Pretty baby contest once part of Gravette Days

Joseph McMillan was winner of the 1920 Gravette Celebration Pretty Baby Contest.
Joseph McMillan was winner of the 1920 Gravette Celebration Pretty Baby Contest.

— The Gravette Picnic, which began as a celebration of the founding of the town in 1893, has evolved to the annual Gravette Day(s) Celebration held each August.

One event that dates to those early picnics which were held in the town park, and later in Old Town Park with a carnival, was the annual “pretty baby contest.”

Pictured is Joseph Howard McMillan, the young man who won the prettybaby contest at the picnic held in August 1920.

The son of Phillip and Cora Fletcher McMillan, he was born in Hiwasse in April, 1919.

According to his sister Reta McMillan Townzen, who lives in Bentonville, “Most babies were dressed in their very best for the prettiest baby contest. And they were crying and fretful because of being so uncomfortable. August was always very hot.

“This little guy was happy and it showed, cooler and more comfortable than most. So he won the contest,” she said.

Joseph grew up in Hiwasse, graduated from school there and later served his country during World War II. Later he was stationed and worked in Washington.

His sister said it was on a visit to his old hometown about 40 years ago that he noticed the jet plane in the park at Gravette.

“He stopped and looked at it and checked its numbers,” she said. “He said he had worked on that very plane while he was stationed at a base in Washington.” Joseph McMillan died shortly after returningto his home after that visit to Hiwasse.

She shares this story and picture as a memory of that early-day Gravette Picnic which she always enjoyed attending. She also loves to reminisce about those “good old days,” coming to the picture show in Gravette, remembering how hot it was in August, how many businesses used to be in Hiwasse, the apple orchards that lined the road between Gravette and Rogers and the hot, dry, dusty Depression days that were part of Northwest Arkansas during the 1930s.

Community, Pages 8 on 08/10/2011