On Jan. 26 at The Breakers, a posh Palm Beach hotel, Arkansas Jane Lyon was in the spotlight. The occasion was the annual Eclipse Awards ceremony for thoroughbred racing.
It s a warm January morning as I step out of the main house at Wingmead. It s 5:30 a.m., and Tim Doepel, who has managed wildlife on this 15,000-acre tract for the past 44 years, has the coffee hot. I m here at the invitation of Wil and Ashley Jackson.
To untutored ears, the piercing notes that will echo this weekend across the Lyon College campus may sound like the wailing of stray cats. For enthusiastic visitors to the 42nd Arkansas Scottish Festival, those skirling bagpipes will evoke the ethnic heritage of a school celebrating its 150th anniversary.
In 1871, Batesville on the White River lost its bid for the state s flagship university to Fayetteville. Rev. Isaac Long and other ministers from the Arkansas Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States had another plan for Batesville.