The Garrison Ave. staple plans to close at the end of March. Author: Kathryn Gilker Updated: 7:12 PM CST March 3, 2021
FORT SMITH, Ark. Tip Top Western Wear is hanging up its hat after opening on Garrison Avenue in 1947.
“We’ve been on this avenue a long, long, long time,” Sam Wald said.
Joe Wald started Tip Top as a shoe repair store. When he met his wife LaRue they started dry cleaning services and in the 1970s they started selling the western wear you see today.
“It’s very sad but we can’t dwell on that. It’s been very receptive, he said. I’ve got some great customers, this isn’t got nothing to do with the customer base, there are other variables involved.
Updated: 5:10 PM CST February 14, 2021
FORT SMITH, Ark. Tom Caldarera Jr., the popular restaurant owner and community leader who, along with his family, likely catered thousands of weddings, reunions, wakes and community events in the Fort Smith area, has died. He was 90.
Caldarera opened Taliano’s Italian Restaurant at 14th and B streets in Fort Smith with partner Jim Cadelli in 1970. The restaurant was in the renovated Sparks Mansion built in 1887, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Joe Caldarera, Tom’s son and business partner, said his dad was born and raised in Fort Smith. Tom was an only child and his dad, who emigrated from Sicily and arrived in Fort Smith in 1892, died when Tom was 15. The family, Joe said, has “been in some form of the hospitality industry since 1892,” with many early locations on Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith.
Patrolman Cassie Johnson
At Monday’s meeting, the Charleston City Council voted to honorarily name Garrison Avenue as “Patrolman Cassie Johnson Avenue.”
On December 1, 2020, Johnson was shot in the line of duty on Garrison Avenue on the city’s West Side. She died less than a week later from her injuries.
“Patrolman Cassie Johnson was an exemplary public servant who had a passion for the citizens that she served,” said Chief Tyke Hunt. “This honorary street naming will act as a constant reminder of her bravery, courage and determination to serve the City of Charleston.”
The Charleston Police Department’s D-shift, the shift Johnson worked on, entered the petition for the honorary street-naming.
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