front&center Bill Walmsley

Former state senator fell in love with learning, law while in college

By Elizabeth Sharp (Contact)

LITTLE ROCK — At 66, Bill Walmsley has a long list of credentials.

In addition to being a husband and father, he’s served on the Arkansas Senate and has been a prominent lawyer and businessman in Batesville for more than 40 years. Now, Walmsley’s dedicating himself to another project, the Batesville Economic Development Task Force, whose mission statement is to present ideas for funding mechanisms to create an economic development program in Batesville. And his storied background isn’t the only thing that’s equipped him to facilitate the task force - it’s his commitment to improving the city he loves so dearly.

“I don’t think he sees himself as unselfish as he is,” his wife, Janis, said. “He does a lot of pro bono legal work. He does a lot of charity work he doesn’t get credit for. And he takes on issues - he takes them head on and resolves things that other people don’t seem to get resolved.”

Walmsley was born and raised in Bald Knob. When he was only 3 years old, his father, who worked for the railroad, died in a train accident. Walmsley’s mother only had a ninth-grade education, so she took him and his older sister to their grandparents’ house and moved to Memphis to go to cosmetology school. She came back and opened a beauty shop in their home, which Walmsley said is how his mother supported their family after his father’s death.

Three years ago, Walmsley’s mother died at the age of 91, and according to her date book at the beauty shop, her last appointment was a shampoo and set theJuly after she turned 89. His mother’s strong work ethic taught lessons to Walmsley that he has carried with him throughout his life: You have to have an education to get ahead, and things are not going to be given to you, so you have to work for it.

“She raised us in the church, so there was a really strong moral fiber to her teaching,” Walmsley said. “She was very stern, and if we transgressed, at least in my case, it usually meant a whipping.”

Fortunately, Walmsley learned early on an effective way to stay out of trouble - getting a job. In his early teens, Walmsley said he would spend his springs picking and hulling strawberries before loading them onto railroad cars. He also spent many hours a week working at the Atkins plant, where they peeled and cured raw cucumbers to make pickles. Employees at the Atkins plant received a dollar an hour and could work as many hours as they wanted to per week. Walmsley said he often went home at the end of the week with $60 to $80 in his pocket, a sizable amount for the mid-1950s.

While Walmsley proved himself to be a hard worker outside the classroom, he said he was a very average student throughout high school and focused much more on athletics than homework. In fact, Walmsley said the only reason he was able to go to Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville after high school graduation was because he received a basketball scholarship.

He chose to double major in history and social sciences.

“I settled on that because I really intended whenI went to college to be a high school basketball or football coach,” Walmsley said.

But once he got to college, Walmsley said he slowly realized two things - that he didn’t want to be a coach, and he actually liked learning. And it all had to do with one history professor, Margaret Lester.

“She was a traditional, older Southern lady who could be as mean as a one-eyed water moccasin,” Walmsley said.

Regardless, Walmsley said that contrary to most of the athletes, he did well in her notoriously difficult classes. Lester “took a shine” to Walmsley and determined that he should go to law school.

He had other obligations - he’d gotten married in college - and had received a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship from Arkansas College, which would have enabled him to get his master’s in history or social sciences. But Lester wouldn’t hear of it.

“She said, “Bill, you’re not going to do that. I don’t care if I have to loan you the money, you’re going to law school,’” Walmsley remembers. “I didn’t want to disappoint her.”

After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1963, Walmsley decided to follow his professor’s advice and studied law at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He graduated with his master’s in 1966, and eager to move back to Batesville went into practice with Fuller Highsmith and John Norman Harkey.

In 1970, about four years into practicing law, Walmsley decided he was ready for his next challenge: running for the Arkansas Senate. There was an open seat in the senatorial district made up of White and Independence counties because the incumbent, Ed Lightle of Searcy, was retiring. Walmsley, then 28, said he didn’t have much chance to win against the other three candidates, an older lawyer, abusinessman and the head of Farm Bureau in White County. But with support from his mother, sister and other people who believed in him, Walmsley won the election and went on to serve in the Arkansas Senate for the next 12 years.

During that time, Walmsley was still practicing law and handled several worker’s compensation cases. The issue became a passion of his, and he said he felt like some of his greatest accomplishments during his tenure involved passing legislation that improved benefits for injured workers.

“To give you an idea of how far we’ve come, back in January 1971, the maximum weekly benefits [for worker’s compensation] were $49,” Walmsley said. “It was the most you were able to receive if you were injured and unable to work. At the same time, unemployment payments were $100 a week. So if you were able-bodied and out of work, you could draw twice as much as if you’d been on the job and gotten injured. Today, the maximum weekly benefits are $522.”

Since his tenure ended in the early ’80s, Walmsley has continued to devote himself to his law practice and still works between 35 and 40 hours a week. When he’s not at his office, Walmsley manages to keep a full schedule. A lifelong Presbyterian, he’s active at least two or three daysa month with the Presbyterian Committee on Ministry, which helps place ordained ministers in churches that need them.

As he’s gotten older, Walmsley’s interest in athletics has taken a new form in thoroughbred race horses. For 12 years, he was the president of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Owners and Trainers Organization, which is based at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, and still serves on its Board of Directors. He also contributed four years to serving as national president of the Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which provides a chapel, chaplain, English as a second language, drug and alcohol abuse programs and other services to those working minimum-wage jobs in the thoroughbred business.

As he gets older, Walmsley said he’s looking forward to traveling more with his wife, particularly traveling to Europe and playing golf in Scotland. But other than that, Walmsley has very little intention of slowing down much. He said he hopes to keep his law offices open indefinitely and is still involved in Atlas Asphalt, a highway construction company that he and four colleagues bought in 1984.

“The hardest thing for me to do is to say ‘no,’” Walmsley said, laughing.

But it’s his own past and his passion for improving the lives of people in Batesville that Walmsley said will keep him involved in the sliver of Arkansas that he calls home.

“I still love education,” he said. “It’s the one thing a person can acquire that can never be taken away from them.”matter of fact My age: 66 My occupation is: Attorney My family includes: Wife, Janis; sons, Andy and David My hobbies include: Golf, travel and thoroughbred racing My goals for the future are: To live to be a very old man My name comes from: My father Most people don’t know I: Play the stock market My political heroes are: Dale Bumpers and Hubert Humphrey The person I admire the most is: My wife I think people should: Be more tolerant of each other My biggest fear: Heights The world would be a better place if: We all treated others as we would like to be treated by others.

Three Rivers, Pages 122, 123 on 05/11/2008