When I arrived, newly sober, in Little Rock in the fall of 1980, I was advised by my new sponsor to connect with the Cosmopolitan Club AA Group, go to Joe Mcquany’s Wednesday lunch meeting on Roosevelt Road and listen to “Clancy’s tapes.” Clancy? Who's Clancy? That would be Clancy Imislund, a one time ad game whiz, who remains, at age 90, among the funniest and most successful proponents of the 12-steps ever. Clean and sober since 1958, Clancy has just finished a multi-year stint heading … [Read more...]

JAMES WIGGS of Little Rock went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Jan. 20, 2011, six years ago. At the time of his death at age 64, Wiggs, better known as "Stroker" a former member of the notorious bandido riders was now a member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. Wiggs was also a founder and Pastor of "Church of The Word" located in Little Rock’s East End community. When Stroker died, fellow biker Neal Benschoff lost a dear friend and role model. Like Stroker, Benschoff was a … [Read more...]

On a late Sunday afternoon in November, almost a decade ago, 57 year old David “Gator” Wood, a Vietnam War veteran, bought a bottle of vodka, brought it back to his mobile home parked behind the Salem Country Store in Benton, Arkansas and loaded his .357 magnum. He hadn’t had a drink in 17 years, but on that Sunday, totally alone and without hope, he didn’t think he could deal with the physical and emotional pain in his life any longer. With the bottle, as yet unopened, and the gun by his … [Read more...]

  Theodosia Cooper died last week at the age of 91 in Little Rock. Theodosia was one of the late Joe Mcquany’s powerful allies in his successful effort to begin integrating AA meetings in the 1960s. Together they traveled the state with their message of recovery, and four decades later, she was on hand at the groundbreaking for Mcquany’s Serenity Home for Women project. Theodosia had an undeniable presence. When she walked into a room in her three-inch heels, heads turned, and people … [Read more...]

The Reverend James M. Lamb was clinical supervisor over substance abuse treatment at Varner Prison in Grady, Arkansas, when I first met him at church in Little Rock five years ago. At one time, he had been associated with San Francisco county jails and San Quentin state prison in California. Lamb, who wrote, The Power to Change, a book about addiction and recovery, and was working on another, The Revelation of Power, focusing on biblical tools for recovery talked with me about his life and … [Read more...]