2023.03.23 THROW BACK THURSDAY - THE ROLLING STONES IN ARKANSAS plus Class News
THROW BACK THURSDAY - THE ROLLING STONES IN ARKANSAS plus Class News
ARREST OF THE ROLLING STONES
The July 5, 1975, lunch stop and subsequent arrest of Rolling Stones guitarists Ron Wood and Keith Richards in Fordyce is fabled in the town, and the incident became a footnote in the police record of the English rock and roll band. The quintet had cultivated an outlaw image since its early 1960s inception. According to Arkansas native Bill Carter, the Rolling Stones’ attorney from 1973 to 1990, everywhere the Stones went in 1975, it was a challenge for authorities. Riot squads and narcotics units were common during the group’s twenty-eight-city, $13 million-grossing tour. On July 4, the Stones played Memphis, Tennessee. Richards and new member Wood decided to sightsee and drive with two others to their July 6 concert in Dallas, Texas. Hours later, driving a rented yellow 1975 Chevy Impala, they stopped for lunch at the 4-Dice Restaurant and Station. Paul Holt, whose family owned the restaurant, was in Memphis, however, hoping to see one of the Rolling Stones. “Who could have thought for a second they’d be here?” he later said. Wood hit the buffet, going back for seconds on the fried chicken. Richards ordered the sixteen-ounce T-bone and tried brown gravy over his French fries on the recommendation of waitress Wanda Parnell. They left a $1.65 tip and autographs. Soon after 3:00 p.m., the Richards-driven Impala, with Tennessee license plate IKR 160, was cited for reckless driving. Stories differ by a few miles concerning where the car was pulled over. Fordyce police officers Joe Taylor and Eddie Childers thought that they smelled marijuana, and the Impala was impounded. After getting a search warrant, police did not find marijuana but discovered less than two grams of cocaine in a briefcase said to belong to passenger Fred Sessler. Though he passed a sobriety test, Richards was cited for carrying an illegal weapon—a hunting knife. Hundreds of people gathered outside city hall as word spread. British Embassy officials were called. Inside, the group drank soda, and Wood rode a confiscated bicycle around the halls. No one spent time behind bars. Before midnight, with Carter’s help, the group was released. Richards posted $162.50; he was scheduled to appear in court August 1 but forfeited bond. The Stones also covered Sessler. All left by a plane waiting at the local airport. Former Stones bassist Bill Wyman mentions the incident briefly in his 1990 autobiography, calling it a “tough baptism” for Wood. Richards reputedly swore the Stones would never play Arkansas, but the band performed on November 11, 1994, in Little Rock and returned on March 9, 2006. In November 2006, thirty-one years after the incident, Governor Mike Huckabee issued a pardon to Richards for his reckless driving conviction. Keith Richards opened his 2010 memoir, Life, by recalling his arrest in Fordyce.
1956 CLASS NEWS
Don't forget that our Class has a website. If you miss a Throw Back Thursday or want to refer to a past one, all you have to do is go
to the website and look it up. I'm still looking for someone to help me keep this website updated. We're lucky to have the girl who set
our website up to offer to keep it updated from time to time, but she has a very heavy job and can't always get to it. So let me know
if you would like to help. WWW.LRCHS1956.COM
You always miss my March 15 birthday.
Gene Barnett
Sorry, Gene, I'll catch you next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A Belated Happy Birthday to you!
Had a summer job at Pfeifer’s in Advertising Dept. Bucky Polk Thomas.
Mary Lou, perhaps this photo was taken at the Franke's Coffee Shop, which was around the corner from the downtown Franke's Cafeteria.
It was across the street from a movie theater (the Arkansas Theater?). I don't remember the street name, but it was parallel to Main Street.
Carl Smith
This is a Hi to Jane Brockman Briggs, our grandmothers lived next door to each other.
and Happy Birthday on St Paddy's day to the ones who had BD on that day.
Kathy Hollis (Stimpson) Baugh.
1955 CLASS NEWS
I, too, enjoyed the information on Pfeifer’s of Arkansas. After I graduated from nursing school, my whole wardrobe practically came from there, including my nursing uniforms. My condolences to Polly on the death of her husband. Brenda McClenney Walker
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Joe Crow and I spent a delightful evening last night at Sharon Douglass' looking through all her scrapbooks!
You just wouldn't believe all the pictures this girl has from Day One. It was a lot of fun seeing all of us from
childhood through college. There was one picture in particular that I thought deserved "airing" after all
these years. See what you think!
Joni Roberts, Mary Gray, Julie Anne Hamilton, Sharon Douglass, Dewana Price, future ROLLING STONERS!!!!
ML