February 27, 1972

Texas native James “Uncle Mac” MacKrell, who began his career in radio in Fayetteville (Washington County) after moving to Arkansas in 1929, died of a heart attack while interviewing a group of teenagers during his nightly radio show called Party Line on KVEE in Conway (Faulkner County). Known as “Uncle Mac” to his adolescent radio audience and as a radio evangelical to others, he is perhaps most remembered for his two campaigns for governor of Arkansas, in 1948 and in 1970.