This year, instead of directing the lineup of the Pea Ridge Fair Parade, Mrs. Dorothy Williams will be riding in it. As a charter member of Beta Alpha, sponsor of the Pea Ridge Fair and Parade, Williams has been instrumental in organizing the fair for half a century.
"I usually get it all a'going -- then run up to see it downtown," she smiled, speaking of the parade. For an hour before the parade begins, Williams can be seen going from float to float checking on participants and speaking to judges.
"Dorothy is the glue that holds us all together with her 50 years of wisdom," Sandy Fletcher, Beta Alpha member, said.
"She's the most giving woman in the whole wide world," Glorie Oxford said. "She gives and gives and gives and never wants anything back."
"If Jesus was a woman, his name would be Dorothy Williams," James Crews said.
Dorothy Williams, 77, with Pansy Gastineau, Florence Bolain, Carolyn Smith and others joined hands and began Beta Alpha in Pea Ridge in 1964. Gastineau had just moved here from Kansas where she was in ESA, Williams said.
"We are a philanthropic sorority for the people in the community. Sue Green asked me to join," she said.
Williams was a teacher at Northside School, Rogers, and in Garfield. She retired in the early 1980s. She served with the Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire Department and with the Volunteer Ambulance Service of Northeast Benton County, helps in her church and works with God's Pantry in Garfield. She is a member of Grace Methodist Church, Rogers.
"I think God tells us to help our neighbor," she said. "God says to love your neighbor as yourself. I love myself a lot so I help others."
Williams and her husband, Stanley Williams, live in Garfield but also own a 40-acre farm in Pea Ridge that belonged to Stanley's father, Liss Williams.
"I appreciate it very much, but I hate to have to ride in the parade," Williams said of being chosen as grand marshal. "There's nobody in it (Beta Alpha) who was in it when we started. We've lost a lot."
The fair will not have a carnival this year, but has many things for people to be involved with.
"We're trying to get more community involvement back into it. We've cut it down to two days because it was always so hot," Williams said, adding that costs have prohibited having a carnival.
"We want to have people come and enjoy. People used to come just to visit. There is a nightly drawing at 9 p.m. People enjoy the music and bring their lawn chairs," she said.
Describing the organization like a family, Williams remembers how much fellow Beta Alpha members have meant to her.
"We lost our daughter when she was 18. We lost my mom, my dad. Stanley has lost a brother. They've been very supportive with cards and different things," she said. (The Williamses' daughter, Vicki, was killed in an automobile accident on U.S. Highway 62 in 1981; she had graduated from Rogers High School.)
The Pea Ridge Fair begins Friday evening at 6 p.m. with the ringing of the bell followed by the Miss Pea Ridge and Jr. Miss Pea Ridge pageants. It will run all day Saturday with more pageants, a barbecue contest and the parade at 5 p.m. Saturday, July 12. Lineup is behind Community First Bank with the route traveling up North Curtis Avenue to the fairgrounds on the downtown school campus.
Community on 07/09/2014