Fort Smith

Christ the King Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas is a Mission/Spanish revival style church built in 1930. It was listed on the National Register of... Historic Places in 1982. It was designed by Thompson, Sanders & Ginocchio.
more

Jerry Keller is an American pop singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1959 million selling record, "Here Comes Summer." Born in Arkansas,... Keller's family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was aged six, and Keller attended Tulsa's Will Rogers High School, graduating in 1955. He was known as a vocal soloist in various school productions, and was often invited to do guest vocals with top bands touring the area. He formed 'The Lads of Note' quartet in his teens, joined the Tulsa Boy Singers and toured the Midwest. Keller was a student at the University of Tulsa. He moved to New York in 1956, and Pat Boone, who attended the same church as Keller, sent him to see Marty Mills who became Keller's manager. Keller's biggest self-penned hit was 1959's "Here Comes Summer." It climbed to #14 in the Billboard Hot 100. The record reached number one in the UK the same year, but lack of further chart appearances branded Keller as a one-hit wonder. "Here Comes Summer" reached the number one spot in the UK in, ironically, the autumn of 1959.
more

Charlie Jones was an American Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC and ABC. Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jones earned an undergraduate degree at... the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Arkansas. Jones began his sportscasting career at local television and radio stations in Fort Smith, before signing on as a broadcaster for the fledgling Dallas Texans of the American Football League in 1960. Jones also began calling AFL games for ABC that year. In 1965, he moved to NBC, continuing to broadcast the AFL and later the National Football League. He would work NFL games until 1997, when NBC lost their NFL broadcasting rights to CBS. During his time at NBC, Jones also broadcast the 1988 Summer Olympics, 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1991 Ryder Cup, 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as Major League Baseball, PGA Tour golf, and Wimbledon tennis. He was the play-by-play announcer for the 1986 college football national championship, where Penn State defeated Miami 14-10 in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. He also was the announcer for auto races including the 1988 Meadowlands Grand Prix.
more

Laurence George Luckinbill is an American actor. Luckinbill was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the son of Agnes and Laurence Benedict Luckinbill. He... graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1956 and The Catholic University of America in 1958. He starred in the 1976 Broadway play Poor Murderer. He portrayed Spock's half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . He also appeared in The Boys in the Band, reprising the part of Hank, which he originated on stage. Other film appearances include Such Good Friends, Cocktail, and The Promise, and he has been seen in numerous television shows, including Law & Order, Barnaby Jones and Murder, She Wrote. His acting career has also included writing and directing. He has written and performed in several one-man shows including, "Hemingway", "Teddy", "An Evening with Clarence Darrow", as well as, "Lyndon", which he didn't write, but has performed numerous times, including a schedule at the LBJ Museum in Austin, Texas, where Lady Bird Johnson was one of those in attendance. He narrated the documentary Moonwalk One which has recently been restored and re-released.
more

Rudy Ray Moore was an American comedian, musician, singer, film actor, and film producer. He was perhaps best known as Dolemite , the uniquely... articulate pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite, and its sequel, The Human Tornado. The persona was developed during his earlier stand-up comedy records. Moore, who was raised in his birthplace of Fort Smith, Arkansas, as well as Cleveland, Ohio, began his entertainment career as an R&B singer and continued singing through his comedy career. He developed an interest in comedy in the Army after expanding on a singing performance for other servicemen. Moore released many comedy records throughout the 1960s and 1970s, developing a rude and explicit style similar to Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor. This kept him off of television and major films, but cultivated an enduring fan base. Some of Moore's X-Rated comedy records were recorded at his home with personal friends in attendance as the audience. He appeared on Big Daddy Kane's 1990 album Taste of Chocolate and 2 Live Crew's 1994 album Back at Your Ass for the Nine-4.
more

Jerry Keller is an American pop singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1959 million selling record, "Here Comes Summer." Born in Arkansas,... Keller's family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was aged six, and Keller attended Tulsa's Will Rogers High School, graduating in 1955. He was known as a vocal soloist in various school productions, and was often invited to do guest vocals with top bands touring the area. He formed 'The Lads of Note' quartet in his teens, joined the Tulsa Boy Singers and toured the Midwest. Keller was a student at the University of Tulsa. He moved to New York in 1956, and Pat Boone, who attended the same church as Keller, sent him to see Marty Mills who became Keller's manager. Keller's biggest self-penned hit was 1959's "Here Comes Summer." It climbed to #14 in the Billboard Hot 100. The record reached number one in the UK the same year, but lack of further chart appearances branded Keller as a one-hit wonder. "Here Comes Summer" reached the number one spot in the UK in, ironically, the autumn of 1959.
more

Charlie Jones was an American Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC and ABC. Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jones earned an undergraduate degree at... the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Arkansas. Jones began his sportscasting career at local television and radio stations in Fort Smith, before signing on as a broadcaster for the fledgling Dallas Texans of the American Football League in 1960. Jones also began calling AFL games for ABC that year. In 1965, he moved to NBC, continuing to broadcast the AFL and later the National Football League. He would work NFL games until 1997, when NBC lost their NFL broadcasting rights to CBS. During his time at NBC, Jones also broadcast the 1988 Summer Olympics, 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1991 Ryder Cup, 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as Major League Baseball, PGA Tour golf, and Wimbledon tennis. He was the play-by-play announcer for the 1986 college football national championship, where Penn State defeated Miami 14-10 in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. He also was the announcer for auto races including the 1988 Meadowlands Grand Prix.
more

Bradley Hathaway is a spoken word poet and a folk singer and songwriter from Fort Smith, Arkansas Bradley Hathaway was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas... and lived there until 1997, when he moved to Alma, Arkansas, where he graduated from high school in 2000. After high school, he attended the University of Arkansas, where he majored in philosophy with a double minor in religious studies. While he was attending college, he managed the Gate, a local concert venue. In late 2002, he saw poet Clayton Scott perform, which inspired Bradley to write his first poem entitled, "I Felt Really Good This Day, Yes." Soon after he began writing poetry, he dropped out of college and stopped managing the Gate in order to pursue writing full-time. He first toured in the summer of 2004, and has since toured with He Is Legend, The Chariot, As Cities Burn, Far-Less, and Blindside. He has played at the Creation Festival, Ichthus Music Festival, the Alive Festival, the Cornerstone Festival, Parachute Music Festival, Purple Door, and Tomfest music and arts festival.
more

Katharine Alexander was an American actress. She appeared in 44 films between 1930 and 1951. She was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and died in Tryon,... North Carolina. She was one eighth Cherokee Indian. She planned to be a concert artiste and it was while she was giving a violin recital that she was seen by Samuel Goldwyn who gave her a chance on stage from where she rose to be one of Broadway's leading ladies. She was married to William A. Brady Jr. , the son of William A. Brady and actress Grace George. They had a daughter, Barbara Brady. She starred alongside Paul Muni as his wife Linda Loman in London's Phoenix Theatre production of Death of a Salesman, which opened on July 28th, 1949, directed by Elia Kazan.
more