March 1999

Date: 3/19/99 Category: News Page: B3 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KARL A. STOLLEIS **STATE EDITION** Gov. Mike Huckabee joins Little Rock philanthropist Jennings Osborne (center) and Osborne's wife, Mitzi, in serving up barbecue Sunday to residents of Beebe, hit hard by a tornado Jan. 21. The Osborne family sponsored the meal to show support for the town devastated by the storm.

Beebe residents celebrate survival at picnic Date: 3/1/99 Category: News Page: B1 JENNIFER LIBERTO ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE BEEBE -- The debris is cleaned up, repairs are under way and the wounds are scarring over, but the healing has only begun. The Jan. 21 tornadoes that destroyed one-third of Beebe in a matter of seconds are fresh in the minds of residents, many of whom admit to trembling during thunderstorms about a week ago. Sunday afternoon, though, a few thousand residents took a break from rebuilding efforts on a clear and sunny afternoon to celebrate survival at a community picnic in a field next to the Church of Christ on Center Street. Gov. Mike Huckabee plunked ribs onto plastic foam trays that buckled under the weight of food at the picnic, sponsored by Little Rock philanthropist Jennings Osborne. "It's a great way to show that the spirit of community is alive and well," Huckabee said. Waiting in a line that wrapped around the red-and-white food tent, hungry residents passed the time recounting tales of loss along with detailed progress reports. The biggest difference now is that the stories are no longer told with tears or angry shouts, residents said. "You go through stages: At first you're thankful you survived, and then you're upset and sad about losing everything," said Carla Ward, whose house near Daniel Park was blown away by the tornadoes. "But then you reach a point where you pull together and move on. Beebe has pulled together." Ward and her husband, Donald, the mayor of Beebe, have been staying rent-free in a house owned by a friend. They expect to move into a new house within a few weeks. Standing in line beside Ward was Sandy Wood, whose house the tornado skipped. She and her husband have volunteered hours of raking yards, finding and picking up items to be salvaged, cutting dozens of trees and providing a shoulder for friends to cry on -- friends like Angela Lackey, a little farther down the lunch line. Lackey lost everything but a closet, a hallway and a mattress to the twister. But she's thankful not to have lost more. Her son, Evan, was so nervous that 20 seconds before the tornado hit, he ran to the bathroom to get sick. Lackey pulled him back to the hallway and grabbed a mattress for their heads. She stood in line Sunday next to her friend, Donna Puckett, who had also been beside her in the hallway when the tornado hit. Both were pleased to see such a turnout. "It's so wonderful that they'd take their time and come out to put this together for all of us," said Lackey, who was staying with Puckett but has now moved in with her mother in Cabot until the insurance check comes in. Many other stories circulated through the crowd as residents waited for an oversized portion of the 4,000 pounds of whole chickens, ribs and sausage and hefty helpings of potato salad and red beans prepared by Osborne, who said "moderation is not in my vocabulary." Osborne, his wife, Mitzi, and their daughter, Breezy, were among two dozen servers sporting plastic gloves and aprons behind 25 yards of serving tables. Dessert consisted of foot-long candy canes, which Osborne also gives out during his annual Christmas light tours.

Lisa Lercher Date: 3/1/99 Category: News Page: B1 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KARL A. STOLLEIS Lisa Lercher (left) and her mother, Mary Woody, share a laugh Sunday afternoon with Trooper Lindsey Williams at a barbecue in Beebe sponsored by the Jennings Osborne family to help buoy residents' spirits as the city continues to recover from the Jan. 21 tornadoes. The Osbornes and Gov. Mike Huckabee were among those on hand to dish up thousands of helpings of chicken, ribs, sausage, potato salad and red beans.

Another good Osborne deed Date: 3/4/99 Category: Editorial Page: B6 Even if you've seen one before, there's still a sense of awe served up with every plate of barbecue from Jennings Osborne & Family. The sandwich alone will gorge you. Bears are said to go into hibernation after just one. But then come the ribs, the sausage, the chicken. . . . Cave men would have loved the turkey legs. Not to eat, mind you, but to slay sabertoothed tigers. Once you get past the meat, then come the veggies, all non-green, of course: potato salad, beans, chips.... For dessert, there's a full assortment of carbohydrates: cake, candy, or both. Jennings encourages you to double dip. Sometimes he won't even give you a choice. The Styrofoam trays tend to buckle once filled, but they'll do the job with two hands for support. They probably weren't made with Jennings Osborne in mind. The wait is usually a long one, but that's part of the charm, too. That way, you get to watch the faces of all those folks as they leave the tent. The astonished, giddy expressions are always the same. But they make for good viewing just the same, like an ol' John Wayne movie. Besides, the wait often allows you to work up an appetite, meet a few people, and maybe see a few friends you've lost track of. Goodness knows the folks in Beebe could use a dinner like this after a post-tornado month of heartache and hard work. Thanks to the Osborne family for bringing Beebe a little relief, comfort--and a lot of good barbecue. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got to run. All of a sudden, we've gotten so worked up thinking about all the good food, our taste buds are starting to water. Does anybody know a good rib joint that's open for breakfast?

Otus the Head Cat Log-lost Hanke brother has found enlightenment Date: 3/6/99 Category: Features Page: E3 Michael Storey Kyle Hanke in 1975 (left) and last month in northern California. Let the rest of the world scoff at Arkansas as the home of rubes, yahoos, trailer trash, bimbos, Skoal-dipping, in-bred good ol' boys and sentence-parsing, unrepentant, prevaricating presidents, we've got good people here. I mean hard-working, decent people. Salt-of-the-earth, God-fearing folks whose hearts go out to those in need; who aren't ashamed to daub a tear at the news of those less fortunate; who can look at a newly-sided Hanke Brothers home and see only the heartache it represents. I was stunned by the outpouring of empathy I received when I reported Jan. 23 on the personal anguish of the Hanke family -- parents Si and Vi; brothers, Michael and Bradley; and sisters, Christina and Judy. As you'll recall, the close-knit Hanke family, Arkansas' beloved first family of siding, had long held the deeply troubling secret of youngest Hanke sibling, Kyle. Kyle, the rebellious black sheep of the Hanke clan, was last seen in 1975, heading west out of Hot Springs behind the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spyder. He said he was off to Hollywood to make his fortune. Apparently, he never made it. The family got a couple of postcards over the years, but that was all. For 29 years the Hanke family suffered in silence over the fate of their vanished relative. Was he safe? Was he happy? Was he perhaps in jail or down-and-out and desperately in need of their help? Family spokesman Kim was especially distraught. He had thought himself close to his baby brother and took the disappearance hard. In recent months viewers could tell something was troubling Kim. His ubiquitous commercials took on a misty and nettling quality. His eyes seemed lost and distant. He was a troubled man with much on his mind. Arkansas noticed. A bit of investigative reporting turned up the reason why. I wrote about it and an entire state poured out its heart. A sample: Dear Otus, I cried openly when I read about the suffering that nice young man, Kim Hanke, has been going through over the disappearance of his brother, Kyle. -- Ernest Ledbetter Dear Otus, I am so sorry for that nice young man, Kim Hanke. It saddens me that he can't find his brother. -- Doyle Hooder Dear Otus, That nice young man, Kim Hanke, did the work on my cousin's house in Sheridan. Now I can't look at the soffit without sobbing --- Ruby Ivy Well, when there are aching hearts and crying eyes and a need to be met, Arkansas can rest assured that there's one man who will not rest until things are set right -- social activist and philanthropist Jennings Osborne. Osborne, his jaw set in grim determination, turned the problem of finding the missing Kyle Hanke over to the Mitzi, Breezy and Jennings Osborne Commit a Random Act of Kindness Foundation. The foundation hired the Dallas private investigative firm of Walker and Cordell, enlisted Foundation contacts within the worldwide Disney Corporation and bought a dairy in California (Kyle's last known whereabouts) so they could put his picture on milk cartons. Why such a massive turnout just to find one man? "It wouldn't be Osbornetized unless we did it this way," Osborne said. "You gotta Osbornetize it. I live in a fantasy world, and I love to take people along with me. If the Hanke family is unhappy, then my fantasy world is unhappy, because the Hanke family is an important part of my fantasy world. Them and Leslie Basham. And Jess Odom." I'm happy to report that it took the detectives and Disney only five weeks to track down Kyle Hanke. It would have been sooner, but in 1994 he embraced Buddhism, legally changed his name to Sangha Redwoods, sold his Porsche for a princely sum and moved to a log cabin outside Orick, Calif., near the Oregon border. Hanke/Redwoods has only a post office box, no phone, and cut up his credit cards long ago. He was finally tracked down through his commercial Web site www.redwoods.com Contacted in person by the detectives, Hanke/Redwoods says his life is content, he is at peace, and makes a comfortable living cultivating free-range and hydroponic Saint Johnswort for domestic distribution via the Internet in the tri-state area. "Tell my family I'm alive and well," he said. "And tell them I'm sorry I couldn't join the family business. But as they well know, siding installation is a spiritual mission and I ... I just never heard the call. That still, small voice simply never cried out to me." Hanke/Redwoods let the agents take his picture for his family. He's a bit heavier, and graying around the temples, and he still only wears his beloved white T-shirts. "That's how they'll know it's me," he said, chuckling softly. "Perhaps one day I'll find my way back to Hot Springs for a visit, but for now, I must remain here and work on my yong maeng jong jin. Kim'll understand." When contacted in Hot Springs Village, Kim Hanke only smiled quietly to himself. He did, indeed, understand. Now he, too, is at peace. Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to hug a loved one while you can. Otus the Head Cat's column of unabashed total fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail his Owner at: michael_storey@adg. ardemgaz. com

Annie case reception Huckabees welcome musical 'orphans' Date: 3/14/99 Category: Features Page: D3 Kyle Brazzel Sandy stayed home, and that was probably just as well for the carpets of the Governor's Mansion as Janet and Gov. Mike Huckabee hosted human members of the cast of Annie for a reception after the show's March 2 opening performance at Robinson Center Music Hall. The show's cast and crew of about 50, including eight girls ages 7 to 12, were greeted by the Huckabees at the mansion's front door before proceeding to a buffet of sesame chicken tenders, shrimp wrapped with snow peas, spinach dip, fruit kabobs, pineapple cheese spread with ginger snaps, petit fours and mint julep punch. After pictures and a few petit fours, the well-behaved bevy of actresses playing the musical's young orphans -- including Little Orphan Annie herself, 10-year-old Brittany Kissinger of Ballston Spa, N.Y. -- took in a mansion tour along with their mothers, who travel with them. Cut-up co-star Sally Struthers -- still made up as the dastardly Miss Hannigan -- stole the scene by enthusiastically posing for fan photos while "Daddy Warbucks," John Schuck of Buffalo, N.Y., chatted up local counterpart, Jennings Osborne. The cast, exhilarated after the first of seven Little Rock shows, ended the already-late night about 11:30 p.m. The Arkansas stop of Annie found the cast in between Portland, Ore., and Des Moines, Iowa. --Kyle Brazzel Cutlines: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KYLE BRAZZELL John Schuck, who was Daddy Warbucks, with Jennings and Mitzi Osborne Sally Struthers and first lady Janet Huckabee

A plate of barbecue ribs Date: 3/22/99 Category: News Page: B1 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KAREN E. SEGRAVE A plate of barbecue ribs and pork tenderloin, weighing in at nearly 9 pounds, rests on a barrel outside a tent in the Harvest Foods parking lot at 1 7th and Main streets in Little Rock. A free barbecue for Little Rock victims of the Jan. 21 tornadoes, sponsored by the Jennings Osborne family, drew a large crowd to the parking lot Sunday.

LR tornado victims treated to barbecue Neighbors line up for gargantuan feast served by the Osborne family, state and local leaders Date: 3/22/99 Category: News Page: B1 ANDREW A. GREEN ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Tornadoes destroyed the Harvest Foods at 1 7th and Main streets in Little Rock, but the store's old customers found Sunday that they could still get a week's worth of food there. Local philanthropist Jennings Osborne said he wanted to make sure Little Rock residents who were affected by the tornadoes knew that people were still thinking about them, so he pitched a tent at the epicenter of tornado damage -- the Harvest Foods parking lot -- and threw one of his trademark, mammoth barbecues. Neighbors lined up around the block to get their trays filled by Osborne and his family, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Mayor Jim Dailey and a staff of about 20 volunteers. Those that made it through the line didn't go home hungry. Small children struggled under the weight of Styrofoam trays piled with ribs, pork tenderloin, barbecue sandwiches, sausage, turkey legs, whole chickens, cole slaw, potato salad, chips and Coke -- in all, about 9 pounds of food apiece. "We're just trying to boost morale, to give something back," Osborne said. There was enough food to serve 3,500 people. Last month, Osborne hosted a similar event in Beebe, another area hard-hit by the tornadoes, and served about as many people there. Huckabee is a veteran of Osborne barbecues past, and immediately after the tornadoes, the two decided to put on the events. "I tell you what, anyone you look at, there's no way this can't put a smile on your face," said Huckabee, up to his elbows in barbecue sauce from piling beef ribs onto trays. The owners of the Harvest Foods are attempting to rebuild at the same location, and those in line on Sunday said they need to do it soon. The supermarket was the only one in the neighborhood, and residents said it can be difficult to get to other grocery stores. A bus provided by Central Arkansas Transit Authority has been shuttling neighborhood residents to the Harvest Foods in Riverdale since the storm. "It's a big deal to go all that way whenever you need to get a few things," said Charlotte Green, who lives a few blocks from the store. Dailey promised to do everything he can to keep in touch with residents of the neighborhood. "What the Osbornes are doing is an incredible gift of love to the community," Dailey said. As they walked through the line, residents joked with Osborne about the "small portions." Many said they were grateful for the food and touched that Osborne would hold the event. "Yes, Lord, this is a blessing," said Tina Jones as she and her two daughters walked back to their car, laden with food.

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