Centennial Celebration Finale

October 3, 2010
Fowler Center

Arkansas State University closed its two year Centennial celebration on Sunday, October 3, 2010 at the Fowler Center on the 100th anniversary of the first day of classes for the 1st District Agricultural School.  The Centennial Celebration Finale presented a two-part special program premiering the dramatization Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays and the introduction of the Centennial Composition, Architects of Fate.

The afternoon performances opened with beautiful renditions of the National Anthem and the ASU Alma Mater sung by the ASU Concert Choir and directed by Dr. Dale Miller, professor of music.

Dr. Dan Howard, interim chancellor, introduced the dramatization Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays, researched and written by Dr. Nancy Hendricks, director of Alumni communications, and performed by Dr. Hendricks and Mr. Mike Doyle, station manager for KASU-FM.

The ASU Centurions, introduced by Dr. Howard, are honorees from among top level administrators with more than 10 years of service to Arkansas State University.  The individuals represent exemplary leadership during the university's first century.  A ceremony will be held at a later date to honor the campus leaders.

The audience was treated to a video presentation of Centennial Memories by Hunter West, multi-media specialist for Information and Technology Services, that featured interviews with Dr. Vance Sales, Mrs. Velmar Richmond, Dr. Al Langlois, Mr. Ron Looney, and Mrs. Barbara Broadaway (in Memorium).

Dr. Dan Reeves, Dean, College of Fine Arts introduced the premier of the Centennial Composition, Architects of Fate, written by Dr. Tom O'Connor, professor of music, directed by Dr. Timothy Oliver and performed by the ASU Wind Ensemble and the ASU Concert Choir.

Concluding remarks were made by Mrs. Florine Tousant Milligan, Chair, ASU Board of Trustees. Following the performance was a reception in the Grand Hall.

Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays

By Dr. Nancy Hendricks
  

                                           Photo by Abdullah Raslan/Herald Photo Editor

The dramatization titled “Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays” was based on the actual private correspondence between long-time Arkansas State President V. C. Kays and Hattie Caraway of Jonesboro, the first woman elected to the United States Senate. The playwright, Dr. Nancy Hendricks, appeared in her signature role as Hattie Caraway.

Though largely forgotten today, from 1932 to 1945, Hattie Wyatt Caraway was one of the most famous women in America. As the first woman elected to the U. S. Senate, she learned how to help desperate people in Arkansas during the Great Depression and World War II.  V. C. Kays was the founding father of the school that became Arkansas State University. After building it from the ground up, at times paying faculty from his own pocket, he forged a partnership with Caraway when the school was in danger of closing its doors. In this dramatization of their actual letters and performed as readers theatre, “Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays” shows how their efforts succeeded.

Dr. Nancy Hendricks is director of alumni communications at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. She is an award-winning writer whose previous play, “Miz Caraway and the Kingfish,” depicts the colorful 1932 election of Hattie Caraway with the help of Louisiana Senator Huey Long. Its New Orleans production was held over for an extended run and nominated by the American Critics Association for 'Best Play Produced Outside New York.'  She is the recipient of the Susie Pryor Award for Arkansas Women's History, the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award, and the White House Millennium Award for her writing.

Portraying Kays was Michael B. Doyle, station manager of KASU-FM, the public radio service of Arkansas State University. Doyle has served on the radio-TV faculty at ASU since 1985, and his career has included announcing, copywriting, and sales positions at several radio stations. He is the on-air host for KASU's 'Music from the Isles,' featuring Celtic musicians. Doyle cites historic family ties to ASU: at a 1909 state meeting of the Farmers Union, his great-grandfather, J.D. Doyle of Walnut Ridge, seconded the motion introducing a resolution for the creation of four agricultural schools, including the one at Jonesboro which would become Arkansas State University.

Effective partnership
If Caraway is remembered at all, there is a widely-held belief that Caraway was quiet and ineffectual as a senator, derisively called '"Silent Hattie." Yet, according to Hendricks, "The Kays papers show that she and V. C. Kays formed a highly effective partnership during the Depression and World War II when he was A-State president, working to save the college when there was a real danger of it being forced to close its doors. There were also references to her work on behalf of other institutions in the state."

Hendricks continued, "It was a perilous time. A constitutional amendment was considered by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1932 to abolish the four district agricultural schools. It was proposed by a legislator who, it was said, planned to run for governor. His campaign platform almost derailed the education of tens of thousands of people. Fortunately, the proposal failed, but the poverty of the Depression caused a drop in revenue at A-State to the point that Kays was said to be paying faculty out of his own pocket. Then at the onset of World War II, many of the few remaining male students left for wartime service, further depleting funds. Since at least two colleges in Jonesboro had already failed, there was no guarantee A-State would remain open. Other Arkansas colleges faced similar circumstances."

Daily correspondence
The letters that Hendricks found in the archives show that Kays and Caraway corresponded often, sometimes daily, with Caraway lobbying New Deal agencies such as the Public Works Administration, Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and Department of War on behalf of the people back home in Arkansas. Along with her role in securing both the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) unit in the 1930s and an Army College Training Detachment at A-State during World War II, nine buildings were constructed on its campus with her help during the depths of the Depression.

Four of them are still heavily used today. They are the Art Annex, built in 1936; Math and Computer Science, built in 1936 as the Education Building; the College of Nursing and Health Professions, built in 1936 as the Student Commons Building, and the College of Business, built 1939 as the Science Building.

In discussing her research, Hendricks said, "To me the most valuable thing about the Kays/Caraway letters was seeing the personal thoughts of two people who knew and trusted each other. My favorite letter was handwritten by Caraway, combining her gratitude for Kays’ assistance in helping a destitute girl stay in college along with the request to 'tell Mrs. Kays I am not eating so much now and having less indigestion.'”

Book refutes 'Silent Hattie' myth
Hendricks has written a companion book, also called “Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays,” with the full text of the Kays/Caraway letters in which she refutes what she calls the 'Silent Hattie myth.' She cites a quote by Hattie Caraway which she said resonates strongly with many women to this day. "After an exchange with Arkansas's senior Senator, Joe T. Robinson, Hattie confided to her journal: 'Guess I said too much or too little. Never know.' Those words also express the thoughts of many women today in the field of politics."

Hendricks said that the Senate in the 1930s did not have a microphone. "A woman would have to shriek to be heard," she says. "Caraway was smart enough to know that was not the way to gain attention. She listened attentively to other senators' speeches, worked quietly, and considered the issues. She voted independently, according to her conscience and her constituents. She did some of her best work in Senate committees where she could speak in normal tones, proving herself to be pleasant, prepared, and politically astute. She not only gained the respect of her colleagues in this smaller forum but also managed to get things done. She knew about issues like flood control and agricultural problems because she'd seen them with her own eyes back home in Arkansas."

Hendricks said that on Caraway's last day in Congress after being defeated in her 1944 re-election bid, she was given a remarkable standing ovation in the Senate. Said Hendricks, "She also received what was probably intended as a compliment: 'Mrs. Caraway is the kind of woman senator that men senators prefer.' Though she made only a few speeches in the Senate, perhaps she asked herself if desperate, hungry people back home in Arkansas would benefit more from jobs, food and education, or by making speeches about their troubles."

Hendricks said she is particularly gratified that “Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays” will be presented as part of the ASU Centennial. "This is the time to celebrate the people who brought us to where we are today as a university. Kays and Caraway both believed strongly in education as they way out of poverty for the people of our state. Who knows how many people went on to better lives for themselves, their families, and their descendants because of the efforts by Kays and Caraway? They did whatever they could to remedy a bad situation. Kays was to be paying faculty members out of his own pocket during the Depression. Mike Doyle wonderfully portrays him with authority and humanity as well as a lot of humor.    "I was told by a former A-State president that ASU did not receive any state monies for buildings on campus until the Reng administration, which ran from 1951-1975. Hattie secured federal funds in the 1930s to construct nine buildings, and some are still used today. I doubt many of the people who use those buildings today have any idea how they came about and how those buildings have contributed to our success. I hope “Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays” will help shed some light on these two remarkable people from our past."



Architects of Fate

By Dr. Tom O’Connor

Dr. Dan Reeves, Dean of College of Fine Arts introduced the musical composition, Architects of Fate, written by Dr. Tom O'Connor, professor of music, expressively for the Centennial Celebration.  The music was performed by the ASU Wind Ensemble and the ASU Concert Choir and directed by Dr. Timothy Oliver, associate professor of music.

Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 1978, Dr. Tom O'Connor taught public schools in Arkansas and Missouri, serving as band director at high schools in Marked Tree; East Prairie, Missouri; and West Plains, Missouri.   He began work at ASU as Director of the Marching Indian Band and Director of Jazz Studies.   In 1982 he was appointed Director of Bands.   While in this position, his Symphonic Band performed for the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association Convention in Pine Bluff, as well as the College Band Directors National Association Regional Convention in Lawrence, Kansas.   Under his direction, the ASU Jazz Band has twice performed for the ASBOA State Convention.

From 2003 through the spring of 2009, Dr. O'Connor served as chair of the Department of Music.   He returned to full-time teaching in the fall of 2009, teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in music theory and analysis, orchestration and elementary conducting.

Dr. O'Connor is an active composer with numerous concert band publications available through Counterpoint Music Publishers and percussion ensembles available through Barnhouse Music Publishers.   In addition to published works, he writes extensively for marching band, concert band, jazz band, orchestra and varied instrumental ensembles.   Dr. O'Connor studied composition with Don Freund, John Baur, Claude T. Smith and Jared Spears.

Composer's Notes for Architects of Fate:  After searching for quite some time for a suitable text for the composition, I found the Longfellow poem, "The Builders."   I immediately felt that this poem symbolized the creation and growth of Arkansas State. Portions of this text are used for the mixed chorus in the piece.

The forces of the modern wind and percussion ensemble are teamed with the combined voices of the singers to celebrate the history and growth of Arkansas State University.

The opening fanfare is heard several times throughout the piece denoting highlights in the development of the university, such as the bill creating the college, the groundbreaking for the campus, the rise from college to university status, etc.   There is an ethnic sounding melody used in the first section of the piece that recognizes the multi-cultural diversity of the campus.

The chorus enters in the middle of the work singing, in a quasi alma mater style, the words of the Longfellow poem. This slow section leads into a vibrant closing section that features both instrumental and vocal forces bringing the piece to a dramatic conclusion.

  −Dr. Tom O'Connor
 

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