October 30, 2007

In 1926, opera star and Garland County native Mary Lewis made a triumphant return to her home state. Lewis, who had appeared in vaudeville and silent movies, was one of the most popular and respected opera singers of the 1920s. On March 26, she traveled from Hot Springs (Garland County) to Little Rock (Pulaski County) to attend one of the largest welcome home gatherings in the state’s history. She is shown here (far right) at that gathering with Governor Thomas Jefferson Terral, his wife, and Anna Fitch, the woman who cared for her since Lewis was eight years old.