March 22, 1984

Roosevelt Levander Thompson, a Little Rock (Pulaski County) native who is recognized as one of the most gifted people to have attended Yale University, died at 5:25 a.m. while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike during the last semester of his senior year at Yale. Newsweek later ran a one-page obituary about Thompson titled, “Rosey: He Was the Best of Us.” The auditorium of Little Rock Central High School is now named after Thompson, and a scholarship in Thompson’s name is awarded to Central students every year. A branch of the Central Arkansas Library System named after Thompson opened at 38 Rahling Circle in west Little Rock on September 25, 2004.