctors differed as to what kind of dementia he had,Maria Beam said.
McConnell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005 but had exhibited symptoms for several years before that, Elizabeth Beam said.
“We tried to take care of her at home as long as we could,” Elizabeth Beam said, but her grandmother spent about the last two years of her life in a nursing home.
Elizabeth and Maria Beamsaid they’ve participated in the annual walk for about five years.
As for Jerry Stark’s family, Burger said, “Our dad was the rock of our family.”
That didn’t change as his Alzheimer’s progressed, she said.
“Even through the end of the disease, he never got nasty. He was always pleasant and happy.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 09/22/2013