Clipping identifies twins in '24 photo
Nine sets of twins from a 91-year-old photo taken at the former Clendenin School in North Little Rock have been identified from a 1924 newspaper clipping of the picture obtained by the North Little Rock History Commission.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published the photo and an accompanying article April 19 about the picture, which had been donated earlier this month to the History Commission by a Michigan man. Only one set of twins had been identified by that time: Ben and Glen Quinney, by Ben's daughter, Pat Quinney Williams of Conway.
Sandra Taylor-Smith, the History Commission's executive director, said she was contacted a day later by someone who had a newspaper clipping of the photo first published Sept. 28, 1924, in The Junior Arkansas Democrat -- a page "for and by" schoolchildren. The photo received by the commission had Nov. 4, 1924, stamped on the back.
According to the caption, the twins were, left to right: Bottom row: Vohn and John Bickers, Marie and Morris Moore, and Jessie and Bessie Clements. Middle row: W.M. and Woodrow Burks, Herbert and Herman Couthron, Gladys and Gertrude Alford, and Martha and Henry Voss. Back row: Rayburn and Raymond Medlock, and Glen and Ben Quinney.
If correct, the Quinneys' names were reversed in last week's reproduction. Williams had said she wasn't positive which was which, although she believed her father was the one on the left with his arms crossed.
The mystery of having so many twins at one school doesn't end there. Williams later found mentions of nine sets of twins being at North Little Rock High School in a 1933 clipping from the Hi Comet, the high school newspaper. Seniors named were the Quinneys, Mary and Martha Merriman, Laura and Louis Catherine and Roselyn and Russel Priest. The latter three sets weren't named in the Clendenin photo.
Ad panel approves raise for director
The North Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission has unanimously approved a $5,000 raise for Executive Director Bob Major, increasing Major's salary to $75,000 annually.
With the pay raise, the commission eliminated a $3,000 automobile allowance for Major. For city business, Major will instead be paid mileage at the federally allowed rate of 57.5 cents per mile, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The pay increase is retroactive to Jan. 1. The increase was based on research of salaries for similar positions statewide. Commissioners met in executive session for 23 minutes at its quarterly meeting Tuesday before all five commissioners present voted unanimously in public session.
Farm, food center duties to be split
The Farm and Food Innovation Center at the St. Joseph Center in North Little Rock has dissolved, and the management of its programs will be divided among different community groups, the center announced in a news release last week.
The change comes five months after creator Jody Hardin left as the center's executive director. Hardin started the program a year earlier to much fanfare and city government support. The nonprofit agriculture, arts and educational effort was to take over the for-profit farming half of the operation that Hardin said hadn't worked, according to information at the time Hardin left.
The Farm and Food Innovation board of directors referred to the program as having "a lofty goal" when begun, according to the news release, and called the dissolving of the organization "a strategic decision." It added that "the programs and partnerships ... will continue to thrive" through other organizations that have been involved in different areas of the work.
Metro on 04/26/2015