Margaret Lowe Bogle was born on August 31, 1936, in Grapevine, Texas, in a rural, agriculturally rich area. Shortly after her birth, her family relocated to Uvalde County in South Texas near Sabinal. There, she began first grade at age five, thanks to her grandfather—who had moved in with the family after the death of her grandmother. He became her closest companion and taught her to read, enabling her early start in school.

That year, Margaret and her small first-grade class were promoted directly to third grade due to a statewide shift in Texas from an 11-grade to a 12-grade school system. The family later moved to the Carroll Hill area (now known as Southlake-Carroll), and soon after, to Arkansas, where her father took a superintendent role during the final stages of World War II.

Her school years were spent in several Arkansas towns—including Kirby, Willisville, and Enola—as her father continued working in education and seasonal oil field jobs. The family eventually moved to Yell County, where he became principal and later superintendent of the newly formed Fourche Valley School District, the largest geographic school district in Arkansas. Located within the National Forest, the district consolidated ten small rural schools.

Margaret graduated from Fourche Valley High School in Briggsville at the age of 15, serving as valedictorian of her class. She then attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, earning a degree in Home Economics and Vocational Education. After graduation, she received a graduate fellowship in Human Nutrition at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she taught undergraduate nutrition courses and assisted the department chair.

Toward the end of her studies at Tennessee, Margaret was offered a two-year teaching contract at Ohio University in Athens, where she taught food and nutrition courses. During her first summer break, she returned to Arkansas to work at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). There, she reconnected with Billy Jack, a high school friend and Navy veteran. Their renewed friendship quickly became a romance, and they married on June 21, 1958—a partnership that would last 55 years.

After their marriage, the couple lived in several Oklahoma cities as Billy Jack advanced in his career with Oklahoma Natural Gas Company. Margaret raised their three children and began her professional work in higher education and nutrition services. She worked as a supervisor for student teachers at the University of Oklahoma and later served as Director of Food and Nutrition at the Oklahoma School for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

The family eventually settled in Flower Mound, Texas, where they purchased a small acreage for their children to enjoy outdoor life. Margaret took a part-time teaching and research position at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, and became an early spokesperson for the newly launched Head Start program in the region. Billy Jack was elected to the Lewisville School Board, where he served three terms unopposed. The family was deeply engaged in local school activities, especially through the high school band program.

A pivotal moment in Margaret’s career came when she gave a Head Start presentation to a regional group. Afterward, she was approached by administrators from Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock, who invited her to lead the hospital’s Food and Nutrition Services—becoming the first full-time registered dietitian at the institution. This opportunity aligned with her community health interests and allowed her to return to Arkansas. Her employment was structured through the Arkansas Department of Health, with a continued commitment to a well-baby clinic in Mt. Ida, preserving her passion for public service.

Under Margaret’s leadership, ACH transformed its food services, introduced one of the first hospital-based infant formula laboratories in the country, and developed new standards for pediatric nutrition. She also collaborated with UAMS physicians to conduct groundbreaking research in pediatric nutrition, focusing on energy needs in children with cystic fibrosis. Her dissertation became the first published paper on the subject and helped improve clinical outcomes for patients. These efforts culminated in her earning a PhD in Nutrition from Texas Woman’s University—supported by her ability to pay in-state tuition due to the absence of such a program in Arkansas.

Margaret's work garnered national recognition, and she was asked by the American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) to lead the development of national standards for hospital formula rooms. Her success in research, service, and advocacy led to a faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at UAMS.

Later, she was appointed Director of a groundbreaking, USDA-funded community-based nutrition research initiative across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The project partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and land-grant universities in the region, promoting equity in nutrition research and local engagement. Under her leadership, the initiative gained international recognition for its collaborative and evidence-based approach.

In her personal life, Margaret faced the devastating loss of her daughter, who passed away from breast cancer in her 40s. Around the same time, the federal government offered early retirement buyouts, and Margaret chose to retire to be closer to her daughter and family in Texas. Sadly, her daughter passed away ten months later. Margaret and Billy Jack moved into the Highland Springs Senior Living Community in North Dallas, where they shared their final years together.

Billy Jack passed away peacefully in his sleep in 2023. Margaret continues to reside at Highland Springs, remaining active and connected with her family. As of 2025, she is blessed with six grandchildren (three of whom are married) and eight great-grandchildren, living across Texas, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Tennessee. Through FaceTime and visits, she continues to be an engaged and beloved presence in their lives.

Dr. Margaret Lowe Bogle’s life reflects a powerful legacy of educational leadership, public service, scientific achievement, and unwavering devotion to family and community.

Bettina Ellen Brownstein, a California native, has made Arkansas her home.  A life-long feminist, civil rights lawyer, and activist, she has long fought for reproductive justice and First Amendment rights and is now dedicated to making Arkansas a better place by helping elect more progressive women to state and local offices.  She loves her daughter, her new grandson, politics, the piano, and French — in that order.

Originally from Santa Monica, California, she graduated from UCLA and later attended law school in California and Texas.  In 1985, she moved to Arkansas. For 30 years, she was a civil ligation lawyer with the Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm and also did pro bono legal work for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, concentrating on reproductive rights, the First Amendment, and the intersection between mental illness and the criminal justice system.  Some of the cases she is most proud of include the constitutional rights of panhandlers, jail inmates, freethinkers, librarians, and students.

 In 2011, after her daughter became economically self-sufficient, she left Wright, Lindsey & Jennings to open her own firm, which has one fabulous employee – herself.  She now devotes herself to work for ProArkansasWomen PAC (“PAWPAC”), Democratic candidates (male and female), and legal work for the ACLU and other organizations working to preserve direct democracy.

Bettina is one of the founders of PAWPAC, which is an Arkansas grassroots organization with a mission to increase the number of women in office in Arkansas who will advocate for reproductive, social, economic, and environmental justice. PAWPAC recruits, mentors, advises, and provides financial support to women running for state and local offices in Arkansas.  Since its beginning in 2016 in a back alley in Little Rock, it has grown from endorsing and contributing to eight candidates to endorsing over 80 candidates and contributing over $100,000 to their races in 2024.  PAWPAC continues to grow and make a difference in the Arkansas political landscape.

Photos courtesy of Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times, John Lyon/Arkansas News Bureau, and PAWPAC.

Paula Jean Casey is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas from  1993 to 2000.

She earned her B.A. degree in 1973 at East Central University in Oklahoma and her J.D. in 1977 at University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville.

Casey was a professor at the William H. Bowen School of Law of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 1978 to 1993, when she left to become U.S. Attorney. She was an associate dean of the school from 1986 through 1991. She worked with United States Senator Dale Bumpers as Chief Counsel and Legislative Assistant, from 1990 through 1993. She was appointed United States Attorney by Bill Clinton in 1993, serving through 2000. She rejoined the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School faculty in 2001.

Professor Casey has taught lawyering skills, criminal procedure, evidence, advanced litigation, family law, and property. In 2012 she was recognized by the university for outstanding teaching and for public service in 1989. She also received the FBI Meritorious Achievement Award in 1997 and numerous other awards from various state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies. Most notably, she was the only United States Attorney to receive an award from the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force for her successful investigation and prosecution of a notable racketeering case. 

On February 21, 2012, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law announced that Professor Casey would serve as the interim dean beginning on July 1, 2012. She retired from that position on June 30, 2013. From 2013 until 2016, she served as the interim Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. She was the first woman to serve in each of these positions.

Photos courtesy of Karen Segrave and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Regina H. Favors is an Arkansas native and currently lives in Cedar Hill, Texas.

Favors holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Arkansas Baptist College and earned a Master’s degree from Ouachita Baptist University with a focus in education. She completed the Duke University Executive Program and is a Certified Health Insurance Executive and Claims Adjuster.  

Prior to accepting the role of Interim President (three times) for Arkansas Baptist College, Favors served as President and CEO of Pinnacle Business Solutions, a subsidiary of Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and to date was the highest-ranking minority – male or female, serving as a corporate executive.  She had been with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas for 43 years prior to retirement. Starting as a claim’s examiner in 1968, she served in several capacities: Supervisor, Director, Vice President and President and CEO. As President and CEO, she was responsible for Medicare operations in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Missouri.  Her work experience started with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. directly out of high school. Favors has taught as an adjunct with Arkansas Baptist College extending educational opportunities and careers to students at Arkansas Baptist College. She also taught as an adjunct at Philander Smith College, and Webster University. Most recently, she has served as a mentor for students attending the Executive Leadership Institute at Clark Atlanta University.

She currently serves on the USAble Life Board of Directors.  She has previously served on the Arkansas Baptist College Foundation and Arkansas Baptist College’s Board of Trustees in addition to serving on 38 other boards including the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, Arkansas Repertory Theater, UAPB Foundation Board, the Facilities Board of the Quorum Court, the Arkansas Lung Association, etc.  Recently she was acknowledged as a Silver member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and membership of the National Council of Negro Women.  In 2020, Arkansas Baptist College bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Ms. Favors and was recognized most recently as a living legend by Arkansas Baptist College, Phi Beta Sigma and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternities. She along with 35 other women who have served as presidents, interim presidents and chancellors at universities and colleges in the nation, were recently recognized as unique leaders.

She is married to Daniel L. Favors, Jr. and they are parents of two adult children, Javonne Stewart Jordan and Jeohn Favors and two grandchildren, James and Nia Jordan. She and Daniel are members of Concord Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas.

Photos courtesy of Arkansas Business and Arkansas Baptist College.

Driven by a profound dedication to children's health and well-being, Director of the Food Allergy Clinical and Research Program at Arkansas Children’s and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Stacie Jones, is a distinguished physician scientist, mother and wife, and tireless advocate for children. Her 30-year career in child health is marked by her deep-seated belief that it is “a true privilege in this life and the best way to go to work every day – surrounded by the hope, joy, promise (and sheer fun) that is inspired by each child” she serves.

A native Arkansan, Dr. Jones' early life in Dumas, Arkansas, inspired and shaped her commitment to family, community, and the significance of collaborative effort. The daughter of an educator/coach and a community service leader, she absorbed the values of hard work, shared goals, and the transformative power of education. This foundation propelled her from Dumas to Hall High School in Little Rock to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Dr. Jones credits her love of science and discovery to the life-changing year following graduation when she was not selected to attend medical school, a year that first introduced her to the world of medical research and the power of discovery – a world she has enthusiastically embraced from that point forward.

Her pursuit of excellence led her to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where she obtained her medical degree in 1989 and completed her pediatric residency in 1992. Furthering her expertise, she completed a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1994, Dr. Jones returned to UAMS and Arkansas Children’s, working her way to the role of Chief of Allergy/Immunology by 2003, serving until 2019. In this capacity, she recruited a team of talented clinicians, teachers, and researchers, growing the section from 4 to 11 faculty, all united by a shared vision: to improve the trajectory of children's lives in Arkansas and beyond, particularly for those facing life-threatening food allergies, asthma, immunodeficiency and health disparities.

Dr. Jones' pioneering and collaborative research has significantly advanced the understanding and treatment of food allergy. Notably, she has been the principal investigator within Arkansas Children's for the NIH-funded Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) since its inception in 2005, serving as the sole woman leader early on, while working to expand funding, growth of women leaders and impact for patients over the subsequent 27 years. She serves as a lead investigator for NIH-funded Immune Tolerance Network trials and has directed or co-directed numerous food allergy therapeutic trials and longitudinal studies targeting disease mechanisms, prevention and drug development. Her team’s exceptional work has garnered over $35 million in research funding from the NIH, USDA, foundations and industry. Her prolific contributions to the scientific literature include over 200 publications in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Lancet, among others.  

A testament to her groundbreaking research in food allergy, Dr. Jones, alongside her early career mentor and collaborator, Dr. Wesley Burks, Dean and CEO of UNC Health System, resulted in the publication of the first peanut oral immunotherapy study in the nation in 2009, a landmark achievement performed at Arkansas Children's and Duke University. Following this seminal work, a 17-year span of expansive collaboration across multiple centers and into industry culminated in the first FDA-approved treatment for peanut allergy in children, a significant milestone reached in 2020. This collaborative effort by the Arkansas Children’s Food Allergy team has continually advanced food allergy therapeutics leading to the first FDA-approved treatment for children and adults with multiple food allergies, resulting in designation by National Geographic as one of the “7 breakthroughs that changed medicine in 2024.”

Dr. Jones' unwavering dedication extends beyond her research and clinical work to her extraordinary commitment to mentorship. More than 100 academic faculty and healthcare professionals claim Jones as their mentor, and many of those mentees have become renowned scientists and doctors, academic leaders and administrative visionaries. Her own focused vision, always placing children at the heart of her team's endeavors, has illuminated Arkansas and its people for the world. Through her leadership in medical discovery, the state is increasingly recognized as a place that champions excellence, embraces progress, celebrates diversity and individualism, and, most importantly, demonstrates an enduring commitment to transforming the future of child health. Dr. Jones once said, “to make a real difference in the life and health of a child, you need a heart for adventure, the spirit of an explorer, and a mind that never ceases to imagine ‘what if’ – you need the outlook of a child to never stop reaching”…the true power of discovery.

Photos courtesy of UAMS.

Maud Robinson Crawford was a pioneering attorney, civic leader, and advocate for justice whose contributions to Arkansas and the legal profession make her a deserving inductee into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame. As one of the first women to practice law in the state, she shattered barriers in a male-dominated profession, passing the bar exam with the highest score in her class despite never attending law school. She established herself as a premier legal expert in South Arkansas, playing a pivotal role in the burgeoning oil industry and proving unequivocally that women could attain excellence in any field.

Beyond her professional achievements, Crawford dedicated her life to advancing the status of women and girls. She co-founded Arkansas Girls State, an initiative that continues to educate young women about government and civic responsibility, ensuring that future generations understand the power of civic engagement. As the first woman elected to the Camden City Council, she provided a resolute example that women not only belong in leadership and public service but can thrive in these spaces. Furthermore, she led numerous women’s organizations, including the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the American Legion Auxiliary, and the Pilot Club, each dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and cultivating female leadership.

Perhaps most compelling is her fearless fight against corruption, a battle that likely led to her tragic and mysterious disappearance in 1957. As an attorney safeguarding the estate of Rose Berg, she unearthed fraudulent activities that funneled millions of dollars away from rightful heirs. Her unyielding pursuit of justice placed her in direct conflict with powerful figures, and her case remains one of Arkansas’s most infamous unsolved mysteries. Crawford’s story serves as an indelible testament to the risks women have taken in the pursuit of truth and the importance of honoring their sacrifices.

Maud Crawford was born in 1891 in Greenville, Texas. Maud’s mother passed away when Maud was nine, so she was raised in Warren, Arkansas, by her grandparents. Maud was the valedictorian of her 1911 graduating class at Warren High School, and she attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville the following year.

In 1916, Maud went to work as a stenographer in the prestigious law firm of Gaughan, McClellan and Laney.  Perhaps Maud was motivated by the new state law allowing women to practice law for the first time, or perhaps she just grew tired of understanding the law better than most of the men in her law firm, but Maud Crawford decided that she wanted to become a lawyer, and that is exactly what she did.  Maud “read for the law”, which meant she had acquired the legal knowledge outside of law school necessary to sit for the bar exam.  In 1927, at the age of 36, this incredibly bright and driven woman, who had never graduated college or attended law school, scored the highest score on the Arkansas bar exam that year and officially became the first female lawyer in Camden.  She was one of only a handful of female attorneys licensed to practice law in Arkansas in the 1920’s.

Over the next 30 years, Maud built a successful career as a real estate attorney, focusing on title and abstract work.  She was highly sought after during the oil boom in south Arkansas, while also working on many large timberland transactions in the region’s flourishing timber basket. The story goes that Standard Oil of New Jersey would not agree to drill an oil well in south Arkansas unless Maud’s name was on the title.  Nevertheless, she had to deal with the men of Gaughan, McClellan and Laney treating her as a secretary throughout her 41-year career at the firm.

In 1940, the Arkansas Boys State model government program started at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, but there was no Girls State in Arkansas.  In 1942, it was Maud Crawford who formed Arkansas Girls State to create a similar model government experience for the rising high school senior girls. Speaking to the impact of Girls State on Arkansan women, Claudia Stallings attributes her interest in the legislative process to the 1968 Arkansas Girls State program. Claudia says “Arkansas Girls State taught me the importance of being politically active and how to write and support legislation.” Stallings is forever grateful to Maud for forming Arkansas Girls State which then created the opportunity for Claudia to represent Arkansas at Girls Nation in Washington, D.C. Maud’s involvement with Girls State remained strong, and she took a week away from her law practice every year to serve as a Girls State counselor to mentor young Arkansas women. Well beyond Girls State, Maud was known as a pioneer for the women’s rights movement.

Even though Maud and her husband Clyde never had children, she had a “den mom” personality.  She mentored several young women in Camden by opening the second floor of her home to female boarders, mostly young telephone company employees.  During that time in Camden, all telephone calls still went through a telephone operator at the switchboard.

Maud was a one-woman dynamo in Camden civic affairs.  According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, she was elected president of every women’s civic club for which she was eligible, including the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the American Legion Auxiliary, and Pilot Club International, which named her Woman of the Year in 1954.

In addition to her legal career and volunteer work, Maud ran for public office and won.  She was the first woman elected to the Camden City Council, where she served from 1940 to 1948.  Maud was known for being incredibly honest, fair and kind.  She was more than willing to take a stand for what she believed to be right.

On March 2, 1957, Maud Crawford disappeared from her home and her body was never to be found. The local community was stunned by and absorbed with Maud’s disappearance, and hundreds of people in Camden joined the search for her.  Camden was a Mayberry-esque  hamlet, and the disappearance without a trace of their dear Maud Crawford was highly disturbing and generated endless speculation and gossip. In 1969, the Ouachita County Probate Court declared Maud Crawford deceased and a victim of foul play.

Despite Maud’s mysterious disappearance and lack of an obituary or funeral to cement her legacy in a traditional manner, she has had a significant impact on many lives, perhaps most notably the thousands of women who have attended Arkansas Girls or the thousands of women who followed in Maud’s footsteps to become lawyers in Arkansas.

Bio and photos courtesy of Beth Brickell, Jennifer Ronnell, and Meridith Armstrong.

Born of a prominent Italian family, Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni came to this country with her parents in 1898. Her father, Antero Zagnoni, had come to New York when he was hired as international correspondent by three leading European newspapers and assigned to cover the Spanish­ American war. She was 1O years old when she arrived in her new home of Brooklyn, New York; and although she spoke Italian, French and Spanish, she spoke very little English.

She often acclaimed that she, "had one glorious day in kindergarten." Thus, she was home schooled. Not only did she learn English, but she became a popular orator, speaking out on women's suffrage, women in war work, and war bonds, and later embarked on her writing career.

On July 30, 1908, she married Professor Antonio Marinoni, known by all in his career as simply, "Signor". He moved her and her mother, Maria Marzocchi Zagnoni, to Fayetteville where they lived just off the front lawn of Old Main for the rest of their lives. Professor Marinoni came to this country at the request of his parents to learn another language. He not only learned another language but graduated with a Master of Arts degree from Yale University. He came to the University of Arkansas in the 1905-06 school year and the next year founded the Romance Languages Department and was head of the department until he retired, several months before his death, in 1944.

Rosa and Antonio had four children, two died in infancy. She often said that she was the mother of "two angels" often speaking of the heartbreak of being a mother in her writings in later years. Her surviving children were; daughter Maria Stella and son, Paul Albert Marinoni, Sr. Paul Albert and Mary O'Connor Marinoni had 8 children. Rosa loved her grandchildren and doted over us at every chance. As we would enter the room, she would hold up her right hand in a gesture of dramatic greeting and announce with a thick Italian grand-dame accent, "Daaa-lings". She always wanted to make us feel special and she did.

Rosa wrote fiction and poetry from 1925-1970. She was also internationally published in eight languages and was a prominent epigrammatist. She was the poet laureate of the Ozarks, 1953-1970; and poet laureate of the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs.

She founded Poetry Day in Arkansas on October 15, 1948, and the event was named in her honor. She was the founder of the University City Poetry Club in 1925 (The first poetry club in Arkansas and the Southwest). The club met in her home every second Sunday of the month from September to June for 45 years. She also founded the Northwest Arkansas branch of the National League of American Pen Women in May of 1952.

At the time of her death, it was stated that she had written over 5,000 poems, over 900 short stories and was published in over 60 publications.

Her house, which she designed, the Villa Rosa, at 617 W. Lafayette St. in Fayetteville, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1990. The house was deemed historically significant for "its unique architectural characteristics and for its association with Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, a former Arkansas poet laureate and an important figure in the State's cultural history."

According to the National Register nomination, Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni "ranks as one of the premier writers the state has produced, an integral figure in the cultural history of Arkansas." Whenever she submitted her work, she always asked that Fayetteville, Arkansas, be written under her name. She was proud of her hometown and home state of Arkansas. She often related that she found the beauty of Arkansas very similar to the beauty of her home country of Italy.

In traveling to poetry events for about two decades, I was most moved by the love that poets felt for her, especially those who knew her, often confidentially emotional.

She remained active in her career, and in the promotion of writers, poets and poetry, until her death in 1970.

Paula Marinoni, granddaughter, biographer, archivist and owner of Villa Rosa is actively working on taking the legacy of Rosa and Antonio forward with republishing their work and creating the opportunity for educational outreach in the schools of Arkansas, the nation and the world.

Photos courtesy of Paula Marinoni and Guy Lancaster.

Engagement photo of Professor Antonio Marinoni and Rosa Zagnoni c. 1907-08.

Photo of Villa Rosa 2024

Photo of portrait painted by Anita Swanson Gish of Overland Park, Kansas.  The portrait was commissioned by the Marinoni family and was presented at the state Capitol on Friday, October 16, 1998, during a ceremony honoring Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, former poet laureate of Arkansas, on the 50th anniversary of her founding Poetry Day in Arkansas.  The portrait was on display in the Distinguished Arkansans Gallery of the State Capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas for about 20 years and is now part of the Marinoni collection.  The portrait is from an original photo by Bob’s Photography in Fayetteville, also in the Marinoni collection.

A nationally known women’s basketball team, the All American Red Heads formed in 1936 in Cassville, Missouri, with Connie Mack Olson as its founder and coach. Originally, the team, all sporting dyed or natural red hair, publicized Olson’s Beauty Parlors in Kansas and Missouri, and though later the team moved to Arkansas, they kept their name. The team became so popular with the sports’ crowds that the team hit the road and successfully challenged men’s teams with their trick shots, athletic ability, and “hijinks.” The Red Heads thrilled audiences all over the United States with behind-the-back shooting, back-hand passing, and athletic ability on the court. They played men’s teams using men’s rules and won seventy percent of their games. While the men’s teams rested during half-time, the women put on a show that featured their comedic, yet physical, acrobatics. The All American Red Heads is the only women’s basketball team that is copyrighted and registered in the United States Patent Office and the first women’s basketball team inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 1955, the Red Heads had a new owner, Orwell “Red” Moore, and a new base in the small town of Caraway, Arkansas. Moore began coaching the Red Heads in 1948 after leaving a position as the coach of the girls’ basketball team and athletic director at Central High School in Caraway. His wife, Lorene “Butch” Moore, a former star basketball player at Central, played for the Red Heads for twelve years. She has the distinction of playing in over 2,000 professional games and scoring 35,426 points during her career with the Red Heads.

The Red Heads played in every state in the union, as well as Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. The team was featured in Life, Sporting News, Sports Life, Look, and Colliers magazines. They appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, I’ve Got A Secret, Art Linkletter’sHouse Party, and What’s My Line. In addition, the Red Heads have been called goodwill ambassadors by various publications and dignitaries; Governor Orval Faubus once presented the team with a plaque denoting their status as “Ambassadors of Goodwill for Arkansas.”

Coaches of the All American Red Heads, in addition to Olson and Moore, included Hazel Walker (who left the organization in 1949 to form her own barnstorming team, the Arkansas Travelers), Willa Faye “Red” Mason, Jack Moore (Orwell’s brother), Chuck Plummer, Larry Emison, Wilb Coggin, Ben Overman, Charlotte Adams, Jolene Ammons, and Cheryl Clark. Adams, a coach/player, scored over 26,000 points and was offered a coaching position with the Milwaukee Does of the Women’s Basketball League (WBL).

On July 26, 1996, the Red Heads played their last game ever, following a ten-year interval. The commemorative game—played against the Walmart All Stars at the Albert Payne Gymnasium on the former Caraway Central High School campus, where Orwell Moore began his coaching career—marked the reunion of many former Red Head players and coaches. The city of Caraway declared the day as All American Red Heads Basketball Team Day to honor the historic organization.

In 1998, Orwell and “Butch” Moore were honored for their contributions to the game at the Women’s Basketball Final Four and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Moores attended the grand opening of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1999. The Red Heads’ exhibit showcases the team’s history from 1936 to 1986, including a collection of warm-up suits and jackets, monogrammed ball bags, signed basketballs, and the stretch limousine in which the team toured. In 2012, the Red Heads became the first women’s basketball team inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2020, the team was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Bio and photos courtesy of Donna Brewer Jackson, Orwell Moore, Mike Keckhaver, and Dr. Willa Faye Mason.