Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Elizabeth Sutton Bryant

Elizabeth Sutton Bryant, 85, of Murray, Ky., formerly of Hope and Little Rock, died Monday, July 7, 1997, at Westview Nursing Home in Murray.

She was born in Marianna on February 19, 1912, to O.C. and Florence Dorsett Sutton. She was a retired employee of the state. She worked in the Secretary of State's office, State Treasureer's Office, and the Arkansas State Legislature.

She was a 1934 graduate of the University of Arkansas and a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She was also a member of First United Methodist Church of Hope, and affiliated with the Methodist Churches in Little Rock and Murray. She was a member of the Advisory Commission, DAR, BPW, Arkansas Democratic Women, Junior Auxillary, Cosmopolitan Club and Historical Society.

She was preceded in death by her busband, Kelly Bryant, Secretary of State from 1963 to 1976.

Survivors include one daughter Betty Brockway of Murray, and one grandaughter.

Funeral services will be Thursday, July 10, at 2:00 p.m. at Brazzel-Oakcrest Chapel with Rev. Davis Thompson officiating. Burial will be in Memory Gardens Cemetery in Hope. Arrangements are under the direction of Brazzel-Oakcrest Chapel Funeral Home of Hope.

Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 400 Hope, AR 71802.

Hines Driver Wins 4-Axle Championship

J.R. Wicker of Prescott will represent Arkansas in the four-axle van division of the National Truck Driving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., August 20-23.

The contest is sponsored by the American Trucking Association.

The national competition features the nation's winners of 50 state truck driving championships in a series of written, oral and driving skills tests.

Wicker was the first place winner in the four-axle van division of the Arkansas Truck Driving Championship, which is sponsored annually by the Safety Managemant Council of the Arkansas Motor Carriers Association.

Wicker is employed by J.D. and Billy Hines Trucking in Prescott and has been a truck driver for 15 years. Wicker will compete against the nation's top drivers in his knowledge of federal and state transportation safety regulations.

Drivers are also required to negotiate their semitralers through an obstacle course which features tight turns, narrow learances and mandatory stopping points. Drivers will complete in the nationals for a $10,000 savings bond donated to the American Trucking Associations by Associates Commercial Corporation.

According to Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Motor Carriers Association, the national competition features the best truck drivers in the country.

"The drivers entered in the national competition represent the best of the three million commericial truck drivers operating in the United States today," says Kidd. "It is true achievement for J.R. Wicker and the other competing drivers to reach this level of success in their profession."

Wicker lives in Prescott with his wife, Janice, and their seven children, Michael, Johnna, Tiffany, Melissa, Josh, Jade and Aaron.