Maggie Hinson’s “wanderlust” got the better of her at 16 and she dropped out of high school in Stuttgart and took off with friends.
It was the hippy-dippy ’60s and she eventually wound up in San Francisco where she tended bar and lived in an apartment house called The Palace. Some of her neighbors went on to become “pretty famous. Well, not pretty famous. Extremely famous,” she says.
Those neighbors were Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker.
“At that time, they were just like I was,” says Hinson, owner of the iconic Midtown Billiards in downtown Little Rock and the backer of two other central Arkansas watering holes. “They had talents, but they hadn’t been discovered.”
“We just didn’t know at the time,” Hinson says. “The Palace was just an old apartment house. It didn’t have doors on the apartments. It was more of a simple commune than anything else.”
Hinson and her soon-to-be famous friends hit the streets “whenever we got up and around.”
“Now I don’t have any musical talent, but they did. They would sing and I would collect money and we’d get enough money to party that night. We would get a little bit to eat and then do it all again the next day.”
But before Joplin and Cocker were discovered, Hinson lost touch with her neighbors. “We all went our ways and I don’t even remember why we went our ways. But we all went our ways.”
She did get to see them again — playing at the Woodstock music festival in August 1969.
She tells the long-ago stories seated on a bar stool at Midtown, which has been described as the quintessential “dive bar” by many publications, including Esquire magazine. The graffiti-covered bar, itself, has seen its share of celebrities.
Kid Rock has been in the bar a couple of times. Country stars Toby Keith and Amanda Lambert have stopped by. Actor Billy Bob Thornton sends a check covering his membership annually.
Actors Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg paid a visit when they were in town for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center in 2004.
But perhaps the most interesting guest bellied up to the bar in 1994. At first Hinson thought the man was homeless.
“We got to talking and I realized who he was and he told me that he had been working on a song and would I mind if he played it to me,” she says of the Rolling Stones guitarist and founding member Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones were in Little Rock for a concert at War Memorial Stadium.
“So we sat on the pool table rail and he played that song to me and during that time two or three people came in and they recognized him and they started contacting people and it wasn’t long after that till he had to go,” Hinson remembers.
Hinson’s experiences, her friends say, created a savvy businesswoman who is a do-gooder at heart. Her early upbringing helps explain why this mother of two finds it important to help others. Her son, David Shipps, manages Midtown. Daughter Dorothy Northern-Ross is a retired teacher in Memphis.
“The people who work for me are my family and they afforded me a good life and I feel like I should do the same for them.”
Hinson is the youngest child of Helen and J.D. Cooper. Her father was a mechanic and her mother was an assistant at a doctor’s office. While the family did not have a lot of money, they made it up in compassion for others.
“Everybody knew they could come to him and he would help them,” she says of her father. And her mother “cooked for so many people in the area.”
“She was kind of an icon in Stuttgart because Miss Helen took care of just about everybody.”
Hinson has held many fund-raisers at her bar — “too many to remember.” They range from events for friends who need help with medical costs to events to pay for the funerals of children. She also supports Arkansas Enterprises for the Developmentally Disabled and the American Heart Association.
But her passion is the Humane Society of Pulaski County. She says her childhood was filled with animals. “Everything that I could get to follow me home.”
Some of her compassion for others developed when she experienced her own tragedy.
When she was 7, she and her sister ran across the dirt road in front of their home to get the mail. She was hit by a truck. She spent several months at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and her right leg became infected and eventually had to be amputated.
She was fitted with a prosthetic leg and learned how to walk all over again. As she grew, she had to be fitted with a new leg. “I really don’t remember having two legs.” She still has to be fitted for a new leg every six to eight years.
“I’ve had a lot of help in my life and I know how much I appreciated the help that I got and I was able to take the help I got and run with it. … It’s a good feeling. The reward is great,” she says.
JIMMY’S MIDTOWN BILLIARDS
The love of her life was Jim Hinson. The first time he asked her to marry him, she said “yes” but got cold feet. Years later, they reconnected at a friend’s Christmas party.
“Bless his heart. He saved my wedding ring all of those years and we ended up getting married.”
The two were married 28 years until he died on Christmas Day 2013. He was director of finance for the state Department of Human Services. After he retired, he liked to play dominoes at Jimmy’s Midtown Billiards.
“One day, he said, ‘Red, I want to buy that pool hall.’ I assume he bought it for somewhere to go,” she says. At that time, she was working as an accountant for a local business.
They bought Jimmy’s Midtown Billiards in 1989. “Jimmy” is the name of the former owner, not Jim Hinson. During their marriage, the Hinsons also owned Diamond Jim’s — named after her husband — a fine-dining restaurant in North Little Rock, and an entertainment company.
Jim Hinson grew tired of operating a bar and it wasn’t making money. She found she was having to use her paycheck to cover salaries and pay for products.
“I told him one day ‘Either you are going to run this place or I am going to run it. But we are not going to both run it. One of us is,’” she says. “He bowed out gracefully and I’ve done it ever since.”
When the Hinsons bought Midtown, the tavern opened at 6 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m. “It was a day care for all of the old retired guys. We couldn’t sell alcohol before 10 a.m., but I would feed and water them.” With the purchase, they got a permit that allowed them to remain open from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. It is a private club and has a $10 annual membership fee.
“I run a tight railroad. I really do. I like to go out and commiserate with my friends at different bars and I like to try out new bars. But I won’t go back to a bar where you have a difficult time getting a drink or there’s a lot of drama going on. Nobody appreciates that.”
Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, says only two ABC violations have been filed against Midtown in all its years of existence.
“The fact it has been in operation for decades and received violations on only two occasions indicates this is a well-run establishment,” Hardin says.
Bands play at Midtown on the weekends — starting at 1 a.m. Lines form at the door around 1:45 a.m. At 2 a.m. the bar is packed with customers — many from the service industry who are just getting off work.
THE FIRE
On Sept. 16, 2016, an after-hours fire — attributed to a refrigerator — gutted Midtown. Regulars gathered across the street to watch the icon burn. Hinson was not there — she was recovering from heart surgery.
“I will never forget my son coming in saying ‘Mother, I hate to tell you but Midtown caught on fire,’” she says. “I told him ‘I can’t do anything about it. You are just going to have to handle it’ and bless him. He did every step of the way.”
Hinson never hesitated on rebuilding the bar.
“Midtown is kind of an icon in Little Rock. I look at this to be my son’s future. I grew up poor. It’s nice to have money, but money is not my main objective like it is to some people.”
Shipps says 99 percent of the interior of Midtown was lost in the fire. He oversaw making sure everything was put back the way it was — except for major upgrades to the restrooms.
“She has this will to achieve whatever goal she has and she also has the drive to succeed at any task that is ahead of her,” Shipps says of his mother.
After many delays, the bar finally reopened in July 2017. During the interim, the employees found jobs at other local bars. And fundraisers were held to help them make it through the closure. All of her employees returned to Midtown after it reopened.
At the reopening party, guests were given Sharpies and told to add the graffiti back to the pristine John Green paint on the walls. They complied.
Hinson is at the bar every day at 6 a.m., making sure everything is ready to go for the next day. She leaves work “no later than 11 a.m.”
Hinson opened two bars for two of her former bartenders. Four Quarter Bar in North Little Rock was established for Conan Robinson. T.C.’s Midtown Grill in Conway was set up for Thomas Colclasure.
“I told the guys — Thomas and Conan — ‘I will not forget you’ because they both had contributed so much to where we are now. ‘When the time is right, I will see to it that you have your own bar’ and I was fortunate enough to be able to do that.”
Colclasure now owns his bar outright. Four Quarter is still jointly owned by Hinson and Robinson.
“The only thing I am going to take away from both of those bars is that I feel I had a big part in teaching them how to operate a bar.”
T.C.’s Midtown offers twice the number of pool tables and a bigger stage than at Midtown.
“She’s the best,” Colclasure says of Hinson. “She’s freaking awesome. She literally would help anyone out. She’s like my second mom. I love that woman to death.”
Four Quarter — in North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood — has a New Orleans vibe. Robinson says Hinson is his mentor who taught him how to run a successful bar.
“She counts her nickles and dimes, for sure,” says Robinson, who has a degree in finance. “In the bar business, everything counts.”
Jeff Duncan, co-owner of Best Park in Little Rock, agrees. He has known her for more than 30 years and was close friends with Jim Hinson.
“She is very astute. She knows how to count those nickles and pennies and turn them into dollars,” Duncan says.
HINSON’S MIDTOWN FAMILY
The one thing Hinson wants people to know is that she thinks of her employees as family. And her employees agree.
“Midtown is a unique and special place to work. Maggie is a special boss,” says bartender Pat McCrackin. “She has seen everything and done everything in the bar business so she is sensitive to what we go through and I can talk to her about anything. She creates a family environment for us and makes us all feel like we are a part of the family.”
Brannon Brekeen gave up his full-time state job handling disability determination cases to become a full-time bartender. He has a degree in psychology.
“It’s like a family. This is our home. She’s fair. We make good money. We work well as a team. We love Maggie,” Brekeen says.
Hinson wants to make sure all of her employees are mentioned. Her other employees are Nola Nysten, Mel Jones, Jason Snow, K.C. Curruth, Derrick Martin, Kirt Little and Walter Redd.
“The people who work for me are my family and they afforded me a good life and I feel like I should do the same for them,” she says.
SELF PORTRAIT
Maggie Hinson
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Jan. 11, 1947, Blackton, Ark. PEOPLE SAY I LOOK LIKE: Loretta Lynn MY FAVORITE MUSICIAN IS: Willie Nelson I DRIVE A: California-edition Ford Mustang MY FAVORITE ADULT BEVERAGE: Patron Tequila I GET UP AT: 3:30 or 4 a.m.
MY HOBBIES INCLUDE: I’m an artist. I do oil, acrylic and watercolor, all kinds of mediums. I’ve sold several paintings. MY DOG IS NAMED: Matilda, an Old English sheepdog MY BEST TIP EVER WAS: $50
IN MY REFRIGERATOR YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND: Grapes THE GUESTS AT MY FANTASY DINNER PARTY WOULD INCLUDE: Mae West and Loretta Lynn
MY LAST MEAL WOULD INCLUDE: Creme brulee THE ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Honest
“Midtown is kind of an icon in Little Rock. I look at this to be my son’s future. I grew up poor. It’s nice to have money, but money is not my main objective like it is to some people.”
