October 21, 2006

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

An Arkansas native who earned success in films, television and on stages from Los Angeles to New York to London on Saturday said seeking creativity and overcoming the fears that often come with new challenges are key to "shaking awake your sacred soul."

Mary Steenburgen, serving as keynote speaker at the Founders’ Day Convocation at Lyon, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for her international success as an actress. (At right, Ms. Steenburgen receives her framed diploma from President Walter Roettger, Board Chair Ray LaCroix and Dr. John Peek, Dean of the Faculty.)

An Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actress who has appeared in more than 50 films and television programs, Steenburgen has spent the past 30 years working as a social and political advocate on issues she cares deeply about. In 1989, Steenburgen and fellow actress Alfre Woodard founded Artists for A Free South Africa to call for sanctions against the apartheid government in South Africa.

This group is still alive today under the name Artists for A New South Africa. In 1996, Steenburgen and her husband, Ted Danson, were presented with Liberty Hill Foundation’s prestigious Upton Sinclair Award for their work in human rights and environmental causes. She has also worked closely with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and was honored to serve as the National Spokesperson for the organization. Steenburgen also works with the Progeria Research Foundation in their search for a cure for the disease.

Lyon President Dr. Walter Roettger said the Founders’ Day event was a "special day at a special time at a special place."

"This fall, Lyon redeemed a promise made 15 years ago, a promise to be – and to be recognized as – one of the best liberal arts colleges in the South," he said, his voice ringing out in the crisp fall air. "This fall, we were one of only four colleges in the South named to U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best value liberal arts colleges in country."

Lyon came in at No. 23 overall on that "Great Schools, Great Values" list in the magazine’s "America’s Best Colleges" edition.

"No other schools in Arkansas were on that list. Only Lyon," Dr. Roettger said. "No other school in Texas. Only Lyon. No other schools in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma or Tennessee were on that list. Only Lyon. Only Lyon."

When Steenburgen took the podium, she said no other place holds a place in heart like her beloved home state of Arkansas.

"All my friends know that when I say I’m going home, I mean Arkansas," she told the audience gathered on the green grass of Couch Garden on a day bathed with warm sunshine and cool autumn breezes.

She asked the audience to stand if any of them were artists, dancers, writers or singers. Only a handful of people stood, but when she asked how many know children who do those same things, almost everyone stood.

"Children are all of those things, but most adults are not," she said. "When did it leave you?"

She said society often teaches us "you can’t" or "you won’t."

"We would never tell a child that they have no talent and to stop doing those things, but we tell ourselves that," Steenburgen said. "Do something creative that you think you can’t do. Come face to face with your own soul, the very deepest you. When you do something creative, you’re shaking awake your sacred soul, and you’ll speak with more confidence than you did in your world of ‘you can’t’."

If the act of creativity doesn’t instill a bit of fear, it’s the wrong form of creative expression, Steenburgen added.

Blow a raspberry at fear," she said. "And put on your dancing shoes."

Janie Patterson Hopkins has long been active in the Morristown Presbyterian Church and is a lifetime honorary member of the Presbyterian Women’s Association. An ordained deacon, she’s the past chair of the Community Soup Kitchen, and she’s served as president of the Presbyterian Women’s Association and the PTA.

Hembry hails from Newport. After getting a bachelor’s degree in art from Lyon College, he earned a master’s degree in art from the University of Arkansas in 1999. He is teaching drawing and painting while engaged as a Sage Fellow at Cornell University while pursuing his master’s of fine arts, the terminal degree in his field. In the fall of 2007, he’ll serves as artist in residence at the McColl Center in North Carolina

The couple moved to Batesville in 1953 when Howard entered the U.S. government’s strategic metals program. A member of the U.S. Navy Air Corps in World War II, he later co-founded White River Bituminous and entered highway and road construction in 1968. He earned an L.L.B. degree from the Cumberland School of Law, now Samford University, at Lebanon, Tenn.

He constructed the area’s first public golf course facility, was instrumental in providing public access to Ramsey Slough on the White River, and developed properties such as Eagle Mountain Golf Course, Lyon College’s baseball field, Eagle Mountain Properties, Eagle Mountain Shopping Center, Oaks II Shopping Center and Ramsey Plaza. In 2005, he was inducted into the Arkansas General Contractors Construction hall of Fame.

Mrs. House was a nurse cadet during World War II and has been actively involved with politics for many years. Winner of the Gressie Carnes Award for outstanding service to the Democratic Party, Mrs. House is a member of the Arkansas Democratic Executive Committee and has served in various capacities to national Democratic conventions from 1964 to 1984. Howard and Mary have long supported Lyon College’s various scholarship funds and both are charter members of the President’s Council.

The couple’s daughter, Dianne House Lamberth, joined the Lyon College Board of Trustees in 2001 and currently serves as secretary and holds a seat on three committees.

Ted Hall was named Superintendent of the Batesville School District six years ago, and under his leadership the district won a Golden Apple Award from KHTV Channel 11 and the State Department of Education. Over the past three years, 80 percent of Batesville High School graduates have gone on to college. Hall earned a bachelor’s degree at Ouachita Baptist University and a master’s degree from Arkansas State University.

He’s spent 25 of his 30 years in education serving Independence County, working with the school districts of Batesville, Southside and Sulphur Rock, and was director of admissions for Arkansas (Lyon) College for four years. His wife Janie is a family and consumer science teacher at the Southside School District.

Dorothy Landis Gray taught music at Arkansas (Lyon) College from 1946 to 1986, and founded the Arkansas College Choir, the Lassies, The Lads, the Opera Workshop and the Community Chorus. Under her direction, the Lassies did six overseas USO-Department of Defense tours. As the Jean Brown Professor of Music at the college, she won the Lamar Williamson Prize for Faculty Excellence in 1983. After retiring at Lyon College, she went back to school and earned her doctorate in musicology at age 73.