February 20, 1967

James Ronald Rodgers Sr., who was the nation’s first African American to be appointed manager of a major commercial airport, the first black head of a major independent city agency in Little Rock (Pulaski County), and the state’s first black commercial loan officer, married Claudia Dennis of North Little Rock (Pulaski County). The couple had two children. Rodgers died in 1993 from complications from a heart attack, and, on August 18, 1994, Southwest Hospital dedicated its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit to the memory of Rodgers, its former vice chairman of the board. On October 27, 1994, Rodgers was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame.

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