February 13, 1937

William Alvin (Bill) Whitworth was born in Hot Springs (Garland County). He attended Central High School in Little Rock, where he also spent time working as an advertising department copy boy for the Arkansas Democrat. In 1960, Whitworth graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in English and journalism and began to work for the Arkansas Gazette and its city editor Bill Shelton. He came to be recognized as one of the nation’s most reputable journalists, having been a writer and associate editor for the New Yorker and editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Monthly.