June 8, 2009

In the early 1970s, Mary Gay Shipley, then a schoolteacher, had seen a void in her hometown and had been inspired to open a paperback exchange store called The Book Rack. Shipley’s bookstore moved to the location shown here in 1976 and became known officially as That Bookstore in Blytheville in 1994. The bookstore has become one of the major stops for world-renowned authors who travel to the northeast Arkansas town of Blytheville (Mississippi County) to participate in weekly book programs.