Around 3:15 a.m. on the morning of October 17th, 2024, George Carpenter awoke in his second-story bedroom to a distant beeping sound. He roused his wife, Julia. “What’s that noise?” he asked groggily. Julia got out of bed and shuffled downstairs toward the sound. When she reached the end of the staircase, she saw smoke coming from under a buffet: the photo album she’d recently put there was inexplicably on fire. She shouted for George as she picked up the burning book, intending to toss it outside. But when she opened the door, the influx of oxygen caused flames to erupt all around her. She screamed more loudly.

In the film A League of Their Own, Hollywood icon Tom Hanks (playing Jimmy Dugan) tells his players, “There’s no crying in baseball!” The character might have felt differently if he had ever been to a Savannah Bananas baseball game, where fans have been known to laugh so hard that tears flow. Former Texas High baseball player Zack Phillips can attest to that, having witnessed the fun and excitement during his rookie season with the Savannah team.

Anni and Travis Bishop are hometown folks with a meet-cute story straight out of a Hallmark movie. Nobody wants to be stuck on a broken amusement park ride, but that is where Anni and Travis found true love. She graduated from TASD. He went to school in Hooks. When mutual friends decided to take a daytrip to Six Flags, they both tagged along. Fate must have given them the idea of getting on that ride together. When it broke, Anni and Travis sat at the top of Six Flags for over an hour, talking about the things that mattered most to each of them. By the end of the day, they were both thinking, “That’s the kind of person I want to marry.” They fell in love.

Like many local parents, Michelle and Steven Seals balance their energy between work responsibilities, domestic duties, and their kids’ extra-curricular activities. They plan vacations and often spend time with extended family members. However, unlike most local parents, the Sealses navigate all of those things as a family of eight. Their 7th grader, Brady, and their 10-year-old quintuplets—Mia, Tessa, Gracie, Rayleigh, and Brant—keep them constantly on-the-go.

In the heart of the Ark-La-Tex is a mother-daughter duo working tirelessly to improve the lives of others. Bobbie Jo Ashcraft and her adult daughter, Abby, spend countless hours each week leading the Joy Project Network’s Health Hub. The JPN Health Hub provides medical supplies to families in need. The recipients are primarily disabled children, though anyone in need is eligible to receive supplies.

For most people, live theater is a way to entertain themselves and get a few good laughs in. But for Anna Jo Briggs, an actress at Silvermoon Theatre and junior at Maud High School, theater is a way of life.

“I went and watched my kindergarten teacher perform in Charlotte’s Web, and I was hooked,” she explained. “After that, my mom signed me up for a week-long camp at Silvermoon, and I enjoyed it so much.”

Despite the rainy weather, 17-year-old Carter Beck was looking forward to a fun weekend with friends at Lake Hamilton. The previous night, the teen had enjoyed the Pleasant Grove prom and casino night, and he was already packed up and ready for the trip. After a breakfast of pancakes and peanut butter, Carter picked up his friend Drew Walters, and the boys headed out, full of excitement. The date was May 5th, 2024.

A few hours later, Carter’s entire world would be turned upside down.

Join The Junior League of Texarkana, Inc. for a magical weekend of sugarplum dreams at this year’s enchanting Mistletoe Market. The 37th annual holiday market, themed “Night at the Nutcracker,” will take place November 22–24, 2024, at the Holiday Inn Texarkana Arkansas Convention Center. This cherished holiday tradition is not just an opportunity to shop for unique gifts—it’s a chance to make a meaningful impact in the local community!

Inside our homes every weeknight, Dr. Johnette Magner delivers the news of the day as the  co-anchor of the KTBS-TV3 evening news at 5 and 6 p.m. She became the co-anchor of the evening news in 2022, but this was not her first job at KTBS. 

“The first time I was at KTBS, I had an infant,” Johnette said. “He is now 30 years old, so that tells you how long I was gone before I came back.” 

Johnette’s first stint at KTBS was as a consumer reporter—a relatively straightforward position at the time. “We had photographers who shot and edited the stories, and since there was no internet, we did not write stories for a website,” she said. 

Ginger Shirley and Kathy Shirley have a lot in common besides their last name. Both warm, genuine, and kind, they each exhibit southern hospitality and outgoing personalities. Kathy admitted that she may sometimes take the word “extroverted” to a new level. “I normally say what’s on my mind—sometimes I shouldn’t, but that’s just me,” she said. “I love people, being around people, and going and doing things.” Ginger echoed the sentiment, adding that she was voted “Class Clown” her senior year of high school. The close friends can finish each other’s sentences the way lifelong pals can—but Ginger and Shirley only met ten years ago, after Kathy got a divorce, and Ginger began dating her ex-husband.

Cookbook author and content creator Will Edmond was born and raised in Douglassville, Texas, on property that has been in his family for generations.

“The land was passed down from my great-great-grandmother,” he said. “Everybody lived on the same six acres. My great-grandmother had a philosophy of family taking care of each other, and of building community.”

Throughout his childhood, community values fed Will’s soul, and fresh, home-cooked meals fed his body.

When a teenager gets their first job, it is usually somewhere like a waterpark, a fast food restaurant, or a retail store. With these part-time jobs, teens have to appeal to their managers and juggle their school and work schedules. Pleasant Grove sophomore Charly McNiel, however, works as her own manager, running her crocheting business, Faithful Made Crochet.

Jennifer Unger has always been a planner who likes to dive into the details. Multitasking is her superpower, and her visionary approach to leadership pushes her to think many steps ahead. A self-proclaimed type-A personality, Jennifer excels in her career as the executive director of the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council (TRAHC). However, a breast cancer diagnosis forced her to travel down a path filled with variables she could not control, and it often limited her from planning anything past her next chemotherapy treatment. She described her experience as a “complete paradigm shift” in the way she approaches life and service to others.

In the midst of tragedy, priorities often shift. This happened for Suzy Osburn when, on July 23rd, 2022, her brother, Christopher Trumble, passed away unexpectedly. The family was shattered by the loss.

“I remember telling people that was the worst day of my life,” Suzy said. “I had never experienced loss quite like that. I have lost grandparents, but the loss of a younger sibling before their time . . . it’s just stabbing. It is devastating.”

A few weeks later, Suzy’s husband, Kyle, sat her down to discuss a serious matter—his desire to add a baby to their family.

According to the Mayo Clinic, type 1 diabetes affects over 1.25 million Americans. This condition requires constant attention and presents a plethora of challenges for those who live with it. Among those affected is 17-year old Emma Barr, who is a competitive dancer and senior at Texas High School. Emma is committed to living life to its fullest, not letting her diagnosis slow her down.

Practicing yoga gives Jessica Gray peace, healing, and balance. It also gave her the strength she needed to contend with two cancer journeys—her mother’s and her own.

In 2010, Jessica was one year into her career as an independent hairstylist when her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her flexible occupation allowed her to shift her schedule and take care of her mother as she underwent treatment for the aggressive disease.

Though we often think of health as an individual matter—concerning a person’s diet, movement, sleep, medication, and so forth—Dr. Matthew Nix is keenly aware that the pursuit of health is a community endeavor. In particular, he is passionate about the community value of family physicians.

In most high schools, it takes a lot for a student to be universally liked by their peers; it’s rare to find someone who everyone genuinely enjoys being around. But for Zephaniah Black, a junior student-athlete at Arkansas High School, popularity hasn’t been much of a challenge.

In 2013, at age 25, Jessica Pickens discovered that she carried the BRCA 1 gene, which gave her a 65% chance of a fatal breast cancer diagnosis. A busy mother of two, she closed her eyes, hoping to forget about the threat. For the next few years, she concentrated on raising her children, Karson and Quinnleigh, all the while praying for a quiet, unannounced deliverance from a cancerous fate. Yet with each fond memory the Pickens family made, the latent terror of breast cancer crept into Jessica’s idle thoughts.

Norm Lewis, an American actor and baritone singer, will take the stage alongside the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra at the Perot Theatre on Saturday, November 9th at 7 p.m. to present Blockbuster Broadway with Norm Lewis. The performance will feature musical numbers from Norm’s vast repertoire of beloved Broadway hits.