2020.06.11 THROW BACK THURSDAY - FLYING UPSIDE DOWN plus Class News

THROW BACK THURSDAY - FLYING UPSIDE DOWN plus Class News

Jim Pfeifer wrote the following article in 2017 for Heights Living Magazine; and I am reposting it here in memory of Judy Fagan, who was raised in this home, and who recently passed away.   Jim  had a telephone interview with Judy when she helped him research her family home. After asking her about her own life, he felt great respect for her.  I know many of you knew Judy.

"Flying Upside Down"

In the mid-20th Century, this Edgehill home of State Senate leader Ellis Fagan, was a center of Arkansas politics. It was common to find state and national political leaders gathered in its “sunken” living room, deciding on the future of educational, health and financial issues affecting our State. It could be said that UAMS began in this tile-roofed mansion. Fagan introduced a cigarette tax bill which raised over six million dollars and led to the 1951 groundbreaking of what we know as UAMS.

Ellis Fagan did everything with a flair, including his acquisition of this home in 1949, which uniquely occurred as result of a card game wager. Judy Fagan, his daughter, confirms the famed game of chance and recalls the events which followed the wager, “My mom woke me up and gently told me that we would be packing up our clothes and moving to a new house.” Judy explained recently that the wager actually involved a trade of homes with another prominent Little Rock businessman. She described that, except for clothing and some personal items, all of the furnishings in each house were left in place during the residential trade. She explained that this was a logical resolution, as the Edgehill mansion was designed in an eclectic European style and had appropriately heavy antique furnishings; while the large mid-century modern home overlooking the river which the Fagans left, had furnishings which synchronized with that home’s contemporary house design. There is speculation over which party actually won the wager, but the Fagan family lived in and enjoyed this home into the mid-1960’s.

Ellis Fagan was well known in aviation circles and had become a licensed pilot at age 19. He spent several early years as a performer in a traveling aerial circus. His daughter recalls, “I grew up flying upside down!” Mr. Fagan spent several years as a private commercial pilot flying celebrities such as Will Rogers, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. Fagan served the U. S. Military as a test pilot and during World War II he was United States Commander of Air Operations in the Yukon Territory. He is also known as the only person who ever landed a plane on the State Capitol grounds, a publicity stunt designed to help a friend publicize a film. The source of the family income was Fagan Electric Company, the largest firm of its kind in Arkansas at the time.

The Edgehill home had been designed and built in the early 1930’s. It’s clay tile hipped roof and brick arches gave it a romantic southern European look in contrast to the more buttoned-up English appearance of the other high-end neighborhood homes. It has richly textured and rugged masonry walls resulting from a decision to use “weeping” mortar joints. The mason did not tool the joints, but instead allowed the mortar to protrude unevenly over the bricks.

Among the descendants of Ellis Fagan are his grandaughter, Holly Krepps, who co-owns a sustainable Buffalo River Country farm and yoga retreat; and his daughter, Judy Fagan who was once married to Pete Hornibrook and lived along the White River bluffs and helped to educate and rehabilitate those suffering from alcohol and substance abuse for many years .

Thanks are due to the Fagans, and successive and current owners who have preserved this home as they adapted it to changing times and needs.

Class News

Our sympathy to SYLVIA CAMPBELL whose brother, Guy Campbell, passed away on June 4.  Sylvia lives in Hot Springs.

Our sympathy also to JOHN COKER whose wife, Norma, passed away on the 8th.

NOTICE TO ALL THE LR/NLR/AREA GUYS:

MEN'S LUNCH IS BEGINNING AGAIN NEXT THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 11:00 AM  

AT SHORTLY SMALL'S ON WEST MARKHAM, just across from Franke's where 

they usually met.

If you CAN attend, please let Syd know so he'll have enough seats available.  

Email him at lrchs56@earthlink.net

ML