The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas …

1 The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History University of Arkansas 1 East Center Street Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-6829 Arkansas Memories Project walter E. Hussman Jr. Interviewed by Scott Lunsford January 18, 2012 Little Rock, Arkansas Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas . All rights reserved. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E. Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 ii Objective Oral history is a collection of an individual's memories and opinions. As such, it is subject to the innate fallibility of memory and is susceptible to inaccuracy.

2 All researchers using these interviews should be aware of this reality and are encouraged to seek corroborating documentation when using any oral history interview. The Pryor Center 's objective is to collect audio and video recordings of interviews along with scanned images of family photographs and documents. These donated materials are carefully preserved, catalogued, and deposited in the Special Collections Department, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. The transcripts, audio files, video highlight clips, and photographs are made available on the Pryor Center website at The Pryor Center recommends that researchers utilize the audio recordings and highlight clips, in addition to the transcripts, to enhance their connection with the interviewee.

3 Transcript Methodology The Pryor Center recognizes that we cannot reproduce the spoken word in a written document; however, we strive to produce a transcript that represents the characteristics and unique qualities of the interviewee's speech pattern, style of speech, regional dialect, and personality. For the first twenty minutes of the interview, we attempt to transcribe verbatim all words and utterances that are spoken, such as uhs and ahs, false starts, and repetitions. Some of these elements are omitted after the first twenty minutes to improve readability. The Pryor Center transcripts are prepared utilizing the University of Arkansas Style Manual for proper names, titles, and terms specific to the university.

4 For all other style elements, we refer to the Pryor Center Style Manual, which is based primarily on The Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition. We employ the following guidelines for consistency and readability: Em dashes separate repeated/false starts and incomplete/ redirected sentences. Ellipses indicate the interruption of one speaker by another. Italics identify foreign words or terms and words emphasized by the speaker. Question marks enclose proper nouns for which we cannot verify the spelling and words that we cannot understand with certainty. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E. Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 iii Brackets enclose o italicized annotations of nonverbal sounds, such as laughter, and audible sounds, such as a doorbell ringing; o annotations for clarification and identification; and o standard English spelling of informal words.

5 Commas are used in a conventional manner where possible to aid in readability. Citation Information See the Citation Guide at The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E. Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 1 Scott Lunsford interviewed walter E. Hussman Jr. on January 18, 2012, at the home of Marilynn and Robert Porter in Little Rock, Arkansas . The first part of the interview was conducted on December 13, 2011. [00:00:00] Scott Lunsford: Well, here we are. This is January 18, and we're doing uh part two of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History interview with walter Edward Hussman. And walter , good to see you again, and.

6 walter Hussman: Thank you. SL: .. thank you for agreeing to give us some more, and .. WH: Sure. SL: .. I felt like we had a pretty good time last time um but we just kind of ran out of time. WH: Sure. SL: So this is great that you're giving us a another chance to get together. WH: Sure. SL: Um we talked a lot about uh uh growing up. We talked a lot about your father, and also in the earlier interview, we had to kind of cover stuff for the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame event and .. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E. Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 2 WH: Mh-hmm. [00:00:47] SL: So we got pretty good detail on the newspaper wars [camera clicks] and some career stuff.

7 You know, the .. WH: Mh-hmm. SL: .. the business stuff that um they would be interested in primarily. [Camera clicks] But uh I don't uh I we did talk about your dad and about your grandfather [camera clicks] on your mother's side pretty well. WH: Mh-hmm. SL: Uh I feel like we didn't really talk about your mom that much and we certainly didn't talk much about your sisters. WH: Right. SL: And um I think we ought to if .. WH: Sure. SL: .. if if you'd like. WH: Sure. Great. [00:01:23] SL: I'm not even sure if I remember asking what your sisters' names were. WH: Yeah. Uh oldest sister is uh was uh Gale Ann Hussman and uh then and she married uh Richard Arnold, so she became Gale Arnold. And uh then my uh younger sister, who's eight years older than I am, is uh was Marilyn Clyde The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E.

8 Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 3 Hussman Clyde from the Clyde Palmer, her grandfather .. SL: Uh-huh. WH: .. and uh she married a fellow named Jim Augur, so she became Marilyn Augur. SL: Uh-huh. Well, she didn't go by Clyde, did she? WH: No. [Laughter] She went by Marilyn. That's right. SL: [Laughs] That's almost like a boy named Sue, in a way. WH: Yeah. [00:02:06] SL: That's funny. Well um so, big age difference. That's kind of like my family. There's ten years' difference between me and my next um younger sibling older sibling and uh but I still had some times with them. Do you remember them being around the house when you were .. WH: Oh, yeah. SL: .. young? [00:02:26] WH: Yeah, I do. The I want to mention something first before we go into that.

9 You know, I recently turned sixty-five and had a lot of friends who are my age uh with me, you know, and I was re reflecting on that and reflecting on how much of life is just chance. And uh you know, when I think about my si oldest sister's twelve years older Gale's twelve years older, and Marilyn's eight years older basically my mother The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas Arkansas Memories Project, walter E. Hussman Jr. Interview, January 18, 2012 4 and father were finished having their family. And then when my father came back from World War II, I came along. [SL laughs] I was a war baby. And uh you know, I probably wouldn't ever have come along had it not been for World War II.

10 SL: [Laughs] Oh! WH: .. and and and millions of other people in my generation and my age, you know. So World War II was probably the worst thing that happened in the last century. But for some of us, it it was a blessing, you know. Sort of interesting way way to look at it. [00:03:31] But uh yeah, my uh we grew up on uh a street in Camden called Clifton Street in a a small house maybe sixteen- or eighteen-hundred square foot house. SL: Mh-hmm. WH: Had four bedrooms and two baths, and my mom and dad had a bath downstairs with their bedroom, and my two sisters and I each had uh we each had a bedroom upstairs, but with one bath that all three of us [laughs] shared. So yeah, we were we were pretty clean pretty close quarters there.