GENTRY -- Good food, fellowship and awards were the order of the night on Thursday when the Gentry Chamber of Commerce held its annual Awards Banquet at the Wooden Spoon Restaurant. Following an excellent meal prepared and served by the Wooden Spoon staff, the following awards were presented by Chamber president Tammie Runyan as the narrative below was read by Bev Saunders, executive director of the Chamber.
Outstanding Volunteer -- Karren Thompson
Karren has been a volunteer at the Gentry Library for three years, where she wears many hats. She has painted the scenes in the window scoops, as well as many other murals. She assists with displays throughout the library. When someone comes up with an idea, she grabs the concept and sets to work on it.
At Christmas, when the library decided to have a float, she used her imagination and made the float happen -- a float which won overall grand champion in the 2014 Christmas celebration. Day in and day out, she is a great asset to the library and the community.
Outstanding Organization -- Gentry Youth Organization
Wow, an organization that through volunteers provides all Gentry youth with T-ball, baseball, softball, basketball, football, soccer and more. This organization has provided these opportunities to Gentry's youth for many years. The time and money donated through this program -- totally volunteer -- is priceless. Gentry is blessed to have this organization and, more specifically, these volunteers, from the board members to the coaches and concession stand workers. Kevin and Emily Hodges and some board members are in attendance to accept this award and, more importantly, our thanks for the time and energy you invest in your youth.
Business of the Year -- Arvest Bank
Arvest Bank has been constant and consistent support to the Gentry Chamber of Commerce and the community for many years. As well as supporting with its membership, the bank has supported many special events including Freedom Fest, the Easter Egg Hunt, Christmas celebrations, Fall Festival and the annual awards banquet. In 2014 and 2015, we have proudly watched Arvest build a new bank on Main Street. They are also building a pocket park next to the bank . We all know there are Arvest Bank locations across Northwest Arkansas, and that makes us appreciate the decision to build a new facility in our hometown even more. We are very honored to have Arvest Bank in our community and are proud to honor Kristi Holloway and her crew as the Business of the Year.
Citizen of the Year -- Toni Sarratt
In our town there are so many people that work in the background to make Gentry a better place to live. One of these people is Toni Sarratt. Toni, a teacher at Gentry High School, is not only living a busy life as a high school teacher and mother to two sons, Bo and Ben, she is also a great volunteer. During the fall for the last eight years the Chamber has sponsored a quilt show at the Gentry Library. It takes several dedicated volunteers to make the quilt show work and lots of volunteer hours to hang the quilts, monitor the quilts during the week they are on display and take the whole thing down after the show. Toni is always the first person to call Janie and volunteer her time. Toni also volunteers to help with quilting classes offered every week in the library. She has spent hundreds of hours designing and piecing quilts that she donates to group fundraisers. Thousands of charity dollars have been raised on Toni Sarratt's donated quilts. While this in itself is no small act of volunteerism, Toni usually donates the hundreds of dollars in fabric and supplies it takes to make these quilts. We would like to recognize Toni Sarratt as 2015 Citizen of the Year.
Pioneer Award -- Bobbie Ogden
The Pioneer Award is given to someone who for many years contributed to our community. And, because of their contributions, the world and Gentry are a better place.
Ms. Bobbie Ogdon was born Feb. 2, 1917, and raised in Springtown, Arkansas. She died June 19, 2009. She graduated from Gentry High School and worked in and around Gentry all her life. She worked in an insurance office, the canning company and several area poultry plants. She became a member of the Victory Baptist Church in Gentry, where she attended for more than 40 years. Bobbie took great pride in organizing the Springtown Community Christmas program for many years. She made costumes and taught songs for scores of Easter programs and special singings in the Springtown community. She had a special love for children and took care of more than 50 children in her "retirement" years. On a daily basis, she showed acts of kindness and caring for her neighbors and friends who live in the Gentry area. She loved to sew and made clothes for herself and many others. She loved making quilts, and many people benefited from her talents. Her life made a difference to many people. Members of the True family, her second family, are here to help us honor her.
The Lifetime Achievement Award
This is such a special year for me because these two ladies have been my personal friends for years. They are both very strong women who contributed to Gentry in incredible ways.
The first Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Berta Jean Ownbey Sullivan.
Berta was born Roberta Jeanette Steele on April 10, 1928. She died in October of this past year.
She was the daughter of James DeKalb Steele and Hettie Walls Steele. Both of her parents died when she was just two years old, and she joined the family of Author and Lou Steele. She graduated from Gentry High School, where she was the valedictorian of her class. Berta went to the College of the Ozarks before graduating from the University of Arkansas with a master's degree in education. She met and married Orla James Ownbey in 1949, her husband of 60 years. She was a school teacher in Gentry and other towns. Roberta was a member of the Gentry United Methodist Church of Gentry and co-founder of the Gentry Fine Arts Society. She married Ralph Sullivan in September 2010.
Berta hadtwo sons, Ronald Paul Ownbey and James Steele Ownbey of Gentry, and five grandchildren.
Berta was loved by her many students. She worked tirelessly as a volunteer for many civic organizations, including the Gentry Library.
Jim Twiggs shared some thoughts about Berta Ownbey from his days as a student: Mrs. Ownbey was one of my teachers at Gentry High School and tried her best to teach me how to type. She and I have laughed many times about my typing "ability." She once told me I was the worst typist she had ever seen. As an adult, we served together at the Methodist Church. I was always impressed with her faith and her willingness to share her faith, not only by what she said, but by her actions. Over the years, she and I had developed a friendship that I will always cherish. We should all desire to live the kind of life she led.
Ella Jewell Lyons Kee remembers: I have good memories of Berta Jean from when I was a child. She saved our home from burning by alerting my mother to the chimney fire. Not only did she tell Mother the chimney was on fire, she went to our well and started pulling up buckets of water to help put out the fire. That in itself makes a good memory, but she did that in spite of the fact she was deathly afraid of our dog. She just didn't think about herself; she just rushed in to help.
Old friends by Carol Jordan: There is a song: "You can't make old friends." How true! I knew Berta for 54 years. We picked strawberries together, canned, ate berry cobbler and pound cake at the Steele residence many times and made numerous trips to the drugstore for "cherry cokes." Berta was my first friend in Gentry, a talented, smart, caring and humble person. Berta loved the Lord, her family, her church and the community, and truly has been a blessing in my life. Such good memories!
Freda Wilmoth
Scattered around the room are 42 of Freda Wilmoth's family members. Some call her Frito, others call her Mom and Grandma, and some call her Friend as I do.
Freda Wilmoth, with her late husband Ross and eight children, Linda, Ross Leon Junior, Lewis, Freddy, Sheva, Lisa, Charles and Chana, have developed one of the largest and most successful tourist attractions, not only in Arkansas, but also throughout the United States. This past year, USA Today named the Wild Wilderness Safari one of the top five drive-through zoos in the United States.
And it's right here in our hometown, Gentry. The Wild Wilderness Safari plays hosts to visitors from all 50 states and several foreign countries every year. The Wilmoth and Safari story is a special one. Ross and Freda developed the outdoor park right there on their own farm and, for the most part, with only the help of their children and Ross' dear friend and neighbor, Orla Ownbey. This business journey began in the 1960s when Freda got Ross three buffalo for Christmas.
Many folks came to take advantage of the Wilmoth hospitality by fishing in the 19-acre pond. Some will remember Ross' favorite half buffalo and half Hereford, "Herky." Herky loved people and would join the fishermen, the picnickers, and sometimes even the family by coming into the house through the sliding glass doors. The entire family loved animals and began adding exotic cattle, elk, deer, peacocks and other unusual birds.
Eventually, more and more folks came to the Wilmoth's farm to fish, enjoy the outdoors and watch the wildlife. As interest grew, it was the family's decision to develop the area into a protected area for the animals and the Wild Wilderness Safari was born.
Since that development more than 50 years ago, the Safari has been home to more than 400 species of animals. Freda has spent many nights getting up at 2 a.m. to feed the babies -- sometimes it was monkeys, sometimes it was bears, or maybe it was a tiger or lion. Amazingly, the huge enterprise remains on the Wilmoth farm and the Wilmoth family still works every day of the year except for Christmas. Ross died in March of 2003. The legacy of this business, the Wilmoth family and how Ross and Freda merged the two together to create one of the finest family attractions anywhere is one that makes us all smile. We are so very proud to name Mrs. Freda Wilmoth as a Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
General News on 03/11/2015