By Dwain Hebda // Photos by Meredith Mashburn and Jamison Mosley For Heather Graves, community director for The Pointe Bentonville, it’s all about the details. She and her staff serve one of Northwest Arkansas’ most exclusive apartment complexes where each unit in the luxury development bursts at the seams with amenities. Nothing is built…
Arkansas has always contributed a wealth of talent to the performing and popular arts, but as far as country music is concerned, the field has rarely been as deep as it is today. Led by bona fide stars Justin Moore and Ashley McBryde, the current parade of country musicians with Natural State roots is a…
Add the Arkansas State Fair to the list of events that will not be held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The board of directors for the Arkansas Livestock Show Association, which produces the annual event, announced the cancellation of the 2020 fair, which was scheduled for October 16 – 25. General Manager Doug White…
by Dwain Hebda Mike Coats never thought it would work. The genial owner of Mike’s Place in Conway, Coats grew up in south Louisiana and started cooking at the age of 14 in a little local grocery store. Years later, when compiling the menu for the Conway restaurant, fried green tomatoes didn’t initially seem…
By Dwain Hebda Changes in eating habits became necessary, and necessary is rarely fun. My verve for food struck an iceberg, chopped it up and served it on one grim plate of static leaves after another to try and keep my physical dimensions in check. Why do I tell you that? Because to…
By Dwain Hebda Mallory Jayroe, of Little Rock, is a successful public health expert in the field of epidemiology, a wife and recent parent as she and her husband, Dustin (AY’s editor), welcomed a baby boy into the world. And, she’s Arkansas’ foremost cheerleader for the Little Rock Zoo, the only such attraction in the…
By Dwain Hebda Photography By Jamison Mosley Lauren Coker Stringer made the short walk to the employee’s entrance at Arkansas Children’s, focusing on her steps, remembering to breathe. She’d trained for this, of course, this calling to work the emergency department, considered by many the toughest of all nursing assignments. Already in…
By Dwain Hebda // Photos By Jamison Mosley The best football bet I ever won wasn’t paid in cash, it was paid in CRUSTACEANS. The Texas blowhard who’d backed the wrong horse promised me a steak dinner, but, as we met up on a business trip to Las Vegas, he changed his mind…
There are better-known subdivisions in Arkansas, but none prettier than River Plantation near Mayflower. Stately homes with big yards line this quiet neighborhood, looking out over stunning views of the river and emerald foothills in the distance. But ask around and you’ll discover there’s a lot of grit underneath the polish here. Six years…
When Angela McGraw, executive director of Women & Children First in Little Rock, first heard of the stay-at-home recommendations related to the coronavirus, she felt it in the pit of her stomach. Women who were already in crisis situations would now be caged with their abusers, their partners’ violent tendencies stoked by job loss and…
