Entries - County: Jackson - Starting with K

Newport (Jackson County) native Bill Keedy was one of the most successful high school football coaches in Arkansas history. During his almost thirty-year career as a head coach, he compiled a record of 199 wins, fifty-five losses, and four ties, including two state championships. Keedy received many awards for his coaching accomplishments, including induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. William Henry (Bill) Keedy Jr. was born in Newport on June 30, 1945, to William Henry Keedy Sr. and Faye Ernestine Hinson Keedy. He had two sisters. Attending Newport public schools, he was attracted to an athletic career early in his life. He participated in track, baseball, basketball, and football. During his senior year at Newport, he was named …

George Clyde Kell was a professional baseball player, announcer, and businessman and is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A lifelong resident of the small Arkansas town in which he was born, Kell also served for ten years as a member of the state’s Highway Commission and was campaign chairman for Dale Bumpers in the 1970 gubernatorial race. George Kell was born August 23, 1922, in Swifton (Jackson County) to Clyde and Alma Kell. His father, a barber, was a pitcher on the local semiprofessional baseball team, and Kell and his two younger brothers grew up playing the game. After high school, Kell began studying at Arkansas State College (now …

Part of an informal network of roadside nightclubs, often called roadhouses, the King of Clubs operated for more than fifty years under the ownership of Bob and Evelyn King until they sold the club in 2003. Located on U.S. Highway 67, just north of Swifton (Jackson County), the club was a familiar stop for some of the most famous pioneers in rock and roll music in the 1950s. These performers traveled constantly, making extra money and promoting their records by playing dances and shows in countless venues in cities, small towns, and in roadhouses such as the King of Clubs, which was especially favored by those who played the more southern form of rock and roll commonly termed rockabilly. Those …